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Ascent of Man: Why the insert set rocks!

Although I missed the first year of Allen & Ginter (and boxes are much too expensive now for me to try for that set), I have collected each year’s edition since then.  One of the ongoing themes with Ginter is “surprise!”  Most years (if not all), Topps has produced some secret insert sets that went unannounced.  All of the sudden, as you open up packs, “bam!” you pull something you’ve never even heard of!  That’s a pretty powerful effect – something that basically hasn’t been true for card packs since the advent of internet and card blogs/websites.

Another staple of Ginter (at least until this year), was a number of surprising cards in the base set.  You might pull a revolving door one year, the Eiffel Tower another.  Unfortunately, Topps discontinued the practice of random architecture and science in the base Ginter set…but they did manage to throw collectors a new surprise!

Enter:  Ascent of Man.

The Ascent of Man cards are full-bleed cards (never before done in Ginter) featuring a glorious tribute to evolution in stunning color.  Taking each card on its own, you can appreciate the vivid colors, lack of border, blah blah blah.  Take this little chimpanzee for example, he’s creeping out of the forest hoping to somehow evolve into man.



While that’s cool enough, the best part of the Ascent of Man cards is what happens when you get them all.  If you haven’t noticed yet, look what you get when you string three of the cards in a row:

You get a freaking sea life mural!

Or, if you prefer:

You get an almost naked guy mural!

Uhm, back to the fish.


Ok, so the naked guys aren’t entirely necessary, but as a whole the set is quite unique!  It turns out, if you line up the entire set (all 26 cards), you get a full mural from start to finish.  Whenever I acquire the couple of cards that I’m missing, I’ll try to stitch together the scans so you can see the entire thing in one swoop.

Until then, kudos Topps on your Ascent of Man design – now just fix your crappy collation problems and I’ll be happy.

Comments

  1. I have a parhanni (spelling?) card. If you need it I'll throw it in with the topps I'm sending you.

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  2. so...how would one put those cards into a binder.

    why not do this mural thing with baseball players??

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  3. While I do like the idea of surprise inserts sets, I could care less for this Ascent of Man set for many reasons. First and foremost is the idea of evolution goes against what I believe so having "cardboard lies" is something I can do without. Which means I have a few available for trade!

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  4. Cheap Card Collection: If that is card 1 or 17, I could use it right now. There's a decent chance I'll land the two cards I'm missing in one of my unopened boxes though so no worries if you trade it to someone else.

    Deal: They look pretty sharp 9 to a page - it looks like three small murals. You need a better imagination or sense of visualization to see the full mural though!

    Colbey: You know, I was a bit surprised to see a set that was so obviously one-sided in terms of a given controversy. I, however, like the set for the pictures and mural, I'll leave the discussion of creationism vs. evolution for another day!

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