Forgotten Feller

Some of my favorite posts from this blog focus on Bob Feller and my trips to the Bob Feller Museum in Iowa.  I originally went to the museum on a family vacation in the mid-90's and it was my personal highlight of the trip [which included the Black Hills, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, the Corn Palace, etc...sorry Mom and Dad!].  The past summer, before I packed up my bags and hightailed it to Ukraine, my Mom brought over an old comic book that had an envelope stuck inside it.  I flipped it open and found this Hall of Fame plaque postcard signed by Bob Feller.  It turned out during that first trip my parents bought this autographed card and either didn't tell me or forgot to tell me at the end of trip.  Believe me, it's better late than never!  

And so this postcard brings my Feller autographs up to three...this one, one on-card that I asked for some help in determining if it was real, and one I purchased from the Feller Museum some 15 years after my initial visit.

2012 Topps Allen and Ginter World's Greatest Military Leaders Mini Needs List

2012 Topps Allen and Ginter World's Greatest Military Leaders Needs List

Last updated: 11/18/12

Yellow = awaiting arrival/pending trade

ML-1 Alexander the Great

ML-2 Simon Bolivar

ML-3 Oliver Cromwell

ML-4 Julius Caesar

ML-5 Cyrus the Great

ML-6 Hannibal Barca

ML-7 Napoleon Bonaparte

ML-8 George Washington

ML-9 Ulysses S. Grant

ML-10 Dwight D. Eisenhower

ML-11 Leonidas

ML-12 Charlemagne

ML-13 Saladin

ML-14 Duke of Wellington

ML-15 Horatio Nelson

ML-16 Frederick the Great

ML-17 Duke of Marlborough

ML-18 William Wallace

ML-19 Darius the Great

ML-20 Sun Tzu

Another Mars Attacks 1-of-1 Sketch Card

A nice part of living abroad and having a post office box that is regularly checked is that I can buy cards from eBay and they will all be waiting for me when I return they will all be waiting for me in a little Christmas explosion of cardboard.  And to be honest, I can't really remember what I purchased back in September so it really will be a little like Christmas.  Plus, we'll have [hopefully] a Black Friday COMC.com shipping sale and so I'll finally get another chance to clean out my inventory that has been accumulating there for several months...including one of the key 1971 Topps cards I've been missing for $4.00....more specifics on that later... the condition is pretty questionable but it's probably the third most key card in the set and major hurdle that I've crossed.

In my eBay purchases waiting for me are a few more Mars Attacks 1-of-1 sketch cards that I've found interesting and at the right price.  Today's card was one of the last ones I purchased before leaving and is drawn by artist Steven Russell Black.  I choose this one because to me it has a distinctive martian meets Zoidberg from Futurama feel.  Can't you just hear him ask "why not Zoidberg?"      

You can find more sketch cards available from Mr. Black here.

A Pack I've Always Wanted To Open

I'll do my duty and post this over on A Pack To Be Named Later as well but since we reviewed a Screen Plays pack back in March of 2011 I don't think anyone would mind if I share it here first.  As a huge fan of Sportflics from the late 80's these Screen Plays packs are like the high end of "motion action" cards.  

While these were expensive packs when they were released and you only get one card per tin you were at least able to know exactly which card you were going to receive as the player is prominently displayed on the opposite side.  

When you open the tin you first get a sort of checklist card that lists the players available and also explains the Kodak process used in creating the cards.

Looking at the checklist 15 years later they did a pretty good job picking players and I imagine that Hideo Nomo card is worth a pretty penny to Nomo's enthusiastic collectors.

Removing the checklist you get your one card which is just sitting on the filler loose which was a little surprising to me.

And here's the card in action...

Now that the excitement of your card pull has slowed down you can move onto the next stage of this product which is displaying your card.  The first step is to remove some of the filler material [which is pre-cut from Topps].

And then you can position the tin cover so that everyone knows you love the Yankees or...

...to show your pull.

Although the "Premium" cards have a higher book value, the Jeter is put at about $12.00...and you can get a pack of your own for as little as $5.00 online on eBay.

