Have I Completed This Menko Set? I'm Still Not Sure.

Back in 2020, I came across a menko lot for sale on ebay. Despite the large quantity (I certainly didn't need such a stack), nostalgia took over, and I made the purchase.

 

The set wasn't listed on TCDB, so I got in touch with SumoMenkoMan, and we created a checklist. The one problem? We weren't exactly sure that a few of the cards on our checklist existed, because we'd never seen them in the wild.

 

Still, it was a good feeling to contribute to the database, and I kept my eyes peeled for the cards in question. And because I had about 80% of the cards known to exist, I also kept my eyes peeled for the few that I still needed. 

 

Fast-forward a few years, and I finally added a couple more cards.

Here's an image that shows some of the cards, just to give you a reminder of the impressive the artwork and colors you'll find across the set. 

 

 

  

That's right, it's the Transformers!

 

And I'm posting about them again because I have exciting news:

 

A seller that I follow on ebay occasionally lists a batch of cards from this set in his store. Whenever he does, I scan over the images to see if there are any that I don't have. Usually I end up saying, "have it, have it, have it, have it." But when he posted a batch a couple of months ago, not only did I see one that I didn't have . . .

 

. . . it was also one of the unconfirmed cards! 

 

I messaged him, asking if he'd consider taking that one card out of the listing to sell it to me separately. He politely declined, but mentioned that if he came across another copy, he'd let me know. 

 

Well, a few weeks later, I heard back from him. And guess what? He found another copy.

 

And guess what else? 

 

 

Autobot Jazz, card front and back

 

That copy is now in my collection!

 

Jazz was one of the key "Generation 1" Autobots, playing right-hand man to Optimus Prime. He also transformed into a pretty cool Porsche, which makes this menko even more appealing. I'm very happy to be able to confirm his card exists—so happy that I spent a little more than I wanted to on it. (I still have some duplicates from that original lot that I purchased back in 2020, so maybe I'll sell a couple of them to counter the cost.) 

 

Here's a short video that features Jazz doing an Autobot roll call.

 

 

   

And with his menko in hand, I now possess all 42 known cards in this set, which feels like a pretty cool feather in the cap. Here are the six "unconfirmed" Transformers that are currently on the checklist, along with some information about them:

 

 

Blitzwing

There are three main Decepticon jet fighters from Generation 1: Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker. They all have a card in this menko set. Blitzwing, however, came a bit later on, and he's actually a triple changer (jet, tank, robot). Because of that, I'm rethinking whether he would have been part of the set.  

 

Brawn

He'd almost certainly be included. One of the original Autobots who crash-landed on Earth, Brawn is a military-style Land Rover with demolition skills and a tough attitude (e.g., "Hey, come back! You didn't finish your nickel-plated knuckle sandwich!")

 

Huffer

Same goes for this guy. Huffer is an orange truck cab who was part of that original Autobot crew. He was a bit of a complainer from the start. Case in point? The first thing he said in the original Transformers story line was, "Oh, I say we leave right now and forget about traipsing after the stupid Decepticons."

 

Ironhide

Ironhide was a boxy red minivan, and was also part of the original Autobot crew to crash-land on Earth. 

 

Ratchet

Chief Medical Officer of the Autobots, and part of the original story line. Seems like he should have a card in this set, as well.

  

Shockwave

Shockwave was the Military Commander of the Decepticons, but similar to Blitzwing above, he didn't appear until a little bit later in the series. However, I still think he might have a card in this set. He even makes a little cameo near the bottom left side of Perceptor's card.

 

 

And that's that. As far as I know, the Takara company did not provide an official checklist for this set when it was released back in 1985, but I'll keep doing research and looking out for examples. I don't think I've ever put this kind of continued effort into completing a set of cards, but it's been kind of fun.

 

And that leads me to a question for you readers: 

 

Have you ever collected a set of cards that was so obscure that you felt like you were alone in your quest to complete it—or even to find more information about it? If so, share in the comment section!

 

Thanks for reading, as always. 

Another Two Transformers Cards Meet My Eye

A few years ago I came across a stack of menko for sale on eBay, all featuring characters from the Transformers animated series of the 1980s. It was a sizeable stack, and there were some duplicates as well. I was pretty new to menko at that point, and wasn't sure I needed such a big lot of them, so I went back and forth for a while on whether I should make the purchase. Thankfully, nostalgia won out, and I gave myself the green light. Here are just some of the cards:

 

 

 

The fantastic artwork and vivid colors were too good to pass up. 

 

After I received the cards and finished sorting through them, I contacted SumoMenkoMan, who had a bunch of cards from this very same set. Together we came up with a checklist and submitted it to TCDB. It was the first time I'd contributed to the database in this way, and it felt pretty good.

 

And you know what? That one lot of cards I purchased had gotten me fairly close to having the full set—about 75%, in fact. As time went on, I became more and more thankful that I made the purchase. The cards would rarely show up on auction sites, and when they did, it was even more rare that the cards being offered were ones I needed for my collection. A couple of years ago, I was able to pick up three more cards. And then there was a whole lot of nothing for a while.

