2014 UFC Champions Box Break

What We Pulled:

Cards Per Pack: 10
Packs Per Box: 24
Cards Expected: 200
Cards Received: 190

Base Set Completion: 76% (152 out of 200)
Duplicates: 8

Inserts:
Fight Night Highlights: (7) Lesnar vs. Carwin, Garcia vs. Jung, Liddell vs. Silva, Mir vs. Lesnar, Guillard vs. Miller, Silva vs. Franklin, Whittaker vs. Thompson
Octagon Greats: (6) Chuck Liddell, Demetrious Johnson, Jose Aldo, Johny Hendricks, Renan Barao, Rich Franklin
Topps Parallel Black #/188: (6) Jake Ellenberger, Jason High, Liz Carmouche, Issac Vallie-Flagg, Rodrigo Damm, Ross Pearson
Topps Parallel Blue #/88: (4) Francis Carmont, Bobby Green, Alex White, Raquel Pennington

Topps Gold Champions Predictor #/25: (1) Brandon Thatch
Topps Parallel Platinum #1/1: (1) Ricardo Lamas
Topps Autograph Red Ink #/15: (1) Stipe Miocic
Topps Autograph Relics: (1) Zach Maxovsky
Topps Relics: (2) Cain Velazquez, Rafael Dos Anjos
Topps Mat Relics: (1) Chris Weidman

Opening Thought:

I like the design of the front of the cards. The name of the fighter is close to the edge of the card, the Champions logo is in the corner and the pictures are of the fighters in the octagon. Some during the fight, some before or after a fight. The fighters that have been newly signed to the UFC are also annotated on the front of the cards. The back of the cards have basic personal stats for the fighter, their twitter handle, and a blurb about the fighter.

The value from this box is there. Getting over 70% of the base set is a pleasant surprise. There are at least 10 parallels in each box. I don't like runaway parallels, but they weren't a distraction in this set. The mat cards are good, and I hope there are some out there that show actual use. The material cards aren't worth much, and Topps might want to put some multi-colored swatches in for more variety. If I were in charge of the product, there would be more autographs. If you have 200 fighters, you can get more fighters than 49 to sign cards. The rest of the inserts are more of the garden variety type.






Even though I know that I will not get all my money back from selling these cards, I feel like it was a good product. I didn't pull the big hits and that is part of card collecting.

Overall Judgment:

If Topps and the UFC continue to produce products like this, it will help with the popularity of UFC. The monetary value isn't there, but the 5 pulls that you receive in each box, combined with the parallels will make you want to see what else is in the box. You want to build a set of base cards, then two boxes is probably what you will need. The small amount of duplicates helps me with feeling good with this product. The inserts are OK. you might need to do more hunting than hoping you can pull the ones you need in a box to complete those insert sets. I would make the parallels stand out a little more than they do but that is a minor thing. I would say get yourself a box and see if you can get that big hit and also enjoy these cards.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

2014 Marvel Universe Cards Box Break

Cards Per Pack: 5
Packs Per Box: 24
Total Cards Expected: 120
Total Cards Received: 116

Total Base Set w/o SP Cards: 90
Total Base Set Completion: 100%
Duplicates: 10

Inserts and Parallels

Sapphire Parallel (1:3 Packs): (8) Angel, Cyclops, Speedball, Giant-Man, Deathbird, X-Man, Layla Miller, Ultron
Emerald Parallel (1:25 Packs): (1) The Captain #023/100
Diamond Parallel (1:288 Packs): (0)
Artist Drafts (1:12 Packs): (2) House of M #1, Dark Avengers #11
MGB Thor Expansion (1:24 Packs): (1) Thor vs. Gorr
MGB Thor Expansion Red Parallel (1:144 Packs): (0)
MGB Thor Expansion Gold Parallel (1:288 Packs): (0)
MGB Captain America Expansion (1:24 Packs): (1) Captain America vs. Captain America
MGB Captain America Red Parallel (1:144 Packs): (0)
MGB Captain America Gold Parallel (1:288 Packs): (0)

Marvel 75th Anniversary (1:144 Packs): (0)
Shadowbox Cards (1:48 Packs): (1) Wolverine
Avengers Origins (1:48 Packs): (1) Ant-Man & The Wasp
Heroes and Villians Expansion (1:48 Packs): (0)
Sketch Card (1:24 Packs): (1) Magneto & Quicksilver

Our Thoughts:

The base set cards are a good design. On the front of the card, the background has a cover of the comic book that the character is being taken from to be talked about. The character is then in full color in the middle of the card. The back has a picture of the comic that the character was in. It lists the issue and issue date. It also gives a synapses of the comic book.

The bad of the base cards? We are going back to comics that were published in the 70's. The base cards are set within 10 of the biggest events of the Marvel Universe. If the set is 2014 Marvel Universe, why are we going back in time to look at the past storylines?  And not all of your favorite characters made the cut from these storylines. Wolverine has 4 cards, while Nightcrawler has none. It seems like the major heroes of the universe get almost all of the attention. There are a couple of notable exceptions. The Swordsman, Scalphunter, Giant-Man, and Amadeus Cho all received cards in this set, which is good. But if Marvel wants to portray some of their heroes as being back burner heroes because they aren't in this set, then say hello to the back burner Daredevil, Moon Knight, Iron Fist, Beast and others.

The parallels are something that Marvel is having fun with. 8 Sapphire parallels just gives something that isn't the bast set cards. The Emerald card that is numbered to 100 is there for a hit in the box. The Artist drafts aren't real cool. While I like the sketch look on the front, I would have rather had an alternate vision from the artist and then have a colorized version of the original on the back. I do not like the Marvel's Greatest Battles expansion here. You could do 4 sets of those cards by themselves and not do a duplicate battle. So putting them in here seems like a waste.

The rest of the inserts are good to have, it allows collectors to try and find the singles that they want or need. The Shadowbox Cards are a good idea that the execution needs a little bit more work on. I would expect that the three thick pieces to make the card would be cut in the same dimensions. But they are not.

The Final Say:

I was disappointed in this set. The base set is where it went wrong. I liked the House of M as much as the next guy, but if this is 2014 Marvel Universe, I expect the 2014 Marvel Universe. Instead of doing 3 or 4 Avengers and X-Men storylines, why not do something like Shadowland. A under the radar story that would allow more characters to be spotlighted. The sketch cards are here like usual and I do like the Shadowbox cards idea. I don't believe that a lot of thought was put into this set. I am hopeful that the next release will be something that make up for this one.

Box Value 1.5 out of 5