1993 Topps Stadium Club Info Card

Ho-kay. So I see Sonny Boy kept the info card from the Topps Stadium Club set of 1993. So my mind starts to wonder...why? Several reasons come to mind.

1. Sonny Boy loves his Daddy and cherishes everything his Daddy ever gave him.

2. Being the graphic-minded arteest that he is, he was drawn to the contrasting colors, angles, and styles (long before he even knew he was a graphic-minded arteest).

3. He likes the design of the stadium, it reminds him of Yankee Stadium the time we saw a game there. A double-header no less.

4. He never got around to throwing it in the trash.

5. He was awestruck by the sparkling stadium lights and couldn't ever tear himself away from staring at it, drooling with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

6. He's still hoping to rip open a pack of 93 Stadium Club cards to get one of the two bonus cards mentioned on the back.

7. He doesn't know why he kept it.

But I'm glad he did. There's all kinds of random stuff like this in this box of old cards. Lots of little goodies like this 1993 Topps Stadium Club Info Card that nobody ever keeps, but My Boy did. You don't realize it at first, but each one sparks a different memory from the far reaches of the mind. Its good stuff.

And after a little more digging I found these 3 Club Membership cards from the same set (in 3 different colors!) that he also kept. That's My Boy.

1996 McDonalds Happy Meal Transformer Beast Wars

When I was a kid, getting to go McDonald's was a rare treat. And when we did get to, since I come from a large family with 8 kids, we always had to split a hamburger two ways, split a fries three ways, and "you can just forget about getting a soda Mister!" So, when we had Tommy I vowed I would never ever make him share his burger and fries, and "Yes, Sonny, you can get all the Hi-C you want." Man, I still love that Hi-C at McDonald's. Anyhow, I decided to even step it up a notch and let him start getting Happy Meals. Especially the cool ones with Hot Wheels and Transformers.

I was very pleased when I discovered not one but a bunch of these former Happy Meals cards of Tommy's, all carefully punched out from their perforated little homes on the sides of the Happy Meal box. This is what they would have looked like before they were liberated:I found 10 different cards of Tommy's. From what I was able to research I found that 8 came on one Happy Meal box. So there should be at least 16 different cards. Take away the title card which I assume was on each version of the box, then you have 15 different cards. But with Tommy's 10 plus 4 I saw on ebay, I'm still lacking 1 or maybe 2 cards. And there's no number on the cardbacks. Anyhow, lets get into the ones Tommy has:
Above are the two leaders of the Beast Wars, Optimus Primal the Maximal General, and Megatron the Predacon Commander. Bad dudes ready to kick your little heinie and not think twice about it.

Scorpionok - Check out those vice-grip claws, ouch.

Rhino - Three-D glasses would bring that first right into your face!

Beetle - ooh there's a scary and life-threatening name.

Razorbeast - See Pumba in the background? Smell Pumba in the background? And he's grinning like he just let loose too. Hakuna-matata, Dude!

Polar Claw - One of the better names, and those claws are pretty sharp and steely, but Mr Polar Bear on the left looks more like a Care Bear. And shouldn't the Transformer be white instead of red? Unless of course the red represents the blood and carnage our Care Bear friend is about to unleash. In which case, all bets are off.

Panther - Both the Transformer and the Beast look pretty angry. Might not want to mess with them.

Dinobot - my favorite. You can't go wrong for a boy combining a dinosaur and a robot. He's awesome!

I don't have pictures of the other ones I know about - Waspinator, Manta Ray, Terrosuar and Tarantular, but you get the idea now. Great series of cards. If you know where I can find a complete list, please leave a comment.

1994 Saban Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Card #61 Battle of the Zords.

Damn those Zords they never learn their lesson! Dynazord never stood a chance against the powerful Megazord. Poor fellow.

Tommy and I got into the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers only for a brief time. I admit I allowed us to get swept up in the Power Ranger hype, giving in because "all the other 6 year olds are watching it". After three or four episodes though, the shallowness and repetition was revealed: Power Rangers go to school, bad aliens cause havoc, Power Rangers become Power Rangers, Power Rangers fight the Putties, Power Rangers win! Even Tommy threw up his hands in dissatisfaction when by the third episode we were introduced to the evil alien Eye-Guy. C'mon! Eye-guy?! The Putties weren't any better. After being terrified of them in the first episode we saw, they were looking pretty ridiculous a couple episodes later. And those Michael Phelps body suits have GOT to go! Similar to the Christmas-Eve-Gotta-Have-A-Batman hysteria, I succumbed to the Gotta-Have-A-Red-Power-Ranger panic. Remember that? Well, below is a photo of what eventually came of Tommy's Red Power Ranger.



WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTO. EXPECTANT MOTHERS AND NEWBORNS TURN AWAY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!





A sad end to a nice collectible. I wonder if I should collect up the remains and put them in a zip-loc for safe keeping. May be worth something some day. Not sure what the cord was for. Maybe to connect into the other Power Rangers when they transformed and then combined into the Super-D-Duper Zord-a-Something. Who was the Bad-Ass that got to drive that thing anyhow?

