Adventure Time Playpak Series 3 Trading Cards

C'mon, grab you friends, we'll go to very distant lands to take a look at the Adventure Time Playpak Series 3 trading cards from Cryptozoic.

 

 I've actually had these for maybe two months and haven't ripped the entire box yet. I'm most of the way there but I like saving a few for when I need a quick pick me up during the day. The packs and box art feature Fionna and Cake the Cat, the gender swapped universe versions of Finn and Jake the Dog.

 

 I haven't see these in any stores and am glad I was able to grab a box directly from Cryptozoic's site. There are 24 packs per box with 5 cards in each pack. In theory, that's enough packs to get two full 45 card sets with some extras left over. I have 7 packs left to open to get the one card I need to complete a single set. 

 

Let's see what sort of fun cards in the packs.

 

Monsterwax Spookshow Trading Cards Series 2

 Trading card company Monsterwax is back again with a sequel to their fantastic Spookshow trading card series from 2012. You can see my review of those here.

As before, they took to Kickstarter to make this series happen and I was thrilled to be part of it. And just like last time, I wouldn't be content with just the base set of cards so I ponied up for the Delux Master Set!

So what did I get for front row seats?

Creeping Flesh Series 2 Trading Cards by Dan Brereton

In the "before times" of 2017, I backed a Kickstarter for a set of trading cards based on the art of Dan Brereton. You can see that post here. They recently did a second series based on his amazing comic series The Nocturnals and I wanted to show off some of those goodies.

Image from Kickstarter

Last time, I just got the cards and kind of regretted not opting for something with an autograph. This go round, I splurged a little more since it was the second series and I love the Nocturnals! 

As this was the second series of cards, I figured why not get a binder to hold them?

Included with the binder, is this tryptech card set. 

It's three cards that connect to make a big scene. 

Each one is autographed on the back too!

Just like the first series, this one comes in it's own shelf display box sized for a single pack and wax wrapper. Also again, no bubble gum included.

These are the bonus and promo cards. Starting in the top left is a foil logo card announcing the set. Top right is a "bubblegum card" which is a lot more pink than it looks here. Bottom left is an autographed rainbow foil. And bottom right is a Kickstarter exclusive promo.

And finally, a few of the cards from the main set. There are 18 total. They're glossy on the front and have that nostalgic cardboard back featuring info on the character or scene.

If you're not familiar with The Nocturnals, I'm sure just seeing the art on these cards will let you know why I love hem so much! The original comics aren't easy to find for sale online but if you're in need of something to put you in that Halloween spirit, they're worth tracking down. Try your local comic shop, they can probably use the business!

Dan Brereton has another Kickstarter going for a new art book and portfolio.

You can check that out by clicking the image below.

Spook Show 2 Trading Cards

Way back in 2012(!) I backed a fantastic Kickstarter for a trading card set from Monsterwax based on the classic Spook Shows of yesteryear. They just recently returned to Kickstart a second series.

You can see my review of the first series here.

If you're a rare species that's reading my blog and doesn't know what a Spook Show is, I'll let them lay it out for you.

The Ghost Shows of the 1930s-1960s operated much like traveling haunted houses-- but were presented live on a stage using macabre magic! They featured professional magicians (or "Ghost Masters") who would drive across the country and rent theaters during off-hours (usually after midnight). There, they would perform all sorts of ghastly magic and gruesome illusions. Audiences might witness a bloody decapitation, or watch a volunteer get placed into a  trance and have their arm amputated with a buzz saw. A beautiful assistant could climb into a wicker basket and get run through with numerous swords or spikes. Another might be cremated and her smoldering skeleton would still be squirming as the oven lid was opened. A random volunteer could have the skin from their face removed, then have their skull extracted and floated about the stage as the audience looked on in shock.

There was no limit to the imagination or horror of Spook Shows. The climax was the infamous "black out", when the theater was plunged into complete darkness and flooded with floating ghosts and other spiritual manifestations. A horror film immediately followed, but in some instances, many in the audience had already fled the theatre in panic! (Sorry, no refunds!) But the memories never left those who witnessed these spook-tacular events. The craze was so popular, it made numerous magicians rich-- and pitted some of them against each other in cut-throat feuds for better dates and larger territories.

They have some really fun rewards lined up.

If you pledge as little as $2 you get a Death Curse to fill out and destroy your enemies!

At $4, you get the Death Curse and a real ghost!

Starting at $18, you can get the full base set of cards.

$28 gets the base set plus some chase cards and $50 gets you the complete base set, all chase cards, a sketch, an autograph, and more, including a zombie servant!

