Froggy Fresh

Back in 2012 Froggy Fresh (then known as Krispy Kreme) and his pahtna, Money Maker Mike, took the internet by storm with the video to the song "The Baddest".  I guess you could call it comedy rap?  They then followed that up with video after video that expanded the Froggy Fresh universe.  I was hooked from day 1.  The Froggy Fresh character is so well done that it had a lot of people wondering if it was actually a character or not.  The musical value is well produced and the story telling draws you in and keeps you entertained.

Unfortunately the guy behind Froggy Fresh has since retired the alter ego.  Fortunately, he still puts out music on YouTube under his actual name, Tyler Cassidy.  His newer stuff is still as funny but the genre has changed into a more soulful crooning style of music.  No elaborate videos either.  Just Tyler at a piano.  But it's still good stuff.

I did two cards for Froggy and Mike.  Of course I had to pay tribute to the video that started it all and that went into the 1991 ProSet Yo! MTV Raps inspired design.

I also made a card from my personal favorite from the Froggy Fresh catalog which is his song "Dunked On" using the 1980-81 Topps basketball inspired design.  This design is one of my favorites to use.  I really like making cards that feature multiple pictures on them.

You Douchebags Bring Your A-Game?

When I got the idea for this card I said "this is gonna kill", and laughed a bit to myself; I'm assuming the way a comedian might when he/she gets an epiphany for some new material.  The thought of this card is hilarious to me.

I'm a fan of Ben Stiller's put upon type of characters.  The kind of guy he plays in movies like Meet the Parents, The Heartbreak Kid, and the movie that inspired this card; Along Came Polly.  Just so it's clear I'm a fan of pretty much every one of Ben's characters, it's just the good intentioned tough luck ones I feel I can really relate to.

Let's be honest, Ben was great per usual but Philip Seymour Hoffman's "Sandy Lyle" character hijacked this movie.  The guy was a brilliant actor in any genre. He slays in every single scene he's in.  The basketball scene may be the funniest but even that's hard to say because he was just that good.

This is a newer movie, at least by my card's standards, so I picked my 1980-81 Topps basketball inspired design.  It would of been hilarious in any template in my opinion but the 3-paneled design was perfect for what I wanted to do.  Because of the Bird/Magic rookie it's an iconic set and the ability to use the three pictures makes it really fun to work with.

Scranton Hoops

The episode entitled "Basketball" (Season 1, episode 5) was the first episode of The Office that I ever saw.  Not a bad introduction to a series, eh?  It remains one of my three favorite episodes of The Office, the others being "Christmas Party" and "The Convict" for anyone wondering.  No need to wax poetic about how genius the show is so I'll get right into the cards.

The Office of course is a newer show and the episode for which these two cards are based on first aired in 2005, not all that vintage.  That being the case it was a matter of using what I would deem to be the funnest basketball template to put the cards into.  I briefly considered creating a design inspired by the 1990-91 Fleer basketball cards.  I've not used that base card but I did use the Rookie Sensations insert set for this card.  But, I was thinking I wanted to do a team card for Sales and Warehouse instead of individual cards which brought me to the iconic 1980-81 Topps basketball inspired design.  I had a feeling that they would be pretty sweet done in that style.

Since it was a pick-up game I wasn't to concerned with positions but I did have a little fun with the Michael and Dwight card.  If you're not familiar with the episode Dwight asks Michael if he can team captain and Michael shoots him down saying that he's the team captain.  Dwight them tries for Michael's permission to be team manager, Michael shoots him down again claiming the manager role as well.  So, Dwight tries again, this time for assistant team manager and Michael finally acquiesces to assistant "to the" team manager in keeping with the show's running Assistant to the Regional Manager joke.

Jon Gries

This TTM autograph success you see here is a pretty big deal to me. I may of may have not mentioned in the past that The White Shadow is absolutely my favorite television show of all-time.

I love The White Shadow for a number of reasons. For one, it mashed ahead-of-its-time subject matter with relateable humor. Secondly, my favorite sport is basketball. The cast was super talented. I actually didn't know about the show until the early 2000's when I just happened to catch it on ESPN Classic. I instantly fell in love with the show. I think I wrote about this before but there was a point in time when I was younger and my family lived in Detroit. This made me really cling to Timothy Van Patten's "Salami" character while watching seeing I was one of the only white kids in a predominately black group of friends. Basketball is what bonded us like "Salami" to his Carver teammates.

This card is signed by Mr. Jon Gries. You most likely know him as "Uncle Rico" from Napoleon Dynamite. I, like most, love that movie and the "Uncle Rico" character. But, I really geek out to Mr. Gries as "Uri Kongenski" from the "The Russians Are Coming" episode of The White Shadow. The episode is about Russian high school basketball team that was doing a goodwill tour of the United States and Los Angeles' Carver High was the their last scheduled stop. Relations with the Soviet Union was a very topical issue when this episode came out during the Cold War between the United States and Russia. Carver and the Russian squad play a spirited exhibition game following which one of the Russians, played by Chris Mulkey, attempts to defect by hiding out at one of the Carver player's home whom he had befriended during the visit. In my note requesting the autograph I asked Mr. Gries if he had any interesting memories of working on this episode. He said he didn't remember much since it was so long ago but he did say it was between he and Chris Mulkey to play the lead Russian.

Since I've been messing around with making custom trading cards I've done a couple of different White Shadow designs. This is by far and away my favorite. I wanted to do justice to a show that I feel doesn't get near the recognition it deserves in the annals of great television shows, sports themed or otherwise. Even for a relatively short run, 3 seasons, this show was outstanding and groundbreaking TV. I wanted to give the show a great card and what better way than with a 1980-81 Topps basketball inspired design made iconic by the three-paneled perforated #6 card that features Dr. J and rookies cards of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

1980-81 Topps basketball

I had the idea for The White Shadow in this design for a very long time.  But, for whatever reason, I was a bit intimidated by the design. Maybe because it's like 3 cards in one? Plus, I just wanted it to be pretty good if I was going to use it for Shadow. After getting some custom card reps under I belt I went for it. Turns out I fretted for nothing. It came together pretty smoothly. I found a groovy font that I believe is passable for the design and just took my time with the rest and I made something I'm really proud of. I even added some perforation marks, though purely aesthetic.

I want to make many more of these cards so it'll be an ongoing search for the right images.