No, this isn’t a new song by Berlin, but much like the band, baseball cards may unfortunately have become a relic of the 80s. Topps, the storied baseball card brand, taking a turn in a new direction, has released two different app’s for iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad. While the apps are not attempting to digitize baseball cards, the new apps including Topps Pennant, a baseball statistics app and Topps Bunt, a fantasy league inspired game,signal the departure of Topps from focusing exclusively on its traditional product lines. The value of the baseball card market has fallen 80% from $1 Billion in the late 80s and early 90s to about $200 million today. This makes it understandable why Topps may want to move in a new direction in order to keep itself from going out of business, but at the same time, there is nothing like the nostalgia and feeling of holding a physical card in your hand.
Does this signal demise for other popular trading cards such as Pokemon and Magic:The Gathering? Magic already has a online version but has maintained the physical card game as well. Pokemon too has started a online version of its trading card game while still maintaining physical cards. How long will physical trading cards last? Who knows, but lets just hope they don’t go the way of the Furby.
Source: New York Times
What apples are to the iPhone, the ubiquitous green robot is to devices running on the Android platform. With Android grabbing a 68% share of the smart phone market as of late, it is only natural that demand for a brick built Android robot has grown. In fact, it has grown so much so that a LEGO CUUSOO project aiming to put the lime green machine into production has gathered more than 5000 supporters in just one week! Featuring multiple points of articulation and a fair amount of detail, the project is well on its way to reach 10,000 supporters and garnering an official review from LEGO.