Recently, however, that changed.

A seller on eBay listed a dozen cards from the set. I eagerly scanned the images in the listing, hoping there'd be at least one that I needed.

There were two.

 

Quickly I emailed the seller, asking if he'd be willing to sell me those two menko separately. To my great pleasure, he told me that he had a few extra copies of those two cards, and he'd be happy to list them separately, as long as we could agree on a price.

Well, these menko have been going for super-high prices lately, and I wasn't too excited about his first offer. I suggested a trade for some of my duplicates, but he wasn't interested. Eventually, we agreed on a fair price, and I was happy to seal the deal. (I also ended up listing and selling a few of my duplicates on eBay, which definitely lessened the blow.)

Within a week or so, the package arrived. Here are the two new guys, on full display.

 

Smokescreen and Thundercracker card fronts

 

   

Smokescreen and Thundercracker card backs

Smokescreen is an Autobot. Thundercracker is a Decepticon. I'm surprised they made it all the way to my mailbox without blasting each other apart. But it's a good thing they did.

Their safe arrival means I've now got 41 of the 48 menko in the set. And here's what makes it really interesting:

I'm not completely sure the other 7 menko even exist!

 

When SumoMenkoMan and I were compiling the checklist, we took an educated guess on some of the well-known Generation 1 characters that would almost have to be included in the set, but whose cards we'd never seen ourselves—not even in pictures on the internet.

 

So, although it's likely I haven't completed this set, I do currently have all the known cards in the set.

 

It's a pretty fun accomplishment for an '80s kid like me, who grew up with that original cartoon, and who still gets hit with a big dose of nostalgia whenever he hears that theme song.

How about you readers? What TV shows or films bring back the nostalgia enough to make you want to collect some of the related cards or stickers? (The A-Team, Magnum P.I., Three's Company, Indiana Jones, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.)

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

These Transformers Cards Never Met My Eye Back in the 1980s

The Transformers hit their stride right as I was in my little-kid, cartoon-watching, action-and-adventure phase. And for a couple of years there, I was really into the animated TV series. If I'm remembering correctly, it was broadcast every Sunday around 10:00 a.m. on WPIX NY channel 11 here in New York, and I'd watch as often as I could with great interest. I also had a few of the action figures, used the red cellophane decoder on the back of the box to find out each one's strengths and weaknesses, and thought I knew the major characters pretty well.

However, at least one product escaped my knowledge until recently, when I saw it on Trading Card Database's "random card of the day" feature.

A trading card??

 

Yep, a trading card. I had a look at the checklist, and the set consists of a whopping 192 cards, plus 24 stickers. There are individual cards for all the major Auotbot and Decepticon players, plus a bunch of cards that are made up of animation stills taken straight from the original cartoon.

For the dose of nostalgia that these cards would bring, I thought I'd have a look around the internet to check prices and availability. Turns out these cards are somewhat rare, which might help explain why I never saw them in stores back in the '80s. Complete sets are a bit too pricey for me, and I don't need that much of a nostalgia hit, so I decided to search for a few singles. 

 

A particular seller on eBay had quite a few listed, and I added a couple to my watch list. The seller soon noticed, and offered me 50% off each of the two cards. With such a generous offer, I asked if he'd provide that same deal if I were to grab a couple others that he was selling. Nice guy that he was, he said it would be fine.

 

So here are the four cards (two Autobots, two Decepticons) I decided to pick up:

 

 

First up is Brawn, resident Autobot tough guy and demolitions expert who transformed into a Land Rover Defender 4 x 4. In one episode he quipped at a fleeing Decepticon, Hey, come back! You didn't finish your nickel-plated knuckle sandwich!

 

 

  

Next is Huffer, a construction engineer who transformed into a semi-truck cab. His colors are quite bright. I wonder why the studio went with purple and orange like that. 

 

Speaking of colors and design, you'll notice that the artwork on the card fronts is of a higher quality than what you got in the animated series. The metal is more shiny and chrome-like. There's more detail in the lines and depth.

 

 

 

Now we have Laserbeak, who I seem to remember had a role in just about every episode of the cartoon. How could he not? I mean, he was a rocket-powered robot bird who performed covert surveillance, shot lasers from his eyes, and transformed into an audio tape that fit inside the next guy's cassette deck. 

 

 

 

Yes, for the fourth card I went with Soundwave, for obvious "coolness factor" reasons. A boom box who had a wicked digitally altered voice? Yep. That was a smart move by Hasbro/Takara. I'm sure Soundwave was a best seller at toy stores everywhere.

 

Now here are the card backs.

 

There's quite a bit of detail there, and I can imagine I would have gotten into the show even more had I owned some of these cards back then.

