2003 Topps Bazooka: BOX REVIEW (hobby)

One of the blog benefits for me of running a big group break is that I get a number of boxes that I rip that I can then turn around and use for box review posts (without me having to buy a box specifically for myself)!  In many ways, we all win - I get blog content...and well, you get blog content to read!

Today's box review is for a hobby box of 2003 Topps Bazooka, and yes, this particular box is part of my ongoing Breaker's Club #6.  

The box contains 24 packs with each pack containing 8 cards.  The box loudly promises three game-used relic cards in every box to go along with a smattering of interesting inserts including comics, stamps, and stand-ups.

Each hobby box comes with two box toppers of sorts.  The first is a checklist - and that's a true box topper.  

The other is a red stand-up insert which comes as part of the front of the box (it's perforated for an easy punch-out).  The red stand-up set contains a total of four cards - we happened to have a box with card #2 in the set (Albert Pujols for the Cardinals).

Our box contained a total of 109 regular base cards - 108 of them looked like the following...

...plus one more that didn't quite get shoved all the way into the pack before the pack crimper got ahold of it!

For me, the base card design is a nice, simple design that I find quite appealing.  I love the large team logo on the front along with the pennant design for the name plate.  The card backs only have one year's worth of stats on them but you do get a nice write-up for the player plus a "Bazooka Blast Stat of the Year" which is a fun addition to the card backs.  I would have eaten something like that up as a kid!

Speaking of eating things up, each pack of 2003 Bazooka also comes with a piece of gum (thankfully, that is also packed in plastic separately so no cards get damaged).  I did try a piece of the nearly 20-year-old gum and while the flavor was exactly as I remember Bazooka tasting, the gum itself sort of disintegrated in my mouth as I tried to chew it...it was weird and I don't recommend it.

In addition to the regular base cards, we also found 8 of the "color logo" variation base cards.  

The color logo variations also include a fake signature which makes the cards even easier to spot than they would have been otherwise.  The good news for set collectors is that the variation cards appear to be no more difficult to find than any regular base card.

Finally, we ended up pulling 12 of the Bazooka Joe variations.  

There are a total of 30 Bazooka Joe variations - one for each MLB team (that's in addition to the "regular Bazooka Joe" base card which has Bazooka Joe wearing a Bazooka logo on his t-shirt).

With zero duplicates amongst any of the base cards (and base variations), I was happy with the collation!  

Next, let's take a look at the parallels.

Each pack that didn't have a relic in it instead had a silver parallel.  These are thick cards that are essentially pack searcher deterrents.  That being said, I'd much prefer a parallel like this to serve as a "dummy card" than the plain white cardboard pieces that are used all too often.  

The other one-per-pack parallel is the mini parallel set - and as you'd probably guess, these are slightly smaller cards as compared to the regular base cards.

The mini set doesn't do a whole lot for me personally but I guess it does add some nice variety to each pack as you rip them (and again, as a kid I probably would have loved the various parallel sets that actually felt like proper, different sets)!

Those are the only two parallel sets in 2003 Bazooka so now we can turn our attention to the various insert sets beginning with the Comic set.  

The Bazooka Comics are seeded 1:4 packs and we did pull the expected six comics.  Unfortunately, here we hit a duplicate comic (but at least it was a duplicate of Derek Jeter, you could do much worse)!  Even so, with 24 cards in the comic set getting a duplicate in our box was a disappointment.

The other insert set seeded 1:4 packs is the 4-in-1 Sticker set.  

Here, at least each card was unique.  The stickers are basically nothing more than super-mini base cards!

The last of the regular inserts is the 1:8 pack Stand-Ups.

These are definitely my favorite of the inserts in the 2003 set - I think a set like this could be right at home in something like Topps Heritage as well.  Simple, clean design with bold colors.  Good stuff!

Finally, we get to our three promised game-used relics.  

Our box produced a pair of Bazooka Blasts relics - interestingly enough, both were Red Sox!

I do like the design of these.  Playful but not overly distracting to look at.  The double-O cut-out is kind of neat for the relic bit as well.  The Manny Ramirez relic is part of group F (seeded 1:73 packs) while the Johnny Damon relic is part of group H (seeded 1:48 packs).

Last but not least, our final relic belonged to the Piece of Americana set.

Aubrey Huff is part of the E (seeded 1:36 packs).  I like the look of the Piece of Americana set too though if I'm being honest I think I prefer the "kiddie" Bazooka Blast design more!

Overall, I give the 2003 Topps Bazooka (hobby) box the following rating:

Set Design:  A

Collation:  A-

Opening Thrill:  B+

Overall:  B+

This is a great set for what it is - designed for kids with just enough interesting stuff in it to keep anyone occupied for awhile.  You won't find much that's "valuable" here - virtually no serial-numbering (none in our box) and no autographs...but what you will find is a return to what made card collecting fun for so many of us when we started this hobby.  I'd love for Topps to release something like this in a year or two when my son gets old enough to start collecting cards (for me personally, the set that cemented my love of card collecting was probably Upper Deck's Collector's Choice which had similarly fun inserts and interesting card backs).