Family Fun: Panini Toy Story 3 Stickers

As my daughter has gotten older, I’ve looked for any opportunity possible to get her into collecting.  It hasn’t been that difficult since kids always look to do the same things that adults are doing.  When I’m searching the card aisle at Target, my daughter is also looking for something she might want to open such as Spongebob cards or Bella Sera figures.

My whole family shares a love of Pixar movies.  We went to see Toy Story 3 opening weekend and loved it.  While out shopping the other day with my daughter, we picked up the Toy Story 3 sticker album and a handful of packs.  I expected something along the lines of sticker albums that I had purchased as a kid, but what we got was something a lot more cool.

I don’t know how the collation runs on these things, but there is something close to chase stickers in this set.  In every 8 sticker pack you seem to get two stickers that are either the shiny prisms or the very cool, reflective fabric stickers.

The prismatic stickers look very cool and scan well also.  Here are a couple of shiny Slinky Dog stickers.  You can’t tell from the scan, but the Little Green Army Man sticker is printed on a reflective fabric.  These stickers are very nice and I’m hoping for a few duplicates of these to keep after completing the set.


Here’s what a completed page looks like.  The stickers are die cut to different shapes which makes for a great looking page when done, but this is not something that a little kid can do with good results.  When I was putting stickers into the album with my daughter, she took care of all of the rectangle stickers which I did all of the weird shapes.  Even I couldn’t line things up properly.  Check out the pipe to the left of Slink.  Oops.  There are three stickers on this page.  The first is of Hamm, Rex and Jesse, the second is of Woody and Buzz while the final one has Mr. Potato Head and Slinky Dog on it.

There are 180 stickers in the set which is pretty large.  I plan on buying a box of stickers to open a little at a time with my daughter and hopefully we can at least get close enough so that an order of singles from Panini will finish off the set.  This has been a fun way to share my collecting hobby with my daughter and I know that I’ll end up reading her the story in the book (Oh yes, the sticker book also doubles as a story book) many times before all is said and done.  Thanks Panini for a great set!

Technorati Tags: Toy Story 3,Panini,stickers

Trading Block: Non-sports Trade Bait

I’m not quite sure why I decided to touch this stuff, but I did.  There are some decent cards to pull, but it seems like there’s a lot more junk than quality stuff.  Stupid, spur-of-the-moment decisions.  If anyone is interested in any of these uncirculated autos, drop me a line and we’ll work something out.

Pictured is Peter Wingfield as Methos from Highlander, Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb from Firefly, Patrick Flueger as Shaun Farrell from The 4400 and Dan Butler as Rev. Sorenson from Supernatural.

Box Break: 2010 Rittenhouse Lost Seasons 1 Thru 5

Rittenhouse is the second company to have the Lost license with the first being Inkworks.  I wasn’t a big fan of the Inkworks products as the boxes seemed too expensive to me for what you got.  Rittenhouse took over the license and they seem to have gotten things right.  For just about the same price per box, you get three autographs instead of just one and there aren’t any redemption cards.

Rittenhouse as a company puzzles the heck out of me.  They don’t take advantage of new media at all.  They barely have a website.  You won’t find Rittenhouse Archives or Scifihobby.com on Twitter or Facebook.  You won’t find any sponsored breaks to check out before you buy.  The company does have a rewards program, but the amount of points needed to get any of the rewards are ridiculous.  You have to buy 6 boxes and some loose packs just to qualify for one rewards.  They may as well not even have the program since it’ll really only benefit dealers and case breakers.  Just put that money towards some nice box toppers and you’re all set.  That’ll save the postage on mailing in the wrappers and reward normal collectors.

Rittenhouse makes some high quality cards.  They aren’t glossy, but once you’ve held them in your hands and looked at them, you won’t mind at all.  The pictures look great on the sturdy, bright white card stock.  The fact that there’s no gloss makes them perfect for autographs.  I wish that I had the Hurley card pictured above when I sent my autograph request to Jorge Garcia because I would love to have this card signed and in my collection.

The set consists of 108 cards (kudos Rittenhouse for that little detail) with one card for every episode of the first 5 seasons.  Header cards for each season that double as checklists fill out the rest of the set.  This set makes me wish that Rittenhouse had this license from the beginning and had done 108-card sets of each season as they aired.  Those sets would have been beautiful.

