2015 Diamond Kings box break

Here's the second box I've busted from my Christmas haul. I've seen 2015 Diamond Kings on other blogs with generally favorable reviews, and received 2 or 3 cards in trade packages, and they seemed cool enough, so went ahead and put a box on my wishlist. The "artistic renderings" style helps downplay the lack of logos, and the cards are slightly textured with that canvas-like feel, a bit reminiscent of UD Masterpieces.

Let's jump right in with the hits..

I only pulled one auto, but it's a pretty decent Kevin Plawecki card with a couple jersey pieces thrown in, #'d 32/99 on the back. After a hot start to his major league career with the Mets this past season, Kevin cooled off a bit, but still a name to watch.

And that Yu Darvish / Masahiro Tanaka dual relic #'d 10/25 could turn out to be a sweet pull if they can both stay healthy going forward.

The Deven Marrero relic mini is #'d 8/25 on the back. (Yep, I pulled two /25 cards, but I've still yet to ever personally pull a Christmas Card. *sigh* Someday!)

Here are a couple neat framed cards. Danny Santana is #'d 70/99. Herb Pennock (unnumbered) isn't a guy I was familiar with, but turns out he's a HOFer from the Ruth-era with an interesting career.

Here are some dudes I collect. The multicolored backgrounds look pretty nice together in a page-type setting.

Some more cool guys. Pulling this Kirby made me realize he hasn't been included in any Topps product for a few years, as far as I can recall. Cool to see sleeveless Ted Kluszewski show up in a new set. The Walter Alston at the bottom seems to be a rainbow foil parallel or something and is #'d 1/99 on the back.

Some inserts and minis. The Paul Waner mini came out of the pack with a dinged corner; lame. I love nickname cards, so the Johnny Bench "Little General" card was neat to get.
As was...

Here's a card I was hoping to pull! I think I saw this on Fuji's blog a while back and liked how Panini slyly snuck in a team name with this "Mr. Padre" card.

So there you have it. While it provided me with several PC additions and some decent trade fodder, I feel like this box was maybe one decent hit away from being a "good box" and instead it was just kinda "meh" overall.

One thing that bummed me out was pulling four blank dummy cards. I understand trying to thwart pack-searchers, but it's a kick in the crotch to pull a thick card that turns out to be nothing but a plain white card. At least as someone who occasionally makes sketch cards, I can use them for drawing on.

Thanks for taking a moment to check out the box with me. Still got the 2015 Bowman Chrome box and the big boy: 2014 Topps Tribute.. excited for that! Those are coming up soon, as well as closing out Gavin Month, then some fun stuff lined up to kick off 2016.