Frankenhooker

This 50 card set is the custom set I referenced as a "passion project" back in this post.  I began tinkering on this set at the end of June.  A combination of things; it being a 50 card set and a couple of printing setbacks, stretched this one out for months.  There was no rush because I make these for fun.  I didn't give myself a deadline, so the proximity to Halloween is a ghoulish coincidence.

At 50 cards (52 if you count the promo card and special "Dream Ghoul" card) this is the largest card set I've done.  I learned a lot, most specifically that I'll never do a set this large again. It's just too much for my one-man Mickey Mouse operation.

This set came to be thanks to my son and his repeated viewings of the Blu-ray, which eventually I had to hide.  I can't recall if I've mentioned it on other blog posts -probably not, I try to keep it about the cards- but, my son is on the spectrum.  He's non-verbal, so movies are a form of communication and bonding for he and I.  The only issue is that when he likes a movie he can't just watch it once, or even two or three times.  It's back-to-back-to-back for days or weeks or sometimes months.  He's done the same thing with Cliff Hanger, Total Recall, The Running Man, Return of the Living Dead Part 3, Suspiria,  among other movies.  He gravitates towards the intense action scenes.  

I decided to make a set from Frankenhooker because the more times I watched this quirky movie, the more I fell in love with it.  I've always been fond of the film, but I really started to deeply appreciate the performances, the aesthetic and story.  It's crazy to me that the idea for the movie was originally an on-the-spot ad lib by director Frank Henenlotter after another of his more thought-out movie concepts was shot down by his would-be producer.  

Another pseudo-factor in liking Frankenhooker is that it's an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  It seems everyone has their favorite Marvel and DC characters (Incredible Hulk and Plastic-Man, respectively) but I'd also be interested to know other's favorite Universal Monster character.  Mine has always been Frankenstein.  

Horror movies (or horror comedies in this movie's case) are my favorite to make sets from.  I just really like the special effects visuals.  Monsters are just fun to create a vintage inspired custom cards out of.  That's also how this set ended up being 50 cards.  By the 87th -give or take- viewing I loved so much about the movie that I wanted to include as much of it as I possibly could.  I wanted the card set to follow the sequence of the movie and present nicely that way in a binder.

I considered a few different card sets looks from 1990, but I felt that a template inspired by the 1990 Topps baseball design would work out best to give these cards a look unique to the movie but still recognizable as a classic Topps design.  Plus, the '90 Topps frames was purple after all... "I'm looking for a tall purple girl.  She's got a black forearm and fresh stitches".  I also wanted a design that would lend well to using captions as is the case with non-sports card sets.  That might have been my favorite part, coming up with the double entendre puns.

The same approach was taken for the card backs.  I wanted them to resemble the '90 Topps with some Frankenhooker flair.  I watched the movie scene-by-scene pausing to get exact quotes for use on the card backs.  There's a few scenes that did not have dialog so those 4 (I believe) cards have movie trivia questions on them.  I also wanted to give each card a fun fact because I personally place great importance on that type of shit of zero consequence, rather than figure out how things like stocks or mortgages work.  It's not enough to like a movie.  I need to be able to annoy others with "did you know?" type information that they couldn't really care less about. 

Pretzels GOOOD

The set ended up being 48 cards, which with being that close to 50 didn't sit quite right with me.  So, I made two checklists which is ironic because I'm not planning on parting specific cards from the rest, so if you have the checklists, you have the rest of the set.  But, it gave me an excuse to use a couple cool behind-the-scenes shots that otherwise didn't have sequential story context.  Which begs the question of why didn't I just just cap the set with a couple of behind-the-scenes cards instead of checklists?  That is a pretty good question actually.  I don't know.  It's just what I did.  Consider it just a homage to set collecting where the checklist let you know which cards you needed to complete a set, like back in 1990.

