Upper Deck History of the United States Set BARGAIN

I was perusing my local Target looking at the cards section when I spied something I had never seen, the 2004 Upper Deck History of the United States card set on sale for a relatively low $9.99, so I bought it. Now, I was out of the card collecting game in 2004, working on my undergrad degree at UCLA, so I had no idea this set even existed, and I'm kind of glad I didn't find it until now. When they designed that set they thought it might be nicer to not number it #1-300, rather each individual sub-set is separately numbered. To make matters worse there are several insert sets, including the extremely hard to find "coin" cards. None of these chase cards are included in the factory set.

Once you unwrap the plastic you find that the set isn't collated, so you have a bit of fun ahead of you. I found a checklist here and I went to work.

The photos and card design are really well done, and a cursory glance at the backs make them appear to be well written. I'll be going through the set in detail later.

For $10 sure seems like a good deal to me.

Upper Deck to launch $200 pack of Marvel Comic Trading Cards

Just got this missive via the Upper Deck folks, all I can say is...$50 per card? Ridonkulous. Definitely NOT a budget collector item. Upper Deck Announces the Most Premium Marvel Trading Card Product Ever Produced! Trading card giant announced “Marvel Premier” is coming at Comic-Con with a suggested retail price of $200 per pack! Carlsbad, CA (July 13, 2012) – For years the Upper Deck Entertainment team has produced some of the most compelling and collectible Marvel trading cards in the industry. And now Upper Deck has decided to raise the bar in terms of what collectors can expect in a pack of Marvel trading cards announcing today at Comic-Con the company will release Marvel Premier on October 2, 2012. It will be the most premium comic trading card release of all-time with packs carrying a $200 suggested retail price tag. So what comes in a $200 pack of Marvel trading cards? There are just four cards in each pack, but they all pack a punch! First fans will receive a premium base card on thick card stock from the 50-card base set numbered to just 99 copies. Next they will receive a one-of-one sketch card from top Marvel artists. The third card is an industry first where collectors will find a dual, triple or quadruple hinged sketch card. These are really remarkable trading cards and we will be releasing images of them soon. The fourth card will be either a “Classic Corners” card, a Shadowbox card or an “Emotion” booklet card by Jason Adams and NAR! “For years we’ve seen die-hard Marvel fans pay big bucks for some of the premium inserts in our Marvel trading card lines,” said Jason Brenner, Upper Deck’s Marvel brand manager. “This is our first opportunity to provide them with a set of Marvel cards that are all high-end insert quality. This is certainly not a product for everyone which is why we are not making very much of it, but the fans it is targeted for are going to love it!” Upper Deck’s 2012 Marvel Premier really is about the artists and the company has employed some of the best for this project including Cruddie Torrain, Jason Adams and Nar! Additionally there are new innovations besides the hinged sketch cards with Upper Deck’s Shadowbox cards making their debut in the entertainment realm. The “Classic Corners” subset is another one that comic fans will be sure to love that pays homage to some of the greatest Marvel comic corners of all-time in a premium patch card. So get ready Marvel fans. Upper Deck is about to change Marvel trading cards as you know them for the better! About Upper Deck Upper Deck is the leading sports and entertainment trading card and collectibles company. For more information on Upper Deck and its products please visit www.upperdeck.com. About Marvel Entertainment, LLC Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit www.marvel.com. ### Chris Carlin Sports Marketing & Social Media Manager The Upper Deck Company 2251 Rutherford Road | Carlsbad, CA 92008 T: 760.929.3159 (NEW) | F: 760.929.3150 Follow Upper Deck on: Web | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | YouTube

The KINGS are in the Stanley Cup Finals

For the first time since 1993 the Los Angeles Kings are in the Stanley Cup Finals, and I am giddy with anticipation. It's been a long 8 days since the Kings clinched their berth by beating the #3 seed Phoenix Coyotes in the Western Conference Finals, capping off a great run in which they defeated the top three seeds in the West. All season this time had underachieved, only to be saved by the should-be Vezina winner Jonathan Quick, they finally started playing playoff hockey at the right time. Going into the game, which starts in about 15 minutes I might add, the Kings are 12-2 and Quick has an UNGODLY 1.54 GAA. I've been doing my part as a Kings fan - I have not shaved and I have worn one of my five Kings jerseys each and every day for at least part of the day since the playoffs started. What's funny is that I did forget to bring a jersey with me on an overnight tripe we took to Long Beach last weekend, and of course the Kings lost that day. These guys, I hate to say it in order not to jinx it, are looking like a team of destiny. Time will tell if they are. All I can say right now is GO KINGS GO. GO KINGS GO. GO KINGS GO. GO KINGS GO.

