Topps Community Break Box #1 & 2: 1996 Topps Laser Series 1 & 2

Finally!  It’s 3am.  I stayed up late to make a little progress on everything, so let’s kick this sucker off right!

My hope is to get a box up each day, but don’t hold me to that.  I should be able to come pretty close to that, however.

To lead the way is a double shot from my sharks with frickin’ laser beams.

Lasers - Pew! Pew!

Got the laser, all that's missing is the cats

Topps Laser!

It’s worth mentioning each and every time, all of these boxes are courtesy of our good friends and Community Break Sponsor: BASEBALL CARD EXCHANGE

Here are the videos:

If you don’t want to watch all of that, or can’t watch all that, I’ll outline the highlights below.

I just realized I haven't made an American Gladiator reference yet.

Each pack had one of these four different designs.  We almost hit every card in the set, but a few too many duplicates stopped us from getting everything.  I scanned the above image with the top up so the purple could show through the die cuts.  I figured it’s worth showing how intricate these designs are since that could get lost in conventional scans.

Series 2 highlights

To contrast, here’s series 2 cards with the top down.  Easier on the eyes, sure, but not as noticeable on the fine craftsmanship.  The boxes don’t promise much to begin with, but inserts are there to be had.

Without the purple, I would have missed the diamonds along the edges of the McGriff

Series 1 produced a Power Cuts and a Bright Spots insert.  As you can see, they both look great.  Unfortunately the Snopek is with the unclaimed White Sox and not a bright spot after all.

Stadium Stars front

Hiding behind this die cut silver wall is a Tony Gwynn card for my collection.  I’m very happy to hit the rarest insert, but also a little guilty that it didn’t go to one of you guys out there.

If you watched the video you know that I struggled with it on camera and gave up on breaking the seal.  Eventually I gave it another shot off-camera and opened the flap.

inside

You can kind of see on the left above the flags, there was some of that plastic adhesive stuff on it.  It won’t stick back together now, but that’s fine.  At least nothing ripped, which was my major concern.

the back for good measure

And that pretty much sums it up for the first two boxes.  I could show more base cards, but I think you get the idea and you can see plenty in the videos.  Inserts simply weren’t much of a thought in this product because I’m sure Topps thought the laser theme would be enough to carry the product.

These cards are pretty thin and feel fragile.  I’m going to try my best to use those pack buffers and other random cardboard to protect your stash from harm.

If your team is low on cards, don’t worry.  We still have nine more boxes still to come.  If this were dinner, it would be the water and bread.  You don’t ever expect much from the water and bread.  There’s plenty more to come, my friends.

Team breakdown so far:
Anaheim Angels – Base:  15 –Inserts/Parallels: 0  –Hits: 0
Arizona Diamondbacks – Alec– Base:  0 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Atlanta Braves – Colbey– Base:  15 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Baltimore Orioles – Hobb’s Knights– Base:  10 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Boston Red Sox – Summa Cum Lousy– Base:  4 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Chicago Cubs – Base:  5 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Chicago White Sox – Base:  7 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Cincinnati Reds – Jason C– Base:  5 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Cleveland Indians – Baseball Dad– Base:  14 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Colorado Rockies – Cards From the Quarry– Base:  5 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Detroit Tigers – Grand Cards– Base:  3 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Florida Marlins – Base:  8 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Houston Astros – Base:  6 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Kansas City Royals – Base:  4 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Los Angeles Dodgers – Stealing Home– Base:  7 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Milwaukee Brewers – Base:  2 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Minnesota Twins – Base:  7 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Montreal Expos – Base:  4 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
New York Mets – The Sandlot– Base:  4 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
New York Yankees – Baseball Card Hall of Fame-Base:  13 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Oakland Athletics – Base:  2 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Philadelphia Phillies – Daddyoho– Base:  4 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Pittsburgh Pirates – Base:  4 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
San Diego Padres – Base:  9 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
San Francisco Giants – Cheap Card Collecting– Base:  5 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Seattle Mariners – Baseball Card Hall of Fame– Base:  7 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
St. Louis Cardinals – Cards on Cards– Base:  10 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Tampa Bay Devil Rays – Base:  0 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Texas Rangers – Play at the Plate– Base: 5  –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Toronto Blue Jays – Dave– Base:  5 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0