Not letting my ARMS atrophy (Archives Reserve Master Set additions)

It's not a great time for fans of modern baseball. Oakland is getting their team snatched away. Wander has a wandering eye for little girls. Ohtani looks to be in for a second Tommy John surgery. Mike Trout still can't stay healthy anymore. Advertising on jerseys. Tinkering with the rules. And then looking at the current card manufacturer landscape, one giant company is taking control of everything, aiming to get more out of customers while giving them less, focusing in on high-rolling investors/breakers without thinking much about the majority of collectors.

But thankfully this hobby has been around a long time and you can spend every second of your time and money on old cards and still not scratch the surface.

With that intro rant out of the way, I'm still trying to get every single Archives Reserve card that Topps put out back in the early days of the millennium. I guess I'm just a sucker for refractor reprints of vintage cards. With zero parallels or numbered cards released, an Archives Reserve Master Set is not out of the realm of possibility. All I have left now are hits. I still have several big name autographs on my wantlist, and whether I truly ever get close to finishing this ARMS race might depend on how dramatically the sports card bubble bursts in the next few years.

But even if the "inner circle" guys are too pricey for me to target at the moment, I've been going after the lower-hanging fruit, hunting for "less than a blaster" autos I still need. 

Ready to check out some shiny hits in classic Topps designs?

Gaylord Perry is the only card in this post that cost more than the old school definition of "price of a blaster" (but works under the current definition), so I'll give him top billing. I remember when I first returned to the hobby as an adult, I decided Perry would be a top PC guy of mine (former Padres great in the HOF; played a long time, lots of cards out there; and pretty much a "household name" yet not much collector competition, relatively speaking). He hasn't exactly remained a primary focus for me since, but I've got a solid PC and he reminds me of those early days getting back into collecting.

Happy to cross this 2002 auto off my Archives Reserve needs. The rest of the cards in this post are rookie reprints from 2001, but for '02 they picked the "best year" for each player as the card design to use, choosing '72 Topps for Perry. And they do the odd but thoughtful practice of adding 1972 stats on the back so you can get an idea why that year was big for him.

Don Larsen is another notable figure in baseball history whose autographed cards won't set you back too much. He's got a rookie card in '54 Bowman, but his first Topps card was '55.

So weird to flip over a Don Larsen card and not read about his perfect game in the World Series. But you get a depiction of Satan, I guess?

Mickey Lolich put together a fine career highlighted by 3 complete game victories in the 1968 World Series and 25 wins in '71.

I prefer 1964 Topps reprints that show you the cartoon rather than the blank space. Obviously Topps doesn't actually re-print old sheets from the dusty archives but rather their graphic designers put together recreations, and sometimes it's kinda dumb when they tell you to rub a nickel on your card.

Dick Groat was NL MVP in 1960, winning the batting title for the eventual champs. Picked up another ring with the Cardinals in '64.

Groat was one of those guys who never played in the minors. There were some nice tributes to him after he passed away last April.

Sneaking in a football card, Terry Metcalf is probably the cheapest of the Archives Reserve football autos. Finally pulled the trigger on one, but somewhere the devil must have yelled "JINX!" at me as I finalized the transaction...

Unfortunately this card got folded longwise while in the mail, creasing it up something fierce. And it was in a freakin' top loader, so the USPS either ignored the "non-machinable" label and it had a dustup with the sorting machines, or maybe just some asshole mail handler "going postal" on a random envelope to blow off steam or something. At least it was only a few bucks so I won't bother making a fuss, but wouldn't mind upgrading someday. But when you consider I've got some huge NFL names to pick up still (like Montana and Namath, just to name a couple joes), I probably won't ever finish the football portion of this collecting goal unless I really stick with it for the long haul. So yeah, no rush, lol.

I haven't been hitting the relics very hard yet, but scored this Johnny Mize bat chip card for a good price.

Funny that you get hair and eye color on the back of '52 Topps. Mize was in '51 Topps, but they usually ignore that set when it comes to putting out rookie ("first Topps card") reprints. 

