Prominent and Pretty in Pink

Although I haven't bought a pack of the stuff and don't plan to, I'm having a bit of a love-hate infatuation with Upper Deck Prominent Cuts. My mind boggles at the thought of not one, not two but three cards in a 60-card base set being occupied by three of the Kardashian sisters but there's also some amazing autographs to be found. Granted, the cut signature autographs have no pictures and have a large checklist with plenty of signers who are very much alive. But then what's the chances of a lot of these rejected stars coming out in a set that features them?

Such is the case with Molly Ringwald. Along with Punky Brewster and that unnamed girl that Rodney Dangerfield sees in the shower at the start of Back to School, she was amongst my first Hollywood crushes. Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, TV's Diff'rent Strokes - she was the cute, snooty dream girl in some of my favorite things growing up.

But before I grew up, she did and moved on.

For the past couple of decades, Ringwald went and became a wife and mom, and largely disappeared from the Hollywood scene. I spotted her in a horrendous Aussie slasher film a few years back and caught her paying tribute to John Hughes at the Academy Awards. She's also in some TV show now that I've never seen. Whatever the true Hollywood story is, Molly Ringwald simply isn't the it girl she once was. And she's done a great job of distancing herself from it.

With my serious doubts of a set based on The Secret Life of the American Teenager coming out, I went and pulled the trigger on this from Upper Deck Prominent Cuts:

Upper Deck Prominent Cuts Autograph Molly Ringwald

For most, this card is probably 20 years too late. But for me, it's a trip back to elementary school crushes. As for the fact that it's a cut signature of a living person. You're right, the card isn't the prettiest. But like Duckie on the rebound, something's better than nothing. I also find something concerting about the legitimacy of the ugly check where the signature (which is very clean, I might add) originates from. Plus it was pretty cheap too at significantly less than the pack it came from.

Overall, I've still paid less than the price of one pack and gotten 80% of the base set, a bunch of doubles and an autograph of not only someone I've heard of, but someone I really want as well. Another exa not to bust high-end wax.

Sets I Want to See: The Expendables

Sylvester Stallone
Bruce Willis
Jet Li
Dolph Lundgren
Jason Statham
Arnold Freakin' Schwarzenegger
Mickey Rourke

As far as legitimate action heroes from the past 25 years go, these guys are the who's who of cheesy guy flicks where things blow up real good. There's also Stone Cold Steve Austin, Randy Couture and Eric Roberts. All that's missing is Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme. Well, the list above are attempting to make the cheesy action flick cool again with The Expendables. The trailer debuted online today and quite honestly, I was expecting more. Note to Sylvester Stallone: we want to see you kick people, not listen to you babble constantly.

That being said, I so want a card set just for the autograph possibilities. From that list, only a couple already have autographs. Schwarzenegger appeared in Batman and Robin Widescreen from SkyBox, Terminator 3 from Comic Images and on a pseudo-cut Conan the Barbarian card that used cut-up Batman and Robin cards. Fleer  convinced Stone Cold to sign in their Wrestlemania set back in 2001. Randy Couture's currently in Upper Deck Prominent Cuts and has also signed for Donruss Americana and Topps Allen and Ginter. Finally, there's Julia Roberts' brother Eric, who was in Upper Deck Spectrum and Donruss Americana.

Tonight I had a little fun and came up with some mock-ups for a possible set. Enjoy! The Expendables is in theatres this August and I'm guessing it'll be on DVD and Blu-ray a couple weeks later.

Complete Upper Deck Prominent Cuts Checklist

Upper Deck Prominent Cuts Checklist (Google Docs)

If you've been browsing autographs on eBay this week you've probably noticed tons of cut signatures from Upper Deck's new Prominent Cuts set. Thanks to Upper Deck for forwarding on the checklist to me, which is massive. As in nearly 900 cut signature subjects.

The set is pricey, running about $200 per box. Add to that the largely hit-and-miss cut signature subjects, one of which is guaranteed in a box, and it's a risk I'm not sure I'd consider. While there is a lot of big hits on the checklist, some of the names among the cut signatures are really horrible. Take Bai Ling for example. Her Donruss Americana autograph (which includes her picture) can be found for around $10. And that's the hit in a $200 box? I hear the banjo tuning up in the background to a familiar chorus. I've also got huge issues with cut signatures on cards of folks who are still very much alive. Bai Ling fits that category as well.

After browsing through the set, Prominent Cuts is a confused product. The eclectic base set checklist of politicians, actors and athletes, and plentiful movie costume cards give it a definite Donruss Americana feel. The gazillion cut signatures inserted at reasonable rates compares to Razor's cut signature products. The MMA toss-ins are another Donruss Americana nod, as well as a spin on Topps' UFC products. Does that mean Prominent Cuts' personality is made up from the shadows of others?

At any rate, if you're looking for the checklist, I've put it into a Google Docs spreadsheet and organized it in a way that's useful for me. I'm not super familiar with spreadsheet creation so I'm coming at it from an angle that's aimed at finding things in an organized fashion, hence the multiple sheets to keep the various aspects separate.

Please comment if you find checklists like this useful (even if Prominent Cuts isn't your thing). I've been preparing some on my own using pre-existing sheets that I have a tough time navigating through. If it's helpful I'd be happy to share what I've got and maybe be a little more motivated to put together others in the future.

Prominent Cuts is Finally Live, Complete with Patrick Swayze's Dress

Originally planned for a late-2009 release, Upper Deck Prominent Cuts is finally live. It's a catch-all sort of product with the usual Upper Deck sports stars, lots of MMA fighters, politicians, celebrities and multiple Kardashians (note how I refuse to consider them celebrities).

What's caught my attention is the sheer number of costume relics from prominent movie and TV stars. Even though the costume pieces seem to be leftovers from two years worth of A Piece of History Baseball, they're nonetheless impressive. The checklist includes names like Tom Hanks, Ben Stiller, Brad Pitt, Drew Barrymore, Farrah Fawcett, James Dean, Sammy Davis Jr, Mike Myers, Denzel Washington and tons more. And unlike the Donruss Americana sets that Prominent Cuts is somewhat modelled after, these costumes are mostly from actual films that you've probably heard of. A few exceptions exist, but these are mostly the older names. And when you get Sammy Davis Jr's briefcase, the brown leather swatch looks great.

The big drawback with these cards is the fact that there's no images. Without any logos to pretend to hide behind, it makes it tough for these cards to reach their full potential. But the swatch sizes are much bigger than they were with A Piece of History so the lack of imagery isn't quite so bad.

Upper Deck has also made lots of pairings, taking obscure connections and tossing two swatches on a single card. One that I got my attention was the match-up of Patrick Swayze and Harrison Ford under the banner "Action Hero Stars." With classics like Point Break and Road House under his belt, the late Dirty Dancing star fits the bill. Then there's Ford who gets the nod for pulling the trigger on old Greedo. It's a cool enough card numbered out of 99. But there's something that makes me giggle about this card and it's declaration of action heroes.

Upper Deck Prominent Cuts Hollywood History Dual Materials Patrick Swayze/Harrison Ford /99

The Ford swatch comes from the movie Crossing Over. I haven't seen it, but a quick Google search came up with this picture:

We have a match. 

I couldn't find an image to match up the Swayze swatch, but here's a picture of him in a different scene from the film:

It's a dress swatch Swayze wore in the cross-dressing film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar.

Action hero, indeed.