1978 Topps Close Encounters of the Third Kind Card # 33 A masked Jillian... (EX)

1978 Topps Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a curious set. While it captures a lot of interesting imagery from the Sci-Fi classic, it's missing something major. Lead star Richard Dreyfuss is nowhere to be found on any of the product's cards or images.

The 1978 Topps Close Encounters of the Third Kind base set has 66 cards. While it retells the story of the film, it does so in a revisionist style where it's all about Jillian (Melinda Dillon) and her journey to find out answers to the lights in the sky. That's what happens when a movie's main character isn't in it. Sadly, it also means no mashed potato mountain sculptures.

Card fronts don't have a lot of design elements, but the black borders offer a lot of contrast. Images are held in with a rounded red frame. Virtually all of the shots come from the movie itself, however director Steven Spielberg is featured on a card with a video camera. Card bottoms have an icon of the film's mountain logo with the card number and a yellow caption.

Backs are a mix of puzzle pieces and 22 Movie Facts that offer trivia about the movie and its key figures -- at least those that are featured in the set.

1978 Topps Close Encounters of the Third Kind also has 11 stickers that were inserted one per pack. On their own, the images are interesting. However, when you bring the set together, you quickly notice that more than half of the cards are pretty much the same shot of the spaceship with only small variations in lighting. All but one of the stickers have a thick yellow border and a shot from the film. However, the first sticker in the set is a more traditional character sticker of one of the film's aliens. The die-cut shot is surrounded by a thick red border and the sticker's background has added space design elements. Sticker backs are blank.

Despite coming out so long ago, there is still no shortage of supply for 1978 Topps Close Encounters of the Third Kind trading cards. Sets, singles, stickers and even boxes can still be found without much effort. Because of this ample supply, prices haven't changed much over the years. It's still very affordable and that's not likely to change any time soon.

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