2011 Topps Opening Day - a blast(er) break and review

I bought this box last week while looking for some Heritage. By now, everybody's seen the cards, I'm sure, but I thought I'd share what I'm pulling. I'm going to revamp my "for trade" pages - put all the cards together in better groups. And I'll put these there as well. Anyway, most of these cards are going to be available - if I highlighted it in red I kept it this time. So without further delay...

2011 Topps Opening Day

Hey, that rhymes.

Pack 1:

• 136 Gary Sanchez
• 151 Adam Wainright
• 139 Michael Young
• Superstar Celebrations SC-15 Alex Rodriguez
• blue parallel 29 Jonathan Papelbon 1706/2011
• 129 Ike Davis
• 56 Brian Bogusevic

Pack 2:

• 191 Corey Hart
• 200 Robinson Cano
• ToppsTown 21 Austin Jackson
• blue parallel 31 Chris Sale 0005/2011
• 112 Andre Ethier
• 44 Omar Infante
• 117 Tyler Colvin

Pack 3:

• 144 Brett Gardner
• 164 Grady Sizemore
• 172 Jorge Posada
• Superstar Celebrations SC-19 Bobby Abreu
• 101 Brian Wilson
• 25 Johan Santana
• 38 Mike Stanton

Pack 4:

• 170 Logan Morrison
• 150 Matt Cain
• 159 Dan Uggla
• Spot the Error 2 Jason Heyward
• 6 Aramis Ramirez
• 12 Neil Walker
• 109 Mark Buehrle

Pack 5:

• 212 Vernon Wells
• 194 Delmon Young
• 179 Prince Fielder
• Mascots M-4 Wally The Green Monster
• 125 Adam Dunn
• 75 Buster Posey
• 85 Carlos Santana

Pack 6:

• Opening Day Stars 3D ODS-5 Miguel Cabrera
• Mascots M-21 Fredbird
• 77 Koji Uehara
• 86 Stephen Strasburg
• 8 Hanley Ramirez

Pack 7:

• 155 Cole Hamels
• 156 Ryan Zimmerman
• Stadium Lights UL-4 Alex Rodriguez
• Spot The Error 9 Buster Posey
• 1 Carlos Gonzalez
• 81 Jay Bruce
• 104 Victor Martinez

Pack 8:

• 142 C.J. Wilson
• 218 Ryan Howard
• 145 Ubaldo Jimenez
• Mascots M-5 Chicago White Sox
• blue parallel 122 Rickie Weeks
• 27 Andrew McCutchen
• 103 Jose Bautista

Pack 9:

• 187 Brandon Phillips
• 205 Carlos Quentin
• 152 Mark Reynolds
• Presidential First Pitch PFP-3 Calvin Coolidge
• 120 Roy Halladay
• 43 Jered Weaver
• 45 Desmond Jennings

Pack 10:

• 183 Jacoby Ellsbury
• 163 Chad Billingsley
• 174 Buster Posey
• Superstar Celebrations SC-7 Jim Thome
• 126 Brian Duensing
• 70 Freddie Freeman
• 57 Zack Greinke

Pack 11:

• 140 Derek Jeter
• 153 Kendry Morales
• 190 Elvis Andrusw
• ToppsTown TTDD-22 Carlos Ruiz
• 119 Alexei Ramirez
• 46 Yadier Molina
• 54 Ian Stewart

Thoughts:

Of course, the base cards look the same as the regular Topps issue, so they look fine. Did the regular issue have the position printed below the player's name? I'm not sure. I like the blue parallels. They have a nice light sparkle to them and they're not gaudy. The ToppsTown inserts look exactly the same as the regular issue as well. The mascots look exactly the same as the base cards, but with the foil "April 1, 2011" over the Opening Day logo like the blue parallels. Why is the White Sox mascot card not called Southpaw? The back of the card calls him Southpaw, but the front just has the team name. I like the idea of the Spot the Error set, even if it is easy. The design reminds me of a 1990s Stadium Club insert set. The Superstar Celebrations cards look patriotic but being horizontal with wide top and bottom borders they look like a widevision image. The Stadium Lights set looks nice, even if all the pictures I've seen don't appear to be action shots. Opening Day Stars are nice 3D looking things, and the Presidential First Pitch are nicely designed as well.

I should note that I've seen two different Opening Day Stars sets. The Opening Day Stars set comes in a non-3D version (I haven't looked at the checklists to see if they're different).