Oh what a Wookie...

Celebrities wear Star Wars and hang out with Star Wars characters.

Wow! Lookie lookie at what's next to the wookie

Alex Gervasi

Megan Fox has been known to support Star Wars too

She also seems to be a fan of R2D2

Kristen Wiig

She wore a Darth Vader inspired dress in 2009


Emma Stone

She wore her hair in Princess Leia buns while wearing a Yoda shirt for a Stand Up To Cancer event.

Reese Witherspoon

And of course there have been many actresses who have dressed up as Slave Leia for fantasy scenes in movies, tv shows, and photoshoots.

Celebrities like
Jennifer Aniston

Kim Kardashian

Kelly Brook

America's Top Model, Adrienne Curry

But my favorite celebrity crush to support Star Wars is Kristen Bell

Not only is she insanely adorable, she also starred in a movie called Fanboys that is literally about Star Wars fans.  Most girls look great dressed as Princess Leia, but Bell wins my heart over with the way she can wear a Wookie on her chest.

Slave Leia tho....

Even as a brunette, wow!

Star Wars day is every May the 4th which in the UK is written as 4/5, the place where Jediism become an official religion.

Here is my favorite 4/5 card I have picked up in the past year since my last 4/5 entry on Star Wars day.

That is a 2012 Topps Museum Black Frame Silver Signature autograph.  It is one of my favorite autograph cards in the collection.  

FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!!

You may recall that I ran a contest and had a blog post with this exact title just over two years ago. 

Well after watching the 2021 Mortal Kombat film on HBO Max last night, it's time to bring back the Flawless Victory!!!

Here are some of my favorite Panini Flawless cards in my collection

Team USA is represented from Cutch's 18U days.  These Flawless cards feature either on card signatures or actual gems (diamond, ruby, sapphire) inside.

Another pair of on card signatures, both limited to under 10 copies

A nice patch and on card autograph from his Pirates days

How about that sleeve patch of the Jolly Roger?!!!!

And these team up????

Starling and Cutch made for one of the best offensive/defensive outfields in baseball from 2012-2015.

No spoilers on the movie here, but the fact it was an R rated film really made this Mortal Kombat movie 10x better than the others.  I loved the introduction of so many familar Mortal Kombat faces.  

The battle of Scorpion and Sub Zero is epic.

Sonya Blade is a badass and hot!!!

Kano is a d**kbag just as you would expect.

The whole movie was great. It was a perfect video game movie.  There, I said it!

Did you ever play Mortal Kombat?  What were some of your favorite characters to play as?

The Future Of Collecting?

With Topps experiencing so much success with it's Project 2020 and Project 70 releases where they only produce cards to demand and so many other successful lines in the past like Topps Now and Living Set, could Topps (or other manufacturers) eventually change their production to be only "print on demand" style?

With younger audiences more interested in paying for Fortnite skins than paying for a pack of 9 baseball cards, it is very likely that in 10 years there will be no more cards printed in the traditional way.

Topps has been using the Bunt app since late 2012 to create digital cards.

Some of those digital cards are now selling for a lot of money.  Younger fans may choose to get digital portfolios than having a 9 pocket binder or top loaders to go through and store.

Add to it the current (and confusing to me) NFT (non fungible token) trend there is greater demand for a minimalist digital strategy.

I can't get into it, but if it does happen there could be some cool designs made if everything is digital.

Look at these digital cards I've swiped screenshots from eBay over the years.

Do you think traditional cardboard will ever go away?

Kong is better than Godzilla

I recently got myself an HBO Max subscription to test out so that I can stream a few movies (Zach Snyder Justice League cut, Godzilla vs Kong, and Mortal Kombat).  

The first thing I streamed was Kong: Skull Island.

I have a secret I need to share.

I love primates!!!!

I have been a fan of King Kong since I went on the old Universal Theme Park ride and it smelled like bananas.  I loved that ride so much when I was in my preteens.  I even enjoyed the 2005 Jack Black starred, Peter Jackson directed King Kong movie that lasted almost 4 hours long. 

I also loved Brie Larson in Kong:Skull Island so that helped to rewatch K:SI 

Once I watched Kong: Skull Island I went back and rewatched both Godzilla movies.

I'm not as big a fan of Godzilla as I am King Kong.  One of my old friends was obsessed with Godzilla.  I never understood the fanhood of the character.  

Now I don't want to spoil anything in Godzilla vs Kong, but Kong comes up in a huge way to help save the day, but let me say that in an actual fight between the two Godzilla will certainly win, but I'm rooting for Kong.

Much like sketch cards I prefer the (Brian) Kong variety to the (Bob)Zilla variety

Above is the original art Brian Kong created for a pack inserted sketch card in 2015 Topps Museum Canvas Collection.