The Dream "Ghoul" card is a play on the Dream Girl cards I do, which of course are a play on the Dream Team subset from the 1991 Score baseball set.  In the time it has taken to produce this set I've plugged upwards of 20 or more images into the Dream Girl template.  Patty Mullen was such a babe and a brilliant choice to play Elizabeth as she had a great look (1988 Penthouse Pet of the Year) and had the comedic chops to soften a character that is essentially a prostitute monstrosity. 

I also made a promo card for the hell of it.  In the early '90s I remember promo cards really coming into vouge, especially with non-sport card sets.  I totally marked out to those oddball type of cards.  They were the epitome of rare and special to me.  You couldn't get them in packs.  Sometimes they were dealer exclusives or sometimes they'd be a magazine premium.  Either way, I was in awe of them, so I thought it'd be cool to recreate that with this set. 

New Dream Girl Cards Wave 2

As was mentioned in the last post, I'm working my way through a backlog of new additions to the Dream Girl custom set.  Here is the second wave of six cards.  

I noted that there's a few of the girls in the new additions that'll be featured on two cards with my inability to chose one photo over the other.  This time around it was Emma Watson.  My cards, my rules ;) 

New Dream Girl Cards Wave 1

I've been working on a card set that I want to call a "passion project" but at the same time I do not want to call it that because that just sounds overly dramatic.  I like to keep the whole thing fun and not take it too seriously.  These are trading cards and not my "work" or my "art".  The cards give me an opportunity to be creative in an otherwise mundane existence.   I appreciate the humor in them more then anything, coupled with an outlet that can quell my OCD-like need to perfect custom trading card nuance.

So, while I've been plugging away at this card set *tease* I've been adding onto the ongoing Dream Girls set I've cultivated over the last couple of years. I'll see images from time-to-time that I feel would make great additions to this highly subjective series.  But, I haven't stopped long enough to make physical renditions and post them here.

I figured I better put a few of these out there before it gets out of hand.  As it stands there's 17 new DG cards all told.  With that many I've decided to post them in three waves, with this being the first.

Each of the three waves will feature one Dream Girl that has two versions.  Basically it happened that threes time I couldn't choose between two images, so I just didn't.

Sig. Showcase: Christie Brinkley

I just got these two cards back via a send-in from a private signing that Official Pix did with Christie Brinkley.  It was pretty much a no-brainer to participate in this signing.  Autograph + 80's icon is an automatic custom card-on for me.   

I've made 3 cards featuring Christie, one as a part of the ongoing Dream Girl set, and two within the Vacation set.  I chose the two pictured above to send in.  It was a toss up between the two Vacation cards.  The other is the iconic shot of Christie in the Ferrari, but I chose the hotel swimming pool scene card with the idea that the upper left corner left a lot of space to really showcase an autograph.

The Dream Girl card is the first of the sixteen "official" DG cards that I've gotten signed.  There's a few rouge Dream Girl cards out there however that were done as commissions that have been inked. 

Another thing that really appealed to me about this private signing was discovering upon some research how clean Christie's autograph is.  I was confident the cards would turn out great.  For Official Pix's part these two cards were signed exactly as I requested them to be, plus they put a nice holographic COA sticker on the back.  I'd highly recommend their service if you're an autograph collector.

New Dream Girl Trio

My card making production is a far cry from what it was during the Covid era of 2020-21.  Being back to in-person work has had a negative effect on my pace, but I still find time here and there to have some rectangular creative cardboard fun.

In this time I've fielded a number of inquiries about the Dream Girl series I'd been cultivating.  I guess I'm to assume it has a little bit of a following.  I can see the appeal.  Beautiful woman X a very memorable early '90s baseball card subset.  It's got the freshest ingredients.  

So, since it's been a hot minute I've decided to add not one, but THREE new additions to this ongoing set.  Halle Berry, Brooklyn Deck and Charlotte McKinney.  The latter two are carry overs of a boxing themed TKO! series I  had started that was kind of a predecessor to the Dream Girl set, and the Halle was a cutting room floor commission.

Jennifer Connelly

In at lucky number 13 in the ongoing Dream Girl series is the beuatiful and talented Jennifer Connelly.  The really neat thing about about Jennifer Connelly for an '80s kid is that we got to mature (debatable for me) with her film roles.  I really feel like Jennifer Connelly "one of ours" and should be, if not already, be considered a treasure for our generation.  

