Not too long ago I talked about wanting to give model building another try after an almost twenty year gap since my original failed attempts. Once I decided to have a another go at it, there seemed to be three things I would have to do before getting started.
1. Watch plenty of how-to videos: I already mentioned this in a previous post, but I will reiterate the fact that I now know that almost everything I was doing all those years ago, was wrong! So hopefully with my new found insight, things will go a little better this time around.
2. Buy some kits on the cheap, to practice on: Which is what this post has to do with. A couple of weeks ago, I found a listing on eBay that contained these three kits:
At $8 with free shipping, this looked like the perfect group for figure painting practice. Before bidding I did see that these were 1:144 scale, which I knew meant that they wouldn't be very big, but in my mind I just thought they would be a little smaller than a normal sized army man figure. Needless to say, I was wrong!
For those of you out there, who are like me and don't know how big (or small) a 1:144 figure is, here's a picture that should give you a pretty good idea:
Pretty small, eh? If you look on both ends, you will notice that there are even limbs and torsos that need to be glued on to some of the figures. At least I know now, why no one else bid on these. I don't consider this purchase to be a complete bust, they just aren't nearly as big as I expected. I can't find any videos showing how to paint figures this small, so for the moment, there kind of in limbo. On the positive side, the graphics on the box sure are neat though. Not counting these, I have a total of five kits to practice with, which I think is enough for the moment.
3. Get supplies: Which sort of goes hand and hand with number two. This is proving to be the most difficult of the three things, especially when it comes to the paint. I don't remember there being so many different kinds when I was a kid. It seemed like the only viable option back then was testors, and because of my previous bad experiences, I will not use that stuff again. And of course, everyone seems to have a different opinion about all these different brands, which is not helping at all. I have been leaning towards Humbrol, mostly due to the positive things I have read from older modelers that have tried a lot of the different brands over the years. Also, the company has a lot of videos on YouTube showing how to use a lot of their products, and I have been pretty impressed with what I have seen. The only drawback to using Humbrol paints, seems to be that they are a little on the pricey side and not that easy to find (at least in U.S.).
So that's where I'm at so far, with this particular endeavor. It may not be moving along quite as fast as I had hoped, but at least it's still moving forward.
Two weeks or so ago, I was fortunate enough to win a basketball card contest held by Wes of Jaybarkerfan's Junk. Considering how many people entered I was pretty surprised to see that I had won, since normally it seems like the randomizer doesn't seem to care for my name too much.
The contents of the prize weren't specified, so to say that I was slightly shocked by what arrived, would be an understatement:
That is a stack of roughly 300 cards! I know from reading of other people's interactions with Wes, that he known for his giving spirit, that being said I still wasn't expecting anything like this.
Normally if someone sends me stuff, I try to scan and show everything, but there is just no way to do that with this hoard. So below you will see what I hope was a good representation of what was in the box.
I believe the custom is to start with this particular card:
Wes, looking at this card made me wonder. What's going to happen once you reach card number 98?
2003-04 Upper Deck Victory Michael Jordan #212
2013-14 Panini Crusade Blue
There were a lot of late 80's and early 90's Jordan cards in here, this is just a sampling.
These two 1991-92 Panini Stickers are something I haven't seen in a really long time. To me, this is still one of the better basketball sticker designs.
There are Two 1991-92 Upper Deck Holograms and one 1992-93 Upper Deck Hologram (Stockton) here. Show me a person that doesn't like holograms, and I'll show you a person without a soul!
1993 Front Row Converse Grandmama #G7
This was a card that I had never seen before, which was kind of surprising since at the time this card would have come out, Larry Johnson was my guy. In fact, he was the first player to get me to start watching college basketball when he was tearing it up with the Runnin' Rebels.
The back is just as good as the front:
Various years of Past & Present
More Holograms! 1993-94 Upper Deck 3-D Standouts
There seemed to be an extraordinary amount of Earl Boykins cards in the package. This just a few of the ones that I thought would scan well.
Getting two autographs of guys I don't already have is always a treat!
2012-13 Panini Brilliance
A couple of Kobe's
2005-06 NBA Hoops MJ Profiles #MJ-7
2011-12 Past & Present Fireworks #14. This card looks way better in person.
These three 2013-14 Prizm cards were really neat to find in the box, since I'm working on the set and trying to get as many of the parallels on the cheap as I can. I already had the Bill Russell base card, but both the parallels are new additions.
2013 Panini Black Friday
2002 Upper Deck Twizzlers Team 2002 Alonzo Mourning #6
2013-14 Panini Select Tim Duncan Red Hot #22. Another card that looks way better in person.
I was pretty surprised to find this 1993-94 Finest Sam Perkins refractor in here. Since this a duplicate for me, it will be part of the giveaway, which I will get to in just a second.
And finally, my favorite card from the whole batch:
1997-98 Bowman's Best Tyus Edney Atomic Refractor #10
If I said I was surprised by the Perkins refractor, imagine how I felt when I saw this beauty. They just don't make 'em like this anymore.
Now I thought it might be fun to giveaway the Sam Perkins refractor (minus the dust on the scan), plus a few more things from whichever sport, team, etc. that is of interest to the winner. All you have to do is be the first person to leave a comment that correctly identifies who is the player behind Tyus Edney in the card above. If you were a basketball fan during the 90's I don't think this should be to difficult.
