Fast Times Series III

In my never ending quest to give proper custom trading card representation to my favorite movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, I've created a third installment of my Fast Times set.  You can never have too much Fast Times.  

Retrofitting the 1983 Donruss Knight Rider card set into a Fast Times set is another idea I've had for some time now.  Originally I was just replacing K.I.T.T. with the VW stoner van, but then I got to thinking that there were a few other notable cars in the movie, and also being that having a cool set of wheel is such a big part of the high school experience, I incorporated three other cars from the movie into the set.  Those other three being Mike Damone's 1973 Gremlin,  Charles Jefferson's alumni gifted 1979 Camaro Z28 and of course Brad Hamilton's "beautiful 4-door luxury sedan".

From there is it was just selecting 9 cool images I'd want to include in the trilogy set.  I wanted to get Mrs. Vargas (Lana Clarkson) on a card because I hadn't previously.  I also wanted Spicoli wearing the Sex Wax shirt, Jefferson going H.A.M. on Lincoln as well as Brad's self love session.  The others are also cool, card worthy scenes.  The Linda Barret card is more of a candid promo photo (and the only vertical card) with the reverse side showing the completed puzzle.

Oh, yeah -- since the '83 Knight Rider set were puzzle backed cards, that's what I did with my set.  The reverse side is the Australian Fast Times poster art.  It's not one that you see very often so I thought it'd make for a fun puzzle card back.  

I think this set could possibly have legs enough for me to do a fourth series using it.  Since the template is already done it'd just be a matter of getting the itch for yet even more Fast Times cards.  

Fast Times 40th Anniversary

In August my favorite movie -one of them anyways-, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, celebrated its 40th anniversary.  Watching the movie once again made me want to pay a trading card tribute to it.  The only problem I've almost exhausted all ideas that make sense, but I was pretty dogged in the idea that I had at least another Fast Times card in me.  Turns out I had three.

I began thinking of the different card designs that were out in 1982, the year Fast Times was released in theaters.  I've used a number of the sports card designs on the movie, so I thought about non-sports options.  That's when I landed on the design for one of the biggest blockbusters of the 1980's, E.T.  I started out by making a Linda Barrett die-cut sticker insert.  I thought her iconic red bikini would popped with the red of the sticker border.  The design it self is pretty recognizable as it also used for the 1977 Topps Star Wars set stickers.  Then, because the only thing better than a new Phoebe Cates card is two new Phoebe Cates cards, I went ahead and made a card inspired by the E.T. base set design.  For this card I thought it would be fun to replace the E.T. silhouette with one of Linda Barrett the moment before she unhooks her top in Brad's fantasy.  For the card back I did another silhouette of that famous pool fantasy scene that ruined so many rental tape copies back in the day.  For S&G I also turned that graphic into a sticker because I just cannot help myself.

I had thought in the past of making a Brad Hamilton baseball card with him in his Cleveland Indians jersey.  I think the reason I held off  before was because the jersey is worn during kind of a touchy scene when Brad unknowingly gave his younger sister Stacy a ride to the abortion clinic.  For myself I can't really separate the jersey from the scene.  But, even so I thought it could still make for a good custom baseball card.  Since I used the '82 Topps design for the two series of Fast Times movie cards I wanted to use one of the designs from the other two major companies; Donruss or Fleer.  

Since, in my opinion, the 1982 Donruss design is completely horrendous it was going to be Fleer.  The 1982 Fleer baseball design is kind of generic looking but I think that also gives it charm and versatility.  On the back I used Brad's work resume in place of baseball stats and added a few Brad Hamilton highlights at the bottom.

It would have been nice to pair these with the Spicoli card I made back in July.  That card was one the few times I was able to time a card with a date being that I wanted to put it out around the Fourth of July.  I was more more disciplined in doing that these newest card would have been done around the time of the anniversary date, but having them out in the same year is good enough for me.

