Flashback Product of the Week – Topps Action Flats

This week Sports Card Info is starting a new feature called “Flashback Product of the Week”.  Today I’m taking you back to the late 90’s, where game used relics were fairly new and insert cards were all the rage.  This week I’m talking about 1998 and 1999 Topps Action Flats.  Topps went in a little different direction with this product.  When you opened a box and looked down to see what you got, all you could see were these tiny little figures looking back at you like a twisted “Toy Story” army.  Each pack contained a miniature plastic figure of an athlete that resembled a flattened pancake, and one Topps card.  There really wasn’t anything different about the card except it had a foil logo on it that said “Action Flats”.  Other than that it looked exactly like a regular Topps base card.  I’ll admit that I purchased a few of these back in the day when I was a young collector.  I think I had a Dan Marino and Mark McGwire.  After 1999 these really didn’t pan out and Topps stopped making them.  If you ask me, I can’t believe they made more than one series of this product.