A couple more autographs to show off quickly. Nice looking Frank Howard here.

Fun comic.

Tommy John wraps up the post. Multiplayer rookies always look weird when reimagined as solo cards, but what are you gonna do?

Artificial "Blogger National" haul

I didn't attend The National (Sports Card Convention), and it's a little late for the blog-around, but here are some cards I've bought over the past several weeks that I haven't gotten around to posting about yet.

Back in May 2020, I thought it'd be fun to go after a run of vintage Kellogg's baseball cards. But it was too late by then, and the project is more or less paused waiting for the hobby bubble burst once guys realize everything is pointless. But since it was a '74 Kellogg's Reggie Jackson from my youth that was my driving force there, I figured hey, maybe I'll just go for a run of Reggie's Kellogg's cards and call it good. I had some purchased COMC store credit left to spend before I requested shipping on my last package from them, and ended up nabbing his '70 and '73. 

COMC has become my best source for scoring new Mike Reinbach cards. Still a lot of foreign cards for me to track down of this lesser-known PC guy (went to my high school). I already have that Navegantes sticker in better condition, but this creased one was too cheap to pass up.

Some interesting 90s stuff from COMC I missed out on at the time but recently discovered. I forget what the '98 Finest Power Zone gimmick is, but I think I had a reason for buying that Piazza for $2.39? As it stands, I regret the purchase. (Update: "Each of these 20 Series One inserts is printed with 'flop ink,' which changes color from purple to blue when viewed at a different angle." [source]) The Bagwell (1999 Topps Finest - Leading Indicators) I also regretted at first because I forgot why I bought it, but turns out it is heat sensitive, and you can see where I purposefully put a thumbprint top-center. I want to peel the protective film so it won't look like such shit, but I can't seem to get it started and don't want to damage the card digging into a corner trying to get the film up. Oh well. Cool card in theory, I guess. And the Marquis Grissom is a neat looking Matrix parallel from '97 Stadium Club I wasn't familiar with until seeing one on social media.

Blue head-on and purple at an angle?

Got another Joe Musgrove printing plate.

(Some of this stuff probably could have gotten their own post but I'm lazy. I do want to try posting more-frequent-but-shorter posts, rather than dumps like this.)

2013 Topps Wrapper Redemption Blue Slate parallels are damn nice looking cards. Crazy that was a decade ago already. When looking who was available "cheapest first", I was able to find a couple notable former Padres to justify buying. If I ever complete my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset, I could totally see myself going after a similar set of 2013 Topps parallels (but of course I'll never finish 2011 so it's moot.. Perhaps one 9-pocket page of Blue Slates [and a page or two of Emerald Foil] would be a more sensible collecting goal).

Funky foil on the Nelson Cruz.

My Howard Hughes PC picked up a couple additions recently thanks to these celebrity guessing game cards from 1987. Had been meaning to snag these for a while, finally finding them at a decent price. I think really all I'm jonesing for now is his 1936 Heinz Famous Aviators card before I can effectively consider the PC finished. But I still haven't seen that for sale-- at a decent price or otherwise-- so I shouldn't hold my breath there.

John Miller surprised me with another PWE, this one filled with Beanie Babies stickers. These made me happier than I should admit because I don't want to come off as too dorky, but oh well, lol. Glow in the dark cards are treated like Mantles and Trouts in this house. There are 30 stickers in the set, and between this lot and what I already had, I'm about halfway. Thanks, John! 

Here are three highlights from the latest series of printed customs from Gio at WTHB. Fun stuff as always.

Michael Lorenzen tossed a no-hitter earlier this month, which made me happy because I've got a sleeper PC of his cards. These above highlights aren't recent additions, but were mostly acquired in a previous COMC order.

GCA surprised me with a 2-card PWE of cards he scored among his National haul. Dig the faceless MiLB Hoyt and happy to reclaim a Reggie for my 1974 Topps set that gremlins made off with. Thanks, Greg!

