Fletch (Yet Again)

With all the craziness that is the world we're currently all living in I just haven't been able to focus on my custom trading card making hobby.  That's a shame because at the start of the new year I had 1,001 ideas for cards and different things for the PCb. brand, but ... here we are.

Most of my ideas are on the back burner save for this one that came via email from a collector of the cards I make.  It was one I just really didn't want to put off.  Unbeknownst to me there were some sports themed scenes from Fletch that didn't make the final film.  One of those was of Fletch posing as a relief pitcher for the Dodgers.  I thought eventually I'd be doing another card or two starring Chevy Chase but I thought I didn't think it'd be another I.M. Fletcher card.  But... there could be one last Fletch card yet to be made.  There's also a deleted scene of Fletch as a goalie for the L.A. Kings and if a decent quality picture of it ever surfaces I'll be all over it.

The card is in the style of Topps' 1985 baseball design.  

Hopefully we, as a world community, collectively kick some coronavirus ass so we can all resume our normal lives.

Another Fletch Card

While sifting through my personal card collection I was reminded of Star's 1985 All-Star subset that was sponsored by Miller Lite (there's also a version that uses the same player photo just with a gold border and a Crunch 'n Munch logo).  I thought the Lite version would be awesome for a Fletch card.  Even though I've made a number of Fletch cards I went back for one more.

Since I started making these custom cards I've done a three Fletch basketball cards starting with a 1985 Topps baseball inspired design.  There was also the behind-the-scenes shot of Chevy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that I plugged into a 1986 Fleer basketball inspired design.  After that was the 1985 Star Co. design with the purple Lakers border.

Not only did I think it would be a humorous addition because of the beer sponsor, but it also gave me a chance to do a custom card back. 

At this point I've just resigned myself to the fact that I'll never be done making custom Chevy Chase cards.

Spies Like Us

I know it may seem like I’m a mission to make trading cards from Chevy Chase’s complete movie library.  That is not the intention.  I’m not saying it won’t eventually come to pass, it’s just not the intention.  I guess I never knew what a big Chevy slappy I actually am.

The inspiration for a Spies Like Us card set came from a Throwback Thursday post Vanessa Angel shared on her Instagram feed recently.  It was a clip of the scene in the movie where Chevy, Dan Aykroyd, and Donna Dixon first stumble upon the Russian rocket crew and are spying on Vanessa as she steps out of her tent for a scantily clad stretch.  If you got a chance to read my last post that scene is one of those that I vividly remember seeing as a kid and just thinking “wowwwww”.  Back before the internet movie scenes like that were as good as it got for a young boy.

I wanted to make a card of that scene specifically, but I figured why stop at a card?  Why not a mini-set?  That meant I had to go back and rewatch the movie.  That’s one of the best parts of the cards I make; getting to rediscover movies I love but maybe haven’t seen in a number of years.  Spies Like Us, in my opinion, stands the test of time.  You really can’t put Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd together and not get an entertaining comedy.

For the cards I initially thought of a 1985 Fleer baseball inspired design.  While I was sourcing images for the cards I came across a scan of some German lobby cards from the movie.

German lobby card

Lobby cards are like mini posters (typically 11” x 14”) that promote a movie.  They were printed on card stock and were typically in sets of eight with each one displaying a different key movie scene and usually displayed in the lobby of a theater, or distributed to moviegoers.  Lobby cards are rarely if ever produced for movies these days.

When I saw the lobby cards it shifted my thinking from the 1985 Fleer baseball to a mash-up of the lobby card design and the 1985 Star Co. basketball design which I felt would work better since they already shared some design similarities.

At 20 cards this set is about a quarter of the number of cards usually used by Topps for a movie card set.  With that being said, it’s not nearly as scene-by-scene comprehensive as an 80+ card set would be but I feel like I included some of the more memorable scenes of the movie in sequence.  One of the funnest parts of this labor of love, as with my other larger mini-sets (oxymoron much?) was not just watching the movie but studying it for the correct verbiage that I felt a any big fan of the movie would appreciate. 

Are You Serious, Clark?

If it isn't obvious I'm a Clark Griswold fan, and really just a Chevy Chase fan in general.  I couldn't let the season go by without adding a couple more custom "Sparky" cards to the portfolio.

