Topps Stickers: Series 3

The border of the stickers in series 3 changed to a black film strip.

Topps Stickers: Series 2

Here is series 2 of the stickers included in Topps trading card packs. Quite similar in style to series 1, they are mostly portraits with a couple of nice spaceship shots. Again, I have lost the border on one of them, leaving it white, but at least it's just one card this time.

Topps Stickers: Series 1

Well, it's been over a year since I blogged last - apologies to anybody keeping tabs on this site. Life has been hectic with kids, work etc (usual excuses). I have a little more time now and have a few posts lined up so I'll kick off with the first of Topps's sticker sets. Each wax-sealed pack of trading cards contained a sticker and there were eleven stickers for each series.

Series 1 was more or less a collection of character mugshots against a starry backdrop with the occasional spaceship. You can see in the photo above that some of the backgrounds are white. This means, unfortunately, that I have lost the background/border as it has peeled off which is a shame. I may try to get replacements for these cards.

Topps Trading Cards: Series 4

Here's the fourth series with the green borders. 1 more to go!

The puzzle of Han and Chewie is surprisingly tall and pretty hard to put together.  

We have 'movie facts' now instead of official descriptions and I like the one showing Lucas's influences like Flash Gordon and John Carter of Mars. I have to feel like they were groping a bit for new images to use on the card fronts. 'Luke's secret yen for action' made me laugh. Also cool; 'The Empire Strikes Back' way before there was a movie by that name. 

Topps Bubblegum

Aside from the trading cards and bubblegum packs Topps did in the late seventies, they also sold single bubblegum sticks wrapped in foil with a paper wraparound displaying four different characters. They supposedly enclosed a 'movie poster pin up' although I've never seen what one looks like and they must be minuscule 'posters'. It feels a little weird collecting 36 year old bubblegum, but they look pretty cool in the display cabinet.

Topps Trading Cards: Series 3

I seem to be collecting these in order, however inadvertently. Series 3 had the yellow borders.

Interesting look at a Jawa here, showing the electrical set up under the hood which make the eyes glow. Not sure if this is a behind the scenes shot or not.  

Topps had dispensed with the 'Movie Facts' by this time and the backs all had 'Official Descriptions' of everything from characters to ships to lightsabers and the force.  

As usual, there were two puzzles which I have dutifully put together. One is the famous shot of the three heroes and the other a more random scene of the droids and a rebel mechanic or whatever he is in the hanger on Yavin. This image was also used on one of the cards in this set.

 

Topps Trading Cards Pack: Series 2

I only have one more of these packs to collect (series 1) before I have a full set, so I need to get on to that pronto. Meanwhile, here is series 2 which contained cards with the red borders.

Topps Trading Cards Pack: Series 4

Series 4 seems to be the only series that had borders that matched the pack colours (green). 

Topps Trading Cards Pack: Series 3

Series 3 came with the yellow borders as shown below.

Topps Trading Cards: Series 2

Series 2 here (#66 - 137) with the red borders.

Most of the backs of the cards feature either 'Movie Facts' or 'Actor's Profiles'.

Two jigsaw puzzles can be put together from the backs of certain cards; a Sandperson and good ol' Chewie.

Topps Trading Cards: Series 1

Until now, I've held out on collecting sets of Star Wars trading cards, deeming them beyond my budget. But it does appear that complete sets can be picked up on EBay for good prices. If condition isn't too high on your list of priorities. Admittedly, this set is a little tatty, but I prefer to consider it 'well-loved'. Mint condition cards are the ones that were never carried around in some young fan's pocket circa 1977, doing the rounds on the playground.

What I have here is the complete 66 cards that comprised Series 1. Each series had a different colour border (series one being blue). The images on the fronts range from scenes from the movie or promotional 'portraits' showing the characters. Stickers were also released within the packs, but these are often sold separately to the cards themselves nowadays.

Several of the cards had bits of a puzzle on their reverse and formed two large pictures shown below (sorry about the glare).

Other cards either had 'Story Summaries' or 'Movie Facts'.