A Year of Topps Designs: 1963

1963 was a pretty good year for design at Topps.

In baseball, Topps went for a picture-in-picture approach, the fifth time in ten years there was some kind of multi-picture design, and the last time it would be used until 1983. The set was also notable for big blocks of color that varied by team, a trait shared with the otherwise-simple football set.

Topps hockey sets of this era usually featured an interesting design, but this was a rare year where they went conservatives. Unlike baseball and football, colors did not change from team to team.

There was only one popular-culture set in 1963, featuring the Beverly Hillbillies. Looks a bit like the hockey set but with a white border.

Astronauts was one of several similarly-designed space sets the company put out in the 1960s.

There was a Flags set that looked a lot like we know from A&G mini sets today. Canada didn't come up with the maple leaf/optical illusion flag that we know today until 1965.

One more mini set, like the Flags it was called a "midgee". Monster Laffs had a simple design, but the jokes were OK.