Junior Seau 1-19-1969 to 5-2-2012

Beyond the creative writing portion of one of my High School English classes, I don't think I've ever written an obituary; not about to start now. But I feel that I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the suicide of one of my favorite players from the 1990's. I was 19 in 1990 when Junior got drafted by the Chargers, but I was already well aware of his on field exploits having watched him at U$C for the previous couple of season. I remember during his rookie year when I was roommates with Otis and Lori out in La Mesa and hearing Otis bellow out "Look at Junior flailing all over the field in the wrong positions." Yeah, despite being a great player, Junior had a lot to learn about the NFL. He would though, spending 20 seasons in the league, which in my mind was about six seasons too long. He really should have stayed retired the first time when Miami didn't want to re-sign him.

I actually met Junior on a couple of occasions when I was an autograph hound at Charger Training Camp. Below are the two remaining autographs of his that I obtained back then. They are, along with my other Chargers autos some of my most prized possessions. Junior was a gentleman with all the fans back then, of course he was mobbed by kids and adults alike, and he would only sign one item from everyone, but he signed for everyone and he was generous with smiles and kind words.

Back in the day I even ate at his restaurant in Mission Valley. I don't recall it being anything spectacular, but it was a quality restaurant.

Junior will be missed, and the league needs to take a look at protecting players with concussions more. IN the end though, it was his own decision to take his own life. And what's sadder to me still is that his autographed card isn't the only one I have from ex-Chargers who are no longer with us.

Oyo SportsToys Albert Pujols Mini-Figure Review

I don't think that it's any secret that I LOVE Lego and Mini-Figures that are compatible with Lego. After all I've been showcasing my Character Building Doctor Who figures for quite some time. I've even been buying up single packs of the recent Mega Bloks Power Ranger Samurai figures because I found them to be enjoyable and cheap. And I mean cheap, the last two I bought cost me a TOTAL of $0.62 before tax thanks to Target's after Easter Sale.

AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego) have been customizing Lego Mini-Figures for quite some time now, and I think it's safe to say that you can practically find any figure in any decoration if you look hard enough for them. I've already seen fantastic figures from GI Joe, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica on the internet. One area that doesn't get a ton of Mini-Figure love though is sports, and it seems like it's a no-brainer. Sure Lego did their own NBA Basketball line a few years back, and while that was actually more of a fun game than collectible, beyond soccer and a few NHL figures they haven't returned to Sports. Now they have just announced Official Olympic Figures in blind packs to be sold exclusively in the UK during the Summer, but they haven't gotten around to Baseball.

And now they probably won't.

Because Major League Baseball and the Players Union have teamed up with OYO SportsToys for a FULL LINE of Baseball Mini-Figures. And when I say full line, I mean it, every team has practically a full starting lineup of figures available and a generic player who isn't really anyone specific. Each player is unique too, their facial features are as close as they can possibly get at this scale, and their uniform numbers and names are tampoed on the back.

Each figure comes shrink-wrapped in their own collector's case which is a green colored sturdy plastic case surrounded by a full-color cardboard sleeve. The graphics are as professional as you'd expect with a major license. The back shows CG pictures of the player in action and has the expected legalese. The case splits into two pieces, with the bottom having a single stud which I guess is there to attach the base plate to, that's what I did. It's kind of a shame that the case doesn't have a lid because without the paper sleeve the case is left open. They mention on their site that they designed the package to resemble a baseball card and to be able to place in a kid's pocket. That would be great, but if the kid loses the paper-sleeve then their figures will stay in the case, but the extra items won't.

Each player comes with a ball, glove, bat, hat and a base-shaped stand which is individually numbered with their unique "DNA" code. At this point there's nothing to do with the DNA code, but I would expect that at some point you'll be able to input them into OYO's website for some added bonus content.

The basic shape of the figure is very close to their Lego forefathers, but OYO's limbs are drastically upgraded. Each player has bending knees and swivel biceps, so where Lego mini-figures have only seven points of articulation, these guys boast an amazing 11 POA. They also have angled wrists so that they can actually hold their bats in two hands! This extra articulation allows for some great poses that other Mini-Figures just can't achieve. The only thing that would make these better would be a swivel waist, however I do understand why they don't have it, a swivel waist would reduce the number of support studs from two to one and with the added articulation of the legs I can imagine the engineering wouldn't hold up. MOST Mini-figures avoid swivel waists as it is.

OYO makes a point of saying the hat is an accessory, I don't know if I would do so. The included bat is pretty solid, if not spectacular. The ball and the glove both have very nifty slits molded in so that they fit nicely in the figure's "claws". The glove doesn't really look like a baseball glove to me, but it does the job. The ball is servicable, but I would love it if they could have molded some seams into it. The home-plate shaped base has one stud on the top and three female studs on the bottom, so it can be attached to a base plate or the bottom of the carrying case as seen in the pictures.

