A Year of Topps Designs: 1990

After a very simple design year in 1989, Topps must have brought in some new blood to their creative department in 1990. Perhaps feeling the pressure from upstart Upper Deck, but not yet ready to commit to matching them on the photography front, Topps went all-in on big designs for their 1990 sets.

The brightly colored borders on the baseball set are well known, in one of the "loudest" baseball designs Topps ever produced. While football and hockey had more reserved designs, the football and hockey stick dominating the two designs make sure to hit the collector over the head with what sport they are in.

The big TV hit of the year was The Simpsons. Considering how big a fan base this show has, I'm surprised there aren't more Simpsons cards. Or maybe there are and I'm not aware of them. I happen to have a couple of beat up 1990s. Topps went for a cartoon-style TV look, vaguely reminiscent of the Brady Bunch set or 1955 Bowman Baseball.

Unlike 1989, most of the big movie "hits" of 1990 didn't last as classics. Dick Tracy was supposed to be the next Batman but fizzled badly. The design is not bad, kind of art deco with what I guess are supposed to be shortwave radio waves. A lot of collectors seem to dislike yellow borders, unfortunately.

Gremlins 2 had a cute design with Gizmo and some Gremlin footprints. Most cards featured two photos like this one.

For some reason the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie border went with a generic movie design, as if this was the first time trading cards were meant for a movie. You can barely make out a turtle shell on the filmstrip behind the movie camera.

Topps produced one other movie set in 1990. RoboCop 2 has to be one of, if not the most gory sets ever made for kids. I've never seen any of the RoboCop movies, but it certainly seems to be quite graphic. Quickly browsing through some of the cards on TCDB, within the first seven cards I found one of a dead body covered in blood and two of characters graphically losing their arm or hand. Even the design has a bloody feel to it.