Let me stand next to your fire

It is now year two of Topps Fire and one year ago I would have been stunned if you told me there would be a year two of this product.

It's not that I hate the cards. The product is not for me, granted, but I just don't understand how something like this can sustain itself for an extended period of time. To me, explosive fireballs emerging behind star baseball players just screams "insert" or, at my most generous, "late 1990s issue." It doesn't say "staying power" to me.

However, this is also a guy who went to Target not once, but twice, to find some Topps Fire.

I can explain.

Maybe.

As weird as this product is and as much as I think this product resembles a mish-mash of Upper Deck X, the 1990s Metal Universe cards and Upper Deck Icons (the backs are about as pointless as I've ever seen), I find it intriguing.

I want to see the designs first-hand.

I'm a fan of bright cards and Fire is definitely bright. I also like art cards and these are those. And if the set is going to be "out there," then, yeah, I have to buy some just to see how far out.

I wouldn't be the father of a graphic design major if this stuff didn't interest me on some level.

So let's take a look at what Fire is about this year.

The base cards feature three different background designs like last year. But unlike last year, the designs are not nearly as distinctive. I came up with names for each individual design last year. I don't know if I can do it this year.

The first design -- the Stanton one -- looks like an explosion going off behind the player. Then there are those white streaks in the corner that look like the old-style Hollywood lights.

The second design, featuring Kingery, has even more going on. I think there's a weather map of a hurricane in the lower corner.

The third design defies description. But I think I see some eyes staring at me from behind Blyleven.

Here is a look at the cards I pulled separated by each design:

You know, even though the designs aren't as distinctive as last year, I think I like them more.

Like last year, Fire throws some parallels at you, some of them numbered, some of them not.

The gold parallels appear once a pack, except when a different parallel is inserted instead. I was lucky enough to get a Dodger in one of them. Cody Bellinger was the only Dodger to show up in the entire blaster. But he did show up twice.

This is some sort of red foil parallel (notice that the black-and-white portion of this design in the upper left corner has changed to red). It's not numbered, but it sure is purty.

This is one of two numbered cards I pulled. I believe it's an orange parallel? It's numbered to /299.

Here is something even more exclusive. It's some sort of purple thing (you'd think I'd do a little research before writing this post, you know?). It's numbered to /25. I think madding will be happy when this shows up in his mailbox. If he likes these things, that is.

Each blaster featured a separate pack of "gold-minted parallels," just as Fire did last year. I don't know if these are any different than the gold foil cards that pop up in the regular packs, but let's just go with it. I don't think we're supposed to think that hard about a product called "Fire".

One of my gold-minted cards was another Bellinger. So, this box was well-worth the cash.

As I said last year when I opened this product, there is no even ground with these cards. You either love them and think they're fresh and whatever else the young kids are saying, or you hate them and wonder why everyone dislikes green grass.

For me, it's a fun little detour from the usual product. But I won't buy any more of these unless they're Dodgers.

Like I said earlier, I can't believe Fire made it past its debut. The burning question is: will it make year three?