Topps Chrome Star Wars 2025 review
Topps Chrome has become something of a yearly staple for Star Wars card collectors, and the 2025 release has landed after huge anticipation. It’s a set I really like after being very impressed by last years 2024 release, but in some ways it also asks a lot of its collectors.
Visually, this year feels like a step forward. I loved the design of last years Chrome cards, which were really interesting visually and offered some great images of characters, and while this years base card design follows a similar feel, its cleaner than 2024’s, less cluttered, and easier on the eye. The slightly simpler finish allows the characters to take centre stage more, it makes room for faction logos, and it also benefits autograph collectors who may want to chase on-card signatures less drowned out by busy backgrounds. In hand, these cards really do have a slick, premium feel.
The numbered parallels of character base cards remain key hits, like Skywalker Blue, Kashyyyk Green, Mustafar Black, and Dathomir Red, providing a rainbow of colour collectors have come to expect. There are also some new numbered parallel options like Golden Mini-Diamonds adding some cool variety, though this creates alot of volume to chase if you are looking to do a rainbow or take a completionist approach for a character.
Where the set runs both hot and cold is in its checklist size. At 200 base character cards, it is huge. On one level, that’s great—you get breadth, depth, and a wide cross-section of the saga, including debuts for characters from Disney+ series Acolyte and Skeleton Crew. It’s fun to open packs and see such variety, but the flip side is that with so many cards, it’s hard to pull the ones you’re really hoping for, and the chances of your hobby box parallels being of a lesser known character are that much higher. Trying to assemble a complete base set will be an undertaking!
Alongside the Debut Medallions for first-time characters like The Acolyte’s Sol, Indara, and The Stranger, and Jude Law and the kids from Skeleton Crew, the dedicated inserts for both shows are a nice touch I really enjoy. Its a shame to me we don’t seem to be getting show-specific sets from Topps anymore, but they at least capture some key scenes from the shows in a cool chrome style, as well as having numbered variations.
There are a wealth of other case hits and chases like the Black and White Shimmer versions of character base cards, Comicfractors, Reflections, and the stylised Kyber Light or Galactic Graffiti cards which bring constrasting and colourful looks and feels and are a very cool. However not all of the inserts have been met with the same enthusiasm. The “By Numbers” cards in particular has divided opinion, with some collectors questioning whether they are really up to the standard you’d expect from a hobby product. I’m actually a fan!
Autographs remain the key chase, but after a few weeks of watching lots of breaks, opening a few boxes, and keeping an eye on Ebay, I’ve found the set a bit uneven. There are genuinely exciting new signers but in practice, the big names have been hard to come by and almost absent in some cases. I’ve yet to see a single Jude Law autograph anywhere, despite him headlining the marketing material. I’ve also not seen any Sol autographs (Lee Jung-Jae), very little from the Skeleton Crew cast, or other new signers from Acolyte such as Dafne Keen. Not to mention some previous signers like Gwendoline Christie - nothing. The smaller names are much more abundant. Perhaps this is another symptom of the length of the checklist, and is to be expected. It may even out over time, but it does make the autograph checklist which appears top-heavy on paper feel lighter in reality.
Sketch cards, on the other hand, seem more abundant than in previous years. Sketches add real excitement, and the quality of the art I’ve seen so far is extremely strong, with a wide variety of artists contributing all sorts of characters. It’s one of the areas where the set feels genuinely rewarding.
2025 Chrome Star Wars looks good, feels premium, and offers breadth, but be prepared to tackle its sometimes unwieldy breadth. The long checklist gives variety but makes targeted collecting tough, particularly if you are buying your own product, you may end up drowning in base cards! The parallels are rewarding for the most part, though dont expect to hit a parallel of a top character, more likely you’ll be surprised by a case hit of some sort. While autographs remain a draw, the scarcity of top-tier names in circulation is hard to ignore, which for me makes the sketches the more exciting key chase. There are plenty of positives, especially the new character debuts, and the range of potential case hits and chases, but this is a set that rewards patience and probably targeted buying on the secondary market, rather than instant gratification.
MTFBWY