Many us of were introduced to her in 1986 as Sarah in the fantasy tale Labyrinth.  From there it was on to fun roles like in Career Opportunities and The Rocketeer, both 1991.  The turn of the century saw Jennifer really come into her own with career defining performances in movies like Requiem for a Dream and A Beautiful Mind for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Dream Girl, Kate Upton

Continuing in the "Dream Girl" series inspired by the 1991 Score baseball Dream Team subset is the newest addition, Kate Upton.

Kate, like a number of the other Dream Girls in this series, was able to use her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue stardom to springboard herself into household name status. 

Dream Girl Alex

I wanted to add a more modern entry to what has turned into an ongoing series of "Dream Girls" cards (inspired by the 1991 Score Dream Team subset).

The beautiful Alexandra Daddario is the newest in this card series.  While I like to keep things nostalgic around here, I see no harm in Alex joining the team.  This card also serves to help balance the set a bit between actresses and super models.

Christie Brinkley

Christie Brinkley being added to the ongoing collection of 1991 Score baseball inspired  "Dream Girl" cards was not an if, but when.  Christie, like a majority of the women in the Dream Girl set, gained notoriety by becoming a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl.  In fact, Christie is the only model to appear on 3 consecutive covers, starting in 1979.  In the '80s S.I. Swimsuit Issue cover girls were the apex of what you'd consider a "Dream Girl', to me anyways.

Of course Christie also permeated the fantasy girl realm for some many of us as  "The girl in the red Ferrari" in National Lampoon's Vacation.  Beverly D'Angelo and Christie Brinkley??  Clark, you lucky dog.

Rachel Hunter

If you're talking a who's-who of elite '80s goddesses then you must include Rachel Hunter to the pantheon of unimaginably unattainable super hotties.  

With the addition of Rachel to the 1991 Score baseball Dream Team inspired Dream Girls lineup it completes the iconic 1994 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit "Dream Team" cover alongside Kathy Ireland and Elle Macpherson.  

Elle Macpherson

The newest addition to the 1991 Score Dream Team inspired Dream Girls set is none other than the legendary Australian supermodel, Elle Macpherson.  Being on the cover of a record five Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues I would think puts Elle on the Mt. Rushmore of supermodels.

Salma Hayek

The newest addition to the ongoing 1991 Score Dream Team inspired Dream Girl set is none other than Salma Hayek.  

There was a a good long time that Salma topped my celebrity crush list.  I'm pretty sure it started with her snake dancing scene in from Dusk till Dawn.   At 54 Salma looks better than most whom are half her age.

Tiffani Thiessen

 

Next in the running Dream Girl series that was inspired by the 1991 Score Dream Team subset is none other than Miss Kelly Kapowski herself, Tiffani Thiessen.  

Dream Girl Kathy Ireland

This custom card is probably long overdue.  I've made a few of these "Dream Girl" cards from a 1991 Score baseball "Dream Team" inspired design.  When you're talking about dream girls for Gen X'ers, Kathy has to be on the shortest of shortlists.  Hopefully, this card makes up for her absence to date.

Mamba Forever

When Kobe Bryant perished in a helicopter crash this past January I was affected by the news as much as any celebrity death in my lifetime.  I remember sitting on my sofa in shock not really believing it could be true.  "Not Kobe, anyone but Kobe!"  I kept expecting to see a breaking update that Kobe had actually survived having jumped out of the helicopter moments before it crashed in true "Mamba Mentality" fashion.

As I've written on here before basketball is my favorite sport.  I grew up with the Bad Boy Pistons, so I pretty much hated every other team and star players because there was this notion that they hated us.  I've carried that type of fandom throughout my life.  I don't like the hoops darlings that the NBA tries to sell.  I like guys that are gritty, win at all cost non-prima donna types.  Kobe was that in my eyes.  He wanted to be the best as opposed to teaming up with the best.  I also was drawn to him because he was a thinker who was always intensely studying the world around him.  Couple that to the fact that he always came off as a "real" dude.  So many superstars I feel are cliché spouting cornballs.

