Arnold's In The Outfield

It's plain to see that this image of Arnold Schwarzenegger and long time California Angel Brian Downing needed a custom card made out of it.  It's ripe.  The only issue I ran into was finding nearly no context for where this photo came from.  The only thing I found was that it was suggested it was circa 1986.  That would fit from the stand point of Downing being with the Angels throughout the '80s.

With not much to go on but idea that this would look great as a 1987 Topps style 'Team Leaders' card.  The '87 Topps woodgrain is always a crowd pleaser.

If anyone can shed some light on what this picture was for be sure to leave that info in the comments.

I Was A Teenage Zombie

Awhile back I picked up a VHS copy of I Was A Teenage Zombie.  It’s campy as hell and from the ‘80s, so needless to say I like it.

There’s a scene where the main character Dan Wake, who’s a star high school baseball player, has a daydream of sorts of his baseball glory all the while his buddies are getting pummeled by the local weed man Mussolini and they're begging “Dan” to help them out by taking batting practice on Mussolini. I thought that would make for a cool -if not super obscure- custom baseball card.

Since I Was A Teenage Zombie I was excited to use the woodgrain 1987 Topps baseball inspired template again. The biggest obstacle I was faced was getting a clean image. The movie itself can’t be found a very clear picture. It’s available on DVD, but I don’t think it’s ever been actually ‘digitally remastered’. The image you see is the best I could do out of dozens of attempts to capture a clear image. I don’t recall the high school in the movie ever being referenced let alone a mascot of logo. So, for the logo I just copied the simple “M” on Dan’s hat. It’s interesting because the Zombie on the VHS cover has a letterman jacket with an “N” on it. I don’t think they were concerned about the accuracy on the custom trading card I would be making 30 years later.

Phantom Cardboard Gets Munsoned

"Pressure?  Yeah there was some pressure, I mean I didn't wanna lose to a guy with a hook."

A couple of weeks ago I popped in my VHS copy of Kingpin with the sole purpose of entertainment.  Between laughs I got the bug to turn this movie into some custom cards.

Kingpin was made in 1996, the height of the Farrelly brothers putting out instant comedy classics, but also years past the period in time that saw me collecting every type of card I could get my hands on.  I think I was still collecting basketball cards around this time but then it was all about UV coating, foil stamping, and insert sets.  In other words, nothing like cards in the '80s.

So, I thought I'd use the 1987 Topps baseball cards design once again.  If you've read my previous posts on cards inspired by the '87 Topps you know they hold a special place with me being the first sports card wax packs I ever busted open.  I thought they would make sense with the wood grain seeing as there's wood grain on a bowling alley, right?  Then it dawned on me, why not replace the baseball bat grain with actual an bowling lane design?!  I think that was a strike (bad pun alert).  So, my customs became even more customized.

"Ten frames, that's for Quakers"

Outside of the of shying away from the wood grained design in the past there was also the issue of needing some sort of logo as a part of the template.  Like I did with in replacing the logo on my Sara Underwood card with baseball clip art, I added a bowling ball to fill the space.  I really like the way it looks.

I started making the cards that I guess you would consider "base cards". Then it occurred to me how well the movie could be lent to the different subsets that the '87 set featured, and I really started to fall in love with this Kingpin mini-set.

1987 Topps baseball

Ish is perfect as a "Future Star" being Roy recognizes him to be a young bowling savant that he could make into a champion, the champion he himself was pegged to be in a different lifetime.  Miss Claudia opportunistically joins on to help Roy co-manage Ishmael's career, and it's safe to say her business savvy is in a balance to Roy's vicarious hunger for money and glory and in helping Ish to not end up "Munsoned".  So it made perfect sense to slap the "Manager" tag on her card.

As a kid I loved the "Turn Back The Clock" subset. I would fantasize about how boss it would be to own not only the TBTC card, but the vintage card it featured.  I never did.  So, I wanted to "turn back the clock" to 1979 when Roy bested "Big Ern" in the 1979 Iowa Amateur Championship of bowling. Before he was "The Plastic Man", Roy was on his way to making "Munson" to bowling what DiMaggio is to baseball.   I've already used the 1979 Topps basbeall design for my Warriors cards, so paying homage to Ocelot Iowa's favorite son was already halfway in the bag.

Last up was the all-star subset.  I'm not sure if there's all-stars in bowling, but if there is Ernie McCracken would be one.  I mean, c'mon, he's "Big Ern"... he's the greatest!

To say I'm happy with how these cards came together would be a gross understatement

Dirk Nowitzki

NBA Champion, league MVP, one of the all-time greats.  Dirk won my support over the years because by all accounts that I've seen or read he's a down-to-earth and humble guy.  Gotta root for that.  So this particular card is one I'm very proud to have in my collection.

I've wanted to use this design for forever, it's just that nothing really made sense to me with that wood grain outside of a baseball card.

The card is from Dirk's annual Heroes celebrity baseball game which he's been hosting since 2001 befitting charity.  While not '80s nostalgia I thought the '87 design would work nicely and give me a chance to finally the wood grained design.  I've used it since, but the Dirk card was the first one.

Sara Underwood

I was forwarded the image you see in this card with a request for a custom baseball card.

This one was fun.  I finally got around to using the very distinguishable 1987 Topps baseball design. The 1987 Topps hold a very special place with me as they were the first wax I ever busted open.

There was a challenge in that Sara is not wearing a specific team jersey so there was no logical logo to put in the designated logo circle in the upper left.  I improvised and used some good ol' clip art. I'm very fond of how that part came out.  I did color coordinate the name plate to the jersey just as the name plates were color coded to the team colors.