2009 American Heritage Blaster

I'm pretty much sleepwalking through this this week and blasters are easy posts. Here's an extra-easy one since I've already reviewed the set. The American Heritage blaster has 7 packs and one 'half-pack' of four cards as a bonus. I'm not sure why Topps didn't just throw in another pack, but it's still cheaper than individual packs and there is no danger of the pack scratcher striking. Here's what I got:

Bonus Pack:
55 Barbara Rose Johns
29 Nathanael Greene
42 Orville & Wilbur Wright
124 Man Walks on the Moon

I'm not sure why Lewis and Clark got their own cards but Orville & Wilbur had to share. The Event cards can be boring, but this moonwalk card is one of my favorites in the set so far.

Pack 1:
39 Peyton Randolph
30 George Meade
21 John Paul Jones
116 Mount Rushmore is Completed
AP26 Theodore Roosevelt 1952 Topps
97 John Deere
8 Henry David Thoreau
15 Zebulon Pike

You know how on my Mayo blaster, I knew things would go badly after the first pack? Well this was the opposite. This pack was so awesome I had to just scan the whole thing. I like all the Revolutionary War cards just for the '62 design. General Meade and his beard defeated Lee at Gettysburg and probably saved the Union in doing so. John Paul Jones was a colossal pain in the English Navy's ass during the Revolution and also was a pretty good bassist. John Deere is the tractor dude. Well, he actually invented a better plow but his name is now all over green tractors. Thoreau's a nice philosopher and all, but he had an EPIC neckbeard. Zebulon is a perfect name for an explorer, General or Alien Warlord. Teddy makes the box though. I honestly didn't care what else I got, because I got the case hit with the '52 Bull Moose. Rushmore was an extra TR bonus. EXTRA COOL: I didn't get one card I already had in the pack. Not one.

Pack 2:
13 Robert Peary
5 Nathaniel Hawthorne
60 Elizabeth Jennings Graham
107 The Louisiana Purchase
131 Barack Obama SP
29 Nathanael Greene
42 Orville & Wilbur Wright
69 Thomas Nast

Another pretty nice pack here, headlined by an Obama short print. The bonus pack quickly becomes the doubles pack though and Greene and the Wrights make a second appearance. This is an amazing pack for mustaches. Hawthorne's walrus 'stache is thick and bold and doesn't even medal. Orville Wright's classic handlebar is good for the bronze. Thomas Nast is the godfather of cartooning and sports a killer goatee to go along with his copstashe. The undisputed champion has to be Robert Peary's monster with a two foot wingspan. Those handlebars belong on a Harley.

Pack 3:
73 Robert Kennedy
77 Charles Sumner
93 John Paul Getty
118 V-E Day
109 The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
58 W.E.B. Du Bois
80 Henry Cabot Lodge
90 Clara Bow

I didn't know RFK was in this set... I just realized that if Topps wanted to, they could make this a yearly cash cow like their baseball Heritage brand. There's no limit to subjects. When I was in 6th grade everyone in our class had to pick a civil rights leader to do a report on for Black History Month. Half the Class wanted MLK, the other half wanted Malcom X. We ended up picking names out of a hat and I got W.E.B. Du Bois. The founder of the NAACP turned out to be a pretty interesting dude. He sure knows how to wear a 'stache! The V-E day card is the first one where the picture had me thinking WTF. It's a picture of a crowd in London with Churchill smoking a stogie and giving the V sign. Unfortunately the picture was taken from behind Winston. I've also just realized that if I want to reference a photo on a card but don't want to scan it, I can just link to the picture on Wikipedia. No fooling, half the pictures from this set are straight from Wikipedia.

Pack 4:
99 Frank Woolworth
38 Patrick Henry
28 David Farragut
104 The Constitution is Ratified
121 Hawaii becomes the 50th State
57 Cesar Chavez
49 Clarence Birdseye
46 Philo Farnsworth

It had to happen sooner or later, but I finally got my first pack of nothing but doubles. But good news, everyone! I got Philo Farnsworth!

Pack 5:
22 Davy Crockett
14 Daniel Boone
6 Emily Dickinson
113 Completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad
136 John McCain SP
37 Crispus Attucks
23 George Marshall
12 William Clark

Wow, Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett back to back in the pack! Man how can I choose between them to scan for the post. The heck with it, here's Emily Dickinson instead. I was going to pull a "Who was Crispus Attucks" trivia question on ya, but another blogger beat me to it. John McCain sure does look happy here!

Pack 6:
35 John Hancock
63 Frederic Remington
74 Daniel Webster
105 The Treaty of Paris
C56 Susan B. Anthony Chrome #128/1776
2 Harriet Beecher Stowe
19 Amelia Earhart
25 Winfield Scott
Checklist 3 of 3

The ladies are well represented in this pack, led by a Chrome Susan B. Chromes drop 1:7 packs so expect to see one per blaster. I got a checklist card, but I still don't have the first one with all the actual cards in the set. I know what all the cut sigs are in the set though, woo-hoo. The Treaty of Paris card is cool for the signatures down at the bottom. John Jay, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. Just you wait, Razor will buy that sucker up and slice and dice it one of these days. Treaty Used sealing wax card, anyone?

Pack 7:
85 Buster Keaton
11 Meriweather Lewis
17 John Wesley Powell
122 First Televised Presidential Debate
AP14 Franklin Pierce 1952 Topps
36 Samuel Adams
44 Alexander Graham Bell
56 Susan B. Anthony

Here's the downside of a set of American Presidents in every dang set. For every cool president like Teddy Roosevelt, there are 2 dogs like Franklin Pierce. He was one of the most ineffective and tragic presidents ever. His Presidency started two months after he watched his only surviving son get crushed to death in a railway accident. His wishy washy stand on slavery won him the southern states needed to get elected, and his subsequent support of the Kansas-Nebraska act split the nation. A chief adviser and Secretary of War was Jefferson Davis. Yes, that Jefferson Davis. He completely alienated northerners and did not win his party's nomination in 1856. He left the Presidency despised and it only got worse from there. He fell into alcoholism and eventually died of cirrhosis of the liver. He ran over an old lady while driveing a carriage drunk. He actually supported the Confederacy and was a correspondent with Jefferson Davis. He was so hated by everyone that when Lincoln was assassinated, he tried to just keep his mouth shut and lie low. Instead an angry mob protested outside his house because he didn't condemn the act. This was a terrible president. He was responsible for the Gadsden purchase however, so all you Tuscon residents do owe him a bit of gratitude.

Ok, here's the final totals.

Base Cards - 53/125 (42.4%)
Short prints - 2/25 ( 8%)
doubles - 2
Damaged cards - 1 (RFK has a bump on the bottom of the card)

Chrome (1:7) - 1 Susan B. Anthony
'52 Topps Presidents (1:6) - 2 Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Pierce
Celebrities (1:12) - 0
Relics, Autos, Patches, Icons, Legends - 0

If you like American Heritage, one blaster will knock out a very big chunk the set. You can also expect a couple of short prints and a Chrome in the box. You'll also probably find a couple of inserts in there too. It's a pretty fun rip for twenty bucks if you're a history buff.