Spicoli's Independence Day

I've been sitting on the idea for this card for quite a few years.  I think the reason it hasn't gotten done until now is that I wanted to time it with Independence Day and in years past the 4th of July has always snuck up on me and then it would be too late, so it would go on the backburner for a year at a time.  More recently I've mainly been working on autograph cards for my personal collection, so this time it was easier to take a break from that as opposed to being in the middle of creating a new mini-set and not wanting to pause from that.

Rack Pack Glossy all-star

The idea for this card was always to do it in the style of the old glossy rack pack all-star inserts.  Anyone who collected baseball cards in the '80s probably had a few of these in their collection.  These cards highlighted MLB all-stars from 1984 to 1991 with virtually no change to the design with the exception of updating the year at the top.  I chose this design for its 'all-American' appeal.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is one of the 5 or so movies I consider to be my "favorite" because I just can't pick a clear winner, as I like different movies for different reason.  Fast Times, as well as The Karate Kid (another on that favorites list), are movies I've exhausted most any sensible trading card tie-ins for.  I particularly enjoy making cards for Jeff Spicoli and Linda Barrett with those two being my favorite male and female characters in the film.  I'm sure that's also true of most fans of the movie due to their respective magnetic scenes.   

The scene depicted on this card was foreshadowed on the first day of school - "Just like you wouldn't want me to come to your house some evening and discuss U.S. history with you on your time" - and is the third and final act in Mr. Hand and Jeff Spicoli's adversarial teacher/student relationship.  After having Mr. Hand's will imposed onto him in the first two acts Jeff was able to muster a little redemption with his recounting of the American Revolution in the most Spicoli way ever.  That summary of events of what led to the birth of a new nation I thought would be the perfect card back in a Constitution/Declaration of Independence style presentation. 

One element this card HAD to have was a reference to, in my opinion, one of the funniest lines in Fast Times when on the first day of school Jeff Spicoli, despite the totally confusing new schedule, reasons that he's found the his U.S. History class he's supposed to be in because he spots a globe in the back corner of the room - "This is U.S. History, I see the globe right there."  Dead giveaway, right?

Mike Damone

I recently picked up the Fast Times at Ridgemont High Criterion Blu-Ray and it reignited my love for the movie.  Currently it's one of the movies in a four-way tie for my "favorite" movie.  If you haven't picked up the Criterion Blu-Ray I'd HIGHLY recommend it.  It includes the TV edit of the film which basically feels like a whole nother movie with all the alternate and unused footage used in that cut.  They also put Damone's dong (if you're into that kind of thing) back in the pool house undressing scene that was originally omitted back then to avoid an X rating.  And of course there's the special feature commentary type stuff.

There's certain things I'll always be on the look out for ideas to make more cards of and anything from Fast Times certainly is one of them.  But, it's gotta be something that makes sense and not a generic 'just because' type of reason.

"No, I don't have any Blue Oyster Cult.  I ate 34 pairs last time around.  Where were you?  I was that close to working at 7-11, ya know?"

While watching the movie for the upteenth time I thought up a conceptual card, kind of like I did with the Charles Barkley Pizza Hut card.  During the credits they give some updates on a few of the main characters as to what they went on to do shortly after the time of when the movie leaves off.  Mike Damone ends up working at 7-11 after being busted for scalping Ozzy Osbourne concert tickets - a fate which Mike foreshadowed earlier in the movie (see quote above).  That gave me a fun idea for a with-purchase promotional card from 7-11 for Mike Damone.

During the "junk wax era" there was no shortage of special card tie-ins with brands and products.  Along with commemorative Slurpee cups, 7-11 would also come to offer several card tie-ins over this time period.  So, I decided to conceptualize a 1983 promotion where 7-11 highlighted some of their employees in special edition trading cards.  A totally ridiculous concept, but it gave me another Fast Times card so I went with it.

For the card I went with a template inspired by the design of the manager cards within the 1983 Topps baseball set and decked it out in 7-11 colors.

On the back I included that Damone was originally from Philadelphia.  This is no mention of this factoid in the film, but it is a character background detail revealed during an interview by Robert Romanus.   

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".