Stranger Stuff

I ordered more stuff from Blowout Cards around my birthday, mostly because I was out of penny sleeves. Of course I ordered some cards, too. 

Earlier this year I saw a blaster box of Stranger Things cards at Target. I didn't buy them because $20 seemed just a little steep and/or I was being cheap. In the meanwhile, my wife and I finished watching season 2 and watched all of season 3. Andso I added this blaster to my cart for just $12.

This summer she did something she hasn't done in fifteen years. She started a collection!

If these don't stick to our fridge I will freak

We stopped into a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins on our way home from the Silversun Pickups show. The Stranger Things promo was still up, which was a pleasant surprise. She had grabbed the last sheet of magnets in a previous visit but that BR didn't have the special edition Funko figure.

I was shocked that she paid $20 for this thing, though they apparently sell for twice that on eBay. I've also tried to entice her to visit the comic book shop I used to frequent because I know they have Funko there (and penny sleeves, and packs of Topps baseball..)

Back to the blaster..each box contains ten packs of seven cards plus a commemorative patch card.

My wife opened this last and declared this a Steve (hot) box. Looks like it broke the tie:

 The top two are Scenes Stickers, the bottom two are Character Cards...

...and these are Character Stickers. D was baffled by this - why are there two sets of stickers? I will never understand non-sports sets myself, but then I'm sure a non-sports collector would wonder why we stick-and-ball fans need fifteen versions of the same card.

As proof of my lack of experience in and understanding of non-sports sets.. I posted the hits first. I wouldn't do that for a sports card set. Anyway, here's a sampling of the base set:

Nearly all of the cards are horizontal. This is not ideal for nine-pocket storage. Or maybe I'm just not thinking like a non-sports collector.

Of the 58 base cards in the box, only seven were right-side up. 

Lots of Eleven in this set, natch. I hope the Duffer brothers reveal more about her origin story in season 4.

I thought there would be more cards of the boys. The lack of Dustin in this box is a bit of a bummer.

A surprising amount of Nancy/Steve/Jonathan. I'm bewildered by her.

Throwback to when Steve was a douche. He might be my favorite character now #dadSteve

Believe it or not, I have owned a Winona Ryder card before. However this Dracula character card (also made by Topps) is long gone from my collection.  

We stick together because we're stronger together.

Topps did an excellent job with this set.100 cards is a good size and the backs describe each scene with just the right amount of detail. I sure hope they keep this up for their Season 2 and 3 sets. While I've been very disappointed in the quality and inconsistency of non-sports sets by other companies (NECA especially) Topps knows what they're doing. 

I haven't seen blasters of ST2 yet (Blowout had hobby boxes for $50+) but I'm hoping there's some kind of continuity with the design. Also I have to find someone with the 42 ST1 singles we're missing...



Do you have a favorite Stranger Things character? Least favorite? 




Thanks for reading!


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