Papilio Palinurus

A little while ago I wrote about the artist market here in Kharkiv and one particular merchant who sells entomology frames.  I missed out on that first opportunity and hadn't been able to make it back to see if I could buy one.  I tried again on Saturday thinking earlier was better but at 10:00 am most of the booths hadn't been set up yet.  It then started raining lightly and so when we came back later in the afternoon there was only about a quarter of the typical number of sellers.

On Sunday Laura was out and about with her friend and if she ended up down by the market she said she would check to see if that seller was there.  And sure enough, the seller was there and so she returned with this beauty:

The frame is wrapped in plastic to protect it against the elements and so that is the glare that you are seeing on the photo.

The type of butterfly is listed as Papilio palinurus which is called the Emerald Peacock butterfly and can be found in Southeast Asia.  

Vote For Me! My Nightmares On Cardboard Entry Part 2

I highlighted Part 1 of my Nightmares on Cardboard entry here.  If you like my cards please vote for me to win Thorzul's contest by going to his blog and voting on the right side of the page.  

Along with my set of American Movie cards I also created five cards for some of the words/lamest movie monsters in history.  Nearly all of these I was originally introduced to them through episodes of Mystery Science Theater or Rifftrax.  We begin with The Master  from Manos: The Hands of Fate.

In one scene from The Creeping Terror as the monster eats a woman, the victim is clearly climbing into the monster's mouth.  It's simply one of the worst constructed monsters in cinema history.

I will forever be a M. Night fan no matter how many poorly made films he puts out.  He made three of my favorites, Unbreakable, The Village, and the Sixth Sense and so I'll give everything he does a try to see if it is a return to form.  If you haven't seen The Happening I would suggest getting the Rifftrax riff when you do because it will add a lot more enjoyment to the experience.  It's a mystery at first what is causing people to kill themselves and so for most of the film the main characters are running away from gusts of wind.

In the course of Plan 9 From Outer Space the aliens resurrect the recently deceased and so we get zombie Thor Johnson and although Thor was a former wrestler he has a lot of trouble crawling out of grave.

Missile To The Moon is a relative new one to me until Rifftrax featured it.  Basically a couple of escaped convicts take refuge in a scientist's missile that just so happens to be headed to the moon.  They end up running into these Rock Monsters which are clearly men in cardboard boxes that have been painted.

The inspiration for these cards was a Marvel X-men board game from 1992.  I can't find the exact game online but it is similar to this one.  Each mutant was given their own "Strength" and "Experience" scores and the one card that I had on hand that I scanned was for The Blob.  I modified "Experience" to "Intimidation"
for my cards.

Vote For Me! My Nightmares On Cardboard Entry Part 1

I've been on a schedule of submitting entries every other year in Throzul's Nightmare on Cardboard.  I participated in years I and III and after a year off I'm back for the V edition.  I have typically made physical cards to send to Thorzul for the concert but as I'm out of the country I went with only computer designs.  So I tried to make up for it in quantity as I sent eight cards designs from two mini sets to be considered.

This year Thorzul decided to open up the contest for voting to determine the winner.  So if you enjoy my cards go to his site and cast your vote on the right side of the page.

Here's Thorzul's post on my entry with his thoughts on the movie that inspired this mini set, American Movie, which is a documentary [set in the Milwaukee area...Thorzul's from Milwaukee...see what I did there...] on the struggles of Mark Borchardt as he tries to make his horror movie, Coven.  Along with way you meet his best friend Mark Schank and his uncle Bill Borchardt who finances the money with his retirement.  During the course of filming, the Packers win the Super Bowl in early 1997 and the scenes involving the Super Bowl are some of the best in the movie.

Each of these cards were originally inspired by Topps American Heritage set from a few years ago.  Those cards themselves were inspired by the 1975 Topps design.

I'll be back with another post on the second part of my Nightmares on Cardboard submission.

Hitting An Autograph In Retail

WHEN YOU BUY A RETAIL PACK OF BOWMAN PLATINUM AND HIT AN AUTOGRAPH

2012 Topps Update Presidential Predictors Needs List

I'll take cards from either candidate for any state but I'm specifically looking for a card from each candidate for Wisconsin.

2012 Topps Update Presidential Predictors Needs List

Last Updated: 4-19-2014

Yellow = awaiting arrival/pending trade

Wisconsin

• Romney
• Obama