I drew parallels with myself and Kobe Bryant. We're the same age and are both fathers of four.  From all accounts he was every bit the dad as he was the basketball player, if not more, and that devastated me to think about his three girls that lost their superhero of a father and a sister that was also on that ill-fated helicopter ride.

I made a Kobe card back in 2017 when I was plugging in celebrity ceremonial first pitchers in a 1986 Topps inspired design.  I've improved on my cards since then so I revisited that card and gave it new life with some touch ups and a card back commemorating his ceremonial pitch for the Dodgers back in the year 2000.

When Kobe passed away I was asked if I was going to do a card of him.  I didn't rule it out, but to just hurry up and do a card because he died seemed like bad form to me.  It had to be the 'right' card if I were to make one at all.

I've expressed my love for the 1991 Score subsets on here before.  One that I've always wanted to recreate was the Master Blaster subset -- there was also the K-Man and Rifleman subsets which were essentially the same thing with a different color laser burst background.  Like my reservation on a new Kobe card, it had to be the right Master Blaster card and not just any ol' picture thrown in there.  I finally came across some images that satisfied the prerequisites of being the 'right' fit.  The pictures, I assume, are media day pictures and probably for a cross marketing promotion done between the Lakers and Dodgers.

1991 Score

The two cards work in tandem to pay tribute to both Kobe's #8 and #24 eras.  I spent a lot of time on these particular cards and am satisfied that they're fitting tributes to a legend taken far too soon. 

Doughboy

Here is the second card birthed out of my quarantine watch list.

I remember as an eleven year old kid the impactfulness of Boyz n the Hood.  This around a time where urban culture was really gaining steam in becoming popular culture.  Up until that point most of it was fun Kid 'n Play type stuff, but director John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood was a more raw look into gang culture.  It certainly wasn't the first movie to venture there, but it is, in my mind, the best and most significant.

I popped in this VHS and watched this movie for the first time in a long time.  The movie has held up and still worthy of all the praise it gets.  It's not just for the story the movie tells, but the cinematic excellence for which it was told.  Boyz n the Hood has a masterful aesthetic appeal and the acting put names like Cuba Gooding, Jr., Lawrence Fishburne, Ice Cube and Nia Long on the map.

While watching I couldn't ignore the Old English D on "Doughboy's" Tigers' cap that Cube wore throughout the movie.  I'm sure I noticed it as a kid from the metro Detroit area, but it has a new significance now that I've been channeling my creative angst into retro inspired trading cards.  Now it's like of course there needs to be a Darrin "Doughboy" Baker Detroit Tigers baseball card!

In 1991 when Boyz n the Hood came out there was a must have baseball card that would be sure to make you a rich man in the future... the '91 Score Chipper Jones #1 Draft Pick card.  Like I've stated in the past about the 1991 Score set, it's a pretty forgettable looking base card, but the subsets are some of the best ever in my opinion.  I remembering pulling the Chipper Jones from a pack and really liking the looking of the card.  The sunset looking orange-to-yellow gradient fade gives the card a sweltering look, perfect for a "hot" rookie card.

1991 Score

As a side note, if you're familiar with the '91 score set the "Rifleman" or "Master Blaster" subsets might come to mind as a missed opportunity for this card.  But, I went with #1 Draft Pick inspired template for two reasons; for one, because of the Chipper Jones card it's just way more iconic and two there wasn't really any great images of Doughboy with his piece to complete the tongue-in-cheek reference the card would be making.

Phoebe Cates

I've been wanting to add a Phoebe Cates card to the mix.  She is, of course, in the Fast Times at Ridgemont High set I did, but I this is Phoebe Cates we're talking about so more cards would never be a bad thing.

Phoebe is already in Topps' Gremlins set, so that wasn't on the table.  I decided Phoebe would be a great addition to the previous Dream Girl cards I had done in the style of the 1991 Score Dream Team subset.  For any 80's guy, Phoebe Cates was surely a "dream girl" at some point.

