Review Fix Exclusive: Inside Topps BUNT App at MLB Fanfest

July 14, 2016 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Review Fix chats with Chris R. Vaccaro, Director of App Production, Topps and Michael Lewis, Sr. Product Manager, Topps, who chat about the 2016 edition of their popular “BUNT” mobile game and their plans for this year’s MLB Fanfest.

Review Fix: What will you guys be doing for MLB Fanfest?

Chris R. Vaccaro: Topps will have Noah Syndergaard at its booth during the All-Star Game FanFest. He will be signing digital autographs and meeting with some lucky fans who will get personalized digital signatures in our Topps BUNT app. This has never been done before and the specific connection between fans and a star athlete like Noah will be very special.

Review Fix: What’s the digital personalization of baseball cards process like?

Vaccaro: This is evolving an already unique experience in digital card collecting. We have athletes sign their cards on tablets with a stylus. It’s a very similar process to obtaining physical autographs, except it’s completely digital and the signed item lives within our app. The idea of personalizing it is the next step and really bringing fans closer to their favorite athletes like never before.

Review Fix: What’s it been like to work with Noah Syndergaard on this?

Vaccaro: It was an absolute pleasure to work with Noah for our live digital signing event at the MLB All-Star FanFest. He was great to work with and loved the idea of signing digital signatures to support our Topps MLB BUNT app. He got a kick out of all the personalized signatures he signed for our devoted fans and took time to meet some lucky folks at our booth. We wish Noah well for the rest of the 2016 season and hope to do more signing events like this in the future.

Review Fix: What’s the ride been like for the company as kids move away from collecting actual card to wanting digital cards?

Vaccaro: Topps fans are still collecting regular physical cards along with digital. The beauty of what we do as a company is work together with all areas from physical to digital to offer incredible products that excite our fans no matter if it’s collected on their phone or from walking into a store and buying a pack of cards. We hope kids, and adults, experience Topps today like they have for more than 60 years, and that’s to open up packs of cards – no matter what kind – and have a blast flipping through them, collecting them and trading them.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Vaccaro: For BUNT we have a ton of unbelievable content coming out for the rest of the season. We’ll be dropping the Series 2 base set shortly after All-Star, plus we have the Baseball Hall of Fame inductions in late July honoring Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza and then a quick sprint to the playoffs, which are always fun and packed with great cards to chase and collect and exciting fantasy contests to play.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13877 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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