1988 Topps Growing Pains

 

"As long as we got each other..." Today, we're opening a pack of 1988 Topps Growing Pains. The pack itself is your classic 80's Topps wax pack. There are 9 cards, 1 sticker, and yes, 1 stick of gum in the pack. The set contains 66 cards and 11 stickers. 

The front of each card features a still from the series or a character closeup. The cards are yellow and feature the main subject of the card in a house-shaped cutout. The house even has an old-school aerial antenna for good measure. At the bottom of each one, red text provides a caption.

The first two cards out of the pack show what happens when you use 80's-quality TV screen caps and print them on 80s-quality Topps cardboard:

I present the stick of gum, surprisingly still in tact. We also have another screencap card, though this one is horizontal:

As mentioned, there are 11 stickers in the set. We pulled the "Whatta Hunk" Kirk Cameron card, complete with Hawai'ian lei:

Not sure why the caption got cut off the scan of the second card in this pair. Blame it on the scanner. Or the operator...

And, of course, what is an 80s card set based on a family TV show with out puns?

An interesting feature of this set is the card backs. They each have their own "title" which refers to the image on the front, and sometimes the caption, but not always. The backs include a large (1/3) blue top section with the "Growing Pains" insignia in yellow. The card number appears in white off to the left side. Below the blue area, a yellow background provides the setting for a washed-out red imprint of the family standing around the dinner table. It's the photo that was used as the basis for the wrapper image. At the bottom of the back, we have copyright info:

The choice of scenes to include in the set is weird:

Here's a checklist for the set:

http://nslists.com/growpain.htm

1988 Comic Images The Honeymooners

Welcome to a pack of 1988 Comic Images The Honeymooners. The cards come in a clear cello wrapper with no markings, so the top card serves as the pack's "wrapper graphic," I suppose. The cards are standard 2x3. there are 50 cards in the set. 

Each card features a television motif border. The border is huge compared to the actual featured image. It is meant to represent a TV of the 50's and 60's, I imagine. The left 4/5 of the card has the featured image surrounded by what is supposed to look like the inset of a TV screen. The right 1/5 of the card has circles and a rectangle meant to evoke the appearance of old-school knobs and dials. I would guess many younger folks looking at the post have no idea why the border looks the way it does. The colors are done in a black and teal-ish motif. there is a thin wooden-grain border as well, further carrying on the television façade.

As mentioned, there is a featured image on each card. These are stills taken from the TV show and appear in black and white. Here we have a couple of stills from the show:

The next two cards show off a bit more of the action from the show:

The backs of the cards feature a bus-inspired border. At the top, "2969" is shown as the bus number, which is the bus number featured in the show. The "destination plate" beneath the number shows the Honeymooners logo. Below that, the card has a trivia question. The answer to the question is printed upside down in the bumper. The bottom of the card features copyright and legal info. I have also included an insert card that's included which features an offer for a trivia book and also has the UPC code.

 

Here is a full checklist:

http://nslists.com/honeymoo.htm

2008 Topps Hannah Montana Sticker Cards

 

Look, I can't let poor SumoMenkoMan be the only one to post a pack of Hannah Montana cards. These are not the same as the ones he posted. As he said, if our goal is open at least one of every pack of everything, then well, we're going to have things like this... 

This is a pack of 2008 Topps Hannah Montana Sticker Cards. Cards measure the standard 2x3. They are full-color borderless stickers. Yeap, that's right: every single "card" in the pack is actually a sticker. The set has 90 base sticker cards, 10 "mega stickers" (Is that like a "mega pint?"), 10 foil stickers, 8 glitter stickers, and 10 "blaster-exclusive" stickers.

The first sticker in the pack is a foil. The foil does not have any text on the front. The second is a base item and has a "Hannah Montana" insignia in the lower left with a colored edging along the bottom. Inside the border is a caption for the card:

In fact, all the base sticker cards in the set have a photo that takes up the majority of the front with the logo/border along the bottom. 

The next two were scanned in reverse order. The card back should have been last. Ah well. The backs feature a simulated texture as the background. The color of the backs matches the edging on the front. In the upper left, the card number. Centered at the top is the caption repeated from the front. A paragraph details the scene or item portrayed on the front. There is a near "quarter round" image in the lower right that shows a cropped portion of the front image. At the bottom, we see copyright info, corporate branding, and the "Lift to Peel" instructions. 

I will say that without the "Lift and Peel" instructions, you'd probably never know these were stickers. They look like cards and feel like cards. 

Here a detailed checklist:

http://nslists.com/hannahmo.htm

1997 Dart FlipCards The Lone Ranger

 

This is a pack of 1997 Dart FlipCards Lone Ranger cards. The cards are standard 2x3 and feature borderless images. The images are done as artwork prints and show comic book covers, movie posters, various scenes, and other depictions. The base set contains 72 cards. In addition to the base, there are die-cut cards, mail-in stand-up cards, and a limited run of autographed cards. There are various cards which were never released to the public as well, apparently. See link at bottom for details about the set.

As mentioned, these cards are borderless, allowing the image to take up the full front of the card. This one features the Lone Ranger taking down a (presumed) baddie:

The nest two appear to be comic book covers (or inspired by such):

The next two are vastly different from each other! The left one looks as though the full sized image could be hanging as artwork. The second one is a crude drawing of something that looks as though it were once a coloring book page. 

