Blog Bat Around: My Favorite Things

I suppose I should jump on the bandwagon here for this. This latest version of the Blog Bat-Around was created by Chris over at The Collector blog. His idea, list your favorite card design, song, and movie from each decade beginning with the 1950s, has spread throughout the blogosphere and has been really fun to read. So, I've decided to take the plunge here and see what I can come up with.

For the sake of my sanity and having to dig through my collection for cards, I'll be using scans from COMC.

1950s

Scan courtesy: COMC.com

Favorite card set: 1957 Topps
The obvious answer here for favorite card set would be 1952 Topps since it's pretty much the start of modern baseball cards. However, as much as I like 1952 Topps, I also like 1957 Topps much better. It's the first set with recognized trading card dimensions, has great full color photos on it and the names at the bottom along with the team name and position fit perfectly.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Favorite movie: House on Haunted Hill (1959)
I'll confess ... I really haven't seen too many movies from the 1950s so I had to really rack my brain to find a decent movie from the 50s I enjoyed. My initial pick was from 1946 so that wouldn't work so I finally came up with "House on Haunted Hill" from 1959 featuring Vincent Price as an eccentric millionaire who offers $10,000 to five people who can survive the night in a spooky mansion.

Favorite song: "Come Go With Me" - The Dell-Vikings
Here's a case of me coming up with the first 1950s song I could think of. There were a number of songs I had in mind for this but the problem was they all came out in the early 1960s. I picked this song as I remember it from a tape called "50's Sock Hop" that I somehow acquired as a kid.

1960s

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Favorite card set: 1965 Topps
Within my collection itself, I don't have many 1965 Topps cards. As a matter of fact, I think I could count on one hand the number of 1965 Topps cards I have. Regardless, this is always set I've liked because of the colorful pennants, the team logo. It's just a generally fun design. I need more of this set in my life.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Favorite movie: Night of the Living Dead (1968)
I know I've seen movies from the 60s, I just really can't recall what they are. They must've been that good to leave an impression on me. Speaking of movies that left an impression, "Night of the Living Dead" did just that. About 10 years or so ago, AMC TV ran the movie on Halloween night as part of their annual "Fearfest". That was the first time I'd actually seen the movie all the way through and since then, it's been one of my go to horror movies when I'm in the mood to put something on.

Favorite song: "Runaway" - Del Shannon

This is one of the songs I'd considered for my 1950s list but then I realized it came out in 1961. However, it's still a good song. It's got that 50s "sock hop/drive in" feel to it and when I think of the oldies, it's one of the songs that instantly comes to mind.

1970s

Scan courtesy: COMC.com

Favorite card set: 1971 Topps
There were really a lot of great card sets in the 70s so it was tough to pick just one. I could've gone with the wacky colors of 1972 and 1975, the colorful pennants of 1974, but for me there was only one true clear winner ... 1971. It's such a unique design with the black borders, the attempt at action photography for the first time, and the last Topps set to feature the Washington Senators. Next year's Heritage set is based on this and I for one will be picking a lot of it up.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Favorite movie: "Halloween" (1978)

You may be noticing a theme here with the movies I've picked so far. When it comes to 70s movies, for me there was really only one clear choice, the original Halloween. If I haven't mentioned it before, I'll say it again, the Halloween series (for all of its ups and downs) is my favorite movie series ever and this is the one that started it all. Even today, I think it still holds up as more of a suspense/thriller movie than a slasher movie.

Favorite song: "Run Through the Jungle" - Creedence Clearwater Revival

CCR is probably one of my top five favorite bands ever. They have so many good hits from "Bad Moon Rising", "Who'll Stop the Rain", "Down on the Corner", and "Lodi" to this classic from 1970. It's not your typical CCR fare to start out with but once it gets rolling, its such a good song to jam out to. It's a song I find myself singing too whenever it comes on the radio or when my phone plays it over bluetooth in the car. This honestly may be my favorite CCR song ever.

