Custom. . . Custom. . . Custom Card, Ho!!!

Watch this introduction:

 

 

 

 

All around, I think it was a fantastic effort from the creative team—animators, musicians, lyricists, writers, producers, you name it. I mean, tell me you don’t want to watch at least one episode of the show, just to see those ThunderCats battle the bad guys.

 

There's just one thing: The mid-1980s marked a golden age of animated shows, and the ThunderCats were up against some stiff competition. I only speak for myself, but the time I did spend watching cartoons back then was split more between The Transformers and G.I. Joe than anything else. (And that's not to mention other big action hits, like Voltron.) Those ThunderCats just didn’t manage to squeeze themselves into my TV time very much. 

 

However, they did have a cult following. And they still do. So a few months ago I decided to give them a fair shake by watching the first dozen or so episodes.

 

Here's what I'll say. Although it’s difficult for a show to live up to such a captivating introduction and theme song, I was definitely impressed by the creative storylines and various characters. If you were a kid who was into Lord of the Rings fantasy-type stuff back then, you'd have really been into this show.

 

I’d still rank it below some of those other notable franchises of the '80s, but I was inspired enough to create a custom card. After all, as far as I know, the original ThunderCats series didn’t receive an official trading card set like some of the other big hitters of the era. And with four main characters, a “team leaders” style of card was perfect. Here it is.

 

 

 

I used the 1974-75 Topps hockey card design as a base. You'll see that I added each character's occupation/skill underneath their name, which works out nicely in a "gaming card" sort of way. As for the larger design, my first idea was to replace the hockey stick that ran down the left side of the original card with the fabled Sword of Omens. However, the curved handle-guard of the sword took up too much real estate. It would have covered over part of Panthro, much of that terrific ThunderCats symbol, and some of the text to the right as well. So I went without it.

 

Besides, the Sword of Omens represents the good guys, and I couldn’t just make a card for them when there were four memorable villains to feature as well.

 

 

 

 

I went with the terrifyingly transformed musclebound monster version of Mumm-Ra, but his weak, decrepit mummy form would have been an equally terrifying choice. As for the mutant henchmen, all three of them made appearances right from the start of the series, so they're fitting entries for sure.

 

So that's that. Another two customs completed. I'm happy with the way the cards turned out, and I especially like the way they look together. I'm interested to see what kind of reception they receive.

Any ThunderCats fans out there? Favorite character?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

 

Personalized Back-of-Card Cartoon

If you enjoy the cartoons on the back of vintage baseball cards, then it's possible you've thought about what your personal cartoon would depict.

I know what mine would be, and recently I had some time to scan through a bunch of vintage cards in an effort to find one that at least partially matched.

Well, I found one. It took a bit of editing, adding, and removing of text in Photoshop, but here's the finished custom card back:

The cartoon fielder and words "triple play" were from the back of Luis Aparicio's 1973 Topps card. The rest of the text I had to cull from a few other cards in the set.

And I really did complete an unassisted triple play in Little League. Here's how it happened:

Back then I loved to play the middle infield and third base positions. However, I loved to pitch even more. And in this particular game, I was pitching. Bases were loaded, and I wheeled in a pitch that produced a high pop-up just to the right of the mound. Yelling "I got it!", I sidestepped over as the ball began to drift toward third. It continued to drift, so I backpedaled and moved closer and closer to the third baseman, a classmate who at this point had heard my call and kindly moved into foul territory. By the time I caught the ball (out #1), I was just a stride from the third base bag. I expected to nearly bump into the baserunner there, but he'd mistakenly broken for home before I caught the ball. So, I quickly stepped on third (out #2). Then I heard their coaches yelling "No! Get back to second!" Incredulous, I looked toward second base, and the runner who'd been on second was sprinting straight toward me. As he slid into third, I crouched down, baseball still in glove, and tapped him on the foot before he touched the base (out #3).

Now, of course this unassisted triple play was mostly the result of very, very poor base running, combined with a third baseman who allowed me to track the pop-up all the way over to his position (probably should have been his glory, not mine). But it was a triple play nonetheless, and I still remember walking back to our team's bench on the third base side, my coaches noogie-ing my head and slapping me on the back while they laughed and cheered.