Zapped!

I recently did a re-watch of  Zapped!  I don't know how long it's been since I'd seen this movie, but we're easily talking decades.  I believe Zapped! is in the same category as Revenge of the Nerds in the way it was made as a lighthearted teen comedy by '80s standards, but doesn't adhere to today's social conscience. 

I was watching it just to watch a zany '80s movie with no intentions of making any trading cards from it.  What spurred my interest in making cards was the brief baseball scene.  Plus the fact that the film was released in 1982 which gave me a chance to revisit some of the 1982 Topps baseball inspired templates I created for the Ridgemont Series II set.  

I didn't have the urge to do an overly comprehensive custom set, and I'll admit you don't get a great feel for what the movie was actually about with just these 3 cards.  I was originally just going to do a play on the baseball scene of the movie but I also wanted to get the Bernadette and Jane characters on a card somehow.  The "Senior Prom" card came about because I really just wanted an excuse to use the Emerson High Penguins logo which was made possible by using 'team leader' card design from the '82 Topps set.  

This set may get a few more cards using the 'in action' subset from the '82 Topps so it's a little better represented.  I didn't do them this time around just because my enthusiasm for the project was only about an 8 of 10 and I moved onto some autograph card designs I wanted to try.  

Fast Times Series II

With the succession of Fast Times cast member's birthdays that are in July and August as well as the 38th anniversary of the film's release that just passed on August 13th it got me thinking of the movie which happens to be in my top 5 favorite movies.  The 20 card Fast Times mini-set I made back in 2018 is still one of my favorites.  I love the look of the 1982 Topps baseball inspired design and Fast Times at Ridgemont High is just soooo good, especially for anyone with a fondness for the 1980s.  

Being in the Fast Times mood that I was in I decided to pop in my copy of the movie and enjoy it for the umpteen-millionth time.  I've always enjoyed the movie from the awkward coming-of-age comedic aspect of things, but this time I was watching it a little differently.  The movie is so well done from the standpoint of really feeling like you lived this high school year with these characters.  You had some just coming into high school trying to figure it out, some in the hazy middle years and others at the end of their journey with "real life" about to bear down on them.  The casting is so crazy when you are able to look at how all of these unknowns, at the time, went on to be important players in Hollywood for years to come.  There's not another movie cast that can boast the same level of career success.  It really is a special movie for so many reasons.

While my first Fast Times mini-set focused on making character cards that spanned that unforgettable cast, I had a thought about making a follow-up set highlighting some of the most classic scenes in a 1982 Topps kind of way.  

I guess you could consider the first set the "base cards" and this second set the special "subset" cards.  I took my ques from the "In Action", "Future Stars", "All-Star" and "Team Leaders" cards from the set.  

The 7 card "In Action" design highlights some of the film's most classic scenes.  The "Future Stars" design I had fun with grouping together some of the film's special interests that came in threes.  

I made the Spirit Bunnies card for two main reasons, one, I wanted to use the Ridgemont Wolf logo on a card, and that was my chance as that's the only cards that had team logos in Topps' 1982 baseball offering.  Two, I wanted to get Pamela Springsteen on a card.  She's The Bosses sister and also she's notable for her role in the '80s slasher classics Sleepaway Camp II & Sleepaway Camp III.

Rounding out the 14 card follow-up set is a Brad Hamilton "Manager" card in the style of the "All-Star" subset.  Brad is the character I related to the most in the film.  I spent my high school career focused on working and having a cool car.  Looking back I would have done it differently and not let the parade pass my by.  Hindsight...there's plenty of time to be old, but not enough time to be young.  

If I hadn't already done a Spicoli surfing card I would have also put it into the All-Star template as well.  But, I feel Spicoli's greatness is represented pretty well in this set.

One thing Series II has over the first Series is dedicated card backs.  I wasn't doing those two years ago.  My goal with the card backs was to stay honest to the '82 Topps baseball but tweaked in slight ways to lend tie-ins to Fast Times.

Although the first 20 card mini-set was not numbered, this set picks up at #21 just to make it feel like a true follow-up to the first set.

1982 Topps 

Hey Bud, Let's Party!

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is among the dozen or so movies that are in my top 5 favorites. It doesn't get much more '80s than Fast Times and the cast is just loaded with Hollywood heavyweights when most were just relatively unknown up-and-comers.

These cards are inspired by the 1982 Topps baseball set customized to give it a look that I could actually imagine the Fast Times cards having had an actual set been made. I started off with a "Mike Damone" and "Charles Jefferson" cards hoping to get autographs from Robert Romanus and Forest Whitaker. I had success with Romanus, still have my fingers crossed for Mr. Whitaker. From there I would just add a cast member here and there and now it's a 20 card mini-set.

The actor's whose characters had names I put in black text. There are a number of iconic actors who played unnamed minor characters in the movie and instead of calling Eric Stoltz "Spicoli's buddy" I put his and other's actual names with the name being in red text to make the distinction. I thought that would be a particularly cool touch seeing as Nicolas Cage was billed by his real name, Nicolas Coppola, for Fast Times which was his big screen debut.

Get the set here.

I Thought He Just Flew In For Games!

I would put 1982's Fast Times At Ridgemont High in my top 5 all-time.  It's hard to think of any movie capturing a decade like Fast Times did with the 1980s.

Charles Jefferson was a great character, especially seeing as it was Forest Whitaker's first role of note and he's went on to have quite a career which included the 2007 Best Actor nod for his portrayal of dictator Ida Amin in The Last King of Scotland. 

For the character I actually made two cards.  One I would call regular inspired by the 1982 Topps baseball set, and also a football card inspired by the 1983 Topps football since since Charles Jefferson was such a killer on the gridiron.

For the regular Fast Times card I went with a checkerboard design to the first side swoosh, which of course is as a tribute to Jeff Spicoli's Vans that were made iconic by the movie.  I also added the Fast Times logo for a nice little movie card touch.

For the football card I called a audible from my usual preference to use the same year card design that the movie or what ever I'm doing a card of was released.  The '82 Topps football has an illustrated football helmet that I just couldn't seem to reproduce and keep a vintage look to it, so I went with the '83 design which I think worked out pretty well, I mean you can't tell me that's not a mean looking card!  I decided to use "Ridgemont" as opposed to the team name like the Topps NFL cards all had just because it's way more recognizable than "Wolves". 

Marilyn Poucher

The 1982 Topps baseball design is one I've been wanting to try for awhile now.  They have a great

1982 Topps

retro look to them.  I finally got a chance to after seeing screen caps of Marilyn Poucher as the corpse of Mrs. Voohees in 1982's Friday the 13th Part III.  I've since the template for my Freaks and Geeks cards.

This was another case of being inspired to make a card based upon seeing an image online.

I also lucked out in finding a font match to the font used on the marketing materials for Friday the 13th Part III, so I took advantage of that on the card as well.  I used blood red and black as those are as good any colors for a horror themed card.

I got my cards back in short time from Miss Poucher along with a nice hand written thank you card.