Pulling Verstappen’s 1/1 Helmet Collection Card
The 2023 Topps Chrome Formula 1 product included the Armour insert set, highlighting a driver’s helmet and suit. Topps senior brand manager Thomas Barchi took that concept one step further for 2024 Topps Chrome Formula 1 in coming up with the Helmet Collection, seeking a more in-depth look at a driver’s head gear.
“I think every single driver has his own personality to their helmets that they kind of incorporate,” Barchi said. “It kind of reminds me a little bit of a hockey mask for the goalies, where they put their own little intricate details to them that gives play to their personalities and what their interests may be. A lot of the time these drivers will switch out their helmets depending on the race and stuff like that.”
Barchi originally thought a more close-up, zoomed-in shot of a driver in his helmet would be the angle for the Helmet Collection. However, that changed slightly when he handed off his ideas to the internal design team to work its magic.
“Ultimately, we wanted something like an organic look of them getting out of the car, that unique photography for Helmet Collection,” Barchi said. “Every one of those, the helmets just pop off the card pretty much. I didn’t expect it to be the top end insert when I did it. I kind of wish I had made it more of a shorter chase to really see what kind of eyes would be brought there.”
The Helmet Collection has become a popular insert set among F1 collectors. It features 15 drivers in the regular Chrome release, and the cards are available in base form as well as in the standard parallel structure of numbered cards in Green /99, Gold /50, Orange /25, Red /5, and Superfractor 1/1.
In the Logofractor version, collectors can go after Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, and Rose Gold 1/1. In the Sapphire set, there are parallels in Gold /50, Orange /25, Black White /15, Purple /10, Red /5, and Padparadscha 1/1. Also in Sapphire, all 20 drivers have a Padparadscha auto card.
Barchi likes the mix of veterans and younger drivers in the sport.
“You’ve got the older guys with Lewis still leading the way, but you do have the up-and-comers with Lando and Oscar and those guys ready to take the reins,” Barchi said. “They have such followings when it comes to McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, so I think people just gravitate towards that kind of concept.”
Pulling a Max Verstappen Superfractor
Houston Heat Sports Cards owner Jeff Nugent was down to just two hobby boxes of 2024 Topps Chrome F1 in early March when one of his customers bought a box on his way out of the shop. The buyer lived right across the road from the Cypress, Texas store, and he raced back in about 20 minutes later with the coveted Max Verstappen Superfractor Helmet Collection card.
“He said, ‘You’re never going to guess what I hit,’” Nugent said. “He pulls out the card and I’m like, ‘Wow. That’s pretty incredible.’ I knew Max, obviously. It’s hard to know anything about F1 and not know who he is.”
Nugent told the customer that if he was interested in selling, he would be a buyer. There weren’t any real comparisons online when they looked, but the two eventually came to an agreement on a price, and the card was Nugent’s.
“That card single-handedly now has made me an F1 fan,” Nugent said. “I watched the first race. Now I’m jumping in.”
Nugent posted the card on social media and received a message from P1 Castle, which consigned the sale for the first ever $1 million F1 card — Lewis Hamilton’s 2020 Topps Chrome Superfractor Auto.
“They hit me with a number and I fell out of my chair,” said Nugent, who wasn’t intending to sell the card. “So, that was really the end of that.”
Barchi and Topps assistant brand manager Hannah Wilkins were ecstatic the card was originally pulled by an average collector from a box in a hobby shop.
“I think that’s like a true collector’s experience,” Wilkins said. “It was the second to last box, and they’ve just hit the jackpot. It’s just a really nice, wholesome story. I think collectors all love to hear that as well that everyday folks are still pulling amazing cards.”
“Never leave a box behind,” Barachi added. “You never know what may be laying in there.”
Verstappen’s Helmet Superfractor is a True One-of-One
When Barchi designed the Helmet Collection, he wanted a very clean look — cards that were aesthetically pleasing and not too busy. The Verstappen Superfractor features a shot of the star driver with his helmet on and its red visor masking his eyes. The background of the card has gold vinyl substrate with faint block lettering of Verstappen’s name and his racing team, Oracle Red Bull Racing.
“When we get with our design team, we typically try to leave it open to them as to how they want to attack it,” Barchi said. “Originally, my thought was doing more of a close-up shot, but you still were able to nail that organic kind of photography of them getting out of the car. When it comes to the Superfractor version, that’s just such an iconic parallel within the industry.”
Wilkins, who is now a brand manager for F1 products, said she is currently working on the 2025 Topps Chrome F1 cards. The set will pay homage to the 75th anniversary of F1 and will be released in the second half of this year.
“Seeing how well the Helmet Collection has done — and we’ve gotten amazing feedback — it’s definitely going to be a subset that’s continued,” Wilkins said. “Look forward to a lot more Helmet Collections in the future for Chrome, just because it has done really well. We’ll definitely be keeping that as part of the F1 Chrome product.”
