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.  

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?

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.