These are great! Thanks...

I love the 72s for many reasons. I was 9 in 79 and started then, so every once in a while I would have a 72 card surface among friends and it was considered ancient and cool. When I was 10 I got a 72 Mays and I was the coolest kid in the neighborhood. Cost me a wrinkled 76 Babe Ruth (the sporting news card, completely coveted then, haha) and a 78 Reggie Jackson. I'll never forget all the negotiations that went into that trade! Now I love them because it's the last year of the 70's sets before the hair got too whacked out...haha. I was looking through my 76 set last night and some of those hairdo's are unreal and frankly distracting. I think that is one reason I love the 50's and 60's so much...all the players looked nice and clean...no gawdy White Sox uni's...:)

Anyhow...thanks again for putting these together, love them...

Finally get to see Rusty in the 1972 Set!

Darren,

I want to create a time machine and transport you back to '72 so your creations could have been part of the set. They are freaking awesome.

Bob

P.S. I'd apologize to anyone you know that might miss your present day self.

Let's revise this thread. Are these cards available to the forum members? Was there a Rusty Staub In Action card?

I have played with this set as well - also my favorite as a kid.

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That Traded Mays is awesome.

At first glance, I thought that was Kelly Gruber and his card. Had to look it up as I it looked very familiar to me.

niiiiice! I love this thread!

Ricky Y

I am amazed we have not seen in action cards of Dick Allen, Boog Powell and Mike Cueller - Denny Mc Lain?

Great Work, Darren!

Finally found the thread, so I'll bump it for the heck of it...

I love these cards that never were. How I wish Topps would make these with images that fit the time they were released.

For no reason whatsoever (well, besides personal enjoyment), I present for everyone's perusal a whole bag of Roberto Clemente In Action cards that never were...

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It is so peculiar that for someone who was known as a king of the outfield, finding color photographs of Roberto wielding the leather is basically an impossible task.

And, what the heck, some slight re-workings of the Brooks Robinson...

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...to get the grass showing.

Love the Clemente sliding card, great job

“Both” awesome...

By special request...

Not a Hall of Famer, but the guy who captured the 1972 MVP award, Dick Allen...

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All fake cards, the centering is too good. :)

This would have been the most expensive card in the set by far

What about Jim Fregosi or Boog Powell?

These are classics.

I just wish Topps would have put as much thought into the originals as Darren has put into making these great "cards that could have been" recreations. Great job Darren! I love the Clemente cards. :D

Okay, I'll add this guy, because (to paraphrase 'Levon') I like the name...

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Some additional eye candy...

Since reimagining all of those Roberto Clemente cards, I decided to give Hammerin' Hank the same treatment. Plus, I always hated the 'Fat Elvis' picture Topps used on his 'In Action' card in 1972...

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And here are two more versions of what coulda/woulda/shoulda been the greatest card of all time for us Mets/Mays fans...

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These Mays cards are insanely good. I think we need a 1972 Topps extension set now!

Ricky Y

Another non-HOFer special request...plus I was all loving the 1974 PSA 9OC Garvey I recently picked up...so the timing was perfect...

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Meant to do this 'Tom Terrific' work-up a while back, because I don't know what Topps was thinking when they put together their 'knee slapper' Tom Seaver 'In Action' card (although, oddly enough, because it's so different, I find it mesmerizing), but better late than never to celebrate one of my childhood heroes.

A celebration of the 'Seaver Snarl'...

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Rest in peace, sweet #41...

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He waited a long time to get his due, so let's show some love for Ted Simmons...

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Here is a newly imagined card of HOF'er Tony La Russa (with the spelling of his surname mirroring the usage on his 'regular' 1972 Topps card*). To say finding an action shot of Tony on the Braves is tough, is like saying finding a picture of the New Jersey Devil and a Chupacabra enjoying a mojito together on the boardwalk is easy. One doesn't seem to exist, so I pulled out all the stops to create something that could possibly seem realistic...

