Uncle Rico II

 

 

"Back in '82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile."

I've been wanting to do a second Uncle Rico card for a little while now.  My first Uncle Rico card is pretty special as it was the first card I did that sold out all 50 copies.  Napoleon Dynamite is such an offbeat cult favorite.  I personally love it.  Part of what makes that movie so unforgettable is Jon Gries' Uncle Rico character.  For me he did such a great job of playing this unique (30 something?) character that nearly peaked in high school, but he didn't even get that because the coach didn't put him in in the big game.  Rico is a could-have-been.   Even as a stuck in the past smarmy door-to-door hustler I wanted Rico to finally get his win, which thankfully the bonus footage leads you to believe he just might as he catches the eye of a attractive young lady.

Another motivating factor in making an additional Rico Dynamite card was knowing how appreciative Jon Gries is of his fans, so I'm sure there be some copies of this card that get signed.

I've kept my eye out for good ideas for a Rico card and recently an idea I loved hit me.  Starting in 1986 (I think) Topps had a 1,000 Yard Club insert set highlighting players who had amassed 1,000 yard either rushing or receiving.  Well, I wanted to spin that and make a "Quarter Mile Club" for which Rico was the charter and only member of via his claim to be able to be able to throw a football that far back in 1982.  For reference, the world record for a football throw is a little better than 54 yards, a quarter mile is 440 yards.

I chose the 1000 Yard template from 1986 just because it's the one I liked the best.  Rico was straight money and I wanted this card to reflect that. 

Best Of Times

Best of Times is a movie I've had requested a number times but I wanted to hold off until I got a chance to rewatch to be reacquainted with the characters and details. I finally got a chance to do that a couple of weeks ago after picking up a VHS copy.

These are of course done in the style of the 1986 Topps football set.  I gave the cards the color scheme used for the Jets because that's what the Taft Rockets' uniforms most reminded me of.

I didn't realize it before but '86 was a great year for football themed movies.  Between Best of Times, Lucas, and Wildcats you've got three 80's classics.  I've actually done all three movies in this Topps style, I just have to get around to completing the Wildcats set.

Lucas

I decided to watch Lucas in order to get the details down to make a mini-set.  First off, it's as cute of a movie as I remembered it to be.  I like that it's a bit of a different take on the teenage high school experience than other films of that genre.

Lucas came out in 1986.  I've used a 1986 Topps football inspired design a few time so that part was pretty straight forward.  I chose to go with the Atlanta Falcons color scheme from that set because the Park High Pirates red and black jersey reminded me of Atlanta's unis.

The biggest challenge for me with this set was what I would call the 'fan accurate' details.  Or, me just being extra anal about my cards.  I always like to have first and last names when available.  I was running into different spellings of Lucas' last name between Bly and Blye.  It was about 50/50 between the two spellings.  It was finally settled when I found some 8" x 10" studio promo pictures on eBay that had the spelling in the picture’s caption as Blye.  Those pictures also helped to confirm the spelling of Cappie's last name.  For whatever reason little details are important to me.  Unfortunately I could not find any additional name info for any of the other three cards in the set.

I had fun with Lucas' football position if you'll notice.  In the scene where Lucas is inserted into the game against Rockford he yells back to Coach asking what position he's playing and Coach yells back "prone".

Arr Arr Arr

I came across this picture of Tim Allen in a complete Matthew Stafford Detroit Lions uniform and knew it hard to turn into a card.  I believe it's from a Halloween party he attended.

I'm a Tim Allen guy.  Tim's from Michigan and has always repped the home state (obviously, right?). That's the reason I watched Home Improvement damn near every day in junior high; loved seeing the Detroit-centric references.  Plus, it was a good show.

The card is in the style of the '86 Topps football set.  For no other reason than I'd just made it for some Wildcats cards, and it's also one of Topps' more recognizable football designs from the '80s.

I've got this one pending in the mail.  Tim's a pretty reliable signer so I'll update this post if I get a TTM success.

1986 Topps football

UPDATE: