EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 229
album: SW The Mandalorian trading cards (Topps)
cards: 225 (1-156, CA1-CA18, TB1-TB10, CC1-CC6, AC1-AC10, C1-C25, CR1-CR6)
starter pack: album + 4 packets 8,99€
box: 24 packets (10 cards per packet) 2,00€ each
multipack: 4 packets 7,99€
box premium: 10 packets 19,99€
“This is the way”, or rather this is the time! The cards related to the latest success of the Star Wars universe: The Mandalorian are finally released in Italy. An incredible success that has been able to marry both new and old fans linked to the classic stories of Lucas. Unleashing a world of gadgets, only (in Italy) the album by card. Who knows what stickers will not follow.
The collection is dedicated to the first two seasons of the series, dividing the number of basic cards equally, 78 per season. It is not a mere subdivision, even in terms of graphics they are different. In those of Season 1 white dominates, In those of Season 2 we are more towards the metal color. The photos trace the history. They are of international origin, so the title in front of the photo is in English, behind the caption in four languages, Italian, French, Spanish and luckily Italian. The photos are frames from the TV series but almost all of excellent workmanship.
Below we find 6 cards that made us fall in love, the Comic Cards. They are not unpublished images, already seen on other occasions, some are posters that you could buy to hang at home. They remain a beautiful sight, a starting point for perhaps something more substantial to be achieved in the future. The numbering of these cards is from CC1 to CC6.
If the CCs were a feast for the eyes, the Concept Art is even better. Are we the only ones who watched the credits of the various episodes to enjoy fantastic illustrations? Well, now we can find them on these cards, giving the right recognition to those who made them on the back of the cards. Pure pleasure, the numbering of these cards is from CA1 to CA18.
Following are cards dedicated to the Mandalorian and his tools, the helmet, the rifle and everything else. Other images taken from the TV series, on the back the explanation of their use and their effectiveness. The numbering of these cards is from TB1 to TB10.
The very successful trademark of the entire Star Wars universe are the many alien creatures that populate it, characters that are theoretically secondary, but necessary to make the various films and series fascinating. Aliens and Creatures presents some memorable subjects, already seen on other occasions, just think of the Jawas. The numbering of these cards is from AC1 to AC10.
Final part dedicated to the 25 characters we met in these (first) two seasons. The main characters are all there, indeed almost all. For example, it is noted the lack of Cara Dune, beloved by fans but who pays for the questionable public opinions of the actress Gina Carano, who not only excluded her from the continuation of the series (at least until proven otherwise) but did not allow her to also be present in this collection. Definitely a choice dictated by Disney, but that we do not share. The numbering of these cards is from C1 to C25.
The collection closes with the rarest cards, the Crystals with transparent graphics featuring 6 subjects (The Mandalorian, The Child, Boba Fett, Ahsoka Tano, Bo-Katan Kryze, Moff Gideon), are numbered from CR1 to CR6 and with a little luck you can have them all (in a box we found two). It is much more complicated to find the 6 autographed cards, which is why we decided not to include them in the general check list of the collection, we believe we can consider the complete set even without having these cards, which have no number but the letters SW followed by the initials KU for Nick Nolte, GK for Carl Weathers, MG for Giancarlo Esposito, TW for Taika Waititi, MO for Temuera Morrison and OA for Omid Abtahi.
For the craziest collectors the road is even longer and more complicated, in fact the 25 card Characters have an incredible number of variants, called Parallel, practically impossible to have them all if not at a high price, buying myriad packets or buying on the internet (not on the Topps site, of course) the missing ones. Apart from the basic version, the most common is the yellow one and followed by the green, blue, purple, orange, turquoise, red up to the very rare gold. We are satisfied with the basic set plus some parallels. By the way, with the box of 24 sachets we found a few doubles allowing us to almost complete the collection, good Topps, thank you!
(EN)