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Ultraman Cards!

Sunday, February 6th, 2022

Just before Christmas this arrived:

It’s a box of Ultraman trading cards! This is the first item I have ever Kickstarted, and was released by a boutique trading card company here in the USA of all places. It contains cards based on Ultra Q and the first Ultraman series.

The 36 packs were hand-collated and packed, but had security and tamper-proof seals. I opened one pack a day for about a month, which I’ve found is the best way to enjoy a full box of cards.

The bulk of the set is 67 story cards and 91 monster cards, and I got them all. The numbering is such that about the first third of each type is for Ultra Q and the remainder Ultraman.

The story cards have full episode summaries on the back, which seems normal for those of us that have been collecting cards since the 1980s but is very rare for modern sets.

The monster cards have pictures on the back that can form ten different nine card mosaics. I love when cards do this and these are particularly great!

One cool subset are 3D cards, and the box actually comes with a pair of glasses. The 3D effect is incredibly good – easily the best I’ve seen on a trading card – and I’m very impressed with these!

Other subsets include copies of some of the sketch card art (a very nice inclusion)…

Stickers based on the opening credit silhouettes…

And several types of character portrait cards.

But you want to see the chase cards I got don’t you? Well my (actual) metal ‘box topper’ was this:

A bit bland I admit, especially compared to some of the other ones, but this is my first ever metal card and it’s very impressive. I also got (in a pack) this original sketch card:

That alien is called ‘antlar’. Obviously getting a sketch of someone like Ultraman or Zoffy or Zetton would have been amazing all original sketch cards are special. I looked up the artist and she’s done cards for many different series, always in a comical, cartoony way like here.

I also got a lenticular card (which doesn’t photo well) and as part of the Kickstarter they threw in some test print cards as well:

And this was one of the more unusual things in my box:

It’s a ‘DIY sketch card blank’! Should I draw my own Ultraman on it?

This is a set with a mind-boggling amount of variant cards. In fact the checklist spans the inside of three pack wrappers and even then doesn’t include every possible card:

I daresay it would be impossible to collect everything, but I’m happy that of the 360+ cards I got, I completed the basic set of episode and monster cards, got all the stickers, all the 3D cards, all of the lenticular and metal art cards, over 90% of the sketch art cards and a good selection of limited variants of most of the above!

I even have a full second set of episode cards, which of course will one day go to Bernard. All told, only one card in my box was an un-needed duplicate, but even then I’ve got an idea for it…

Needless to say this is a great card set and I’m extremely happy with my purchase (which was about $70). The Kickstarter itself was very delayed due to the pandemic (many sketch artists were overseas and the mailing of the art slowed considerably) but the company was extremely communicative and as you can see delivered in spades. I will certainly be joining the follow up set which will include Ultraseven and Return of Ultraman!

Posted in Art, Collecting, Otaku, Trading Cards, TV | 1 Comment »

Chris Achilleos

Wednesday, January 12th, 2022

Somehow I missed that fantasy artist Chris Achilleos passed away about a month ago. He was an artist that helped shape my image of fantasy worlds via the many properties that he created art for in the 1980s.

He painted the cover art for many Fighting Fantasy books, to the extent his style became ubiquitous with the world in my mind. Ever since I first saw it, I’ve been a big fan of the piece he did for the Titan book:

He was also a prolific artist for fantasy novel covers, including many ‘sword and sorcery’ examples that I devoured in my youth (and still do today in fact):

And while I don’t think I actually knew it at the time, he was also the cover artist for a lot of Target Doctor Who novelizations. This range of work would bring him renown in later years, and I was happy and surprised when we stumbled upon an exhibit of his original Doctor Who paintings when we visited Wales years ago.

Achilleos was the man who painted the iconic Heavy Metal poster (and the designer of the character Taarna):

And who did the cover art for the first edition of the popular Talisman game:

When I was a youth, I had an Achilleos poster on my wall, taken from either an old White Dwarf magazine or an issue of Warlock magazine. I also attempted to copy his art myself in my juvenile scribblings, and even used to sign it using his trademark A in C.

And still today I have two prints of his work framed and hanging on the wall of my home office. When I bought these from a dealer at NYCC many years ago he told me a few nice anecdotes about the man himself, and how (at that time, when Achilleos was in his late 60s) he was eternally delighted that work he had done in the 1980s was still appreciated. There are many great fantasy artists, but Achilleos has always been one of my very favourites. He’ll never know how important his work has been to me, but I thank him for it nonetheless.

