Just One Of The Guys

Just One of the Guys is an incredible movie that I personally feel sometimes unfairly gets overlooked because it was made in the '80s when so many other great movies came out.  Heck, in just 1985 alone -- the year the movie was released -- you had movies come out like Back To The Future, First Blood Part II, Teen Wolf, Commando, The Goonies and the list goes on-and-on.  For me though, Just One of the Guys is right up there with that list.  I can watch it anytime.  It's a charming movie that unfortunately I'm not so sure could be made in today's over-sensitive culture.  Joyce Hyser's Terry was an androgynous rock star plus Sherilyn Fenn and William Zabka are a couple of all-time favorites of mine.

As it usually goes I was inspired to do this set after a recent re-watching.  Since this movie, in my opinion, is so slept on I wanted to do something special as far as a custom card set goes.  I tried to visualize how cards would look in all of the different 1985 sport card templates from all the major companies and nothing looked in my mind like a home run.  Then, like the loser I am, I watched the movie again a couple of days later and the answer was right there in the dialogue:

Terry: "I'm a girl.  I'm a woman."

Rick: "Right, and I'm Cyndi Lauper."

Eureka!  In 1985 Topps put out a Cyndi Lauper trading card set! Perfect! I knew the pink paint splatter design would be a great throwback look for this set.

1985 Topps Cyndi Lauper

The Cyndi Lauper cards were not captioned on the front, they all just said "Cyndi Lauper" in that squiggly nameplate thingy.  I thought to use that same design for a caption would be a real pain in the ass.  So, what I did was I threw a Just One of the Guys movie logo in the upper left corner.  When I looked at that it felt like it needed something else.  The logo doesn't really pop so I decided to add something to the lower right corner to kind of even the card out for the eye.  I first thought of some sort of head shot cameo and started looking for the right image.  That's where I came across the overseas VHS cover art and got an idea to edit the image to do the half-and-half Terry you see on the cards.  I really think that's my favorite part of these cards.

Since I didn't have a caption on the front I decided to do something that has been requested but not done with my cards to this point ... each card has a unique back.  I studied a lot up on the movie so I could have a unique quote and fun fact on the reverse of each card.  I personally love that kind of nerd fanboy stuff.  That cameo head shot idea I was going to use for the front got incorporated onto the back design.  I'm not sure how often I'm going to make unique backings for future cards but, like I said, I wanted  to do something a little special for this set.

This mini-set consists of a title card plus nine cards all with unique quotes and facts on the back... plus a bonus card, shaking out to eleven total cards.

I feel like I'd be neglectful if I didn't mention something about "the scene" in which Terry proves to Rick that she is indeed a she by revealing to him a couple of the most perfect breasts in cinematic history.  For a guy like me that is probably closest maturity-wise to the ever horny younger brother Buddy, that scene is everything.  As far as breasts scenes go I put it as 1b to Phoebe Cates' 1a in Fast Times, it's that spectacular.  In researching the movie it seems Joyce Hyser is a little uneasy about the whole thing all these years later especially when it's found on the internet out of context to the movie's plot.  I get that, and as respectfully as possible I would say to her she's got nothing to feel uneasy about.  I found it interesting when I read that she's said no one has ever asked her at a signing or convention to sign that particular scene.  I don't think I'd have the fortitude myself  to try and get that signed but I'd probably be picturing it in my head while she signed one of my PG-13 cards.  Sorry, Joyce.

Thrashin' Drops In

If you’ve never seen it, Thrashin’ is ninety-two minutes of 80’s awesomeness.  I think if I was teaching a course on 80’s cinema it would be on the required watching list.

For my money Thrashin’ is the Citizen Kane of skateboarding movies.  But, I guess a movie that has a similar story as my all-time favorite movie, The Karate Kid, would create some bias in my eyes.  Corey Webster (Josh Brolin) is the new kid in town who quickly finds himself the annoyance of a rival gang and the only way to settle things is a big competition for Southern California skate scene supremacy.  There's also that idea of a class struggle, although in this movie the protagonist is on the Valley end of things.  Mix that with shades of Romeo and Juliet with Corey’s love interest Chrissy (Pamela Gidley) being the younger sister of Hook (Robert Rusler), the leader of the punker skater faction “Daggers”, sworn enemy of the Corey and his “Ramp Locals” buddies.  If you're a fan of fine 80’s cheese this flick is Havarti. Mmmmm.

If that little write up isn’t enough to make you shell out the bucks to get your very own VHS copy then maybe this line will seal the deal:

Chrissy: "Well, what do you thrash?"
Corey: "What do ya got?"

1986 Donruss

And if your STILL not convinced there's lots of rad skate scenes and cameos by the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers,  pro skaters Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, and Eddie Reategui.  Plus, it was the film debut of Lost Boys' vampire Brooke McCarter.

Alright, now for the card mini-set.  This was the second time I used the 1986 Donruss baseball inspired design, the first was with my set for The Wraith (also with Sherilyn Fenn).  Although this time I took a couple of gnarly creative liberties. I changed the color of the frame to pink.  It's a color that's used in the movie's logo plus it's a predominant color of the 80's fashions worn in Thrashin'.

On the veritcally oriented cards I moved the Thrashin' logo to the upper left of the card.  I just thought it looked better.  On the horizontal cards I put it back in the lower left of the image where the team logo would be for the '86 Donruss.  I also added a 1986 Donruss-esque Phantom Cardboard logo which I thought fits nicely with the overall design.

The Wraith

I got a message a direct message from an Instagram friend, @creature1031, asking me if I had done cards from The Wraith (1986) yet. I told him that not only had I not done any, but I've never even heard of the movie, to which he recommended I go on Netflix and check it out.  So, I did just that.

Within the first couple of minutes of watching The Wraith I knew that "yes" I was going to make some cards.  Then, I started to feel embarrassed for myself having not known of this movie until now.  I even contemplated turning in my '80s kid card but figured I could atone by making some cool trading cards.

1986 Donruss

This movie is so cool. You've got a cast that features names like Charlie Sheen, Randy Quaid, and Clint Howard.  You've got a soundtrack with names like Mötley Crüe, Robert Palmer, Billy Idol, and Ozzy Ozbourne.  Add a smoking hot Sherilyn Fenn, a totally '80s-fied story and some really cool cars to get a movie that I literally love and have watched 4 times since -- some of it was for "trading card research", so save the complete loser accusations, even if it might be the case ... maybe.

For the template it was an easy choice, a 1986 Donruss inspired design. There's no way to build this choice up other than to say that it fits perfectly. In my opinion it fits better with these cards than it does the baseball cards. I could even imagine a similar design on the trim on the inside of the Turbo Interceptor.

I found making cards for this set like potato chips.  This is my largest set to date.  The only reason I stopped at 17 was lack of images to use.