Charlie Chaplin: Chasing a Tramp

When I think about the current movies and shows that make me laugh the most, it's often either heartwarming gross-out fare like The Hangover and Old School or things anchored in reality and nostalgia such Ferris Bueller's Day Off and TV's Freaks and Geeks. While they offer a good chuckle and some reminiscing for the good ole' days when life seemed to be a little simpler and more confusing, it's not very often that today's comedy offers us a lot of commentary on the world around us. Reflection, but not trying to look further. For example, I can relate to aspects of The Hangover, like seeing bits and pieces of friends and aquaintances in many of the characters. And while there`s some exploration of the dynamics of relationships - yes, even in all the genital jokes and Mike Tyson solos - it didn`t exactly make me think any deeper about my own relationships afterward. But comedy wasn`t always like this.

You may have heard of a guy named Charlie Chaplin. There was a time when he ruled the film world. He wasn`t just an icon like Brad Pitt or George Clooney, but rather he was also the artist behind the camera. Chaplin brought together comedy and commentary so well that he was forced into exile outside of the United States for being a potential Red threat.

Chaplin`s movies today can be enjoyed on several levels. If you just want to kick back and laugh at the slapstick humor, you can. But there`s also a lot of depth to what`s going on. Chaplin wasn`t just an entertainer but a thinker as well. And by using film as his canvas, he was able to reach millions with his messages in a funny and entertaining way.

Despite his lasting appeal, Chaplin has remained somewhat elusive in the hobby. There were several cigarette cards and similar items produced during his reign as king of the entertainment world, including a spot in the 1926 W512 set that mixed stars with athletes including Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. The cards were produced in strips, although many were cut.


Here are a few other Chaplin cards from the 1920s:

In this era of cut signatures and entire sets dedicated to pop culture, Chaplin has largely escaped the spotlight. He has two cut signature cards. The first was in 2004 Topps Tribute HOF where he appeared in the Signature Cuts Personalities insert set. Chaplin also had an autograph inserted into 2009 Donruss Americana. Both were limited to one copy.

More affordable is this card:

It`s also from 2009 Donruss Americana. It`s from the Movie Posters insert set, which includes classic artwork on the front. Here`s a shot of the back:

Yup, that`d be a piece of his clothing. Although not from a movie costume, it`s still cool to have a piece of a genuine legend. At 500 copies, it`s not too terribly tough to come by, nor is it overly expensive. I picked up this one, in which it would have been the hit of a $35 pack, for less than half that. Chaplin has two other memorabilia cards in the same set, one of which is a dual card featuring a piece of Claudette Colbert`s clothing.

Six-Pack Breaks: 1992 ProSet Guinness Book of Records

Since I was a kid, the shiny covers of the Guinness Book of World Records has always caught my attention. I've browsed through a few in my time, often during silent reading time where my friends and I would look up the strangest and most curious details. It turns out ProSet made a Guinness set back in 1992.

I busted a half-dozen packs and here are some of the highlights:

Fight Club au Naturale

My Little Pony

Albino Monkey

The World's Smallest Man

Some Guy Trying to Look Like Burt Reynolds Whilst Wrestling a Rather Large Snake

Bubbles!!!

Let's not forget this guy's relatives:

  (HT: The Mojo Hand)

Truly, this set offers a mix-bag of classic cards. If sports is your thing, I pulled some Chicago Bear and a Cricket player, so there's some of that too.

Six packs in and I'm a little over half-way through the set. Packs come with ten cards and there's 100 cards in the set. There's no inserts to be found but according to Jeff Allender's Checklist, there's also four promos to compliment the set. ProSet also made a custom binder.

Guinness Book of Records, like all ProSet products, should be considered junk wax. Boxes can be found on eBay for less than $5 while an entire case of 20 boxes can be had for $32 plus shipping. I suspect one box, which can make more than three sets, should suffice.

2009 Topps 206 Two-Fer Pack Break

It's time to make some Christmas dinner so let's make this simple. I went to a store that sells cards, some call them card stores, and I bought some cards that came in a sealed pack. To the best of my knowledge, they hadn't been felt up ahead of time like the girl who sat behind you in Grade 10 math class. Here's the results:

Pack One

Not horrible, not spectacular. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I love a Barry Zito card (it's a Piedmont back, by the way). The horizontal look of the mini is impressive. Not a fan of the Bronze parallel.

Pack 2

Did Miller, Hermida and Ramirez make up half of the Marlins' payroll this year? I'm really digging the pose on the Miller card. And the Ramirez - well, the background reminds me of the perfect Hawaiian shirt ever made so it's cool by default as well. The Ramirez is a no-number variation to boot.

