ANS has energized the hobby and been a blast. I prize my ANS sets.
Andrew
I agree that ANS has brought Wackys to a new generation, and has reinvigorated the hobby, too. But they could have done both of those by releasing simpler OS-like sets that don't cost the price of a car to complete. That's the problem. If Wackys are for kids, then a set needs to be realistically attainable by a kid, like they were for us... but they're not. When it's cheaper to buy a pack-fresh, complete set of original 1st series Ludlows from 1973 than a complete set of any of the ANS series with all their chase cards, etc., something's wrong with the system. Sure, adult collectors making 6-figs can plop a few grand down willy nilly, but how is that cool to kids? And it's not inflation (although corrected for inflation and the cheaper price to print these days, I would think a pack of Wackys could be 50-cents rather than 2 or 3 bucks). It's just too many chase sets and manufactured variations. Yah, a kid can still have some fun collecting a base set, but if they know there are rare cards beyond the base, they're going to want those too... and they shouldn't have to use their college fund to do it. That's my main complaint. The new Wacky Pack kids are being gypped the experience we had of actually being able to participate & complete sets on their own budget.
