2016 Clubhouse All-Stars

Voting for the 2016 All-Star is in full swing with early results pouring in. To nobody's surprise, there are lots of Cubs towards the top of tally on the NL side. Conversely, the Royals are either in first or second at every position on the AL ballot, despite some of those names being Omar Infante and Kendrys Morales. (Good job, Royals fans.) Luckily the squads will end up numbering 30+ so hopefully there won't be many snubs for next year's Clubhouse All-Stars set. But first, lets look at 2016.

I decided to keep the red/blue divide a little more ambiguous this year instead of overtly assigning one color or the other to a particular squad. Blue outer space/red metal on one and red outer space/blue metal on the other. Incorporating the star shape into the design elements was a good way for me to call back to the 2016 Clubhouse base design. Plus, having the players busting out of the shapes is kinda fun and fits the Clubhouse brand.

The back incorporates the same elements with some slight rearranging. Adding the team logos and a small (jibberish) write-up finishes things off.

Design On Deck

2015 Clubhouse All-Stars

Just in time to start the 2015 MLB season, let's take a look at the first 2015 Clubhouse insert, highlighting the players who made the 2014 All-Star teams. I've been doing this insert each year since I started the blog because it's always a great encapsulation of the standout players of the league. This year, it gives me a legitimate reason to feature a Derek Jeter since (so far) I've refrained from putting retired players into any Spirit product.

The cards are split by league once again with red to designate NL guys and blue for the AL. The bottom left corner as a foil star design which is a good anchor for the player name/position to the right along with the "2014 National/American League All-Star" text along the left edge. In the upper left corner is the respective league logo. The foil here is used strictly as a design embellishment and not as a crutch, with the names being an easy-to-read white on top of the color background. I've noticed I tend to lean towards centered, symmetric designs so I'm happy going asymmetrical here.

The back has room for a nice portrait-type image up top along with space for the team logo and a brief write-up. Since the all-star squads seem to be expanding each year, this insert set has a big checklist that would lend itself to being a "one-per-pack" insert which is perfect for a low-end product like Clubhouse.

Now that the season kicks into full-gear tonight and tomorrow, get ready for more designs coming with more regularity. Good luck to everybody's favorite teams and let's 'play ball'!

2014 Clubhouse All-Stars

Just in time for the All-Star break..... aww, crap. Well, here's the 2014 Clubhouse All-Stars design anyway. I decided to go horizontal this year to match the 2014 Clubhouse base set. I also wanted to mimic one of the big features from that so I ran the player names really big across the width of the card. To make sure they didn't impose too much, there's a little bit of transparency to them as well as a soft fade. Hopefully they're still readable even if you don't see every edge of every character. The letter height varies depending on the length of the player names. That's why Iwakuma's aren't nearly as tall as Harper's below.

Along the bottom is a strip of info: league, team and position. The color of the bar alternates with the background and star color.

On the back, background color is solid so the text is plenty easy to read (other than it being jibberish here.) There's a vertical player photo on the left with the AL/NL logo on the bottom. I packed last year's design with too much info on the back that I'm sure would be nearly impossible to read. This year, it's all cleaner and clearer.

2013 Clubhouse All-Stars

The MLB All-Star ballots went live a week or so ago so I thought it would be a good time for the 2013 installment of Clubhouse's All-Star insert. This is a 74-card set that features all the players named to the 2012 all-star rosters, whether voted in by fans, selected by managers or named as injury replacements. The design kind of follows the Clubhouse base set but with a few embellishments. The most prominent one is the shiny silver concentric star cluster in the bottom right corner. That foil is also present in the ALL-STAR title along with the player name and position/league. The red and blue motifs respective to each league is consistent with last year's version along with the annual Spirit Award Winners designs. Instead of the mowed field background from the base design, I simply kept the isolated players full-color and had the blurry background fade into their league color.

For the back side, a player portrait fills the negative space from the star shape in the upper left corner while the concentric stars fill the color underneath. The NL and AL logos are in the upper right corner with the league's all-star roster listed below with the starters and reserves designated. It's kind of a de facto half-checklist. On the left, below the player name/position/team is a brief write-up (lorem ipsum here since I was feeling too lazy to write.)

Again, I don't understand why Topps doesn't make an All-Star insert instead of relegating it to the Update set where it's basically the same base card with the ASG logo slapped on. Explain to me how at 70+ card insert with the best players (from all 30 teams) doesn't trump another nebulously-themed insert with yet more retired legends (Yankees)? Blargh.

Clubhouse All-Stars

The first insert for the Clubhouse set is kind of a no-brainer. As early as 1958, all-star cards were showing up in the flagship base set. Back then it was maybe a couple dozen, usually just the starters. But with the bloated rosters of today's All-Star Game, there's just no room for an 80+ card subset. For an insert set, however, that sounds just about right. The 2011 MLB all-star squads were 41 (NL) and 43 (AL) players deep, making an 84-card set. That means you'll get the superstars like Pujols, Jeter and Halladay but also guys like Ryan Vogelsong up there.

The design carries the wooden fence motif from the Clubhouse base card, but with the NL and AL logos instead of team logos. The colors are blue and white with each league alternating the dominant hue. We have player cutouts once again, but what really sets these apart from the base design (other than the vertical layout) is the shininess. In addition to the player name and 'all-star' in silver foil, the 4 stars shooting off the edges of each corner have a solid, colorful sheen to them as well (think 2011 Topps Town.)

For the back, we have a player portrait and name centered at the top and a brief write-up of their all-star season below. The background has the alternating red and blue as well with another explosion of stars. The numbering is similar to the Spirit Award Winners inserts, with a _of_ for each league and _of_ for the whole set.

There's nothing wrong with shininess if done in moderation. Finding these inserts between the no-frills base will be a great charge for those busting wax. I'd like for them to not be a 1-per pack thing since that kind of chips away the 'specialness.' I know any time I pull a Topps Town or Hometown Heroes card, it feels like getting Tootsie Roll in your Halloween bag. It's better than those orange and black taffies, but not as exciting as a Snickers or Reese's Cup.