 

There's also a bit of a Cold War aspect to some of the text, don't you think? I guess you could say the same thing about the entire story line. It was the Autobots (Us) vs. the Decepticons (Them).

 

As for where you'd have gotten these cards back in the '80s, they seemed to be available as hanger packs sold in retail stores, as evidenced by this image I pulled from the internet.

There were 8 cards and 1 sticker per pack. At 192 total cards, it would have been pretty tough to complete the entire set!

So that's that. A few nice-looking cards for my collection, and a big dose of nostalgia.

Have any of you seen these cards before? Any Transformers fans? Favorite Autobot or Decepticon?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

More [Menko] than Meets the Eye

About a year ago I discovered the coolness of vintage Japanese baseball cards, also known as menko. Soon after, I added the first few to my collection. But since then I haven't added any more. In fact, I've hardly purchased trading cards of any kind.

Well, that changed recently when I had the opportunity to pick up a sizeable stack of menko. Not baseball menko, mind you, but something that'll be nostalgic for most 1980s kids like me:

Transformers!

There were 36 unique menko in the package: 16 Autobots, 2 combination cards, and 18 Decepticons. Quite a few duplicates as well.

I have to admit that for a little while I had buyer's remorse. Why did I need so many of them? I would have been more than happy with just a few, for a little nostalgia.

The other side of the coin, however, is that I don't think I've ever seen these menko come up on auction sites before. And I've already found one blogger who can use some of the duplicates (they're in the mail, SumoMenkoMan).

So enough with the rationalizing already. For many of you collectors out there, buying a few dozen cards is probably known as "a weekday". Let's get to the cards.

First, the Autobots.

Couldn't start with anyone other than Optimus Prime, autobot leader (Semi Truck). The grid lines in the background alone indicate that this card is from the 1980s. (1985, to be exact.)

A nice group of Autobot vehicles came with the stack. From left to right: Bumblebee (Volkswagen Beetle), Hound (Military Jeep), Wheeljack (Race Car), and Prowl (Police Car).

Next we've got Red Alert (Lamborghini), Trailbreaker (Camper Truck), Inferno (Fire Truck), and Sideswipe (Lamborghini). The colors on all of these menko are still impressively vibrant.

Also included were all five Dinobots: Grimlock (T-Rex), Slag (Triceratops), Sludge (Brontosaurus), Swoop (Pterodactyl), and Snarl (Stegosaurus). Kids love dinosaurs, kids love Transformers. Good marketing decision by someone at Takara/Hasbro there.

Here are Blaster (Cassette Player) and Perceptor (Microscope).

And two combo cards (Optimus Prime/Scrapper, Megatron/Perceptor).


Each card measures approximately 1.75 inches wide by 3 inches tall. They're pretty thick, too—I'd say almost three times as thick as a standard 1980s baseball card. 

Here are a couple of card backs, one Autobot and one Decepticon. On the bottom you'll see that kids could have used these cards for a rock-paper-scissors game, as well as a game that simulated some sort of dice throw.

Now let's get to the Decepticons.

Two of the fighter jets were included (Starscream on the left, Skywarp on the right). As far as names of evil robot fighter jets are concerned, I don't think you can get much better than Starscream and Skywarp.

Impressively, the stack of cards also included the complete Construction group. From left to right, we have: Hook (Crane), Long Haul (Dump Truck), Bonecrusher (Bulldozer), Mixmaster (Cement Mixer), Scrapper (Front-End Loader), and Scavenger (Power Shovel).

And when all six of those neon-green machines assembled together, they created this guy, named Devastator. Seems like it would be tricky for a robot to maneuver with a front-end loader as one foot and a cement mixer as the other, but by gosh Devastator did it.

Here are all three Insecticons. From left to right: Shrapnel (Stag Beetle), Kickback (Grasshopper), and Bombshell (Boll Weavil).

Next we've got Frenzy and Rumble (Audio Cassettes). I always liked these guys, because in the original cartoon they spoke with a slight "tough guy from Brooklyn" accent. Just watch and listen to this short clip, as Rumble gets fooled by some Autobots.

"I must have static in my rectifiers", he says. 

Here are another two audio cassettes, Laserbeak and Ravage. I think Ravage may have been the first Transformer I owned way back then. My dad bought it for me one night from a vendor on a Manhattan sidewalk as we were walking back to the apartment. 

And why are there so many audio cassettes, you ask?

This guy! Soundwave, the cassette player and recorder. He'd send the cassettes out to gather intelligence. Then they'd return, transform into their cassette mode, and Soundwave would play back the information they gathered.

Finally, there's Reflector, with a cameo on the lower left by Shockwave. I didn't know much about Reflector, but in my research I discovered that three smaller Decepticons (Spectro, Spyglass, and Viewfinder) would join together to create him. He's a camera in his other form.


These menko will always provide a great little trip down memory lane for me, and I can imagine they've done the same for a few of you folks who grew up around the same time. 

Did you have a favorite Transformer back then? Own any of the toys? Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading, as always.