An Odd 1968 Milton Bradley 'Find'

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by steve B

The sheet is not a regular production sheet for either the regular set or the MB set. It's a proof sheet.

Steve B

Hey Steve.
But why would this sheet have full rows of cards featured in the MB set, including the yellow letter/corrected Brinkman, coupled with regular Topps cards? Any ideas on that? Was Topps possibly putting together a proposed set of MB cards (that was changed later) here?

[steve B]

Proofs are sort of a big puzzle, especially from Topps who did a LOT of proofing. That's probably related to either needing or wanting player approval or wanting to get the art just right.


The possibilities that come to mind.

The cards all seem to be series 1, it's possible Brinkman was correct in proofing and was done incorrectly in production. The art would be correct, but still would have to be turned into masks then plates. If the mask made got the yellow removed from the name that would be a fairly simple mistake. The MB sheet reconstruction that's out there doesn't have any of the baseball together in three rows, but in individual rows. Since it's a 132 card sheet it's not certain what the other side would have been, but it should have been the same or similar.

There's a chance it is a proof for the MBs, but they were proofing it at a point where the set was either intended to be larger or all baseball. It would have been simpler for them to send MB a batch of normal first series with the errors corrected.
I found it along with others in this thread. http://forums.collectors.com/textthr...hreadid=840362

It matches the 68 first series layout and goes along with others, one has the same tear at the bottom, but all 11 columns.

Steve B

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by steve B

Proofs are sort of a big puzzle, especially from Topps who did a LOT of proofing. That's probably related to either needing or wanting player approval or wanting to get the art just right.


steve B

Definitely the latter as all the artwork and printing had to be signed off by their Art Director, a position filled by Ben Solomon for decades. Topps, for whatever reason, would usually strip off rows of 11 when printing and then for any reprinting/reissuing and while I've never read an explanation as to why, I would guess it was most expedient or technically necessary to compose the rows this way.