Duck Tales Woo-oooo

A few days ago Gavin made a comment about Duck Tales having a super catchy theme song.

I loved Duck Tales growing up.  I remember playing the game on my NES, seeing the movie with my grandmother, and Donald Duck being the first character I got an autograph from at my first trip to Disney World.  

Duck Tales ruled!

The intro may actually be one of the best cartoon intros of all time in terms of fans.

There have been countless numbers of people to cover it including 

Andrew Huang covering it in 10 different genres (here)

Panic at Disco!'s frontman Brendan Urie putting his own spin on it for the Jimmy Fallon show (here)

I've heard it covered in multiple languages and styles and it still kicks ass! (here)

Duck Tales is the story of Donald Duck's nephews (Huey, Duey, and Louie) and their adventures with Uncle Scrooge in Duckburgh.  They go on Indiana Jones style adventures each day.

Duck Tales debuted in 1987 and it was the flagship show for Afternoon Disney that ran for 4 years on syndication.  The success of Duck Tales lead to other shows like Tale Spin, Chip n Dale's Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck. 

I remember getting home from grade school and hearing that theme song come on and immediately dancing like a duck and having a good time.   

I already mentioned that Duck Tales was the first movie that my grandmother took me to see.  She passed away over 8 years ago and I miss her terribly.  

I really like doing these 80s week cards every year because it reminds me of much happier and carefree times.  Adulting is not nearly as fun as dancing like a duck or singing Duck Tales with grandparents or collecting 1987 Topps baseball cards with my dad.  

Thank you for following along on this week of 80s posts as I turn another year older today.   

Here are my Cutch cards based on the 1987 design (one of my all time favorite designs and the first set I ever completed).

Above are the two minis I have of Cutch using the 1987 design.  They include a 2017 Topps Mini 1987 Cherry Wood parallel (numbered to only 25 copies and to be featured again next month for October) and the 2012 Topps Mini 1987 throwback insert set.

Above are cards from 2017 celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1987 set.  I have the base and red wood parallels from the main flagship set along with the 6 main color mojo parallels from the "Silver Packs" found at Hobby stores as part of their Hobby Community Program.  The only way to get those silver packs was to purchase a disclosed amount of Topps packs which could then be redeemed at your local hobby shop for packs containing a few of these 1987 throwback cards.

Above are the backs for the 2017 cards commemorating the 30th anniversary of 1987 Topps.

These 5x7 cards are a unique situation where Topps didn't announce color parallels, but did in fact color a few cards differently with the same print run number.  Both of these, the orange and yellow name parallels are numbered 14/49.

They were released in 2016 and don't celebrate an anniversary for 1987 at all, just a random oversized tribute to an iconic set.

So there are my 1987 Cutch cards and my Duck Tales stories.

And this is a giant rubber duck that took a tour of Pittsburgh in 2013.  I saw it, but unfortunately all my pictures were taken with a digital camera and I no longer have the computer that everything was saved on.  Thanks Google for this awesome image!

Best 80s Cartoons Theme Song Openings

Yesterday I discussed my favorite movie soundtrack of all time.  I also mentioned my love for that soundtrack back in 2017 when I listed my 5 favorite albums of all time.  The 80s were loaded with great bands and killer guitar riffs.

Check out this intro to the 1980s cartoon King Arthur and Knights of Justice on YouTube

Bryan Reynolds' rookie season in 2019 was really good and he instantly became one of my favorite current Pirates players.  I went out and picked up a few cards here and there of his, especially any early cards that were cheap.

These Panini Stars and Stripes Crusade cards represent my latest rainbow attempt.

The Crusade background ties in very nicely with the King Arthur cartoon.

My favorite intro though is Thundercats

Here is a Thundercats cover done by my favorite couple of cover artists Pamela RomVel and David Galardi.

What are some of your favorite cartoon intros?

80s Week: More 1 of 1s

Because it is my birthday, I am continuing the theme of the 1980s all week.  As someone born in the 80s I have put together a contest for everyone to write about your favorite player born in the 1980s.  It is a blog bat around that leads into another Save Second Base contest where you can win a pink card of Gary Sheffield and Barry Larkin (two former superstars that made their debut in the 1980s).

Here are some more of my favorites from the 80s.

