It’s hard not to think that Topps had high hopes when they opted to make trading cards for the “Star Wars of television.” Expectations and reality sometimes don’t match up. Such is the case with 1978 Topps Battlestar Galactica trading cards. While the show continues to resonate with fans decades later, it never reach phenomenon status. One could draw similar parallels to this set.
1978 Topps Battlestar Galactica Checklist Details
With 132 cards, the base set is actually a big one. Seeing as how BSG will forever be part of a Venn Diagram with Star Wars, that’s like combining Series 1 and Series 2 of the original sets for the movie all in one go.
Card fronts use stills from the show, surrounding them with a simple white border. The Battlestar Galactica logo is set overlapping the bottom of the image with a caption underneath it.
A mix of action and cropped character shots, the set as a whole covers the series with broad strokes but they avoid being a full recap.
Backs take on a few different forms. Most are puzzle pieces. However, there are three subsets that offer text instead. Character Profiles highlight a dozen of the people or beings that star in the show. Twenty-one TV Facts highlight some of the production notes as well as the philosophy behind creator Glen A. Larson’s vision. Finally, 11 Story Summary backs recap some of the key happenings.
The 1978 Topps Battlestar Galactica checklist also haas 22 Stickers, which land one per pack. These are kiss cut with a character on each. A thick purple inner outline gives way to a space backdrop reminiscent of similar stickers found in Topps’ 1976 Star Trek set and some of the ones in 1977 Star Wars Series 1.
Despite its age, this isn’t too tough of a set to find today. In general, the highest prices are for unopened boxes. Compared to some other sets of the era, though, this is one of the more affordable. Sets and singles are also fairly available.
1978 Topps Battlestar Galactica Checklist
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Set size: 132 cards
Cards per pack: 11
Packs per box: 36
Boxes per case:
Shop for 1978 Topps Battlestar Galactica boxes and packs on eBay.
Base Set Checklist
132 cards.
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1 Lorne Greene Is Commander Adama
2 Dirk Benedict Is Lt. Starbuck
3 Richard Hatch is Captain Apollo
4 Lew Ayres Is the Colony President
5 A Day of Peace… Or Betrayal?
6 Preparing To Blast a Battlestar!
7 For the Love of Gold Cubits!
8 Sneak Attack!
9 President Adar Endangered!
10 Blasting the Planet Caprica!
11 A World in Flames!
12 They’re Bombing the City!
13 Adar’s Final Moments!
14 The President’s Council – Destroyed!
15 Panic in Caprica Mall
16 Doomsday on Caprica
17 Blasted By the Cylon Warships!
18 Caught in the Middle of a Star Battle
19 Annihilation of the Human Colonies
20 The Cylon Centurions
21 The Imperious Leader
22 Fate of the Traitor Baltar
23 Serina Survives the Onslaught!
24 Leveling a Planet
25 The Escape Plan
26 Adama’s Dream
27 The Colonial Battlestars
28 Charting the Exodus
29 Laurette Spang Is Cassiopea
30 Fleet of Colonial Vipers
31 Adama and Col. Tigh
32 Galactica Under Fire!
33 The Commander and His Daughter, Athena
34 Muffit 2, the Cybernetic Daggit!
35 Boxey’s New Daggit!
36 Boosting Boxey’s Morale!
37 Destination: Earth
38 Deep Inside the Planet Carillon
39 Speeding Toward Carillon
40 Starbuck’s Landram
41 The Big Bash on Carillon
42 Pig-Faced Tourist!
43 Chamber of the Imperious Leader
44 At the Gambling Casino
45 Carillon – A Nice Place to Visit!
46 Intergalactic Gambler
47 Bizarre Wonderland
48 Boxey Attacked By Alien Creatures!
49 Behold… The Ovion Insectoids!
50 Ovion Guards Escort Boxey!
51 Boxey and Muffit Are Reunited!
52 Captured By Ovion Warriors
53 One of Lotay’s Musicians
54 Lotay, Queen of the Ovions
55 Conferring with Seetol
56 The Colonists and the Insectoids
57 Escape from Fiery Death!
58 Bridge of the Galactica
59 An Ovion Warrior
60 Profile of an Ovion
61 An Elaborate Party for the Colonists
62 The Space Supremes
63 Trio of Tucanas
64 Where the Elite Meet!
65 Jane Seymour Is Serina
66 Serina Arrives at the Carillon Bash
67 Maren Jensen Is Athena
68 Flamboyant Lovers: Starbuck and Cassiopea
69 The War of the Wiles
70 Hitting Outrageously High Notes!
71 The Lord of Galactica
72 Galacticans Discuss Their Dilemma
73 Lotay and Her Centurion Allies
74 Nourishment for Newborn Ovions!
75 Brood of the Insectoids!
76 Starbuck and Boxey … To the Rescue!
77 Lt. Starbuck Posed for Action!
78 Metallic Monster
79 Attack of the Cylons!
80 Shoot-Out in the Ovion Catacombs!
81 My Blaster Is Quick…
82 Inside the Chosen Chamber
83 Creatures of Destruction
84 A Narrow Escape!
85 Covered By Lt. Boomer!
86 The Human Exterminators
87 Army of Evil
88 Destroying the Human Refuse!
89 Unstoppable Invaders!
90 Night of the Metal Monsters
91 Clipped By a Laser Blast!
92 Seetol’s Fate
93 The Colonists’ Counterattack!
94 Don’t Mess with Starbuck!
95 Centurions on the March
96 The Cylon War Machine
97 The Destructors
98 Emissaries of Hate
99 Attacking Our Heroes!
100 Destroy the Human Vermin!
101 A Planet in Peril!
102 Fantastic Weapons of the Cylons
103 Holding the Enemy at Bay!
104 Man of Destiny
105 Everything’s A-OK!
106 Flight to Oblivion!
107 Preparing the Colonial Ships
108 The Moment of Truth!
109 Colonial Star Pilots
110 Facing Incredible Odds
111 The Cylon Supreme Star Force
112 Blasted By the Enemy!
113 The Destroying Ray!
114 The Fate of Humankind Before Them!
115 Cylon Warships Closing In!
116 A Direct Hit!
117 Athena on Galactica
118 The Battlestar Quakes!
119 Monitoring the Battle
120 Athena in Action!
121 Troubled Colonial Elder (Wilfred Hyde-White)
122 A Day of Deliverance!
123 Landrams to the Rescue!
124 The Battle Is Ours!
125 Picking Up the Last Stranded Colonists
126 The Odyssey of Battlestar Galactica
127 Stars Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch
128 Dirk Benedict Portrait Shot
129 A Boy and His… Err… Daggit?
130 Self-Reliant Athena (Maren Jensen)
131 Lovely Jane Seymour Takes a Breather
132 Photographing a Colonial Viper
Stickers Checklist
22 cards.
1 per pack.
1 Commander Adama
2 Lt. Starbuck
3 Captain Apollo
4 Lt. Boomer
5 Athena
6 An Ovion Warrior
7 The Imperious Leader
8 Casino Patron
9 President Adar
10 Serina
11 Android Sister
12 Cylons on the March!
13 Survivor of Carillon
14 Alien Warrior
15 Cassiopea
16 Cylon Centurion
17 Starbuck (Dirk Benedict)
18 Galactican Warrior
19 Boxey
20 Space Warrior
21 Galactican Elder
22 Spirit of Salvation