1989 Topps Batman Series 2

Long before Batman the Animated Series, I introduced Tommy to the Batman through trading cards of the Micheal Keaton movie and by some old DC Comics action figures I had. The action figures were pretty tame, but standard practice before I allowed my boy to see anything questionable, was adherence to a strict censorship of the cards. Some of those characters can be pretty frightening for a little kid; the Penguin comes to mind. I recall a card that would have given Tommy nightmares and a deathly fear of any zoo's penguin colony exhibit. The card had a mugshot of Danny Devito as the Penguin, pale white face, sharp pointed nose, decayed teeth, and what looked like blood dripping from the corners of his mouth! Nightmares indeed! To the trash receptacle for you Mr Penguin.

Of course after a brief introductory period Tommy had to have a Batman costume, which my wife dutifully made. The costume was so popular she ended up making a few more for some of Tommys buddies.

I thoroughly trained him in all things Batman. Given my first hand knowledge, I had Tommy convinced (OK, maybe for about 10 seconds) that I indeed WAS the Batman, and that every night, after he was asleep in bed (but he HAD to be asleep), I'd don my outfit and depart out into the night to fit crime. "Where's the Batcave?" he'd ask. "Can't tell you." "OK, where's your outfit?" "Can't tell you that either." As he'd turn his head to verify this with mom, I'd vigorously nod - the unspoken signal to agree with me. Of course, she'd always say, "You'd have to ask your Dad." Bahh! That's a sure sign I've been pulling his leg!

1995 Skybox Adventures of Batman and Robin

Card #61 "Sideshow - After trapping Batman, Killer Croc lets his true nature show by attacking the circus freaks who took him in."
Thats not very nice Mr. Croc. Cant you see you're scaring the female high-wire performers seen in the background?

Our all-time favorite superhero would have to be Batman. I think that this was solidified for me and Tommy by the Batman Animated Series that came on in the early 90's. We were drawn to the sharp and colorful animation, the extreme art-deco, and the great assortment of villians. Of course we collected all the action figures and trading cards too. Every weekday we'd park ourselves in front if the TV at 4:30 to see who the Batman would defeat and bring to justice. The first Christmas after his intoduction to the Animated Batman I found myself in a frantic search for a batmobile. I was too late to find one, everyone was sold out by then, so I came up with the idea that I'll just make my own. On Christmas Eve I found a plastic black Corvette at the local Thrifty, just about the right scale. I wanted to convert it so that a figure could sit inside, so I cut the roof like a sun roof and cut out the steering wheel and floorboards so the action figures legs could stick out. I then made a template of the Batman logo and painted it on the hood. I was up till midnight, but the next morning my exhausting effort was rewarded as Tommy was overwhelmed with excitement, convinced it was a real batmobile!

1991 Topps Walt Disney Rocketeer

Card number 40 HIGH FLYING HERO. First we saw the movie. Then, being the collector that I am, came the box of cards, movie poster, coloring book, comic book, and whatever else I could get my hands on. The Rocketeer is one of my top ten all-time movies. A couple years after these cards were released I picked up a wax box really cheap. The assortment was awesome as I got a complete set from one box. I put them nicely in order, in a binder, so you could follow the story from card-back to card-back. Then I gave the extras to Tommy, a nice creased one was in the box. Back to the movie. I remember there were parts of the movie that were a little over his head, he was probably five or six when I first let him watch it. I had to cough or "blah-blah-blah" during a couple questionable words, and we both had to "look away!" during one brief barely immodest scene, but the rest of the action was awesome! Machine guns, thugs, airplane crashes, explosions, a Flying Rocket Man! The best kind of father-son bonding stuff ever. We were so enamored with the Rocketeer that Tommy wanted to BE the Rocketeer, so I made him a costume that Halloween. Using cardboard and scotch tape, I transformed his styrofoam tricycle helmet into a real Rocketeer steerable helmet. I hot glued two liter-sized soda bottles together, spray painted them silver, and attached a strap...just like the real Rocketeers jet pack. Tommy creatively came up with the pants and shirt. He'd run around the backyard rescuing people and doing Rocketeer stuff. I took a picture of him posed on the ground like he was ready to blast off. We did it at night for some added drama, you can see the jet-pack flames better at night.


Of all the super hero costumes we ended up making him, the Rocketeer costume is still my most favorite. Ah, good times.

1991 Upper Deck Silver Slugger Jose Canseco

When I started collecting cards again, in the late 80's early 90's, I'd often pull the superstars out and put them into binders. I had sections for Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey Jr, Mark McGwire, and of course Jose Canseco, among others. When my son Tommy was about 3 a favorite time together was laying on the floor of his bedroom slowly going through a binder of baseball cards. As we turned a page and came across a player I'd state his name with much excitement, "Wade BOGGS! E-YESSS!" and give a fist pump. Tommy would make his best effort to mimic my excitement and the pronunciation of the athletes name. The toughest name to pronounce however was Jose Canseco. For Tommy it was more like "Joseco-seco-seco-seco", his head bobbing back and forth and his tone fading with each syllable. These days, Mr. Canseco's only saving grace in my eyes is the memories I have of those times on the bedroom floor. Joseco-seco-seco-seco.