I chose two of Christmas Vacation's funniest scenes to honor with a couple of vintage inspired custom trading cards.

The first card is inspired by the 1989 Topps baseball Record Breakers subset.  I always get a kick out of making theses record breaks cards and since, until we hear otherwise, we'll assume Clark did indeed shatter the Amateur Recreational Saucer Sled Land Speed Record.

The second card is modeled after the 1989 Topps hockey All-Star subset. 

"Bend over and I'll show ya"

Funny Farm (Updated)

I went back and made this a Funny Farm mini-set. I actually had to correct my original Andy Farmer card because I messed up on the name of the town in the movie. The original said “Rosebud” when it should have been “Redbud”. Oops. I also changed the image because I wanted to use that image for the Record Breaker card. A card, by the way, that I love. An Andy Farmer lamb fry record breaker card is just hilarious to me. I only wish I could have gotten a decent image from that scene, but it’s still hilarious to me. The mini-set rounds out with Elizabeth Farmer. I knew this wouldn’t be one of my larger sets, but I would have maybe added a couple more characters had I been able to find some decent images.

I haven’t made it a goal to make cards of every Chevy Chase role ever, despite that sort of seemingly starting to happen organically. I mean, I definitely like Chevy and am a fan but apparently I need to consider him for my personal Mt. Rushmore of favorite actors.

Funny Farm holds a special place for me. It’s a movie both myself and my mom enjoyed. I got my love for a escaping into a good movie from her. She wasn’t a nerd about it like me, but she definitely hobby watched movies.

There’s a number of parts I remember her always laughing out loud to. Chevy pulling snake from the pond, the psycho mailman, the “lamb fries" record. I can picture quoting that scene “the trick is you’ve got to clip them off way up high” while making the finger scissor motion. I miss my mom … a lot.  Funny Farm is one of those movies that we could always agree on whenever there wasn’t an answer to “what do you feel like watching?” while thumbing through the tapes on the shelf. So this card literally brings a smile to my face to look at, and a lump in my throat if I’m being completely honest.

This is the second Andy Farmer card I’ve made.  The first one was among the first I made when I started tinkering with card making. It, like the rest, were in the style of the 1985 Topps baseball cards. I wanted to update it to a year accurate template with the movie being released in 1988. My original card was a Mets card with the Andy character wearing a Mets hat throughout the movie. The original picture was really poor quality looking back at it now, this one is much better. I changed it from a Mets card to a “Redbud” card after the name of the small Vermont town that Funny Farm is set in. The gag being that Andy desperately wanting to be a part of his new hometown but the community not receiving him so warmly in return. For the colors I used the St Louis Cardinals scheme from the 1988 Topps because, you know, Cardinals … “Rosebud” "Redbud"… the color red.

This card could turn into a mini-set I guess depending on the response I get from it. I’m not sure how many others out there geek out to it like me. It’s not Caddyshack or a Lampoon's classic, but to me it’s up there. If there’s enough others who love this movie as much as I do and would want the other memorable characters on cardboard then I’d be more than happy to expand. If not, I’m cool with this one card being a Funny Farm representation in the Phantom Cardboard raisonné.

Get a copy here.

Caddyshack

Caddyshack would fall under the ‘it’s about time’ heading when it comes to new additions to PCb custom trading cards. Gotta have Caddyshack, right?

This mini-set was a lot of fun to make. I have to believe Caddyshack is on most comedy fans shortlist and the #1 best golf comedy -- that or Happy Gilmore, depending on the age of who you ask.

I finally got to again use the 1980 Topps baseball inspired design I created for my "Bubba Newman" card. The 1980 design is super nostalgic looking to me. I throw the word ‘nostalgic’ around a bunch. You can find ‘nostalgia’ defined as: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition. That’s what this design is to me. My cards in general are made to evoke nostalgia, mashing two things from my own past that I look back on fondly; ‘80s (mostly) pop culture and trading cards. You could give me any year in the ‘80s and I immediately identify it with what cards from Topps (and to a lesser extent the other brands) looked like that particular year. When I would part the two folds of a wax pack what was inside was very similar to the cards I make today. They didn’t have any gold foil stamping. There was no high gloss UV coating. There wasn’t 25 different releases to choose from at upwards of hundreds of dollars per pack that are secured in a metal briefcases. No cut up pieces of jerseys or manufacturer certified autographed cards. The cards were on a, for lack of more flattering descriptors, rough and almost cheap feeling cardboard stock. The graphics weren’t crisp with computer generated precision, but that was part of the charm. That’s not to say they weren’t cool looking. They were, and could keep the eye busy. This was before the picture quality dominated the card to the point where it looked like you were holding a photograph taken from courtside seats. That’s cool and all but give me the halftone dots any day of the week and I’ll be happy. In a nutshell Phantom Cardboard trading cards are a tangible yearning for a simpler time.