Overall impressions of a sample size too small to create a truly vaild impression:

Had it not been for the three-series 2002 Topps 206 Baseball set, I'd be in love with these. But it's retro that's already been done. And done somewhat recently. That said, the dramatic poses are awesome but most are pretty boring.

If anyone needs anything, let me know.

Paranormal Activity Cards Coming in the New Year

Breygent, the company behind the awesome Dexter set, is hoping to cash in on the surprise box office hit of the year, Paranormal Activity. Little information is available as of yet besides what's listed in the announcement below. Breygent will also be producing an exclusive film cel card that will be included with the online exclusive DVD special edition.

I'm curious to see how well this set does. I didn't see the film and I heard mixed things. Some loved it, others saw it is being a boring, over-hyped piece of crap. Still, something that costs $11,000 to make and rakes in $107 million is intriguing. When I contacted Breygent directly, I was told that this is all that is approved at this time. I'll be sure to post more details as they become available.

Box Break: Gargoyles: Series One (SkyBox, 1995)

Gargoyles was one of those shows that came out when I was a teenager who avoided cartoons at all costs if for no other reason than they simply weren't cool. At least that's the attitude I gave off. In reality, I'd watch cartoons somewhat regularly, albeit I didn't have the TV schedule memorized like I did when I was six. I caught this more mature-minded show that brought those creepy gothic cement figures to life a few times but not enough that it left a huge impression on me. Oddly, though, I ended up having half of a set of cards in my collection and an option to buy a retail box quite cheaply. The results were a mixed bag, although I suspect that if I'd opened this box back when they were first released in 1995, my opinion would be much higher.

This particular had 12 packs of seven cards plus a gorgeous over-sized box topper that features the main Gargoyle Goliath swooping down from a rooftop on the front and an overview of the show on the back. The base set has 90 cards so I knew going in I wasn't going to have a full set but I was hoping to plug some holes in my partial set that had been collecting dust for several years prior.

The checklist breaks down as follows:

1 Header
2 - 54 Story Cards
55 - 69 Character Cards
71 - 75 Good vs. Evil
76 - 79 Statistic Cards
80 - 88 Origins Puzzle
89 - 90 Checklists

Basic card fronts are simple but affective. They feature a full-bleed picture without any logos, borders or captions. As much as I love the often corny captions that come with a Topps non-sport set, the show had a lot of cool art to it and by going minimalist, Topps allows the cartoon to shine. In fact, when they get into the later subsets such as Good vs. Evil and the Statistics cards, the attempts at design take away from the overall affect. Granted, style changes but they haven't aged well.

Overall, I got 54 base set singles. Not too bad, I guess, but 14 doubles and three triples aren't excusable for a small box such as this.

Each pack also had one Pop-Up card, which were popular with SkyBox non-sport sets of this era. There were 12 in the set and I fell one short. Ironically, the one I was missing just happened to be the one that I had sitting in my monster box of singles to that set's done.

The remaining inserts are pretty sparse and none were guaranteed in the box. Double-Sided Spectra cards were inserted 1:24 packs. I didn't get any so I have no idea what they look like. There were also two possible redemptions. The first was for a 3D SkyMotion card (1:90 packs) and the second was for a Gargoyles video (1:180 packs). Wouldn't you know, I got the Skymotion redemption that is useless now but still a card with some nice artwork. Should I decide to go for the master set of everything, redeemed Skymotion cards can be found for around $20 on eBay.

Overall, a nice and simple box break for a straightforward product. I liked the base card design of the story cards a lot and I also love the lost art of the simple set composition, inserts included. However, the numerous duplicates and unredeemable redemption card did bring this box down a notch, though.

Inserts

• Pop-Ups (1:1): 12 (P1, P2, P3 (2), P4 (2), P5 (2), P6, P8, P9, P10)
• Skymotion Exchange (1:90): 1
• Oversized Box Topper: 1

For a complete breakdown and more images, please click here.

Random Card Duke-Out

Boxing Day is less than a week away. Hypothetically speaking, you're having one of those weird West Side Story dreams and you're about to go up against these guys:

Who are you going to have in your corner? Pope Benedict XVI or Hellboy?

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A Couple (Hundred) Christmas Cards

It's amazing how many cards there are with Christmas themes. They're not just limited to non-sport releases either. There's plenty of promos and inserts that have a sports theme. A Mick Foley wrestling card crossed my desk last week as well, which I'll eventually scan in. Over the past couple of weekends I've been adding many to an album I created on my Facebook page (shameless plug/plea for fans). I've still got a ton to go, but the album has been created so that anyone can add images to, so feel free to post some of your favourites. One of my goals with the Facebook page is to create similar albums with themes that others can easily add to.

Here's some of the highlights of what I've posted thus far: