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?