1980s

Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Favorite card set: 1987 Donruss
This was a tough one. There's a lot of really good card sets in the 80s from Topps, Fleer, Donruss and all the other folks like Upper Deck and Score who popped up towards the end of the decade. I could've gone with Topps on this but I really have always liked the mid-80s Donruss sets and 1987 is probably my favorite of those. The baseballs on the side, the team logo, just everything about this screams fun to me. By the way, I'm on the lookout for that card shown above.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Favorite movie: "The Fog" (1980)
This first time I saw this movie, I wasn't sure what to think of it. Since then, it's really become one of my favorites. Sure, I could've picked "Big Trouble in Little China" but I think this is a really good movie that gets forgotten by time. It's got all the usual John Carpenter suspects in it ... Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins, Adrienne Barbeau, Charles Cyphers but Hal Holbrook to me steals the show as Father Malone.

Favorite song: "I Hate Myself for Loving You" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
There's so many songs on my phone from the 80s, I didn't know where to start. I could've gone with Mellencamp or Springsteen or even Duran Duran. In the end, I went with my favorite Joan Jett song. It's loud, it rocks really hard, and has some great drums in the beginning to kick it off. Play this one loud for maximum enjoyment.

1990s

Scan courtesy: COMC.com

Favorite card set: 1992 Upper Deck
I considered a few sets for this spot, 1991 Donruss Series 1 and 1992 Topps, but in the end, 1992 Upper Deck won out. The main thing I always liked on this set as a kid was the funky script the team name or city was used in. It wasn't the team logo. It was like Upper Deck created a script logo for each team themselves. I think it makes it unique.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Favorite movie: "The Big Lebowski" (1998)

And so stops the string of horror films. This movie is definitely not for everyone ... there's bad language (lots of it), nudity, drinking of White Russians, and bowling. I'm not sure what draws me to this movie but its one I always enjoy putting it on when I need something funny and mindless to watch since I've seen it literally hundreds of times.

Favorite song: "Faded Love" - Asleep at the Wheel w/ Shawn Colvin and Lyle Lovett
The 90s was the decade I grew up in and with that was being watched by my grandparents while my mom was working. They listened to a lot of country music which in turn led me to listen to it. While a lot of it now is too twangy for my tastes, this is one song that has stayed with me all these years. 

2000s

Scan courtesy: COMC.com

Favorite card set: 2001 Topps
2001 was about the time I started to fall out of collecting but the one set that I remember from that time is 2001 Topps. I always liked the design of it with the green borders and the team logo. I also like the fact that it captures legends like Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn at the tail end of their career while also including the next generation of stars like Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Wainwright on multi-player rookie cards.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Favorite movie: "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000)
The first time I watched this movie I didn't like it. I didn't get the whole story, the music, anything. However, it slowly grew on me and now it's one of my favorite movies ever. The music from this really hits home to me too as two songs from the soundtrack were played at my grandfather's funeral in 2012. The movie itself is weird, quirky, and really fun.

Favorite song: "Downfall" - Trust Company
This song came out right around the time I was a sophomore in high school and a lot of the songs from this time period remind me of working with my friends at a run-down movie theater, having my first summer of freedom after graduating high school, and just generally having a good time. Nowadays, I'll put a playlist together of songs from this period and just jam out with a big smile on my face.

2010s

Scan courtesy: COMC.com

Favorite card set: 2016 Cryptozoic Ghostbusters
I'm guessing this may seem like a bit of a surprise, considering the other sets have been all baseball so far but I have yet to find a card product or set that I've liked as much as this. I actually purchased a whole box of the thing and it was one of the most fun products I've ever opened, especially considering I'm a fan of the original movie.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Favorite movie: "Wonder Woman" (2017)
I had a hard time picking a movie from this decade, especially considering that a lot of the "big" movies have been of the MCU/comic book variety. This movie though was just fantastic and is actually one I ended up getting on blu-ray last Christmas.

Favorite song: "Take Me Down" - The Pretty Reckless
Most of the music on my phone is not from this decade so I really had to search through and find a good song. I settled on this from the Pretty Reckless. It's a good jam and sounds like the band is just having fun playing it. I still can't believe that the singer from this band played little Cindy Lou Who in "The Grinch" from 2000.

So, that's a bunch of my favorites. Hope everyone enjoyed it. 

Blog Bat Around: What I Collect - An Addendum

A few months ago there was a blog bat around topic brought up by Night Owl about what you collect. There were a number of things, card wise, that I listed in that particular post that I talked about, however, sitting at the office last weekend on a rare Saturday that I had to work, I looked around my cubicle and realized there were a number of things I had there that I collect that I failed to mention. So, here's a quick addendum to that blog post from a few months ago with more stuff that I collect ...