Thanks again, Wes! It might take a little while to find some stuff for you, but I will try to reciprocate your amazing generosity.
And finally, a song with only the loosest of ties to this post:
Last week, Jim (gcrl) found some time between his almost daily Frankendodger posts, to send some more buybacks my way.
This package turned out to be pretty darn good, numbers wise. Out of the 30 that were sent, 26 ended up being new numbers for my rapidly growing frankenset.
I don't think these will require any more buildup, so here we go:
One card from this group contained a very interesting piece of trivia that was sure to impress your friends and family...
...which is, that in 1973, Fred Norman was a bachelor! Wow, Thanks TMZ Topps, that is some kind of insight. I can't wait to tell all the guys down at the schoolyard!
I know one thing though, if I was cartoon Fred Norman, I certainly wouldn't be running away from cartoon raven haired beauty.
Let us continue:
I think that Darrell Evans is now the only player who is represented twice in my set.
That '85 Oester is now the second card I have from this year's buybacks where the stamp is completely obscuring the player's face. It would be nice if Topps would try a little harder in the future to make sure that the stamp machine doesn't create so many cards featuring faceless entities.
Thanks again, Jim! With your contribution of over fifty cards now, you are by far the biggest reason that this set is getting built as quickly as it is.
With summer officially starting today (although we have been having summer-y weather here for over two months now), I can think of no better song to celebrate the start of the solstice than this:
Today's post will be of the one card variety, featuring my recent purchase of this 1970-71 Topps Lew Alcindor (soon to be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).
Thanks to the card being off center, it kept the graders away, which meant that I was able to get it for what I would almost call a steal of a price. This card has been a longtime set need, so it is very nice to check it off the list.
The 1970-71 season would end up being a pretty good one for both the Bucks as a team, and for Kareem as an individual player.
With the acquisition of the great Oscar Robertson before the season started, the Bucks added another star to play alongside Kareem. Which with the already stellar supporting cast, was enough to take the NBA by storm. They would end up going 66-16, which at the time set a new record for wins in a season (since broken). During the season they would also set a record by winning 20 games in a row (this too has since been broken). Come Playoff time, they beat both the San Francisco Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers in the first two rounds, losing only one game in each series. The Baltimore Bullets, who they would meet in the finals, ended up not being much of a match as Milwaukee would go on to sweep the series in four games, thus giving the franchise their first (and only) championship season.
As far as individual accomplishment go, Kareem averaged a league leading 31.7 points per game and was fourth in rebounding at 16.0 per game. Statistically speaking this would be his second best season, only surpassed by the next season's stats of 34.8 ppg and 16.6 rpg. Because of his dominating play during their title winning season, he would win not only the regular season MVP award, but also the Finals MVP.
In closing, here's a catchy little ditty that was brought to mind by the fact that I have always thought that the young Mr. Alcincor looks more than a little baked on the card above:
Tom Reid was an eleven year pro, splitting time between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Minnesota North Stars. Best known for being the only player to ever score a penalty goal against Ken Dryden. Currently does color work for the Minnesota Wild radio broadcasts.
Since getting my 1973-74 Topps Yvan Cournoyer autograph at one of the card shows a couple of months ago, I have been toying with the idea of trying to get as many of the cards from the set signed as possible. I think it will be a nice companion to the 1978-79 Topps and 1989-90 Hoops basketball sets that I'm already doing the same thing with. I have also started this same endeavor with the 1969 and 1972 Topps baseball sets. So far, with this hockey set I've got five cards down, two returns via the mail and three purchased.
As always, I would like to send a big thank you out to Mr. Reid for taking the time to sign my card.
I'm finding out very quickly that I am even worse with time management than I had previously suspected.
This the first time (so far) that I have gone more than a week without a post, not that I would expect anyone to have noticed. Between feeling like a hot mess off and on for almost two weeks now and trying to balance time amongst some of my recent other interests, this blog has been the odd man/thing (not to be confused with Man-Thing) out.
So to help me get back into the blogging groove, this will just be a one item post.
Bob Cousy has been someone that I have wanted an autograph from for a while now, and a couple of months ago I was able to get one in the form of this cancelled check:
And in case anybody cares to see the back:
Even though I'm getting better at being willing to spend a little more for stuff that I really want, I'm still somewhat of a cheapskate. And because of this cheapness, I didn't buy any of the on-card autographs of Mr. Cousy that just a couple of years ago could be had for under $20. Most of those cards now sell for multiple times that, so for the moment this was the most affordable option.
Bob Cousy signed checks are fairly common on eBay, so for someone that is interested, you have a lot to choose from. I chose this particular one because of the year, and because he signed his full name, which is something he wouldn't do on a card. This particular example from "The Houdini of the Hardwood", with free shipping, was under $10.
This one of those times where I'm assuming that everyone knows who Bob Cousy is (hence the lack of any biographical information), although I know that I'm probably wrong in my assumption. For a guy that has accomplished so much during his playing days, and especially after retirement where he has seemingly done multiple lifetime's worth of activities, it seems like anything other than a full bio would be an insult. I would encourage anyone who is unfamiliar with Bob Cousy to at least go read his Wikipedia page, even though it is somewhat lacking, most notably in regards to his involvement in the civil rights movement.