There are insert card for another ABC show to be found in packs.  While I am watching FlashForward, I wouldn’t be extremely upset if it were to be cancelled.  It has taken what could be a very interesting concept and gone almost nowhere with it.  It started off well, but the hiatus killed it and it hasn’t regained the momentum since coming back.  I would have much rather seen promo cards for another show that J.J. Abrams helped create and that’s Fringe.  That’s quickly become one of my favorite shows and I look forward to seeing what ridiculousness Walter Bishop is going to do and see each week.

There are some fun inserts to be found in these packs.  There’s a six card set of the Oceanic Six printed on acetate with clear sections.  It looks like there’s a picture of the character off of the island in color with a picture of them on the island ghosted in the background.

The other two cards pictured here are lenticular cards.  They really don’t scan well, but they look good in person.

The middle card pictured here is of the Smoke Monster.  This season, the Smoke Monster aka The Man in Black is spending most of his time in the form of John Locke.  Popular theory says that in the past the Smoke Monster took on various forms such as Christian Sheppard, Dave and possibly even a black horse.  Hopefully they’ll explain why it could do that then, but is unable to now.

The bottom card shows Hurley’s Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack restaurant as it is struck by a meteor and destroyed.  The explosion killed reporter Tricia Tanaka who was covering the grand opening.  This was just another example of the terrible luck that followed Hurley around off of the island after winning the lottery with the cursed numbers muttered repeatedly by another patient in the mental hospital Hurley spent time in.

Rittenhouse jumps aboard the painted card bandwagon with their own insert set.  These cards would definitely appeal to fans of Topps Gallery, Turkey Red or Upper Deck Masterpieces.

You won’t find any gloss on these cards either and these would be beautiful cards to get signed.  This is a set that I could definitely see myself tracking down if some of them show up online at a decent price.

The theme for my box seemed to be deceased characters as three of the four characters are no longer on the show.  Shannon was shot by Ana Lucia.  Boone died after being crushed by a plane while tagging along with Locke.  Juliet died due to injuries suffered while detonating a hydrogen bomb back in the 70s.

Enough about these cards though.  The main reason that people buy these boxes is for the autographs.  Who did I pull?  Let’s find out…

My first autograph card is of Patrick Fischler as Phil.  Phil was a member of the Dharma Initiative back in the 70s.  I can’t say that I was too impressed with this autograph, but these autograph cards are great.

All of the autographs are on-card and there’s a nice, big, white area for the actors and actresses to sign in.  The front of the cards are not glossy, but the backs of the cards are.  I like this decision because it prevents things like eBay idiots adding a “1/1” notation to a card and then trying to find a sucker to buy it.

Before I go any further, I have to warn you not to buy these Lost cards by the pack.  These packs are extremely searchable.  In my box, packs without an insert contained 6 cards and packs with an insert only contained 5.  You might not be able to tell the difference by holding them or looking at them, but anyone with a caliper could easily tell the difference.

My next autograph was of Andrea Roth as Harper Stanhope in “The Other Woman.”  They had to include the episode title for this autograph card because otherwise no one would have any clue who this character was.  She appeared in one episode as Juliet’s therapist

It’s nice to see that crappy autographs aren’t confined to athletes.  Actors and actresses can have terrible autographs as well.  Seriously, what the heck is that supposed to be?  Was she drawing a picture?  Getting an autograph of a minor character is even more disappointing when the autograph looks like this.

So, I had pulled two out of my three autographs and wasn’t feeling all that great about the box.  The autograph cards are easy to pick out when you open a pick due to the borderless design.  So, when I saw the next borderless card I slid the card above it aside slowly.  I saw a cursive T and then a printed T and then a familiar bald head.

Terry O’Quinn autograph!  My second favorite character on the show behind Hurley.  This card totally saved the box in my opinion as I think this is the best autograph there is to pull out of the box.

This set has a great design and the insert sets give you a little bit of variety as you open the packs.  I got a complete set out of my box which should always be the case with a non-sports box.

You can’t beat the value since you get a handful of inserts, a complete set and three autographs per box.  Even if you get three of the lesser autographs the box is worth it.  If you pull one of the bigger stars, they go for close to the cost of a box.  This Terry O’Quinn has sold on eBay from anywhere between $35 and $50, but this one won’t be making it’s way to eBay as it will find a permanent spot in my collection.

I would give this set an A- just because the autograph checklist is a little weak and you could very possibly get three clunkers who have each only been in one episode of the show.  The set itself is beautiful and the inserts add a lot of fun.  I have no choice but to give my box an A+ for a grade.  The only way that it could have been better was if I had pulled O’Quinn, Michael Emerson and Nestor Carbonell in the same box.