Starting Lineup Figures

If there's one thing I love to get if I can get a good deal on them, it's Starting Lineup figures. I haven't added more to the collection in about a year though but if it's a player I like from the past or a cool figure from any sport, I'll add it to the collection. I've only got two baseball ones right now but these four hockey ones are my favorite. I think the one that wins for most awesome is the Gretzky/Messier double pack with the Stanley Cup floating between them. 

Bobbleheads

Oh how I love bobbleheads. While they definitely can be expensive (and I flat out refuse to pay $25 or more for one), I've always liked them from when they first became popular again in the early 2000s. These two above are an old Joe Nuxhall one and next to him is Howler, the Coyotes mascot. While he got damaged somehow, it's still a pretty cool piece to have a sometimes mascot bobbles aren't all that easy to come by. Also, there's a Chris Sabo Starting Lineup figure hiding in the background.

Speaking of mascot bobbleheads, here's my newest addition ... it's my high school mascot, a cougar. I got this from the school registration office when we signed my five year old up for kindergarten a few weeks ago. It was sitting on a shelf in front of some framed high school team photos of the past season. I made a remark about how it was neat and the registration lady said "take it if you want, I think we've got a bunch of them". Well, she didn't have to tell me twice!

And here's the last of my current collection, Tony Perez and Mat Latos. While I'm not a big Mat Latos fan, he was a pretty decent pitcher when he was with the Reds and was part of the awesome rotation we had at the early part of the decade with Cueto, Latos, Bailey, Leake, and Arroyo. 

Funkos

Ok, I'll finally admit it .... I collect Funkos. These crazy little things finally got me to start buying some en masse and while the typical going retail rate of ten bucks is enough for me to go crazy, I have to actually be interested in something to buy a figure of it. Case in point, the Big Lebowski figures. It's one of my all time favorite movies so I just had to get a figure of both The Dude and Walter. Mr. Redlegs came from the flea market and the mascot line is the only baseball Funkos I know of that they've done. Also, while I'm not a huge fan of the Penguins, the Sidney Crosby figure was a Secret Santa present from a co-worker last year.

I don't always keep them in the box either. That's the nice thing about the Funkos is that they look good both in and out of the box. I forget the name of the tall Ghostbusters figure of Ray at the left but it know it's made by the same people who make Funkos. Plus, of course there has to be Ecto 1 and Winston nearby.

I do like the fact that Funko has a line of figures from horror movies and I just couldn't resist taking them out of the box. Previously, these had been part of my annual Halloween "mood display" at home but I took a different route to that display last year, so I made these part of my Halloween decorations at work. They were such a hit with co-workers I decided to leave them up the whole year round.

And since they all didn't fit it one picture, here's the rest of them. I've really got to find some more of the Universal Monsters figures and I hope there's one of Dracula floating around out there somewhere.

So, that's a quick addendum to the "What I Collect" blog bat around from a month or so back. While I know this stuff isn't exactly card related, it's still some pretty neat and fun stuff that I probably should have included in the original post.

1988 Topps Fright Flicks Cards

I first mentioned these back in the spring when I filed a report on the HorrorHound Convention. These cards were produced by Topps in 1988 and ran the gamut of horror films of the time, from the first three Nightmare on Elm Street movies to other movies like Fright Night, Predator, Day of the Dead, and yes even Ghostbusters. For the longest time, this was the only place you could find cards dedicated to the original Ghostbusters movie, that is until the Ghostbusters cards came out earlier this year from Cryptozoic. Anyway, I grabbed this pack at the aforementioned convention for five dollars, which is about the best price you can find on these. There are nine cards per pack and one sticker, let's see what I've got.

The first card is from the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie. I haven't seen that movie in quite a long time and I think it's time I need to revisit it. I don't really consider Ghostbusters a "horror film", it's more of a comedy but I can see why it was include as fans of the movie would buy the cards. This Slimer card is really cool though. Another movie I don't consider a horror film is Predator. I classify it as more sci-fi and I've only seen it a handful of times. It's a pretty good movie but the only thing I remember from it is Jesse Ventura stating "I ain't got time to bleed".