Perhaps the "comic book" page above is actually from the Paint Book referenced in the left image below. The "Hi-Yo Silver" card is freaking amazing! I love the red, black, and white contrasts. It is a poster from the 1940 film about The Lone Ranger's trusty horse:

The backs of the cards feature the Lone Ranger logo/insignia in the upper left. The card number placed on a "black mask" icon appears in the upper right. The words "TRADING CARDS" in all caps sits centered at the top. Just below, the card title. Below that, text describing the image featured on the front. There is a rope border around the card as well as the yellow "Hi-Yo Silver" icon in the lower right. This icon appears on all the cards, not just the actual "Hi-Yo Silver!" card. 

The checklist, along with inserts, unreleased items, etc:

http://nslists.com/loneran.htm

1993 Pacific Gunsmoke

Today, we're bustin' open a pack of 1993 Pacific Gunsmoke cards. The set contains 110 cards. The cards are standard 2x3 size. Each one features a character or scene from the TV show. Most of the cards are in black and white, but there are some in color throughout the set. The cards are framed by a white border. In the lower left corner, we have the "Gunsmoke" text with a rifle above it. The lower right shows a "smoke cloud" with the card caption. (click images to view full scan)

Here is an example of a horizontal layout with a cast member group shot, one in black and white and the other in color:

The backs of the cards have a border that resembles a hanging piece of paper, tacked up with a nail. "GUNSMOKE" in all caps heads the text. Below that, information about the image featured on the front. At the bottom, we see the card number, the "Pacific" logo, and copyright information:

A full checklist can be found here:

http://nslists.com/gunsmoke.htm

2021 Topps Big League Baseball

Better late than never, Topps finally got 2021 Topps Big League out the door, just in time for Spring 2022. Here's a blaster pack.

3 - Teoscar Hernandez - Hernandez is off to a slow start after winning back to back Silver Slugger Awards and garnering some MVP votes.

162 - Brailyn Marquez - Marquez made one appearance with the Cubs in 2020 that lasted two-thirds of an inning. It's the only appearance he's made in a professional baseball game since 2019.

48 - Andres Gimenez - Gimenez is off to a good start as the Guardians may finally have a replacement for Francisco Lindor.

58 - Xander Bogaerts - Bogaerts is a bona fide star at his peak playing for a struggling team, so you know what that means.

271 - Devin Williams Award Winners - There are a bunch of Award Winners cards in the base set. Williams won the NL ROY award in 2020.

191 - Cody Bellinger

244 - Kenta Maeda - Maeda is still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

225 - Juan Soto - This card just looks a bit goofy.

DW-13 - Cody Bellinger Defensive Wizards - These inserts have a very loud '80s look to them.

294 - Mike Brosseau Orange - Each pack has an orange parallel in it. They look better matched with some team colors than others. I wouldn't say the Rays make a good combination here.

1994 Skybox Lion King

 

Today, we have a pack of 1994 Skybox Lion King. Each pack has 5 cards plus, as a Walmart exclusive, 1 coloring card. The set contains 65 movie scene cards, 10 Character cards, 7 Circle of Life cards, 6 Animal Humor cards, and 2 checklists. That makes cards numbered 1-90. In addition to these, it's possible to get foil character cards, pop-up cards, or lenticular hologram cards. These inserts have their own numbering. See the link to the checklist at the bottom of the post.

The cards themselves are high-gloss and borderless. These are very good-looking cards! The first one features Scar and Nala:

Next, we have Scar meeting karma...

We ended up with the second ("B") checklist:

Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba...

The coloring card we ended up with is Timon:

We also pulled a character card of Nala:

This is the "back" of the Timon coloring card. You see the "C4" card number on it:

The backs of the cards feature the card number, the Lion King logo/insignia, a blurb about the featured image, and copyright info:

The checklist with detailed explanations into the various subsets can be found here:

https://www.nslists.com/lionkng1.htm 

1991 Topps Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

 

Today, we bust open a pack of 1991 Topps Robin Hood Prince of Thieves movie cards. Each pack contains 8 cards and 1 sticker. The set contains 55 cards and 9 stickers. Each card front features a scene or character from the movie in the center. A red border surrounds the image. This border is inset with another border that looks like wood with a vine wrapped around it, thus making the border of these cards huge compared to the image. The lower portion of each card contains the movie's logo and card caption surrounded by a cream background and green border that represents more of the vine motif.

Our first card. He does not have six fingers:

I cannot help but think of "Men in Tights" when looking at anything Robin Hood related...

One of the best-looking cards in the bunch, here is the esteemed Morgan Freeman:

I was once an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow to the...

Robin Hood starts his singing career. Up high or down low, he'll go wherever you may go...

Another Morgan Freeman card, before he played God, he prayed:

It all started with a small town girl, living in a lonely world...

No British accent needed...

We pulled the Morgan Freeman sticker! These look like rooks on a chess board:

The backs feature a yellowish background with green "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" lettering, pictures of the four main cast members in ovals, and a blue castle shape. Inside the castle, white lettering repeats the card caption from the front along with a summary of the image being depicted on the front. The card number appears in the left tower of the castle. At the bottom, copyright and set information finishes up the card:

You can find a checklist here: https://www.nslists.com/robin55.htm