AKA
FatHead ripoff. Actually, Topps has had a promotion going on with FatHead for a few months now so I'll bet these might be manufactured by FatHead and given the Topps brand.
Voice of the Collector offered up a
free sample and I bit. The package came in the mail today (with no return address so I can't properly thank him) so it's time to show these off. Packs appear to be selling at
ten dollars for a five sticker pack. Since there is not a spectacular chance of pulling a Brave from any given pack, these might be the only Stix I see this year. I got two instead of the promised one so let's check 'em out.
The first one is Victor Martinez of the Indians. This thing looks really good! The colors are great, VMart is in full catcher's gear and the card has real oddball flavor. The stock isn't very thick, it's basically a vinyl-like sticker on normal sticker backing. There are three seperate stickers on the card, the one of Victor and the ball and Indians logo can also be peeled off. Good looking card, this will probably get shipped out to one of the many Indians fans out there. Which one is the question...
Here's the second one in the package. I put the Old Planter card in there so you can see how big these things are. Basically four times the size of a regular card. Again the photo looks great. Brian in his batting stance ready to strike! I know exactly where this card is going. Since both of these are heading off to other collectors and my camera is on the fritz anyway, I've declined to peel them off to check out the stickiness. Maybe if I do break down and get a pack I'll test the adhesion properties of one of them.
I got a checklist card in there too, click on it for a bigger view and check to see if your favorite team or player is in there. No, there isn't a Fukudome. Again. The first thing I noticed is that the World Series favorite Angels only got two stickers, while my dismal Braves got four. All is in Balance however as Teixeira counts as an Angel now as far as I'm concerned. It's a great looking oddball set that's a little pricey. It still looks like fun for the kids and would be a nice pick up for a team or player collection.
The first one is Victor Martinez of the Indians. This thing looks really good! The colors are great, VMart is in full catcher's gear and the card has real oddball flavor. The stock isn't very thick, it's basically a vinyl-like sticker on normal sticker backing. There are three seperate stickers on the card, the one of Victor and the ball and Indians logo can also be peeled off. Good looking card, this will probably get shipped out to one of the many Indians fans out there. Which one is the question...
Here's the second one in the package. I put the Old Planter card in there so you can see how big these things are. Basically four times the size of a regular card. Again the photo looks great. Brian in his batting stance ready to strike! I know exactly where this card is going. Since both of these are heading off to other collectors and my camera is on the fritz anyway, I've declined to peel them off to check out the stickiness. Maybe if I do break down and get a pack I'll test the adhesion properties of one of them.
I got a checklist card in there too, click on it for a bigger view and check to see if your favorite team or player is in there. No, there isn't a Fukudome. Again. The first thing I noticed is that the World Series favorite Angels only got two stickers, while my dismal Braves got four. All is in Balance however as Teixeira counts as an Angel now as far as I'm concerned. It's a great looking oddball set that's a little pricey. It still looks like fun for the kids and would be a nice pick up for a team or player collection.
5 comments:
i can tell you definitely that Big Stix have nothing to do with Fathead.
Interesting... It just seems odd to me that They would insert advertisements for them in their packs and then put out a product that is very similar to their smaller collectible stickers. Seeing as FatHead hasn't put out a baseball set of their own maybe it was more of a nudge nudge wink wink deal instead. Or maybe FatHead will sue the crap out of Topps tomorrow, who knows? The weirdness in the hobby the past few years has my shenanigans meter set to very sensitive nowadays.
Those don't even look like Fatheads, I have a couple. Looks like someone's trying to make money off a scam.
I am what you might call a Fathead super fan (my office alone boasts a Detroit Tiger's logo, Lion's helmet, John Elway and Spider-Man hanging upside down)...so when I saw your post about Topps and Fathead being in cahoots on the Big Stix stickers, I did a little sleuthing...
Yes, Fathead and Topps did partner on a promotion together...which has since ended. According to my source, the two companies have attempted to partner on other products in the past and run into "philosophical differences." Don't ask me what that REALLY means.
One potential source of enmity - and the reason you probably thought Fathead partnered with Topps on Big Stix - is that this past July, Fathead launched a line of 5" x 7" NFL stickers called "Tradeables." Like the Topps Big Stix, they come with one large image, but most Tradeables also come with 3 smaller images. There, the similarities end...
First off, at the moment - and maybe forever, for all I know - there are no plans for a line of Fathead MLB Tradeables. That said, comparing Fathead's NFL Tradeables to Topp's Big Stix is like comparing a post-steroid era Mark McGuire to Mickey Mantle. The Fathead Tradeables photos are much higher resolution - they're so crisp, the company's marketing calls them "hi-def." In comparison, Big Stix low-resolution images harkens to the days of analog. Even the Big Stix design feels lazy - the names of the players on the baseball secondary image are flat - rather than being curved to give the appearance of being printed on the ball.
The positions of the Topps players are very awkward. The Derek Jeter I received is him in mid-pitch - looking instead like he's in mid-chicken dance. The CC. Sabathia is so out of balance, he looks like he has elephantitis in one leg. Admittedly, he IS a big guy, but you can't tell me there isn't a more flattering shot of him out there!
Probably what bothers me the most about Big Stix is the lack of stats on the back. Granted, Tradeables doesn't have these either, but Topps is KNOWN for the info on the back of its cards. When I was a kid, Topps baseball cards were infinitely more interesting to me than my math flash cards. I had the record of every Detroit Tiger from 1979 to 1986 memorized...and still don't know my multiplication tables.
Long story short, don't be fooled...Fathead is the future and Topps is just struggling to stay relevant by doing a poor and very lazy job of playing copycat.
I'll have to take a look at one of those FatHeads now. And you're right, the only one I've ever seen in person has been a pack of those tradables things but I haven't actually seen one of the stickers. I'll have to try and find one to compare.
I agree these have a real low-tech '80s oddball look to them, but that actually sort of appeals to me. Once I find a FatHead to compare I'll do a follow up post.
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