2014 Topps Allen and Ginter - the Mini cards

As usual, Allen and Ginter is full on mini card parallels and mini card inserts. Here's what I pulled from the 2 blasters and 3 rack-packs I bought last week.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini #93 Willie Mays

First you have your regular mini card parallels. There is a small design change on the front. The player name is moved from the far right of the card to a position under the team name. The backs look just like the full sized cards.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini A and G Back #182 Starling Marte

Instead of player information, the backs have the A&G logo. The appearance of the logo changes every year.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Black #66 Roger Clemens

In the early years, the Black parallels featured a solid black border. Recently they've had a black pattern. This is the first post-career Clemens card I've seen. It's about time, he retired in 2007.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Flag Back Yu Darvish

I think this is a new parallel. It is hand-numbered to 25 and is the best card I pulled from the 2 blasters I bought. Note that the card does not have a number. The regular Darvish card is #117.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Larger Than Life #10 Hiawatha

There are 13 of these. I kind of like the idea of a card called Mini Larger Than Life. I pulled one of these.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Little Lions #8 Russian Blue

Seriously, kittens? Does the cat on the card look like it has a "striking silver-blue coat" to you? Look up Russian Blue on Google image search and every image looks something like this:

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Where Nature Ends #21 Giotto Di Bondone

 I only pulled one of these so I'm not sure what the name of the insert is supposed to mean.  This is an example of what I call a Wikipedia card. You usually see these in A&G and Upper Deck Goodwin Champions. It's where the picture on the card is the same picture used to illustrate the Wikipedia article about the subject. Here's the picture from Giotto Di Bondone's Wikipedia article.

I'll grant it may not be the exact same photograph.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini World's Deadliest Predators #16 Piranha

Yikes!  I was lucky enough to pull 2 of this insert. The other one features the Brazilian Wandering Spider, which I'll be having nightmares about tonight.