Check out the whole thing on Kickstarter. 

They're well over the goal with 6 days left to back.

Funny thing is I kinda glossed over the photos when I backed the project and when I went back to make this post, I noticed all the photos they have for the series 1 cards (red background) are the photos I took when I made my post about those cards! I'm having my ghost lawyer contact them.

Garbage Pail Kids - Oh, The Horror-ible

The Garbarge Pail Kids are back and they're taking on the icons of horror and sci-fi. I was pretty excited for this set, given that it released around Halloween, and ordered a box online. What I didn't realize was that Topps has changed how they refer to things. There used to be retail and hobby boxes, with hobby being the ones that had a guaranteed "hit" of a sketch card or something else desirable. Now they are called hobby and hobby collector boxes. Ugh. To make a long story short (too late!) I ordered a non-hit box, the up side is these are cheaper than the collector boxes. Enough boring stuff, let's get to it!

This is a Value, or Blaster, Box which is available in stores. These $10 boxes have 5 packs and a bonus mini-pack of 3 Bathroom Buddies stickers. These are usually boring ol rectangular boxes but someone had the great idea to turn it into a tombstone. Love it!

There are 200 base cards in the set but it's more like two 100 card sets as each card has an A and B name variant. Each pack has a puke green parallel and there are other various color parallels of differing rarities scattered in as well. All that means is instead of a white border, it is splashed with color.

Here are a few of the horror cards. There are mini sets categorized into Retro Horror (top), 80s Horror (middle), and Modern Horror (bottom). I was very happy to find the Addams Family represented in the retro set.

The Science Fiction cards have similar groupings top to bottom: Retro, 80s, and Modern. Most of these mini sets have 10-15 cards but there are only 5 in the Modern SciFi series.

Rounding out the base series are Classic Film Monsters (top) and Folk Lore (Bottom). The Creature from the Black Lagoon has a card in the Classic Film Monster set but I haven't seen one yet. I know the Krampus movie was a big hit but he really belongs in Folk Lore.

In addition to the basic cards, there are a few chase insert sets. The Classic Monster (80s throwback) stickers are only available in "fat packs" which is a $5 larger the normal pack. The Trick or Treat set (bottom) is available in the hobby box. There is also a horror poster parody series and a set of patch cards that you can only get from the hobby collector boxes. So if you gotta have em all, you'll be forking over lots of cash!

This is a really fun set and I'm diggin the Classic Monster stickers from the fat packs. If you're looking to do some trading, hit me up! You can find a list of my cards here.

Be sure to Trick or Treat at the participating Countdown blogs by clicking below!

Denny's Solo Trading Cards

Just prior to Solo's release you might remember seeing cross promotional ads with Denny's. In addition to some special Solo themed menu items, you could also pick up exclusive trading cards. In my opinion, they had one of the best tie-in commercials ever.

The cards were $3 for a pack of 2 and there were 12 to collect. You might be thinking $3 is high for 2 trading cards but they were also donating $1.75 of that to the charity No Kid Hungry. A win for everybody!

I didn't pick these up when they came out because my local Denny's had closed down and the closest one was 30 miles away. But thanks to a Facebook trading group, I was able to get the whole set for other cards I had sitting around.

The set of 12 is split into 2 groups of six: good guys and aliens/bad guys. I don't know why they picked Val here, she's not in the movie that much. I would have gone with Beckett since he has a bigger role. Even though Rio doesn't have that big of a part, I would have liked to see him too. I really dig his design and he's a fun character.

I mostly like the card design, they almost look like Old West posters. I think they might look better if the shading was behind the character instead of covering their bottom half. It would make them pop off the card more.

The really neat thing with these cards is they have a puzzle on the back. This was one of the big cool factors for me as a kid with the original Topps cards way back when. Of course then, I didn't have the whole puzzle right away and getting those pieces was what made it fun.

Here's the Empire and aliens half of the set. Where is Dryden Vos, the big baddie of the movie? Admittedly, he's not as cool to look at as any of these characters. And ol' Thurm Scissorpunch has gained a cult following of his own. I mean, you can't go wrong with that name!

And here's the back of the second half. I haven't really seen the retail Topps Solo cards but I'm guessing this artwork ended up on a card there. I like the style of the art and that it's like an ad you'd see in the Star Wars galaxy.

If you're looking to pick up these cards, you can find them on Ebay for around $20 for the set. If you're a "it's not a set until I have every variant card" type of person, be warned! Each of the 12 cards in the set has a foil variant that were inserted into 1:100 packs.

