1968 Topps 3D Brooks Robinson Picture Research

The always amazing The Topps Archives has been doing extensive research on the ultra-rare 1968 Topps 3D prototype card of Brooks Robinson. In looking at the photo on the card


I couldn't help but think I'd seen the photo somewhere else. In digging through my files, I found this picture:


Taking a look side by side, I think I've found a match:

Lets zoom in a bit closer and compare (click to enlarge):


The red circle shows that the hands are in the same position, the yellow circle show the elbow in the same position with the exact same lettering and numbering showing behind the arm, and the green circle showing the belt in the same position.

The interesting thing about the photo on the card however, is to give it a 3D look, they've repositioned the crowd behind Brooks:


The group of people sitting together in the red circle are to the right of Brooks in the photo, but are directly above in on the card. The group of people just to the right of his face on the card are much further to his right in the photo.

It appears they took the image of Brooks and moved it to the right and down a bit relative to the background. I'm assuming this was done to create the illusion of depth for the 3D effect.

This picture is available from a few sellers on ebay as seen by the pictures below, so it appears to be a common photo:




It almost looks like a shot that might have appeared in Sport Magazine back in the early 1960's, although I have no idea if that is where it may have originated or not.

In any case, its nice to see one of the original photos used for of the rarest Topps test issues of all time.