Here's a sketch-card report from my two cases. I had some gems, but I think my pulls were below average on the "scarcity" and "full color", versus what I had hoped for. I don't have any complaints about the artwork, even for the "duplicate images." I just think that Topps should work harder to spread variety over several adjacent boxes, and definitely should make it a point to avoid having two sketches by the same "high volume" artist in the same box. I've made other comments in other threads. But this is the last set for a good while where I will "pig out" hoping to collect a nice variety of artists and styles. Unless I see favorable distribution odds before pre-ordering, I'll just wait for the aftermarket.
Here's my sketch breaks by case and box, with images following.
Case #1:
Ryan Waterhouse - Nina Edlund
Zach Giallongo - Jon Morris
Ryan Waterhouse - Bruce Gerlach
Paul Gutierrez - Wayne Lo
Ryan Waterhouse - Jason Keith Phillips
Brent Woodside - Jim Kyle
Cynthia Cummens - Grant Gould
Brent Woodside - Rich Molinelli
Case #2:
Jason Sobol
Brent Woodside - Chris Henderson
Christian Dalla Vecchia - John Watkins-Chow
Chris Henderson - Kevin Doyle
Ryan Waterhouse - Jamie Snell
Ryan Waterhouse - Brent Woodside - Jon Morris
Ryan Waterhouse - Ryan Waterhouse
Ryan Waterhouse - Brent Woodside
First the "duplicates and high-volume artists" starting with my Ryan Waterhouse scan.
I started getting frustrated when I pulled three "hooded mountain trolls" in my first five boxes, and those boxes were adjacent to each other inside the first case. Things picked up after a while, but then I finished with 4 Waterhouses and 2 Woodsides in my last three boxes. I would have been happier with a better "collation" of Waterhouse images, like two of each, but I didn't even get a single "smoking Gandalf." Individually, I like these sketches, but this series has spawned a new marketing tool, where base sets are sold on eBay with a bonus of a "free sketch card, seller's choice."
Here's the "mostly Woodside" scan. I give Brent a lot of credit for making the Treebeards all different, and I'm charmed by the one with the branch growing out of his nose. The orc and the Legolas are worthy, too. The Jon Morris "guzzling Gimli" is very nice, and its only problem for me is that I got two of them.
On to the true "1/1" sketches, in alphabetical order by artist's surname.
The only artist besides Waterhouse and Woodside where I pulled two sketches from the same case is Chris Henderson, and that's not something I will ever complain about. There's still a few too many sketches of hooded Nazgûl across the series, and I think there was a real difficulty finding a lot of new subjects. I didn't pull any color portrait sketches for major characters, and though some of those I've seen are stunning, in some ways they're very similar to art that was presented in Evolution and Masterpieces I.
I love the "tormented Frodo" by Cynthia Cummens. As far as I know, it's the only card I pulled from two cases where the artist produced 256 or fewer sketches, so (in theory) the cases would be disappointing if I planned to sell the sketches. I haven't figured out whether the Gutierrez sketch is of an Argonath, warrior, or Transformer. The two Hendersons are near the top of my favorites list.
I finally show a few dashes of color on this final scan. The Wayne Lo Samwise is very charming, and I see he did several other treatments of Sam that are equally good. Jason Keith Phillips' Gimli is haunting, and Jason Sobol's scene of (I think) Minas Tirith has great detail for a pencil sketch too. The Lidless Eye by John Watkins-Chow probably is in the "low-number artist" list but I haven't seen numbers posted on how many he drew. Both the Cummens and the Watkins-Chow filled gaps in my LOTR collection because I hadn't picked up a sketch from either for Evolution or Masterpieces I.
In summary, I would rate my two cases for this series to be slightly disappointing when compared with the single cases I opened for the earlier LOTR series. I bought one case each for Evolution and Masterpieces I, and found a nice selection of artists who drew 150 or fewer sketches in each one. There were no "two from one artist" for the first series and only two from the second, Teranishi and Fabbri, and both of those "dupes" were very different from each other. There's a lot of great artwork out there from this release, but I will have to spend more to get it. I'd say that Topps had enough good, original, and varied art to support about 2/3 of the actual print run.
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