Never tell me the odds indeed!

The Garbage Pail Kids Hate the 80s!

The Garbage Pail Kids from Topps are back again and this time they're taking on the decade that made them, the 80s! I loved Wacky Packages as a kid and got into the first round of GPK as is evidenced by the inside of my high school notebook.

The base series is 180 cards made up of 90 different characters, each with two different names. There are 10 subsets tackling all aspects of the 80s. If you want to spoil yourself, you can grab the checklist from Topps. Granted it's only card names with no pictures but you can probably figure most of them out.

Here we have cartoons, celebrities, and culture. The Masked Matt card has a mucus green border because it's a parallel or variant. You get one in each pack. There are also fool's gold variants that are 1:48 packs. These are individually numbered as there are only 50 gold variants for each card.

Then we have history, fashions & fads, movies, and sitcom. The sitcom cards all feature characters from The Goldbergs TV show. There are randomly inserted autograph cards (1:1926 packs!) signed by the one of the show's cast.

Rounding out the base set are toys, TV shows & ads, and video games.

The cards are available at retail big box stores like Target and come in single packs ($2) or a box of 5 packs ($10) which has 3 Bathroom Buddies stickers in each box. You can also go the hobby box route which will run you between $45-$50. Hobby boxes are always more expensive but that's because they have even more stuff in them than the retail packs.

The hobby boxes have additional inserts that include reprints of classic 80s stickers, the Gross Bears (Care Bears), sketch cards, autographs, and wax pack parodies.

I'm a little tempted to grab a hobby box just to try and get some of these wax pack cards! If you're an 80s kid or just love 80s culture, I cannot recommend this set highly enough. Much like watching VH1's I Love the 80s, it'll have you strolling down memory lane and maybe remind you of a few things you totally forgot about.

While researching these, I found out Topps has a Wacky Packages Go to the Movies set
coming out in March!

Creeping Flesh Trading Cards

I was so thrilled to see this project on Kickstarter a few months ago. I've been a fan of Dan Brereton for a long time now after discovering his comic series The Nocturnals. It's not only gorgeous to look at but the atmosphere is what I can only call Halloween Noir. Image Comics recently made The Nocturnals available digitally so if you want to check it out, go here. If you prefer having it in hand, you can probably find them at a local comic shop or Amazon.

But enough about the comic, I'm here to talk trading cards! Creeping Flesh is a set of 19 monster girl trading cards and 1 sticker. It's presented as a wax pack of trading cards straight out of the 80s, but instead of having to buy a ton of packs, you get the whole set in one shot. They did an incredible job with the presentation.

For a few bucks more, you could add on this display box to hold the pack of cards. Anyone that remembers buying cards back in the day may get a nostalgia flashback.

Just like the store boxes, the top folds back with a cut out image. That's the pack of cards inside it to give you an idea of the size of the box. They come in a wax wrapper too. The only thing missing is a stick of gum which is probably for the better.

In addition to the wax pack the cards come in, they sent a flat wrapper. Something they didn't have to do but it's a nice bonus. The left side has a checklist of the card set.
Also included is a promo card for the set.

Here are just a few of the 19 cards. The one with the white border is the sticker card. The regular cards are either orange or purple bordered giving the set even more of a Halloween vibe. As you can see, Brereton has a wonderfully spooky art style.

If you want to snap up a set of these wicked women, they have about 60 sets left. There are also add-ons you can get like the display box, signed cards (why didn't I order one of those?), or even a collector's set with each card autographed!

Drag yourself over to Sidekick's site to order.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol2 Trading Cards - Retail

As I mentioned in Tuesday's post about the GotG Hobby cards, companies will also make a series of "retail" trading cards. Normally, they release the same base set of cards to mass market outlets with lower chances of pulling hits but at a lower price which makes it more affordable to get the base set of cards. But not here. The cards you get at retail are completely different than the hobby cards.

Why would you make trading cards for one of the biggest summer movies and limit them to WalMart? The stores in my area are the absolute worst if you're looking for cards that are not sports or gaming related. And to put more salt in the wound, there were also promo cards released which are different still from the hobby or retail versions. Basically, there are three different sets of cards!

I don't have any of the promo cards because to get them, you had to buy a pack of underwear or t-shirts. $10-$15 for a 4 cards is not exactly cost efficient. Although individual non-insert promos are going for $3-5 each now.

