Al and Troy, I could not agree more with you about the 2016 "'67" Heritage set . . . such a major disappointment, considering that I love the Heritage concept and the 1967 Topps set is my all-time favorite. For years, I was looking forward to the Heritage version, but when it arrived it fell flat. The glossy quality of the card front was one of the hallmarks of the '67 set, but the Heritage version was dull and flat. No checklists with disembodied heads. Lousy/lazy versions of combo cards. Nothing clicked for me at all.
The truth is, by 2016, Topps had been "mailing it in" for years on the Heritage line. It didn't start out that way. Remember the 1952 Heritage set, with the same number of cards as the original, with the short print cards being the same numbers as the second series of the original? Or how Topps would sometimes try to parallel a distinctive card from the original with one from the Heritage set, like the 1958 Whammy Douglas/Heritage Boone Logan cards?
They don't do any of that any more. It's all formula, the same number of cards in the set, the same insert sets. And what about the combo cards? Is there now a law that two players aren't allowed to come together in a posed card? The 1967 set had the best combo cards ever, but all the Heritage version could manage was "accidental combos," action shots that just happened to have two people in them.
That rant aside, I will say that Topps has rebounded nicely. I think the "68" Heritage set actually looks better than the original. Same for the "69" Heritage this year. Maybe this is a sign of better things to come . . .
|