Posted in Art | Comments Closed

Rain Of Frogs

Monday, August 16th, 2021

I sent Bernard fifty frog postcards at the same time!

I started by numbering them all. The cards were, of course, unique:

I then hand-addressed and stamped all fifty:

At first I was unsure what to write on each of them, but a quick amazon search gave a handy alternate solution:

The (exactly fifty!) frog stickers were then applied, and I wrote the lyrics to Rainbow Connection across all fifty cards:

This took some time as you may imagine, and the cost was about $40 for the cards, stamps and stickers. Given Bernard only paid $20, he got quite a deal.

“Paid?”, you ask? This was part of a deal i offered him: 50 frogs for $20. I never mentioned it was postcards (or indeed any details at all), but he gladly accepted regardless 🙂

I sent them all on the same day from a variety of post offices and mailboxes. Four days later he received 43 in the mail, and I expect the remaining 7 will arrive today. I hear they were a hit with him and Lakshmi. Overall I deem Operation Rain of Frogs to be a grand success!

I’ve still got a few frogs – and many toads – left. If you want one, indicate as much in the comments!

Posted in Animals, Art, Blog, Family, Miscellaneous, Postcards, Stamps | 2 Comments »

Portrait Contest: Results!

Sunday, August 8th, 2021

It’s time for the portrait contest results. If you’ve forgotten, the first half can be seen here. After the first five topics, Bernard was ahead 3-2!

The contest has now concluded. Let’s see how the judges voted on the remaining five…

Queen Elizabeth II

This was Lakshmi’s choice, and it was a subject I had considered selecting myself. Bernard’s is to the left, mine on the right. I went with a young Queen from 1952 and was quite proud of the texturing I got on her hair and the metallic look of the crown achieved only using a grey marker.

But… the judges apparently forgot the young Queen, and Bernard’s win of 3.5 to 1.5 (one judge gave a tie) was accompanied with some comments that only his pic looked like the Queen! Did these people forget the Queen’s coronation was almost 70 years ago?!? Lesson learned: create contemporary portraits only 🙂

Ronald McDonald

The famous clown (he is a real person isn’t he?) was my next pic. This was a risky one since there’s not many variations of his look but… Bernard’s pic (on the right)… well I’ll quote a judge here: “Do I really have to say which one is best?”

I won this one 5-0, which was timely since Bernard’s lead had become significant. After 7 subjects, the score was Bernard 4, me 3.

Barrack Obama

This was Bernard’s choice, and it was an obvious one I had been avoiding since I knew I didn’t have the right markers for his skin tone! He’s also a very handsome man with a strongly symmetric face, which means it would be very easy to create a portrait that didn’t look like him. But Obama it was, and I did my best!

Bernard’s is on the left, and mine on the right. The judges commented on the difficulty of judging this one, and ultimately gave me the win (3.5 to 1.5, with another tied judge) because Bernard’s “looks too old” or “has a weird chin“! One judge commented that neither looked like Obama. Regardless, the contest was now tied!

At this point I was making the observation that Bernard, on average, was strong with faces but weak with heads and hair, whereas I was the latter. Look at all the entries and see if you agree! One judge who is an artistic prodigy herself (JK) created this composite Obama from both our portraits to illustrate our respected strengths:

It looks more like him than either of ours doesn’t it?!?

Albert Einstein

My final choice was a bad one. I should have chosen Gene Simmons, or David Bowie (which I deferred since I assumed he would be Bernard’s last). But for some weird reason I went with Einstein, and he was a real challenge to draw.

Mine is on the left, Bernard’s on the right. The judges gave Bernard the win in another 3.5 to 1.5 split, although the comments weirdly praised mine more (one said “Your hair and shading is better but I choose right“)! By now I had gotten used to the arbitrary decisions of the judges, and even though I question whether Bernard’s actually looks like Einstein I concede mine was weaker and expected a greater blowout in the scores.

Nine subjects completed and the score is Bernard has 5 wins over my 4. I had to win the last one to tie!

Marilyn Monroe

Bernard’s final choice was not Bowie. Instead, surprisingly, he chose Marilyn! And she was easily the hardest of the entire contest. This was magnified by the pressure on me to win.

My entry was the right, Bernard’s the left. He went with realism, me with a stylistic approach. The only problem: neither of them look like Marilyn Monroe! Four of the five judges said this, and commented how their decision was therefore based on artistic style. Two judges (and myself) commented how Bernard’s strongly resembled someone other than Marilyn (although we can’t quite place who), and two admired the bold colours of my piece.

Perhaps unsurprisingly considering these responses, the vote was a complete tie: 2.5 points each! The first tie in the contest was the last entry, and both our non-Marilyns were deemed equal 🙂

Incidentally I can now reveal that I actually made four Marilyn’s, rejecting each of them until I found one I liked. I knew my stylistic choice would work against the judges, but I greatly preferred it to the previous three, which were these:

I wonder how the judges would have liked the above?

Final Results!

Ten portraits done and judged. Fifty individual votes! It’s time for the results. And they are…

Bernard won, with 5.5 wins to my 4.5!

Looking at total points, of the 50 available, the final tally was Bernard 26.5 to my 23.5. That means that ultimately the final decision came down to only 1.5 votes out of 50! That’s extremely close 🙂

Looking back at all the portraits now, it’s obvious that our skills increased as the contest went on, and many times I felt I was presenting the judges with a difficult choice! Alas they were only human; it’s obvious Bernard’s Elvis win was a flagrant mockery of the (then) rules and my Queen was much better than his. But at the same time he claims his Obama was the better and (I suspect) will say the same about his ~~Margot Robbie~~ Marilyn.

I’m packing up Bernard’s prize right now – which is a quality item indeed – and wondering if we’ll ever do this again. And if we do, what we should draw. Any ideas?

Posted in Art, Blog, Celebrity, Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

Portrait Contest: Halftime

Friday, June 25th, 2021

Bernard and I are having another contest, and this time it’s an art contest! To be specific: portraits. We’re each creating portraits and they are judged by the same five judges as last years postcard contest. While we’re sending these to each other on postcards, the cards themselves have no role in the judging this time.

The rules were simple: we would alternate choosing the subjects week by week, and create neck up portraits in any medium or style. The judges decision would be final.

That was five weeks ago, and we’re now halfway through. Let’s review the results so far!

Elvis Presley

I started choosing subjects with The King and right out of the gate Bernard ignored the ‘neck up’ rule with his ‘portrait’ (on the left)! The judges gave it to him 4-1, but since comments were as blatant as “Wins because of the pose” and “Wins only because of the guitar” I felt the contest had derailed almost immediately. Nonetheless the judges decision was final and Bernard took the early lead.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The best subjects are ones with many different looks, and you can see from my watercolour (on the left) and Bernard’s pencil sketch that Arnie fits the bill! The judges were torn on this one, and one even declared a tie, but ultimately Conan defeated The Terminator and I won 3.5 – 1.5. Judges comments included “Conan is too slick” and “Terminator doesn’t have enough color”.

Cleopatra

Perhaps I chose Cleo since I expected an easy win, but it’s certain I wasn’t prepared for the magnus opus created by Bernard (on the right). KLS joked that mine (on the left) was very masculine, but even had I demonstrated a better grasp of facial anatomy I daresay Bernard would still have got – as he deserved – the 5-0 win. Incidentally while the photos don’t show it well, both of these feature metallic inks! Judges comments included “The detail is extraordinary!”

Bruce Lee

Bernard chose Bruce Lee, perhaps because he had an image in mind? But Cleo had lit a bonfire under me and there was no way I was handing him another win, so I started taking things seriously. My portrait (on the right) swept all judges for a decisive 5-0 win. Comments included “I love the eyes” and “Excellent use of shading“.

Steve Irwin

We agreed to let Kristin and Lakshmi choose a subject each, and KLS was first up with her choice of the crocodile hunter himself! This was a difficulty subject since he’s so known for holding animals that it was hard to produce a neck-up image that conveyed his essence well. I took a bold approach with the stencil art on the left, and Bernard… well he chose to ignore the rules again. Once again the judges overlooked this infraction and gave him the 5-0 win, even commenting (as one did) that he won “even though it isn’t a portrait”. As for my image, I expect this is not a contest that will reward a novel approach and will return to more conventional styles ahead!

So halfway though, Bernard is up 3-2. Since two of his wins were (arguably) due to images that flaunted the rules the neck-up rule has now been abandoned.

Five more subjects to come, and it’s still anyone’s game! Who will we draw, and who will win? Find out in five weeks!

Posted in Art, Blog, Family, Postcards | Comments Closed