The 50(!) card promo set has different inserts like blue or gold foils, die-cut cards, chrome-cut (think shiny silver), and super lucky people get a Dave Bautista or Stan Lee autograph! The promo cards have a WP before the number for Walmart Promo. These use a different layout than the hobby/retail cards, opting for a borderless look.

Promo cards (Image from Cardboard Connection)

Then we come to the regular, non-hobby, non-promo retail set. I haven't been able to find a checklist for these so I have no idea how many are in this set. The retail cards are numbered with the prefix RB for...retail box, I guess?

Retail cards

From the few packs I've managed to find, these seem to be character focused. The re-use of art (top row) almost makes me think these are aimed at a slightly younger audience. There are cards that look like they should be stickers (bottom left and right) and also blue foils that really make the images pop.

From what I've been able to gather online, the retail set also has their own hits.

Image from eBay

Honestly, I think these look better than the hobby wardrobe cards, such a cool way to do it.

The good news is, while researching the cards on eBay, it looks like the prices of a complete hobby set are coming down so I may be able to get them after all. It's just not as much fun buying it all at once as it is opening packs though.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol2 Trading Cards - Hobby

The movie may have come and gone but that doesn't mean I'm done talking all things Guardians just quite yet!

I picked up some packs of trading cards when the first movie came out but never got around to getting a complete set. This time, I decided to treat myself to a hobby box. If you're not up on your trading card lingo, they will usually release retail cards (what you'd find at places like Target) and hobby cards (which if you don't have a specialty shop nearby, means mail order).

The difference is what you get in packs. Hobby packs have "premium hits" in them. You're generally guaranteed a couple of these if you buy a box. These can be things like sketch cards or autographs.

I found a decent price from an online retailer. As you might imagine, I was very excited the day my box of cards arrived. My first thought on opening it was, wow there's a lot of styrofoam packing in here. You see, in my giddiness to order the cards I didn't read the fine print. Well, it's not really fine, it's right there if you actually read. I'm used to seeing boxes of Star Wars cards which are usually 24 packs per box. This box has only 10 packs...for almost what I'd expect to pay for twice as many packs.

With the main set having 90 cards, there's no chance of even getting close to a complete set from this box of 80 cards. That was disappointing but I did get some cool stuff.

5x7 box topper & pack wrapper

Every box comes with a one of nine oversized 5x7 cards. Random boxes will have an oversized sketch instead. These are pretty cool and relatively cheap on the secondary market so I'm planning on picking up a couple more.

The 90 card base set covers the characters and movie story. Very similar to any movie trading cards you'd get when you were a kid. The cards themselves are great quality. Unfortunately, I won't be finishing the set anytime soon because I'm not buying any more boxes and there's nowhere around selling individual packs. Considering what I paid for this box of 10, I'm afraid to see what a store would charge for single packs.

And then there is what I consider the blight of the hobby...parallels.

Bronze, Blue, and Purple

I know people out there collect parallels but I have no use for them. To me, they're just taking advantage of collector OCD and using up a slot in the pack that could be a standard card to finish the set. They're called parallels because they, stay with me here, parallel the base set cards but are slightly different. In this case, they jazz up a base card with colored foil graphics. In the hobby set, there are five levels of foil parallels: Bronze (1:1.45 packs), Blue (x/199), Purple (x/99), Red (x/49), and Pink (x/10).

They didn't photograph great but the foil looks pretty good in person. I did get a few Bronze, couple Blue, and a Purple. The numbers up above mean they are limited print run. For example, the Purple I have is stamped on the back that it is 72/99, so there are only 98 other purple foils of that card. In that respect, it's kind of cool to have one of 99 in existence.

Then come the inserts. These are mini-sets of cards with a specific theme. They are: 15 card Behind the Lens, 12 card Family of Oddballs focusing on the characters, and 6 cards on the ships. These inserts are about 1:3 packs. I got a total of 8 in my 10 packs so that ain't bad!

Now we're into the really good stuff: the hits!

These were pretty thrilling to pull! They're Galactic Garb cards featuring a piece of  wardrobe used in production! I got the one on the right in the first pack I opened. It's pretty cool to get even a small piece of something that was used in the movie.

Here's a closer look at Drax's card.

There's nothing covering the fabric so you can feel the texture on it.

There's quite a variation in these cards. They can have up to four characters on one card. Some of them have an autograph on the card of the actor as well. I didn't get any of those but am pretty happy with what I did get. There is also another super-rare hit called Groot's Roots. It's a piece of real maple in card shape with an image burned into it!

There are 10 different ones and the odds are 1:65 packs, or one per 6.5 boxes! They have a range of $25-$100 on eBay. I might be tempted to pick one up at some point.