Left to right, these cards are from Vengeance: The Demon, Nightmare on Elm Street II, and Poltergeist. I've never seen, let alone heard of Vengeance but that scene they chose looks pretty creepy. I haven't seen Nightmare 2 but it's on my list to check out. I need to do that soon as Halloween is approaching fast. There was a remake of Poltergeist last year that did horrible business and I've never seen the original either, but that clown just looks creepy.

Closing out the pack are cards from three movies I've never seen, Fright Night, Poltergeist as I mentioned above, and Day of the Dead. Since I have no knowledge of these films, I'll speak to the card design a bit. It's very clean and simple, just a still from the film with a somewhat cheesy caption on it. 

The backs are equally as clean. There's a brief story on the back and I really like the design on the bottom with the film title in the marquee. 

There's also a sticker included in the pack, here's the one I pulled. I'm writing this during my break at work so I pulled this image from Trading Card Database. It's not my favorite sticker of the set but if you put all of them together, you form a nice collage of sorts.

Overall, this was a really fun pack to break into and if I can find more packs for a reasonable price, I'll definitely get more as I'm planning on building the set and collecting the four different wrappers. It's nearly Halloween and I've got a few more Halloween related posts before putting Project Halloween in the books for the year. 

The 2016 Halloween Mood Display (and a Halloween Contest!)

It's that time again! It's time for the reveal of the annual Halloween Mood Display!

A bit of backstory first ... I started doing this in 2014 when my Halloween spirit was really low. Why it was so low that year, I'm not sure. So I took a spare table and got inspired by the Halloween mood tables that Matt from Dinosaur Dracula does every year and created my Halloween mood table. Needless to say, that was an instant spirit lifter. Last year, I wanted to do another table but seeing as my son likes to get into things within his reach, I opted to use a ledge on an archway between my living room and kitchen and it turned out pretty well.

This year, I decided to use the same ledge for the display ...

Here's a before picture, a blank canvas, ripe to be built on with some crazy Halloween decor

And afterward ....

Behold, the 2016 Halloween Mood Display! Let's take a tour ....

A must for any Halloween display is activities. My blu-ray box set of the Halloween series is a must and I grabbed a few other movies as well. Even though it's hard to see, the other films are Friday the 13th, Signs, and Evil Dead 2. This is also the Ghostbusters portion of the program with the Slimer figure I bought at Horrorhound earlier this year, Winston hanging out in Ecto-1, and Ray looking from afar.

A closer look at Winston chilling in the car and sharing a word with Jason Voorhees.

Here's the centerpiece as I described previously, the Spookytown Gas N Ghoul. I went back to Michaels and grabbed a few accent pieces that were 40% off. I think the orange trees and the road sign give it an extra creepy feel. I'll admit, I'd be a little freaked out if I rolled up to this place in the middle of the night.

The land of horror icon Funko figures. Returning from last year is Billy from Saw, Ash from Evil Dead, and Michael Myers. New this year to the gathering is Freddy Krueger and the Mummy.

Finally, a Trick or Treat flavored candle, which really candy corn and butter cream, from Yankee Candle and my wife's melted wax warmer which she has loaded fall flavors into.

After building this, I definitely feel the Halloween spirit more than ever, and so will my living room as it will be covered in the glow of candy corn lights from now until I take this sucker down in November. I would definitely encourage you to take an afternoon and make one of these for yourself, even if it's not as big as this.  Speaking of which, I think I'll run a little contest for this ...

To enter, simply build a Halloween Mood Display of your own and write a blog post about it, similar to what I did here talking about the things you included, maybe even how it helps you get in the Halloween spirit. Leave a link to the post in the comments below. As a reminder, your building it for no one but you. It just needs to be something that reminds you to embrace the Halloween spirit and enjoy the season. Since this is a baseball card blog by heart, your prize will be a bubble mailer of cards from your favorite MLB team.

If you need some tips on how to build one, check out my mood display from last year here and also feel free to check out past mood tables of the person who started this whole thing, Matt of Dinosaur Dracula, here, here, here, and here.

This contest will be open from now until October 21st. Those who entered will be tossed into a randomizer that will be randomized a lucky 13 times and the winner will be announced on Halloween itself.

Let the fun begin!

