 It has been said, "If you've seen one, you've seen them all," which might sound like a bad omen for Topps' Star Wars Galaxy Series 7 trading cards.But reality (or unreality, depending on how you look at it) can be a far different creature—especially when you're dealing with a force as strong as the Star Wars Universe! When it comes to eye-popping artist renditions of artists' favorite Star Wars scenes, it's easy to see why the Star Wars Galaxy brand continues to thrive. Fans have grown to anticipate these cards with an "If you've seen one, then you have to see them all" attitude.
The Topps Company's Dave Waldeck offered an explanation for the popularity and longevity of the Star Wars Galaxy series, "I think the fantasy elements of Star Wars lend themselves to illustration. The world is so rich with opportunity to create unique imagery. With Star Wars Galaxy we're always presenting something new, something unseen. I think that's a big attraction. That's certainly what attracted me to these sets when I was younger." And Topps definitely delivers with this new series shipping February 2012. Yes, the format remains the same, but Topps doesn't rest on their laurels when it comes to continuing to add to the powerful reasons this series continues to grow in popularity.
The beauty of these art-based cards is no matter how familiar fans are with the Star Wars mythos, each artist rendition of a particular scene presents itself as if being seen for the very first time. Much like a movie producer brings his vision to the big screen, each artist is given the chance for fans to see a fresh rendition through their eyes; a powerful concept and a driving force in the longevity of this card series. Imagine how different the Star Wars movies would be, if say, Tim Burton, Jerry Bruckheimer, Robert Zemeckis, or M. Night Shyamalan were to produce and re-shoot them. That's how powerful it is to see artists filling in the gaps of fans' imaginations with their own, special take
on a beloved Star Wars scene.
This set features a 120-card base set, foil-stamped, including concept paintings, posters, production art and comic book cover art featuring the best of the best from the entire Star Wars Saga. The New Visions section of the base set will include 54 pieces of never-before-seen artwork from top industry professionals. Waldeck noted, "To start with, we're using some beautiful, unused pieces of art by accomplished artist Russ Walks for our title card and wrapper images, followed by a number of artists contributing to the 54-card images." Topps recently released list of artists includes: Jerry Vanderstelt, Joe Corroney, Tom Hodges, Patrick Shoenmaker, John Paul Leon, Mark Chiarello, Grant Gould, Brian Rood, Erik Maell, Lawrence Reynolds, William Silvers, Randy Martinez, Russ Walks, Cliff Nielsen, Nicole Falk, Randy Gallegos, Matt Busch, Chris Trevas, Doug Cowan, Ingrid Hardy, Steve Chorney, Paul Shipper, Rich Molinelli, Ed Repka, David Rabbitte, and Nathan Hamill. The imagery spans all six movies, The Clone Wars, and other pockets of the Expanded Universe.
Thematic subsets within the series will also include Star Wars Visions, Star Wars Lithographs, and a special Art of Dave Dorman section featuring this renowned artist's spectacular cover artwork.
The Art of Star Wars is a collection of general Star Wars art including, but not limited to, packaging, book covers, and comics. According to Waldeck, the Star Wars Visions subset will be drawn from the book of the same name released by Abrams last year, "There was a plethora of gorgeous artwork in that book; this is just a sampling of that." The Star Wars Lithograph section has been split into two sections, the first continues the Acme Archives subset, while the other subset reprints the Mondo posters.
For Star Wars aficionados, the plethora of chase/insert cards make this a series that can satisfy a collector's desire for anything Star Wars—foil cards, etched foil puzzle cars, sketch cards, die-cut shaped sketch cards, Sketchagraphs, printing plates, and etched foil original artwork cards that will have you scanning the galaxy to complete your set. Foil cards will have three levels of parallels: Bronze, Gold and 1/1 prismatic.
There is a full roster of about 125 artists, and according to Waldeck, "many stalwart artists we've worked with before, but we also have many new artists as well—Sean Pence, Joe Corroney, Katie Cook, Kyle Babbit, and Rob Liefeld are all doing cards.
Sketchagraph cards combine the popularity of original sketches with original autographs by cast members. Sketchagraph cards are extremely popular and the lineup of signers spans the Star Wars galaxy—Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Ashley Eckstein, Peter Mayhew, Matthew Wood, Ben Burtt, Dickey Beers, Alan Flyng, Tom Kane, James Taylor and Cat Taber. One of the more unusual cards will be signed by noted Star Wars author, Timothy Zahn, "His cards will be illustrated featuring characters from his novels," noted Waldeck. Every box guarantees a Sketchagraph card. There will be six different Foil Cards featuring the art of Mark McHaley and six different etched Foil Puzzle cards from Joe Corroney. In addition, the original art used to create the Etched Foil cards will be randomly inserted.
Including the 120 base cards, this set will consist of 168 cards (not counting parallels). As large as the Star Wars Universe has grown, Topps continues to keep up with the ever expanding universe by providing fresh material and novel extras. It is a tribute to not only George Lucas and the Star Wars Universe, but also to Topps that this relationship continues to thrive and prosper—another sign the Force is indeed strong with Topps. Waldeck concluded, "We always aim to push the boundaries, explore areas of art or images seldom seen. This set is no exception."
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