Topps American Heritage: 2 Blaster Box Review

I went to Target with the hopes of nabbing a couple of 2009 packs of either Topps or Upper Deck (which I still haven't found). I did, however, pick up the last tin of Sweet Spot (which was such a waste of money I realize now why I've never bought any of that set before) and 2 blasters of Topps American Heritage.

Here's what I got in 2 blasters:

Writers (1-10) (I got: 7/10)
1: Mark Twain

2: Harriet Beecher Stowe
4: Edgar Allen Poe
6: Emily Dickenson
7: Walt Whitman
8: Henry David Thoreau
9: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Explorers (11 - 20) (I got: 9/10)
11: Meriwether Lewis
12: William Clark
14: Daniel Boone
15: Zebulon Pike
16: Jedediah Strong Smith
17: John Wesley Powell
18: John Charles Fremont
19: Amelia Earhart
20: Christopher Columbus
Military Leaders (21 - 30) (I got: 8/10)
21: John Paul Jones
22: Davy Crockett
23: George Marshall
24: Douglas MacArthur
25: Winfield Scott
27: Chester Nimitz
29: Nathanael Greene
30: George Meade

Revolutionary Heroes (31-40) (I got: 6/10)
32: Alexander Hamilton
33: Paul Revere
35: John Hancock
36: Samuel Adams

37: Crispus Attucks
39: Peyton Randolph

Inventors (41 - 50) (I got: 8/10)
41: Thomas Edison
42: Orville & Wilbur Wright
44: Alexander Graham Bell
45: Samuel Morse
46: Philo Farnsworth
47: Eli Whitney
49: Clarence Birdseye
50: Elisha Otis

Civil Rights Leaders (51 - 60) (I got: 8/10)
51: Martin Luther King Jr.
52: Malcolm X
53: Harriet Tubman
55: Barbara Rose Johns
56: Susan B. Anthony
57: Cesar Chavez
58: W.E.B. Du Bois
59: Booker T. Washington

Artists (61 - 70) (I got: 10/10)
61: Thomas Eakins
62: Gutzon Dorglum
63: Frederic Remington
64: Gilbert Stuart
65: Benhamin Latrobe
66: Norman Rockwell
67: Winslow Homer
68: Mathew Brady
69: Thomas Nast
70: Frederic Edwin Church

Jurists & Statesmen (71 - 80) (I got: 7/10)
72: John C. Calhoun
74: Daniel Webster

75: John Jay
76: Robert Livingston
78: Thurgood Marshall
79: William Jennings Bryan
80: Henry Cabot Lodge

Entertainers (81 - 90) (I got: 8/10)
81: "Buffalo Bill" Cody
82: P.T. Barnum
83: George & Ira Gershwin
84: Harry Houdini
85: Buster Keaton
87: Joe Namath
88: Tony Pastor
90: Clara Bow
Industrialists (91 - 100) (I got: 6/10)
91: John D. Rockefeller
94: J. P. Morgan
95: Samuel Colt
96: William Randolph Hearst
97: John Deere
100: Andrew Carnegie

Great American Events (101 - 125) (I got: 17/25)
102: The Boston Tea Party
103: The Signing of the Declaration of Independence
105: The Treaty of Paris
106: George Washington's Farewell Address
108: The California Gold Rush
111: The Treaty at Appomattox Court House
112: Seward's Folly
113: Completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad
114: The Treaty of Versailles
115: Women Win the Right to Vote
117: The End of Prohibition
119: V-J Day
121: Hawaii Becomes the 50th State
122: First Televised Presidential Debate
123: Martin Luther King Jr. "I Have a Dream" Speech
124: Man Walks on the Moon
125: The Camp David Accords
The Election Collection (126 - 150) (5/25)
129: Barack Obama

136: John McCain
139: Barack Obama
142: John McCain
146: Barack Obama / John McCain

American Presidents: (I got: 2/50)
AP 38: Gerald Rudolph Ford
AP 44: Barack Obama


Chrome ( #/1776)
C7: Walt Whitman (#0330/1776)
C21: John Paul Jones (#0540 / 1776)

Chrome Refractors ( #/76)
C39: Peyton Randolph

Presidential Patches (#/50)
PP-WK: William McKinley ( #48/50)

The two boxes also contained 13 duplicates between them (#2, 12 (2), 17, 23, 37, 46, 49, 62, 74, 82, 85, 115) which are available for trade for anyone who might be interested.

Overall, I like the set quite a bit now that I've seen it in person. There are enough subsets with different designs to keep things interesting, and the selection of subjects ranges from the expected (Martin Luther King, Norman Rockwell, and Mark Twain) to the unexpected (Seward's Folly, Clara Bow, etc). It's a great set for those who like the vintage Topps designs (of course, there's about a hundred other sets based on these vintage designs now too) or for people who are big on history. It's also nice that a pair of retail blaster's netted me the majority of the set, plus a relic (manufactured relic that is) and a few chrome cards.