Video Game:
RBI Baseball

This was a toss up for me. I had an original NES and the only games I ever played were sports games or Super Mario Brothers. I never got into much else. I enjoyed playing MegaMan but could never defeat the last level.  My other favorite games growing up were Base Wars, Baseball Stars 2, and Mutant League Hockey.

If you have never seen the YouTube video of Vin Scully announcing Game 6 of the 1986 World Series to RBI Baseball, you are in for a treat. It is amazing!

Favorite "retro drink"
Ecto Cooler

I lived off of juice boxes as a kid. My cousin and I would pound a 10 pack of these in just a few hours.  Ecto Cooler has been brought back a few times since it was originally changed by Hi-C, but that original package with Slimer from the Ghost Busters is still a classic.

Favorite toy

Yesterday I said Thundercats was my favorite cartoon despite not having many toys of them.  One toy line that I had a lot of was Transformers.  It's weird that I can distinctly remember asking for certain toys and where I was when I got them or wanted them. Oddly enough they all revolve around Transformers.

I remember bringing my Rodimus Prime with me to Vermont to visit my uncle at a bed and breakfast.

I remember asking my dad if I could get one of the new Decepticon jets (Dirge I believe) and him telling me "you don't play with the ones you have". I ripped off Starscream and Skywarp's wings and threw them on the ground. "They're broke" I told him.

My favorite though was Blaster, the cool talking Autobot radio that debuted in the full feature movie.  I got him as a Christmas present from my Grandmother and played with it all the time, putting him on my shoulder like I was carrying around a boombox.  I loved that toy!

I also loved the Seacons and built the entire Piranacon combiner.

My favorite toy leads into
My favorite movie then (and still to this day)

Ok. This movie was a game changer.
I remember my dad picking me up from day care on his motorcycle as he rode us to the theatre so quickly.  My dad still tells me how I would fall asleep sometimes as he would ride me around strapped in tightly on his Honda.  Once we got the food and popcorn I sat on his lap, or stood actually leaning forward watching so intently on every animated scene. I loved all the new characters that were introduced.  Blaster and Hot Rod were my favorites.  I cried when Optimus died and didn't want to watch it anymore. Then the movie introduced Wheelie and I was fixated once again.  Everything about this movie is pure gold.  The pacing, the animation, the voice actors, and the soundtrack.  To this day it is my favorite movie I have ever watched.

I mentioned a long time ago that the soundtrack is one of my 5 favorite albums ever produced.



Now for some 1980s inspired baseball cards.

These are ALL 1/1S!
Yup, each card you see below is a 1 of 1 and is a pack produced card that drew inspiration from 80s baseball cards.

Let's start with Archives

One thing I absolutely loved about the Archives brand being reinvented in 2012 was having printing plates of current players on older Topps designs.  A lot of people hate on printing plates, but when you get them all together, they are one of the hardest parallels to piece together.

As you can see I am at 75% on a pair of 1983 inspired printing plate sets.

The 1983 All-Star design is from 2013 Archives.

The 1983 base is from 2015 Archives.

I also have this Archives black border 1 of 1 from 2015 Archives.

Topps had their annual Transcendent Party in 2018 and as a result they had a few buyback cards that were released as 1 of 1 stamps at the party.

Again, with 1983?

Sheesh....I need some other years.

It's The Battle of Planets

Anyone remember the tv show Battle of The Planets, G-Force, or Gatchaman?  It was one of my favorite cartoons growing up.  Basically it was a team of teenagers (from the 70s) who had to fight an evil space race using a weapon and vehicle for support.  It lead to the sentai movement we saw in live action dubs like Power Rangers many decades later.

If you have a love for 80s cartoons like myself you should defi itely check it out.  You won't be disappointed.  Or maybe you will.  I won't take responsibility for that.  It was recently released on DVD about 5 years ago and the OVAs from the early 2000s are absolutely amazing!

Anyway, the back of my newest card reminds me of the awesomeness that was Gatchaman and seeing the Flying Phoenix blaze through the skies to defeat the enemy.

See what I mean?

It's the super rare Topps online store exclusive 2015 Topps Fire Metal hand numbered to 10.

The scan doesn't do it justice for it's Armageddon inspired design.

I'll have to show off the 5x7s in a future post because they resemble Star Wars designs.