Technorati Tags: Lost,Rittenhouse Archives,Terry O'Quinn

TNA 2010: The New Era

TRISTAR will be releasing their next TNA set on April 28th and it looks like they’ve got a big winner here.  They were already doing a good job with the TNA sets and it looks like the quality continues to improve while the TNA roster gets better by leaps and bounds.  In fact, this past weekend I ordered my very first TNA Pay Per View and was very happy with what I saw.  The Ultimate X match featuring the Motor City Machine Guns and Generation ME was easily the match of the year so far in any federation.

One of the big selling points for this set is that there are over 30 different Hulk Hogan cards available.  This includes the base cards, relic cards, autograph cards, autographed relic cards and an Obak insert.  This set definitely has Hulkamania.

The base cards look great with excellent photography.  I count 11 cards in the base set with Hulk Hogan’s name on them so if you are a fan of the Hulkster then this is the set for you.  There’s a lot more than that though.  This set has content as recent as TNA’s big move to Monday night which included the return to wrestling of “Mr. Monday Night,” Rob Van Dam.  That’s a huge coup for TNA as the WWE had been trying to lure RVD back for a while now.  He did rejoin them for one night, but that would be it.  Jeff Hardy’s first TNA card is in this set as well with a picture from the Monday Night Special where he made a brief appearance.  Some other notable new additions are Scott Hall and Syxx-Pac, Shannon Moore, Mr. Anderson, Generation Me, The Pope, Desmond Wolfe and THE Brian Kendrick.

The two per box Obak cards should be very popular.  I loved the Obak set and can’t wait for these cards.  Hopefully they don’t prove to be too popular since this is a set that I’ll want to chase.

Each box contains one memorabilia card numbered to 1, 25, 50 or 199.  There aren’t any bums in the relic set.  The single relic set includes Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Sting, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Mr. Anderson and Syxx-Pac.  There’s a dual relic card of Beer Money Inc.  Triple relic cards feature three Hogan swatches; Hogan, Flair and Sting (pictured) or the members of The Beautiful People.

Who wouldn’t love pulling a Hulk Hogan autograph out of one of these boxes?  Autographed cards are numbered to 1, 5, 25 or 50.  There are single signed cards of just about every member of the TNA roster.  Some of the highlights are Hogan, Sting, Angle, Kevin Nash, AJ Styles, RVD, Samoa Joe, Velvet Sky, Christy Hemme, Daniels, Daffney, Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair.

There are some nice dual autographed cards highlighting business partners such as Hogan and Dixie Carter, allies like Hogan and Abyss or bitter enemies like Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson.  The Hogan/Angle and Hogan/Flair cards should be two of the more sought after cards from this set.

There are also triple signed cards as well.  There are four different cards with one featuring former nWo members Hogan, Nash and Syxx-Pac another with the current members of The Beautiful People, the third features The British Invasion and the last one features some of the more popular ladies of TNA (Tara, Christy Hemme and Traci Brooks).

Last, but certainly not least are the quad signed cards.  There are five different cards including the one pictured here that Beckett called the greatest wrestling card ever produced.  I think I’ve got to agree.

The other quads feature the current members of The Beautiful People along with former member Angelina Love.  The Hogan/Jarrett/Angle/Foley card should be popular as well, but not as popular as the pictured card.  There’s a card of TNA Knockouts Taylor Wilde, Sarita, Hamada and Awesome Kong and the final quad is of Hulk Hogan, Abyss, Ric Flair and AJ Styles who have been the subject of many main events lately.

There are 6 different single event-used, autographed cards.  Along with the pictures Ric Flair, you can also pull Hulk Hogan, Mick Foley, Sting, AJ Styles and Velvet Sky.  No bums there and these cards look great.

You can find the checklist and more details about the set on the official website.  Thanks to the generosity of TRISTAR, you can expect to see a preview of the set right here on the blog close to the release day.

Technorati Tags: TNA Wrestling,Hulk Hogan,Ric Flair,TRISTAR,new release information,Jeff Hardy,RVD,Rob Van Dam

I owe Jorge Garcia .41¢

When it came to sending out autograph requests through the mail, I wanted to make sure that my first attempt would be a successful one.  Fortunately, one of my current favorite actors is great with his fans and is probably one of the best people there are at the moment for autograph requests.