Personally I want to have the complete collection of Angels players, there are 11 available, and I now only need 10 more! The cost of these though is going to be somewhat prohibitive, as they retail on OYO's site for $12.99 each! When you consider that Lego is doing blind-bagged figures for $3.99 and MegaBloks are a buck cheaper, and Character Building figures cost me $4.99 imported from the UK, these guys are just too expensive. If OYO can drop the cost a few bucks with their next edition I think they'd be better served. While the case is a nice extra, I'm sure it's adding quite a bit to the overall cost, and that's money that can be better spent on more figures!

That's not to say you can't find a bargain, my Friendly Local Baseball Card Store "California Sports Cards" just brought in a case at $10 each! When I saw them there this morning my eyes lit up as I've been looking for them at retail for over a week. I thought I was going to have to hit up Dick's Sporting Goods as the OYO site says they're selling them there.


OYO really seems to have their marketing department running in overdrive too, they're out and about at several ball-parks around the country, including Fenway where the creator of the company got his idea to make fully licensed Baseball mini-figs. They're active on Twitter and have their own blog. I half expect these guys to show up as special Stadium Give-Away figures too. In fact I kind of hope they do, that's a great way to get a huge number of these little dudes into collector's and kids hands.

Oh yeah, and on their website they're advertising Hockey and Football figures coming soon. If I could build an entire LA Kings starting lineup I'd be as happy as a little girl.

DISCLAIMER: The product featured in this article was purchased by the author. That doesn't mean though that I wouldn't accept SWAG and review it fairly, I totally will. Send me an email at WMNOE@YAHOO.COM for details.

I HATE April Fools, Except...

Let it be widely known here and now that I, William Matthew Noetling, HATE April Fool's Day. My hatred comes from working over at Pojo.com for several years and inevitably on 4-1 there would be some pre-teens or tweens who think that they're god's gift to the world making some really stupid joke.

So.

OK I hate April Fool's Day. With the exception of what ThinkGeek.Com does with it. Check this stuff out, all new items available today!

I can't help it, but I really want the inflatable Star Trek Captain's Chair. You never know with them either, in the past one or two of the joke items have actually become real items! Things like the Star Wars Tauntaun Sleeping bag come to mind.

IN any case, have a little fun today, but don't go overboard. Pranks are only fun if you're the one pranking.

EDIT: Oh cool, the Star Trek Chair IS REAL!

March is the Cruelest Month

March Madness is in full swing, the Final Four is this weekend, and I could care less. Heck I'm more interested to see if Tiger can win the Masters this weekend. I'm also focusing all my fan vibes on rooting the Kings to a playoff spot. Why don't I care about March Madness? Well, duh, I'm an Alum of UCLA.

The newly minted Pacific 12 division was a huge disappointment this season, garnering only TWO bids to the big dance, and one of them was in one of the four play-in games. And Cal lost that game. Colorado, the winner of the inaugural Pac-12 tournament didn't fare all that well either. Ah well, Baseball starts this week!

Topps Golden Giveaway

Speaking of Baseball, remember I said I would give my take on the Topps Golden Giveaway online gimmick? Here goes:

BLEGH! Digital coins are not vintage cards. The real cards supposedly fall about one in 15 codes, I've put in something like 8 codes so far and I haven't seen one. Whereas last year's edition of the vintage card giveaway was actually pretty cool, and the year before that earned me $100 in eBay money (thanks to pulling a Derek Jeter auto), this year's edition doesn't excite me whatsoever. We'll have to see as the three series of Topps flagship brand are released as to how well the program goes. I would imagine this will be the last year for any online type offering from Topps, as they haven't renewed their ToppsTown promotion this season.

Which reminds me, that's kind of sad. I actually liked the ToppsTown promotion, where you could enter a code found in each pack of cards into the web and were rewarded with a pack of virtual cards. I actually completed the Baseball set for each year of the promotion, and I had a great time trading virtual cards in order to complete the set. I won't get a chance to do that again this season. Oh well.

I think eTopps is practically dead as well.

I think the thing that bothers me is that there should be some sort of digital content tied into a baseball card pack. Upper Deck had a pretty good program where you could enter codes from the back of each card and earn points that you could save up to get free cards. Believe me, I know, I earned two retail boxes of cards that way. Upper Deck was kind of stupid about it though, each card may have had a code, but the code was the same for each copy of the card. They would have been better off just putting the codes on their wrappers, which is what they tried for their horribly executed virtual world a couple of years ago.