Stepping down from my soapbox now, I love how these came out. That’s probably another statement I overuse on this blog, but I would think if I didn’t like a card set I made I wouldn’t show it off. I swapped the player position text for the character’s role at the "Bushwood Country Club".

The card’s color scheme is from the 1980 Topps St. Louis Cardinals colors.  "Bushwood" is supposed to be located in Nebraska. Had it been set in a state that had a Major League team I would have chosen that team’s colors. I went with the Cardinals schemes because the Caddie’s shirts were somewhat of a red color.


Fun Fact:
I recently read that both Chevy Chase and Bill Murray (John Travolta as well) turned down the role of Forrest Gump.

Sorry Folks, Park's Closed!

I actually like all of the first 4 Vacation movies. My favorite of course are the first one and Christmas Vacation. The one I favor is usually the one I've seen most recently, or if it's around the holidays Christmas Vacation get the nod by default, which I previously created a mini-set for. I'm finding out I just have a card making thing for most things Chevy Chase.

Some time last month I popped in my VHS copy of 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation and was inspired to do a mini card set. This is my new largest mini-set totaling 25 cards. I keep inching closer to a regular size set although I can't see myself doing a full 88 card sets, which seemed to be the magic number for non-sport card sets back in the day.  In the 25 cards that this mini-set spans I feel it does a decent job of spanning the films key plot moments.

For this set I went with a design inspired by the 1983 Donruss Magnum P.I. set. I modified it a bit by squeezing the frame's height a bit so I could add some text below the picture. I used a font I thought had a good "Wally World" feel to it. Another touch was to make the frame a nice "metallic pea" color.

We all know and love this movie so without further fluff I give your the mini-set...

Pick up a set of your own in the PCb Card Shop.

Shitter's Full

'Tis the season, right?  Favorite Christmas movie, no hesitation, Christmas Vacation.  So many classic scenes and lines that have been part of every Christmas since 1989.

Chevy Chase is brilliant in this installment of National Lampoon's Vacation.  "Sparky" Griswold, the put-upon family man that despite genuine best intentions everything just ends up backfiring in his face.  All too relateable to yours truly.

These cards are inspired by the 1989 Topps football cards.  It really was a toss up between the year's football and baseball release, both of which I had templates ready to go.  The football won out because it's clean and a bit easier for me to work with; which was a factor seeing as I set out to make a mini-set.

These cards might not be quite as awesome as a one year membership to the Jelly of the Month Club, but I would place them a close second. The set could have been larger had I come across quality images of a few more of the "jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse", but I did get all the characters that I considered 'must haves'.

UPDATE: Awesome TTM success!

Fletch

This card was a case of seeing a picture I liked and wanting to make a card out of it.  I had previously had a Chevy Chase/Fletch card TTM success with the 1985 Topps baseball template, which I've pictured below.  But, like I said, I wanted to do one with this picture.  It's looks to be a cool behind-the-scenes shot of Chevy and Kareem goofing around.

This time around I used the iconic 1986 Fleer basketball design.  This design has no alternate colors so I just masked out the middle.  The picture didn't fit just right so I put the white fade in anticipation of Mr. Chase's sig. Fletch came out in 1985, but the only basketball cards to chose from would have the 1985 Star.  Those are fine and all but not nearly as recognizable as the 1986-87 Fleer are.

I made this a Lakers "Team Leaders" card so I could make it of both of Fletch and Abdul-Jabbar. I got the idea of course from the old Topps baseball subset.  They might still do that, I don't know, haven't collected baseball cards in a minute as the kids say.

He's 6'5", with the afro 6'9"