2020 Phillies Team Set (1971 Style)

I've been hitting the Topps Bunt app wicked hard lately. In the last couple of weeks I've built a pretty good collection. I'm close to having a complete set of Bryce Harper common (48 of 54). I'm only missing two Harpers as a Philly, and both are from the "Welcome to Philly" subset.

My focus on Bunt is PC'ing Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm, Mike Schmidt & Steve Carlton. But Bunt also has a lot of throwback designs. They've been keeping pace on the Heritage & Archive drops, but also putting out some nice "Cards That Never Word". I've kind of gotten obsessed with the '61 heritage drops.  I've always slept on the physical '71 release. For me, those early 70's sets kind of fall in an awkward zone between cards that I remember buying new, and classic cards that I would grab for my collection. Out of the early 70's sets.  The nice thing about the 71 design is that it still has a 60's design feel, and didn't jump into that psychedelic "use all the colors" nonsense from the '72 set.

Anyway, the 71 cards that I've been collecting in Bunt inspired me to do some customs. So I decided to crack out a 2020 team set. My design choice is to try to emulate and modernize the original set's stylistic choice of doing portraits more than action shots.  To modernize that choice, I found some good media day photos (like the Nola and the "Zach Attack" combo card). I also like the Heritage addition of nickname variants.

Another thing I would love to do with this '71 design, is bring in some other custom card designers and put together a full customs set. So I may have to start running around the blogosphere to recruit some designers to get on board.

In other news, I've been really enjoying watching Matt Antonelli's videos.  Matt is a local guy up here in Massachusetts. First round pick out of Wake Forest that had a cup of coffee in San Diego. He runs a school up north of Boston, and uploads a lot of videos about his time in pro ball, and also plays some MLB The Show. Seems like a great guy and loves to share stories about his time bip bopping up and down between A ball and the majors.  Give the guy a look on his YouTube.