See I think redemption programs or rewards programs are a pretty nifty thing. They certainly make me purchase more of a specific item if I know I'm getting rewards points. For example, I've been doing the MyCokeRewards program now since it's inception, and I daresay that I've gotten several hundred dollars worth of merchandise for free simply for inputing some codes. I also redeem Disney Movie Rewards, and have gotten a couple of hundred dollars of exclusive merch from them too, including a really bad-ass Pirates of the Caribbean Watch, and a Jim Shore Tinkerbell figurine.

I think a really well run wrapper code redemption program from Topps would be awesome. Each code could be worth a random amount from 10 to 100 points, and you could redeem points for special singles or packs of exclusive cards. Instead of doing the silly eTopps auctions or contests, they could easily have the same back end computer frameworks reworked.

Doctor Who News

Matt Smiths' third season, the seventh overall of the newly revived Doctor Who begins airing in August. I won't unleash the spoilers here, suffice to say it looks to be an exciting year of episodes!

I FINALLY pulled the trigger on the Character Building 11 Doctors Set.

Should be here in a few days. I'll definitely give it a review when it arrives. Got a great deal too, $33 all together including shipping off of eBay. So that's about $3 per figure, which is actually CHEAPER than I can get the single packs from Series 1 or 2 right now.

Speaking of which, since I last blogged my collection of CB Doctor Who figures has increased to a staggering SIXTEEN figures, including both of the "Rares" from Series 2 (River and Police Girl Amy). I found single packs retailing for $4.99 at Aahs which is a chain of Southern California gift stores. Sure when I include tax I'm looking at $5.50 for a figure that shouldn't cost me more than $3.00, but at least I can get them, and I can "feel" through the packs to find the ones I want.

Series 3 of blind packs and sets are scheduled for release within the next couple of months in the UK and previews have shown that Character Options, the overall master licensor of all things Who has a robust future planned for the ersatz Lego figures. You can check out more at Doctor Who Toys. I'm there on the forums as "Time Lord Will", just FYI.

Once I get my 11 Doctors Set I will work on an all new comic. I think. I'm not really sure to be honest. Sounds like a good idea, but you never know what with the time and everything.

Bargains Galore

If you've been to your local toy store lately you'll notice that there are probably figures left over from last year's hot Summer films, notably Thor, Captain America and Green Lantern. Mattel took a huge bath on the latter film, due to what I believe was a too expansive line with really crappy articulation. Seriously. While the character selection was nice and varied, the figures just sat on the shelf, probably also due to the fact that the Ryan Reynolds feature wasn't very well received. If you're still so inclined though, you can find rock bottom prices on tiny plastic Scarlett Johannsen exes at your local discounter in various shapes, sizes and multi-packs. Seriously Mattel, WTF? We lost the gradually improving DC Infinite whatever 1/18th scale line for this?

And just an aside, WHY can't I get a decent 1/18th scale DC Universe figure line like the Marvel Universe Line? I mean that line is amazing, even though I don't really collect Marvel anymore. Well, with the exception of the below paragraph that is...

The two Marvel films were significant improvements over Iron Man 2 and set the stage for this year's Avengers line. While I haven't personally seen any Cap film figures on clearance, I have found a few of the Asgardian's mates for more than half off. My personal collection now includes a Loki and Volstagg, both of which flank my Thor. While I would have preferred a nice display stand rather than the incredibly dopey kiddie weapons, these aren't bad figures at all. I am going to purchase the best looking Cap figure I can find, but so far I haven't seen one I like, not even in the Avengers line. Which, well, let's face it, two waves in blows huge chunks.

I mean seriously, the Hulk figure from the new Avengers line up is an abomination of plastic that should have never hit the pegs. It looks like a bad bootleg that I would buy down in Santee Alley.

G.I. Joe Retaliation

We're just a couple of months away from the second big screen adventure for the original action figure toy. While it's being billed as a "reboot/sequel" I think the film is going to succeed or fail based on an unfair comparison to Rise of Cobra which I didn't think was all that bad. I don't really understand what people are looking for when they go to a movie that's based on a toy line in the first place. When you go see Battleship this Summer are you expecting to see Shakespeare in CGI?

I am looking forward to the toy line that will accompany Retaliation though the five previews of carded figures so far do not excite me at all. As with the last movie line Hasbro has decided to put in a huge kiddie weapon, which most likely fires a huge missile, instead of the arsenal of accessories included with the wildly popular "Pursuit of Cobra" line that spun out of the last movie line. The one plus that I can see so far is that they are making a Joe Colton figure, only his second appearance in the entire line, and the first, to my knowledge, 1/18th scale figure of the one and only Bruce Willis.

So there you go, now excuse me, but I've got a Hockey game to watch. Go Kings Go.