Ghostbusters Trading Cards

Lost in all the hoopla of the new lines of toys, junk food, and the limited time re-release of Ecto Cooler (which I still haven't found by the way) in conjunction with the new Ghostbusters movie, are these ... Ghostbusters trading cards! I've seen other box breaks online and I realized then that I had to get my hands on these.  I managed to get my hands on a box from DA Card World courtesy of my aunt who ordered a box for me since all the local shops were either out of stock or only had a few packs left. Normally I don't partake in non-sports products but these looked too awesome to pass up.

Packaging/Layout

The design of the box and of the packs is really cool. The box has that Slimer green color and the packs have a shiny foil design going on with a dark outline of all the Ghostbusters shooting their proton streams into the dark sky.. The breakdown is 5 cards per pack with 24 packs per box. While a "hits" (autographs, replica patch cards, slime cards, sketch cards, etc) are not guaranteed, most of these have been averaging about 2-3 of these per box. 

Base Set

The base set is 54 cards which makes it perfect to fit in a binder. You get a full base set in a box with a few duplicates thrown in. As you can probably tell the set chronicles the original film. The cards are nice and have a slick front. The backs give a brief paragraph about the scene or character pictured on the front. I was going to go through the base set and chat about my favorites but in the interest of space, I'll just show off the whole set.

Inserts

There are five major insert sets along with some foil parallels and in this box I got all five complete sets. Each one is pretty unique and fun.

Behind the Scenes: This is probably my least favorite of the batch, mainly because I'm not really into all the behind the scenes stuff of movies and TV. There are some interesting trivia bits on the backs of some of these, for example, did you know the monster on the card on the top left was supposed to be the monster in the library? It was cut because it was deemed too scary. The design on these reminds me of something from the 80s with the green and yellow.

Character Bios: Only seven cards in this set. Each one gives a brief background of the seven main characters in the film. Pretty self explanatory and the design is very clean.

Quote Cards: This is probably my favorite of all the insert sets. The designs are really fun but there are a few here that I wouldn't have included such as the "mass hysteria" quote and the "she's a dog" card. Otherwise, these are great and I'm happy that Winston's line of "Ray, when somone asks you if you're a God, you say yes!" got included.

Sing For Your Specter: Not sure how this fits in but according to the back of the cards it's an original comic two artists came up with for the set. It's interesting and fun for people into comics I guess but not really something I'm into. I do like the art in this though.

Tricks and Traps: So this is cool. I really dig this picture that the nine cards in this set make as it really encompasses a lot of what makes the original film great. All four original Ghosbusters, plus Ecto-1, Stay-Puft, and Slimber. The only nitpick I have about this is that the cards aren't numbered in the right order so you have to mix and match until you form the picture.

Foil Parallels: These are just parallel foil versions of base cards and insert cards, nothing more. It'd be really cool to get the Tricks and Traps set in foil to go along with the regular set.

Hits

As I mentioned in the open, there are no guaranteed hits per box but in most breaks I've seen, hits are averaging about 2-3 per box. Autograph cards are 1:30 packs, which falls just outside the realm of the 24 pack box. I got three hits in my box, including an autograph and a really hard pull. Other hits in the product can include slime cards and animation cel cards.

First up is this 1/1 sketch card. I'm not sure who drew it as the artist signature on the back is completely illegible but knowing that it's a 1/1 makes it really neat. You can feel the felt on the front and you can see on the back where some of the ink bled through. Each sketch card in the product is a 1/1 and if you pull one, it's definitely something very unique.

Autographs come 1 in every 30 packs so I was actually expecting not as I usually either get gipped or I get hits of players I really don't care about in my history of breaking boxes. I'm guessing this is from Ghostbusters 2, which I haven't seen in a long, long time but judging by eBay prices, it's one of the better autographs in the set. Obviously I would have preferred Dan Aykroyd but this will do.

Here's a card I really wanted when I saw it on the checklist. Apparently these replica patch cards are a hard pull so in that case I consider myself lucky. These are pretty simple, no frills cards and when I pulled it out of the pack, there was only one other card in the pack with it. I'm not complaining, it's still one of the marquee names.

If you're into the classic Ghostbusters films and cartoons, then this is definitely a product to check out. Like I said, I'm not really into the whole non-sports cards scene but I'm a huge Ghostbusters fan and I couldn't pass these up. Grab a box of these, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.