Star Wars Galaxy Series 3

The original 1995 Topps Galaxy Series Three

Topps released Star Wars Galaxy Series Three in 1995 with 90 regular art cards, numbered 276 through 365 to continue the original first two Galaxy issues. The regular cards include Drew Struzan literary cover artwork, original-trilogy scenes and further art by a large roster of illustrators. Retail packs had seven cards, and Topps added twenty-four separately numbered insert cards: twelve LucasArts foil cards L1 through L12 depicting Star Wars video game art, six transparent ClearZone bounty hunters E1 through E6, and six original Etched Foil puzzle pieces numbered thirteen through eighteen. The existing archive already retains external source links for both sides of all 114 cards in these four groups; no replacement image from unrelated printings is permitted.

90 separate gold First Day Production parallels

Galaxy Series Three is the first 1990s Galaxy issue to distribute a gold-stamped parallel of the whole numbered base series in retail packs, rather than making that format exclusive to a boxed factory product. The original 1st Day Production cards were inserted one per pack. They keep the original base numbers 276 through 365 and the same main artwork but have a small gold foil stamp on the face. An ordinary base card and its matching 1st Day card are physically distinct collectibles. This archive therefore catalogs all ninety gold parallels separately with their corresponding original numbered TCDb collector item pages, checked at #276, #358 and #365. The submitted original photo on each outside page varies in availability; no ordinary base scan is claimed as a gold-stamped photo.

LucasArts, transparent bounty hunters and Etched Foil

The twelve LucasArts foil cards use their own L-series codes and are related to the Dark Forces, TIE Fighter, X-Wing and Rebel Assault computer games and commissioned game artwork. They are not ordinary Star Wars movie art cards. The six clear-plastic ClearZone cards show Boba Fett, Bossk, 4-LOM, IG-88, Zuckuss and Dengar individually. Their see-through card stock matters for identification and condition, so ordinary solid-stock character pictures cannot replace their original front/back photo links. The six Etched Foil puzzle pieces continue numbering from the previous two Galaxy sets, with card eighteen showing the Force spirits of Anakin Skywalker, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. All these existing inserts were already indexed with exact original front and back source URLs and have been preserved unchanged.

The nine original promotions and missing P1

The separately issued original marketing cards comprise printed promo 000 Zorba's Revenge, P2 Snowtroopers, P3 Darth Vader on Hoth, P4 Luke in a dream state, P5 snowspeeders and AT-ATs, P6 Galaxy Magazine's four Jedi artwork, P7 Leia with her young twins, and P8 Vader and Boba Fett. Collectors also record a promotional card without printed numbering called Explore a Brand New Galaxy. The first intended promo card, a Boba Fett painting, was designed and produced without the P1 number, so the numbered sequence begins at P2. More importantly, that physical Boba Fett advance preview shipped in the 1994 Galaxy Series Two factory tin and was already counted under the earlier original product. Here it remains a cross-release reference, not a tenth newly produced 1995 card.

Two different large-format 1995 promo printings

Diamond's November 1995 Previews catalogue carried an oversized single promotional card with artwork combining Zorba's Revenge and an AT-AT versus snowspeeder scene. The original print measured approximately five and a half by seven and a half inches. A separate dealer-only printing of the same composition had different physical dimensions of approximately five and three quarters by seven and three quarters inches. The art overlap does not make those two original-size variants equivalent to printed individual promos 000 and P5. The archive lists the two measured versions using explicitly editorial codes and external source references, and does not claim to possess a licensed image of either original physical format.

Known uncertainty and image permissions

The archive now records 215 physical card, parallel and promotional entries for Galaxy Series Three: the previous 114 base and insert cards, 90 original First Day Production parallel cards, nine distinct promotions and two oversized promotional printings. The retail front/back references remain exactly 114. TCDb separately documents all ninety numbered first-day variants and a ten-entry promo list, while original collector chronology distinguishes the earlier 1994 factory Boba Fett preview from the 1995 promotion wave. A reported P6 misprint pairs the P5 front with P6 reverse but was not publicly issued, so no invented extra production card is counted. Sources also disagree whether the unnumbered Evil Ewoks / Triton issue is the same as another unnumbered original in TCDb. That identification requires original front-and-back comparisons; copyright and photograph-use permissions are still unverified.

• StarWarsCards.net checklist
• Trading Card Database front/back gallery
• Trading Card Database Lucas Arts Subset gallery
• Trading Card Database Clear Zone Cards gallery
• Trading Card Database Foil Chase Cards gallery
• Trading Card Database 90 numbered first-day gold-stamped parallels
• Trading Card Database original 1995 Galaxy Three ten-promo item inventory
• The Star Wars Collector's Bible first original P2-P8 promos, two different 1995 oversize sizes and rare production error
• Jedi Temple Archives 1995 pack inserts, First Day Production and promotions
• Trader Cracks 1995 First Day original 90-card parallel and promotional checklist

Sources and editorial standards · All U.S. Star Wars card sets