I’ve been hooked on Lost since before the show even aired.  I bought into the hype big time and was eagerly awaiting the series premier.  Once I saw that ABC was actually committed to the show and that I wouldn’t get burned for following it (as opposed to ABC screwing around with Cupid until they finally cancelled it) it quickly became my favorite show.  The one character that grabbed my attention right away was Hurley.  His comic relief was perfect for the show, but we eventually found out that he wasn’t quite so happy-go-lucky off of the island and he was as tortured as the rest of the survivors from Oceanic 815.  Hurley’s winning lottery numbers, which somehow corresponded to Jacob’s numbered list of potential candidates, brought him nothing but bad luck off of the island.

So, I sent off my first autograph request on January 20th and waited.  It arrived in my mailbox on March 1st.  While I thought that I had done everything correctly, I think that I forgot the additional cost that the Post Office puts on rigid envelopes.  It turns out that Jorge Garcia had to put an additional .41¢ on the return envelope in order for it to get back to me.  So, thank you Jorge, for both the autographs and the extra postage.

Here’s the awesome picture that was sent.  The inscription reads, “To Mike, Aloha”  This is going to be the first item that I hang in my room once the construction is all finished and the paint is dry.

 

Technorati Tags: Jorge Garcia

Box Break: Fantastic Four Archives

I’ve read comic books for most of my life and for all of those years, I’ve been a fan of the Fantastic Four.  I’ve had my eye on a box of Rittenhouse’s Fantastic Four Archives for a while now and BlowoutCards’ Black Friday sale presented the perfect opportunity to pick up a box.

This was the first time that I had opened a box of any Rittenhouse product.  The cards are nice.  They’re printed on a sturdy stock and have a nice gloss to them.  The colors are bright and pop off of the cards.  The front of the cards have an image from an issue of Fantastic Four.  The backs of the cards display the cover from that issue along with a short summary of the events that unfolded in that issue.

My box contained a complete set which is always a good thing when it comes to non-sport sets due to the fact that singles can be tough to find.  Even in this day and age with singles readily available on the Internet, non-sports singles can still be a challenge to track down.

Nemesis cards depict some of the Fantastic Four’s biggest foes.  The stated odds for these cards are 1:8 packs and that held true in my box.  I pulled Red Ghost, Super-Skrull and Dr. Doom.  When it comes to the Fantastic Four’s foes, there’s none bigger than Dr. Doom.

The next insert set is titled Ready For Action.  These are inserted into every 12 packs.  From the two that I received, it looks like this insert set consists of images of the Fantastic Four ready to head into battle.  These cards are printed on foil board that is only exposed in certain areas such as the Human Torch’s flame and the 4 logos on the heroes’ uniforms.  This printing process gives the card a unique look that you can’t really see in the scan.

The next insert set also uses foil board in the printing process.  The Legendary Heroes come one per box and there are nine different cards.  Since the Fantastic Four only consists of four members, they decided to include some of the other superheroes who have filled in as a member of the team including Crystal, Medusa, Power Man, She-Hulk and Black Panther.  I understand why they did this, but when I’m buying a box of Fantastic Four, I want cards to be of the four main members of the team.  Luckily, I was able to pull one of the charter members in Sue Storm, The Invisible Woman.

The main reason that people open these boxes are for the other one-per-box insert.  Sketch cards have gotten very popular within the hobby to the point that they’ve been included in various sports sets by Topps.  While I lucked out with my Legendary Heroes card, I wasn’t as lucky with my sketch card.

Like a lot of people, I’m hoping that these boxes will yield a Katie Cook sketch card.  My wife introduced me to her art and I’ve been following her work online for a few years now.  She’s become extremely popular with sketch card collectors and her cards go for huge amounts of money.  Pulling one out of a box is probably the only way that I’m going to end up owning one.  I didn’t pull a Katie Cook sketch, but what I did pull is a beautiful sketch card of Storm done by Dennis Crisostomo, but I’m not a huge fan of either Storm or the X-Men.  Yes, Storm has spent time as a member of the Fantastic Four, but if I wanted a Storm sketch card I would be opening boxes of X-Men Archives.  So, this card is destined to make its way to eBay.  Luckily, it looks like Crisostomo is a popular artist and right fully so because it looks like he’s done a lot of beautiful sketch cards.  If this was of the Human Torch, Thing or the whole team it would be a great part of my collection, but now it may end up paying for my box.

I was very happy with my first Rittenhouse product.  The quality and collation were great.  I would give this product an A and my box in particular a B due to the fact that my sketch card wasn’t one of the main members of the Fantastic Four.

Technorati Tags: box break,Fantastic Four,Rittenhouse,sketch card,blowoutcards