Speaking of eBay and picking stuff up, I did do a bit of online shopping to snag a few more wardrobe cards. I'd like to get one with each cast member.

I'm a little confused on the Rocket one because he's CGI. I know there is a stand in actor and I think I remember from Vol 1 behind the scenes that there is a physical Rocket stand-in as well. Maybe that's what this is from.

Tune in again Thursday when I'll be talking about the retail Guardians cards. It will be a much shorter post, I promise!

Star Wars Rogue One Trading Cards - UK Set

Welcome to part 2 of he Topps UK Rogue One Trading Card review!
If you missed part 1, you can read it here.

This set is a little different from the way they do US sets. In US sets, there is usually a base set of cards and then inserts which have different odds of getting one in each pack. The only "inserts" in this set are these special cards.

I don't know what the "actual" name is for them so I'll go with rainbow holo-foil. These limited editions can be found in regular packs at 1:36 odds. If you buy a starter set, you get Jyn. They used to sell a special package of 5 packs that included either Cassian or Vader. Those packs are no longer in stock online but I did manage to grab one. The Vader I pulled from a regular pack.

This is what I like to call a hype set. It's released before the movie so it typically doesn't contain a lot of spoilers. This is a 212 card set and although the cards are individually numbered, there are definitely mini sets or themes that run throughout.

Cards 1-33 consist of 11 characters, each with three images. The cards themselves are even a bit different from what you get in the US. You can sort of see it on Jyn, they have a bit of texturing on them instead of being just cardboard.

Cards 34-51 are mostly characters with a few ships. Some characters get three different cards, while poor Director Krennic only gets one. Even the Deathtroopers get three!

It was about this point shooting the cards that I decided to double up on the mini sets, otherwise this would be a really long post.

Cards 52-61 are represented by the top row. These are some of my favorite in the whole set. I think they have a bit of a stencil graffiti vibe.

62-73, bottom row, is more character art. Most of the cards in the set have no information on the backs so a lot of these feel they're almost playing cards.

74-84 on the top, is all character head shots. The art style is reminding me of...something. I can't think of what it's reminding me of at the moment though. These also have two bits of info on the back: allegiance and height.

Bottom row, 85-92, is all Vader, all the time! These are another favorite mini set, especially the style of the two on the right because they feel like a 70s throwback.

Cards 93-128 make up four 9-card puzzle posters. You can fit 9 cards per storage page. Coincidence? They're a little spaced out in the page but they still look pretty good.

129-150 are movie scene cards. Again, unlike what you'd be expecting in the US, there is no text on the back describing the scene or plot. They're not even numbered in the order the scenes happen in the movie.

151-160 look a bit different. The first time I pulled one I thought it was a little...odd. The white circle in the lower left has a faint image of a character. Why this strange design? I'll get back to them shortly, they do have a purpose!

161-192 are holo-foil cards. In a US set, these would probably be an insert that you'd expect to get in every few packs. Not here though! You get one in every 8 card pack! They also have text on the back describing the thing on the front.

I'm still trying to figure out why you would need a cargo AT-AT in a galaxy where flying/hover vehicles are as common as cars.

193-202 are plastic! It's kind of hard to tell but everywhere you see white on the top two cards, it's transparent and the background is showing through. Remember those unusual cards a couple pictures ago that looked kind of blank? Well, you pair those with the corresponding plastic card and you get what you see on the bottom. I really like this idea!

203-212 are sticker cards, which I didn't even realize until I looked at the poster that came with the starter set. They are a little bit thicker than the rest of the cards in the set. The same image is on the back of the card so if you decide to use the sticker, you still have a card with the image on it.

Overall, I really enjoy this set. I collect playing cards for the art and I think that's part of why I like this set so much, it's very art-centric. I still need just over 25% of the cards to complete it. This is where you end up paying for it because I'm more likely to find people outside the US to trade with.

The only negative things I have to say are that the cards are not as sturdy as what I'm used to and you have to be careful handling a stack of them to not ding or bend the corners.

The second thing is more at Topps Direct for their shipping. They always use a padded mailer no matter what you order. Packs of cards? Padded envelope. Individual cards to complete your collection? We'll put those in a regular envelope and put that in a padded envelope. I guess I can't complain because the shipping is so cheap but it would be nice to not have to worry about the condition of your cards.

By the way, that is one of the best things about Topps Direct is that you can purchase individual cards from them! As of this post, they still have Rogue One Starter Sets (around $5) and 8-card packs for just over $1 each! You can find them here.