Mayumi Seto To Leave Topps Living Set After One Final Card

In 2018 Aaron Choose graced the primary card in Topps’ Residing Set assortment, by artist Mayumi Seto. Now, 4 years later, Topps might be releasing the ultimate card created by Seto’s adept hand.

Mayumi Seto’s closing card for Topps Residing Set assortment might be launched on Wednesday, December twenty eighth. Hideki Matsui would be the face discovered on card #584, a participant chosen by Seto for not solely his connection to Choose, however a familial connection to Seto as nicely.

Topps Residing Set buying and selling playing cards are conceptually like a decades-long-running tv present. The faces might come and go, however the set remains to be the set. It would not begin and finish inside a calendar yr, characters are solely repeated if they modify franchises. Topps has Residing Units for MLB, Star Wars, and UEFA Champions League. There are new playing cards launched each week, and every card is comprised of authentic paintings by artists from world wide. It is one thing you can begin amassing and by no means cease amassing.

Inside the MLB set, to this point, there have been 583 playing cards with a complete print run on 1,817,222. Every card is priced at $7.99, with Gold Foil Brand variations, full artwork variations and signed-by-the-artist variations of these, priced way more than $7.99. Artist Jared Kelley joined Seto in 2021, with every artist accountable for a card every launch. An artist yet-to-be-named might be becoming a member of Kelly after the Matsui card launch.

A few of Seto’s most iconic playing cards for the Residing Set embrace:

• #1 – Aaron Choose (13,256 Print Run)
• #7 – Shohei Ohtani (20,966 Print Run)
• #19 – Ronald Acuna Jr. (46,809 Print Run)
• #25 – Ichiro (10,713 Print Run)
• #584 – Hideki Matsui (TBD)

Choosing the ultimate participant to be represented by her paintings throughout the Residing Set wasn’t as tough as one may suppose. Hideki Matsui made sense for a number of causes, as Seto expressed by way of an announcement.

“I assumed it was uncommon that my father’s identify (Hideki) and Mr. Matsui’s identify (Hideki) have precisely the identical Kanji characters. I had by no means seen anybody round me with the identical Kanji, and he was one of many gamers who left a robust impression on me from childhood.

“Mr. Matsui was a Hanshin Tigers fan when he was a baby, simply as I used to be after I first grew to become fascinated by baseball. (Additionally, each of us had been born in June.)

“Subsequent, in a e-book co-authored by Hideki Matsui and Masao Matsui “I actually suppose how vital it’s to have one thing to work onerous at on daily basis.” As soon as once more, these phrases impressed me very a lot. It has supported me to maintain drawing on daily basis, each week, and yearly.

“And probably the most decisive issue was the truth that Residing Set, which has been revived since 2018, was began by Aaron Choose, and after I was requested to request the final participant, I assumed it will be good if I may finish with both the identical workforce as Aaron Choose or a Japanese participant. Then, I assumed it will be inconceivable for anybody else however Hideki Matsui, who has the identical first identify as my father and who was additionally a teammate of Choose.”

Whereas Choose and Matsui by no means truly performed collectively (Matsui retired in 2013, Choose’s rookie yr with the Yankees was in 2017), they did star in a industrial collectively. Regardless, as soon as a Yankee all the time a Yankee.

Seto has helped to create an iconic set of playing cards along with her work at Topps, and might be missed (although it was expressed she is going to proceed to work with Topps on different tasks). Nonetheless, as it’s the Residing Set, her artwork and the gathering itself will proceed to be loved for generations to return.