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*I call this type of inconsistent spelling of a name by the card companies a Skewedonym in my 'The New Directory of Collectorisms' thread on the main page.

I ran across this picture today and the beautiful joy on The Say-Hey Kid's face (and tomorrow being his birthday) told me I had to turn it into yet another version of what woulda/coulda/shoulda been the most awesomest card ever...

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And I just realized these guys never made it into the thread way back when...

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Very nice work Darren. I especially love the Cardinals in this thread.

After running across a pic that looked very much like his actual 1972 Topps In Action card, I decided to embark on a celebration of the one and only Johnny Bench...

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Those are great pics, Darren. Hard to believe that was 50 years ago. Bench was such a great catcher, and your cards show that.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I love those reimagined 1972s! As far as I'm concerned, the 72s are one of the finest sets ever, and certainly the best set of the 1970s. I particularly like the Nolan Ryan cards with the little "a" on his cap — that's what he wore that one and only year. I watched him pitch a lot for the Halos that year, including his first spring training start. When he tossed a pitch over Willie McCovey's head early in the game, I was certain he was going to be a bust.

I'd like to see some updated '72s of two other guys the Angels traded for that year — Vada Pinson and Leo Cardenas. The artwork on their original cards is kind of lame. Maybe I'll try my hand at this ...

Ran across an absolutely joyous photograph of Brooks Robinson and Mark Belanger, so I threw together yet another pair of new Brooksies (especially for our fellow member who loves him the most)...

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And another bonus one...

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And how about a celebratory reimagining of...

REG-GIE!!!
REG-GIE!!!
REG-GIE!!!
REG-GIE!!!

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Although this one doesn't fit into the general timeframe of being a shot that could've actually appeared on a 1972 card, I had to include it anyway, because that is one cool photograph!!

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I've never messed around with card creation myself, but this thread is fantastic. I love the 72 In Action designs but the photos Topps used in the real were set a bit... lackluster. Nice to see the improvements you all have made

I decided to take the time to finally give Lou Brock his long-awaited due...

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Incredible work Darren!

Awesome looking Brock cards Darren. Oddly enough, the Cardinals didn't have ANY "In Action" cards in the 1972 set, despite having Gibson, Brock, Torre, Simmons, etc.

Yup, the entire Genesis for this undertaking started due to the mind-blowing lack of Cardinals in the 1972 'In Action' subset. Here is the original thread that started all of this craziness, long before I started adding all of the other deserving players who were neglected...

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218121

LOL, I read that entire thread and even posted in it. I had forgotten what the original intent was with regard to the Cardinals. Some really nice work there.

With so much of my attention focused on Mr. October recently, I decided to give the most notable card missing from the Reginald Martinez Jackson cardboard canon a go. I present for your consideration, his '1976 Topps Traded Card That Never Was' (with the requisite, and in my case purposeful, bad airbrushing/large hatting/uniform inventing that was Topps' SOP over the years)...

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And how about Frank Robinson and Joe Morgan on their 'new' teams...

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Whoops, forgot 'Lefty' on his 'new' team!!

Steve Carlton...

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Darren, all wonderful stuff.

As a big fan of the regular '72 Ryan (not everyone is...) I dearly wish that your first "Traded" Ryan with him in that old school lower case Angels "a" cap had been a real thing. That is just fantastic. Green sleeves? Ok...I guess nobody in Anaheim in 1972 was probably paying that close of attention anyway!

Thanks!
-John

Awesome work. Funny enough I was just looking at my Yaz '72 In Action today. My only gripe is that the back of these cards is not at all focused on the player, but overall the fronts are great and capture the period well. Keep 'em coming!

More than that in 2021 in nice shape...

I really like that first one.

Time to get this thread going a little bit again. I present a new collection of all-time greats in what I'm going to call

"By The Numbers..."

...where the main focus is on the instantly recognizable, illustrious uniform numbers that will always hold a special place in our fanboy hearts...


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More to come...

Great looking cards...even like the Ferguson cameo, lucky for him.