What odd choices for a set that is to be called a 50th Anniversary Wacky Packages set.
No die cuts and no thick borders (excepting for specialty subsets, or so I am gathering), and entirely imagined products.
So, the trademark design element (the thick black border) is cast off, one of the trademark features of the stickers (the die-cut) is as well, and the fundamental nature of the item is changed up - that being that Wacky Packages have always been fundamentally, "product parody stickers".
I see that one of the first call-outs on the sell sheet is "Celebrating the past while looking to the future!"... Okay, so the idea is transformative. Reminds me of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special - where the show runner said it was more "about the next 50 years than the last 50 years", and I thought "Wow, this guy does NOT get it".
I realize there have been so many reprints and there were the Flashbacks and so many kind of other throwback inserts in previous series, and of course the wonderful Old School series we got, so someone must have the sense that well has been gone back to, too many times. I can respect that. And yet, my gut on this is not great.
To put this into Star Wars terms, this announcement feels a lot more like Episode One: The Phantom Menance, than it does Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
And to spin that Star Wars reference a bit, it's especially shocking coming out of Topps, as with their Star Wars licensed cards, they appear to have really figured out that the classic design elements are a gold mine that they have successfully tapped into time and time again. Those guys seem to get it. They're really riffing on their past in a way that is ridiculously fun and compelling, IMO.
I hope I'm wrong. I always try to be positive with regard to these things, but ah, this is really tough when I look at it.
This does not resonate as special to me much at at all, nor does it feel especially connected to a heritage of Wacky Packages.