REVIEW: 2013 Bowman Platinum

I've been kind of partial to Bowman Platinum the last few years of my collecting resurgence. It does a much better job of balancing prospects and veterans than the standard Bowman set. Design-wise, it's a pretty good entry as something that's not really high-end but much nicer than the cheaper standard Bowman.

There are some similarities though when it comes to the 2013 product. Much like this year's Bowman comes across as 2012 v.2, Bowman Platinum dances on similar ground as last year's. The foilboard is back, along with the player cutouts over rainbow-y backgrounds, though this year it looks like they've screened those back a bit so they're lighter and less busy. Then there's the BP pendant in the middle on top of some abstract, swooshy shapes. Last year was more about straight lines with curved corners. This year we get the Gateway Arch. Throw in some team-color slivers and the player & team names spelled out and it, once again, looks like a leftover from last year's design brainstorming session.

I do like that there's more room devoted to the player image and the name being smaller seems to keep things a little tighter. Added points for having both team colors in there as well. And the fake mesh texture at the bottom is definitely an upgrade from 2012's candy stripes.

I am pretty happy with the color parallels this year. We have the gold and ruby pictured here along with a blue sapphire which seems to have replaced the green emerald from years past. The main difference here is they've added the atomic/ice/diamond-like texture to the colors so they are easily distinguishable from the base cards.

Since it's pretty much standard procedure for all Bowman products the last couple years, the prospect card design is very very similar to the veteran cards. Stick the BP monogram in circle, tear down the arch, flip the player/team names and stick them on top of an overstuffed metal hamburger and we've got ourselves a 'new' design. My other big complaint with the prospect cards is the refractor situation. Can you tell which of the two above is the refractor? I sure as hell couldn't until bending my neck down lower and lower until I caught the glossy sheen on the Puig. If you're going to make every card appear refractor-y and still include a standard 'refractor' parallel, do a little extra work to differentiate them so collectors don't have to. Last year's concrete block worked great. No need to abandon it when you're so keen on repeating elements year after year.

Oh yeah, there are also a lot of prospect parallels that I didn't get in either of my 2 blasters so I'll just add they are the same as above, only colorified.

Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky enough to pull any autographs from said blasters so we're finishing up here with the inserts. The Top Prospects design is actually pretty different from 2012's and the rest of the 2013 cards. I don't have a problem with too much here other than the wispy white curves behind the player cutout. It's waaaay too much. It looks like they're sinking in a really loose hammock. The rounded inverted corner in the top are a little too big for my tastes but far from the biggest eyesore.

Last and certainly least is the Cutting Edge Stars diecut. I've mentioned before how I'm not a fan of Topps' over-the-top, random die-cutting they've employed excessively over the last 2 years. Most of my distaste is aesthetically motivated, which still applies here. I don't understand what all of these design elements are supposed to be. Some torture device from Michael Bay's next Transformers movie? But my biggest problem with this particular die-cut is the little barbed teeth in the center at the bottom. I can't remember the last time I had so much trouble sliding a card into a penny sleeve. Honestly, it was a torturous test of my will and patience. If I happen to get my hands on any more of these, hopefully they'll already be toploaded for me.

I know this may have come across as mostly negative, but since Bowman Platinum starts off pretty high in my mind, most of these little dings I put on the set don't really bring it down that much. Really, if this was the 2012 design and last year's was coming out now, I'm not sure if the 2 reviews would be that much different. Hopefully the 2014 edition will have a few more differences while keeping up the Bowman Platinum brand.

Base cards: 8/10
Parallels: 8/10
Prospects: 6.5/10
Inserts: 6/10
OVERALL: 7/10

REVIEW: 2012 Bowman Platinum

I know it's been out for like 2 months already, but better late than never...

Starting off with the base design, with a note that these look less blue in real life (sad scanner I guess.) They kept the super shiny refractor-y foil board for another year. I like it well enough, though it doesn't have the same impact as last year's did. I'm sure the returns will diminish if they go the same route next year. The design itself is rather futuristic and minimalistic. No team logo (name only), no player position. The Bowman Platinum logo only shows up as a monogram. I think it works for this as a way to differentiate it from the regular Bowman set. The feel is pretty similar but this comes across a little more 'upscale' I suppose.

On the back, we get the same glossy-techy elements as the front but with a little more information. I don't necessarily advocate for full-career stats on the back of every base card, but surely someone should have noticed how squirrely it is to have Verlander's 2011 season stats on their twice.

There are green, gold, and ruby parallels again this year with the golds being, once again, the hardest to differentiate from the regular base cards. I'm a little partial to green, but damn if they don't stand out the best.

Since Topps has gone die-cut crazy this year, we have a die-cut insert in Bowman Platinum as well.
These are called Cutting Edge Stars. They look nice enough, keeping with the same design elements as the other cards in the set, except for that huge TV-looking shape in the middle. That paired with those movie ticket things cut out at the top make this insert look oddly kitschy. It's strange how off these look from the rest of the set even though they used the same basic elements.

 

Now onto Bowman's bread and butter—prospects. These were really frustrating to pull out of the pack. First off, the design is exactly the same as the regular base only the negative spaces on the left and right edges are white with dark stripes instead of dark with light gray stripes. The background seem to be feathered out even more on these, probably due to some of the less-than-flattering spring training settings of these photos. And to clarify, the cards in this scan are left-to-right an x-fractor, regular refractor and regular 'base' prospect. The x-fractors are the easiest to make out, but the differences between the refractor and the 'base' take some investigation. The refractors has this rectangular stone-like background, which would be easier to notice if it went to the edges. I say, if you're going to make the base look refractor-y then DO AWAY WITH A REFRACTOR PARALLEL. It's not like they don't have others to fall back on.

Like these blue and purple ones, and also gold. Why they can't just pick an additional color is beyond me.

The prospect version of the Cutting Edge Stars insert is called (drumroll please...) Top Prospects. These aren't die cut but still somehow have some cheesiness going on. I think it's the 'TOP PROSPECTS' text. Why they decided to include that but leave 'Cutting Edge Stars' off the front is puzzling.

And since I had some to scan, here are a couple of prospect autos. These actually look pretty good, due in large part to the team color bands along the bottom. I think that's what I'm missing from just about every other card in the release. They're throwing all these refractor patches and neutral grays and blacks on there and it kind of drains the life from the card.

Overall, I think these are nice cards that could be better but probably could be a lot worse. My main takeaway is that this looks like it was an option for the 2011 Bowman Platinum release that they just put in their back pocket for this year. In a way, that's pretty much every release from Topps these days I guess. Maybe it's a practical decision from a production standpoint, which I could understand. Then again, part of me thinks it's time to either evolve a bit or just completely blow things up and start anew.

Base cards: 4.5/5
Parallels: 3.25/5
Prospects: 3.25/5
Inserts: 3/5
OVERALL: 3.5/5