Holo Grammys

It's the Academy Awards of music tonight but I don't really care. While your significant other scours People Magazine's website in the morning, here's a random bunch of holograms:

 1992 Denny's Grand Slam 26. Joe Carter

I remember begging my parents to take me out for pie and coffee when these were available. They just turned to me, told me it was a 30 minute drive and that I was too young for coffee as they sipped their instant "coffee." They neglected to mention that Denny's also had gross key lime pie. Denny's sucks. This set was the best thing the restaurant had to offer in 1992. 

 1995 Score Dream Team Gold DG11. Greg Maddux

I'm not sure why Score abandoned the shirtless grandeur of the Dream Team cards for holograms. I can't say that I mind either. The whole "Gold" label, though, doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

1993 Upper Deck Diamond Gallery 32. Wil Cordero

This card is a part of some oddball Upper Deck box set. I hadn't heard of it before and may have to track it down seeing as how it's an oddball hologram box set. Just 123,600 sets were made, which must make it extremely limited ; )

1997 Stadium Club Instavision Highlights I13. Andy Pettite

You can't capture the greatness of this card in a scan. Well, it is a hologram so it is instantly great, but that there hologram shows Pettite's hurling prowess. Yes, it's got motion technology without the creepy factor of Sammy Sosa's 1996 SPx card winking at me.

And now a trio of static non-sport holograms:

 Marvel Universe: Series One (Impel, 1990) MH1. Cosmic Spider-man

Although these are probably the most recognizable non-sport holograms (my guess is that it's due to the seemingly millions that are out there and just about everyone collecting the set at the time had one or two), I also rank them amongst the worst. Sure, they're shiny but there's nothing else going on. Plus, the card backs are identical for all five in the set. Yes, Virginia, holograms can be boring sometimes. Can anyone tell me what makes this Spider-Man, Cosmic Spider-Man?

 DC Comics: Series One (Impel, 1992) DC Hologram Hall of Fame DCH8. Superman

This card suffers somewhat the same fate as the Spidey above. It's pretty boring. However, at least with this set Impel wised up a bit and gave something of an interesting background. Too bad Superman's face resembles that of a stick man I doodled while waiting on hold yesterday.

Marvel Universe Series Three (Impel, 1992) H-5. Ghost Rider

Finally, Impel is getting somewhere. While I'm not a big fan of Ghost Rider, the way his motorcycle is popping out of this card is pretty bad ass.

Heavenly Metal

Last week I received a package from Mario at Wax Heaven that had some good ole' wrasslin cards and this thing of beauty:

 

Bon Jovi in trading card form. It comes from Impel's 1991 Mega Metal set, which after doing a little research has a Skid Row hologram. There's boxes on eBay for under $20 so I think I may have to dip in and get my 80s hair metal nostalgia going one of these days.

The big finds of the box were a trio of hits from TriStar's recent TNA: Cross the Line set.

 

 

The dual event-used card and the Dutt autograph are both numbered /50. I haven't seen a lot of TNA wrestling yet but I do know that all three of these guys featured do have some good moves. Whether or not they become stars on a bigger stage remains to be seen.

Here's some more TNA:

 

We've got old man Foley who just won TNA's big belt last weekend over Sting (no, this isn't 1997). Then we have a funky art card of an all-time favorite of mine, Christian who recently returned to his WWE roots and even more recently (yesterday) won the ECW Championship.

Oh, yeah, there was also this:

 

That, my friends, is Don West captured in a rare moment where he was at a loss for words.

Mario didn't neglect the wrestling big leagues either. He also sent me some WWE cards I hadn't seen in person yet: a handful of Topps' UK-exclusive Slam Attacks. They're a CCG that are meant to be played with. Topps recently brought the line over to North America with a baseball set that I haven't seen or played. Here's a sample:

You can never go wrong with Jimmy Snuka and the Ken Kennedy is a foil - not sure if it's a parallel or just something fancy. These have a nice clean look to them.

Thanks a bunch, Mario!