Robot Claw

Continuing the post from a couple of days ago, here’s four more ancient packs of trading cards…

Knight Rider (Donruss, 1982)

A few years ago I bought this entire series on DVD since Walmart had it for a silly low price. I haven’t yet opened it. But now at least I’ve opened a pack of these trading cards 🙂

Given this show was all about David Hasselhoff, it’s remarkable that I didn’t get a single card featuring him! And is that card in the top right the mysterious secondary girl character they wrote out after season one? As you can see the cards feature a lot of exciting KITT action, no doubt of interest to the kids that would have been the target customers.

The gum was permanently stuck to this card, and although it was rock hard it seemed less ruined by rot than the others I’ve opened recently.

The backs of all my cards are puzzle pieces, but the ones I got were so featureless it’s difficult to tell what it shows. Is that Michael Knight’s hand?

Overall a so-so set based on this single pack. I was a fan of the show at the time and probably bought have bought a pack had I seen them. I wonder if I did?

Fright Flicks (Topps, 1988)

This is an infamous card set featuring photos from many different horror films. Topps didn’t skimp on the gore and the set is depicts images of extreme gore that caused some of the films to be banned in the USA!

I had wanted a pack of this for years but it’s not easy to find today, and I paid almost $10 for this single pack. There are four pack designs and apparently the Freddy Krueger one is the most desirable today.

The cards in my pack nicely illustrate the variety of the set, with images from eight different films including some very obscure ones. How many of these do you recognize?

The gum was in near perfect condition and not stuck to the card. Of all the gum in these packs this was the one I would most likely have tried to eat were I inclined.

The cardbacks are unusual. They include the name of the film shown on the front, as well as a fictitious story of the supernatural. I think a summary of the film plot would have been better, but at least these ‘Did It Ever Happen’ stories are well written.

I got a diecut sticker with a nice shot of the Predator on it, and the back of only one of my cards was a puzzle piece. I checked and there are only 11 stickers in the set and I’d rank this one in the top three. Will I ever stick it?

This is a great set, and if I’d known about it at the time maybe I would have at least bought several packs… or maybe not since I was 16 and I’m sure trading cards were horribly uncool at that age!

Star Trek The Motion Picture (Topps, 1979)

I have dim memories of owning some of these cards as a child, even though I didn’t really understand this film when it came out. I like the purple pack design!

I love the design of these cards. As with most of Topps products of this era they show the influence of the Star Wats sets, but the white borders and dramatic font works well together. It’s interesting that one card (middle right) is a ‘behind the scenes’ photo, which were very rare in card sets in those days.

The gum was rotten and brittle but loose in the pack and hadn’t damaged any card. In the bin it went!

All but one of the backs of mine are puzzle pieces, and based on the borders there are at least four of them to assemble.

One card contains a (prophetic) Shatner quote. I wonder if any cards in the set contained a film synopsis?

The sticker is die-cut and a little boring, especially with the copyright info and number included (I would cut both off if I stuck this). There’s a lot of stickers in this set, and only a minority are spaceships. As it turns out I’ve owned one of the other stickers for years:

Isn’t it beautiful? I daresay Star Trek fans in 1979 probably bought these card packs in droves just to get the fantastic die-cut character stickers 🙂

This is a wonderful set, and I’d love to crack open an entire box. Given it’s collectibility though, I imagine that’s all but impossible these days.

Moonraker (Topps, 1979)

I’ve had this pack for over a decade, and it’s been aging carefully in a box. Finally it was time to break the wax seal and see what was inside!

Much like the Star Wars series, there’s no bad James Bond films. Lesser men may mumble about the qualities of Moonraker, but for this fan it’s always a cracking watch! The cards illustrate the film well, with the typical Topps design from those days.

I believe this is the oldest pack featured these past two posts, so it’s interesting the gum was intact, apparently not rotting, and arguably still edible. Should I have tried it?

The backs are a mix of puzzle pieces, a puzzle guide and a synopsis. I like the line art of Bond in the space suit.

And here’s my magnificent sticker. There were 22 in the set, only five die-cut, and only three of those featuring Bond so I got lucky (although this is arguably the worst of the Bond stickers).

Amusingly my pack even included this misprint card! Surely this is worth a pretty penny these days? I think I’ll sell it for a nice profit to Bernard 🙂

And that ends my recent opening of ancient card packs. I can’t think of any old wax era packs I haven’t yet opened here on the blog, so I doubt there will be a further update like these. However that doesn’t mean this series is entirely dead, since I may have a few other packs to open one day…

I’ve got some more retro packs of trading cards to open! Once again these are all from the wax era (the packs are sealed with wax), which means they’re (almost) all over 40 years old. I’ve had these for about a year, so let’s see what’s inside…

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (Topps, 1991)

These date from the last years of the wax pack era, and by now Topps has abandoned bubble gum. I’ve shown a few other series from this period before, and these cards are similar in design.

The cards all have nice shots from the film, surely of interest to young fans. As you can see the borders and basic design aren’t too different from the Star Wars series from over a decade earlier. Even in 1991 the cards were still printed on non-glossy cardstock, which I still prefer to this day.

The backs contain the usual story synopsis. To this day I’m not sure I’ve even seen this film. I probably should.

The pack includes a single sticker, which unfortunately is not die-cut. The back of the sticker is a puzzle piece, and with only one sticker per pack I imagine completing this puzzle was a costly task.

Overall it’s a decent product, although it’s from the post-80s era with the lesser quality stickers and too early for the flashy chase cards of the mid to late 90s. If you like TMNT, these would have been great.

Magnum (Donruss, 1983)

I watched this show when I was a kid (why?) and I loved trading cards even then. But I don’t remember ever knowing Magnum cards existed, and without any monsters or spaceships I probably wouldn’t have bought a pack even had I known!

The cards are great, and I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence or not but of the eight in my pack more than half featured the ruggedly handsome face of Tom “I was almost Indiana Jones” Selleck himself.

The pack included a stick of gum, which had weirdly puffed up during the 41 years. It had a disturbing smell (of mold?) as well, and had strongly adhered to the card. I discarded both 🙂

The majority of cardbacks are puzzle pieces with just a single card containing a pithy thought from Magnum himself. Did kids enjoy this?

There were no stickers, and while the cards were well printed I doubt they would have appealed to anyone outside of the small group of card-collecting Magnum fans. I’m guessing it didn’t sell well.

Alien (Topps, 1979)

This is a somewhat ‘famous’ card set and I’d been after a pack for years. It wasn’t inexpensive, at about $8, but it was fun to finally open a pack again…

The cards are beautiful! Obviously following the Star Wars design template, these show off the movie extremely well, and would have been a wonderful collection for fans back in 1979. Remember these were the days before VHS, and cards like these would have been one of the only ways for people to see images from the film outside of the cinema.

The gum was rancid and moldy but hadn’t stuck to or damaged any cards. No, I didn’t eat it!

Most of the backs contain tantalizing snippets of puzzle art that I don’t recognize. Did Topps commission art for the puzzles since the movie poster was too simple and since Giger art would have been inappropriate?

The remainder of cardbacks contain a story summary. I like the egg border!

Here’s my die-cast sticker! Certainly not the best from the set, but charming regardless. I wonder if this actor has a copy of one of these to this day?

And one single card has an advert on the back.

These are fantastic. I recall opening one or two packs of this as a child, although I only remember sticking (with glue) a single card into my scrapbook. I wish I still owned that scrapbook; what a blog post it would have made! I’d love to find a box of this for a decent price, and complete the set 🙂