2006 Upper Deck/Kryptyx GrossOut

With Halloween around the corner, why not review a pack of gross trading cards? In 2006, Upper Deck joined forces with a comic/trading card company called Kryptyx to bring us these:

Grossout Trading Cards. 5 trading cards and 1 power card per pack. I love the message "GROSS OUT YOUR MOM & IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS".

 

Also note the website listed on the back, which allowed collectors a bit of interaction. Unfortunately, it's is no longer up and running.

Let's get to the cards now.

First up is Eardrum Ooze. That does qualify as gross. You can see the comic book–style artwork and captioning right from the start.

Next up is Hairball Jewels. The back of the card uses the scientific name bezoar. "A bezoar is a foreign body in the stomach of animals and humans composed of food or hair that has been altered by the digestive process. They're a hard and glassy pearl-like stone that can look quite pretty..."

That's enough.

Carpet Kitty greets us next. The litter box wasn't nearby, I guess. Here's what a card back looks like.

Credit where credit is due: The card backs are quite detailed, and contain an interesting factoid in the blue box, as well as a "gross-o-meter" on the right side that ranks the grossout on the card front by smell, touch, taste, sight, and sound. Cat pee received a 5 out of 5 for smell. I agree with that.

Double-Header. Clever. The illustration on this card might be the most comic book-ish in style of the 6 cards in the pack.

And this one might be the most gross of the 6 cards.

Here's the final base card, "Belch or Slurp". This one is more funny than gross.

And now the "power card" of the pack: Rotten Cheese Rocket. Back in 2006, you'd have gone to the grossout.net site, entered the code on the front of this card, and played some sort of online game with the "weapon" on your card. The more codes you entered for each power card, the more ammunition you'd accumulate for the weapon. Some codes gave you more ammo than others. Here's the card back:

There were 5 power cards in all. Want to know the names of the other 4 weapons? 

 

Ear Wax Whacker

Eye Goo Globber

Fartzooker

Nuclear Sludge Nudger.

I think we all knew a couple of kids back in school who had natural fartzookers.

Anyway, that's that. A pack of Grossout trading cards, for the first time on APTBNL!

Thanks for reading.

2017 Mega Construx Despicable Me 3 Series 10

Greetings...

Hope everyone is doing well.  Today is my 12th anniversary of my first post on APTBNL.  Time certainly flies when you're having fun, or when you don't notice it. 

As with all of my anniversary posts, it's time for a non-sports pack.

My youngest son was big into Minions for a while, big enough to want the toys and other assorted merchandise.  Based on the file name in my Scan folder, this was most likely a Christmas stocking stuffer.

Here's the back of the pack:

With some of these blind packs, you could tell which character was inside from one of the codes on the back.  It's possible the 217 on the side was the code, or maybe it was the AX, or the DYG.  Or maybe it was none of the above.  Anywho, what did he get?

According to the interwebs, it's the Gouda Cheese Minion!  Common, they made 10 Series of these little guys.  He certainly seems pleased with his cheese wedge.  I saw him in my son's room a couple weeks ago, so either he's still likes Minions or it somehow hasn't been knocked under his bed yet.

Anyway, that's the pack.  Short and sweet today, just like the Gouda Cheese Minion.  Happy blogiversary to Ol' Jafronius, and thanks for reading for 12 years!

2023 Topps Now Card Of The Month - July

Greetings,

Hope everyone is doing well.  Yes, it's been a while since Ol' Jafronius made an appearance here on APTBNL.  

We had relatives from London come in for a visit at the beginning of August, which was very cool.  When they left, we had to diet and detox for a few days.  The boys started school too (High School Sophomore and Freshman, holy crap!).  One of The Wifey's bunnies unexpectedly died last week, so we are all bummed out about that.  Then her mom passed away a few days ago.  Cancer sucks folks.  Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary however, so it's kind of a silver lining for recent sucky events.

Anyway, this has been sitting in the Blogger Drafts for a while now, so let me just knock it out before life resumes.

Just like last year, I got the e-mail alerting me to the pending expiration of Topps points, and somehow, I had enough points to get July's Topps Now Card Of The Month.

Last year, I wound up with Julio Rodriguez.  Who would I get this time?

I looked up the players of the month for July as a default.  Ohtani was the AL Player of the Month, and who doesn't like Ohtani?  Cody Bellinger was the NL Player of the Month.  It would be cool to get a card commemorating Cody's comeback, since his spark jumpstarted the Cubs and had us fans talking playoffs all the way till the start of September.

I didn't worry about getting the rookies or pitchers of the month, so I was thinking either Ohtani, Bellinger, or someone from the All-Star Game or related festivities.

Just like last time, I received a padded envelope which contained the above Topps Now envelope.  The envelope was also covered in bubble wrap, and yes, I still popped those bubbles.  The card came in a small case, with a felt piece with the card for support.

Who did I get?

#M-JUL - Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

It's interesting that compared to last year, this year there's a write-up on the back instead of a second picture, and although I like that there's a date on the back, it's not the date of the Derby, but just the last day of the month.  Vladdy's also a bit too cropped; I would like liked to see the full trophy on the card.

In case you missed it, here's the highlight video.

Anyway, that's the Card of the Month.  Check in with us next year to see if I somehow have enough points for the 2024 July Card of the Month and if it winds up to be next year's Derby champ.

Rest in peace, Mom, and Happy Anniversary to my Beloved!