That sketch card was also used to create the reproduction insert card found in 2015 Topps Museum Canvas as seen below

Brian Kong's art is so good it was also used as the reproduction art for the 2016 Topps Museum Reproction Canvas Collection cards

Above is the 5x7 gold parallel numbered to 10 copies

Below is a 1/1 mini sketch card from 2014 Allen & Ginter.

The above sketch is by also by Brian Kong, who has worked with Topps for many years on many different projects. I have been able to talk to Brian about comics and baseball fairly regularly when I would see him at comic book conventions in the mid 2000s.  

Above is the first sketch I ever got from Brian at the Big Apple Comic Con April 2005.

My two favorite characters (Sawyer and Kate) from my favorite TV show of all time (Lost).

I've been doing a lot of talking about (Brian) Kong, but let's talk about that Zilla now...

Bobzilla has fed off the hype of the Topps Project2020 and Project70 success and has been drawing on cards and selling them via ebay which I have lost because quite frankly the art style doesn't appeal to me.

  A few lines and a dinosaur?

I can do that myself.

For much less money too...

I've been drawing on cards for half a decade and some of you may even have some of my originals, which I did long before TP2020 or TP70 came out.  No offense to Mr. Zilla but I'm going to stick with my favorite Kaiju named artist and that is KONG!!!!

Who is your favorite kaiju?

Godzilla, King Kong, Mothra, or something entirely different?

What do you think of these "artists" like Bobzilla selling cards that have been drawn on?

#TBT: Topps Unique

It has been a few months since I showed off Cutch wearing some Throwback Uniforms from his Pirates days.  

I am going to show off a pretty unique (pun intended) and short lived release by Topps.

Today I am looking at the gold parallel from 2009 Topps Unique

Cutch is wearing a uniform reminiscent of the Honus Wagner days celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the World Series winners

As you can see the back of the card discusses when the unique throwback uniform was worn and what the occassions was for the throwback uniform.  

Cutch made his MLB debut just a week and half earlier and was starting to make people aware that he may be a Rookie of the Year despite such a late start to the year.  The Pirates hosted the Detroit Tigers on June 14, 2009 to honor the 100 Year World Series that saw the Honus Wagner Pirates defeat the The Cobb lead Detroit Tigers.  

I wish the back of the card also mentioned Cutch's stats for the game.  He went 2 for 3 with two walks, a stolen base, and 2 runs scored in the 6-3 Pirates victory.

The Set That Keeps Giving...

2011 Topps Update is widely recognized as the greatest modern baseball card set.  The product contains rookie cards of Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt, Jose Altuve, DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo, Eric Hosmer , Mike Moustakas, and Charlie Blackmon.  

At the time of it's release you could get 24 packs for about $50 retail.  Today a sealed box will cost tens of thousands of dollars. 

Hidden among the star studded rookie class are a few appearances by Andrew McCutchen that I like to chase after (that will be a pun for a future post).  Last year I discovered that Cutch had a Cameo on the Jay Bruce All Star Game card so I set out to try and find parallels of that card to add to the collection. 

The Blue Hope Diamond is the rarest of the non 1/1 parallels to track down and I had gotten one via a COMC order I placed last year.

It is numbered to only 60 copies on the back.

Jay Bruce recently announced his retirement. 

Because of how close Cutch and Jay Bruce were drafted along with being long time division rivals (and eventual teammates)  I have written a few articles about Jay Bruce in the past.  You can revisit them by clicking on one of the following posts:

Thanks For Being a Loser, Greg Maddux

Remembering the 2005 Draft

On The Move? Jay Bruce

Cutch and his Amazing Phriends

The Hunt(er) for Reds This October

Some other Jay Bruce related articles I suggest reading...

Tom Verducci recently wrote an article for Sports Illustrated discussing Bruce's retirement and the impact the shift is having on players. 

Fangraphs also did an article on Jay Bruce and the incredible hot start he had to his career.  Of course prospecting was a thing when he was beginning his career, but it is nothing like what it is today.  

Could you imagine what his 1st Bowman Auto would fetch on eBay in this market if in his 1st week as a rookie?  His first three games in the majors he went 3 for 3 with 2 walks, had a 4 hit game and scored the winning run, then hit a walkoff homer in his 3rd career game and somehow had a batting average of .577!!!!  

So yes Jay Bruce didn't live up to the Larry Walker comparisons from his prospect days, but he still made 3 All Star Games, 2 Silver Sluggers, and collected 319 homers over his 14 seasons.

What are some memories you have of Jay Bruce?

If he was beginning his career, rather than ending it what player in today's game would you compare Jay Bruce to?