Claudia Schiffer

While doing some mindless scrolling the likes of which most humans engage in now on a daily basis I happened upon this image of the German born goddess Claudia Schiffer used for this card.  I want to say it comes from a Guess? Jeans campaign. 

Claudia Schiffer, like Cindy Crawford or Christie Brinkley, is one of those names that put the "super" in super model.  Those women's names for any of us guys growing up in the '80s or '90s immediately conjure up the vision of feminine beauty that almost didn't even seen real, too perfect.  Like if you were to mention the name "Claudia Schiffer" it was probably in jest of her incomparable good looks, like "yea, but she's no Claudia Schiffer".

Seeing that this image is black and white it's makes are great addition to the other two Dream Girl card's I've made that are patterned after the 1991 Score baseball Dream Team subset. 

Cindy Crawford II

I was pretty certain that when I made my Anna Nicole Smith Dream Girl card I was eventually going to use that design again; all it would take was the right babe in a nice black and white photo.  The time to re-up has come much sooner than later.

I've written before about my infatuation with Cindy Crawford in a previous post.  I ran across this particular image and instantly recognized it from the first Playboy magazine I ever bought.  I was 18 and it was a special edition on Cindy herself ....or it might have even been a compilation of celebrities that had graced the pages of Playboy magazine, either way I remember the purchase's circumstances very vividly.  I remember that even though I was of age to buy a nudie magazine I was still pretty red faced and embarrassed putting it on the counter.  I spotted it the day before but didn't have the guts to buy it.  This is pre-internet and I couldn't get the prospect of the glory of what was between those pages out of my head, so I went back to the party store at the corner of my street the very next day.  I waited until I was the only one in there and I sheepishly put it on the counter and tried to avoid eye contact with the shady dude behind the counter that used to keep my younger brother's change when he'd buy candy telling him "we'll call it even, boss".  He did give me my change and I hurriedly walked out holding the book with the cover pressed against my chest.  Lame, I know.  I didn't have that issue for long.  It was lost although I'd pretty sure a friend of mine that I guess didn't have the fortitude that I did to buy a copy from that store "borrowed" it without my permission never to return it - shady as hell, but hard to blame the guy.

Anna Nicole Smith

I was thirteen when I first became aware of the voluptuous model Anna Nicole Smith.  I have to believe that’s a very influential age for a boy when it comes to shaping what he finds attractive in a female because Anna Nicole became, for me, the prototype of the ultimate female form.  My “type” since then has always been the ultra curvy amazon type.

There wasn’t the internet back then and at thirteen you can’t just go into the party store and buy a Playboy so I clearly recall scouring all of the different magazines we had in the house hoping to run across an Anna Nicole Guess? Jeans advertisement.  Even National Geographic got a page-by-page examination.  Guess? did a great job with  Anna and the sultry black-and-white ad campaign which had a sexy old Hollywood bombshell vibe to it.  As the years went by my preference for the “Anna Nicole Smith type” was cemented but my attraction to the actual person waned with all the bizarre happenings in her life from her marrying the geriatric billionaire to her weird reality show and ultimately her untimely and pretty sad death.  This card is a tribute to the best Anna, the one who’s look and natural charisma captivated so many like myself.

I thought one of the pictures from the Guess campaign would be perfect to retrofit into a 1991 Score baseball “Dream Team” inspired design.  1991 Score’s base set to me is real bland but no other set can touches that year’s subsets.  That years was loaded with a number of attractive and creative subsets.

“Dream Team” was a 13 card subset that featured baseball’s best in artistic black-and-white studio style photographs.  It’s pretty easy to see why I chose to match Anna’s photo to this set with one slight variation turning the word 'Team' into 'Girl' because for a period in time Anna Nicole Smith was most certainly my “dream girl”.  I’ve actually been wanting to make a card for her for a little while now but I wanted it to be something that was special and made sense from the design standpoint.  I think this card achieved both.