Last for this post, in the wake of Paul Reubens' passing, I posted about my Pee-Wee cards and fellow fan in mourning David (aka DavisMcDavis) was kind enough to send me a couple of the cards on my wantlist for free. Thanks, pal! :)

See ya next time.

Soaking up the Summer Sun

Ok, here's the card I got with the eBay cash I recently won from A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts. I'd been after this "King of Junk Wax" for a while.

I think we're alone now; there doesn't seem to be anyone around, so I'll show you the back where it's easier to see it's the tiffany version. Pretty sweet. 

I should have picked up one of these a few years ago for less money probably, but better late than never. And Jon and I kinda hobby-bonded over Bo Jackson, specifically a '91 Fleer mod earlier this year, and so I thought it'd be fitting that I turn my winnings from him into a nice Bo card, giving it a little extra oomph. Took me a week or so to make it happen, but was able to score this one for a best-offer that factored in the shipping to use the code to cover it to the cent.

Thanks again, Jon!

Hey, on the topic of my 1991 Fleer mods (and Bo Jackson), I've got some "new variations" I'd been meaning to feature on the blog.

Getting fancy with the '91 Fleer bleaching.. New gradient fade style mixing the old and new. Nicknamed the swirl (banana/vanilla).

I also figured I'd modify the ProVisions inserts that are the highlight of the '91 Fleer set. The lines and text below the artwork are typically bold yellow, matching the base cards. So I figured.. why not? ..made a homemade variation with lightened text. It's something. Maybe it enhances the image to be freed from the distracting yellow? Granted, that was kinda boring, but then I got a fun idea...

Alternating colors kicks things up, yeah? Unfortunately I already used up both my Bo's by then, so only Big Mac and Donnie Baseball made it into this style, but I think I'll do more of these as I get ahold of more ProVisions. But this summer at my house, '91 Fleer has been taking a backseat to another set I've been messing with in the sun. Yes, this post is a hint! "Woodgrain variations" in the works, lol. Stay tuned!

Crocodile booty

One of the best things about the ol' cardsphere is the generosity, with plenty of contests and giveaways always popping up. Kinda embarrassed to admit it but I've found in recent years that "cards up for grabs; first come, first served" type of giveaways rile up my anxiety, so I generally stay away from those now. But I recently threw my name in the hat for a couple randomized drawings and caught a couple lucky breaks. The first one was for a random lot of 100 cards from Crocodile Sports Cards.

I was able to dig out a nice stack of keepers for my collection from this lot as well as some good trade fodder. Let's take a quick look at a few highlights.

Happy to see some vintage in the box, I think as old as '65 Topps, with the sharp '75 Don Baylor being an upgrade to the beater previously in my ongoing setbuild there.

More neat stuff here with a Bo Jackson oddball, gold Dan Walters, platinum Jeff Blauser, and a shiny Alejandro Kirk auto.

I don't do much with football cards these days, but still like adding cards of big name NFL stars to my humble pigskin collection.

And I don't have much vintage football cards, so these are cool to get. A couple of these will end up in my (non-Topps flagship baseball) vintage frankenset. .. oh yeah, need to do my annual post on that project one of these days.

Thanks for the contest, Crocodile! I really enjoyed thumbing through that box of cards.

The other contest I won in short succession was for an eBay gift card from Jon at A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts, and the card I bought with code is on the way, so stay tuned for that soon.

But one more instance of where a simple comment I left on a post resulted in free cards...

When Fuji ended up with a lot of Tony Gwynn 1990 Leaf cards he didn't have much use for, I mentioned they'd make good canvases for the border art I've been messing with lately, and next thing I knew, they showed up in my mail. Thank you, Fuji! I hope to creatively deface these cards in your honor soon.

That's all for today. Thanks for swinging by.

Pee-Wee Herman card collection

I've been a Pee-Wee Herman fan since I was a kid, with Pee-Wee's Playhouse being a favorite show of mine back then. Took me a while to finish this post (sparked now in tribute to the passing of Paul Reubens), but back in 2019, I decided to combine my love of Pee-Wee with my love of card collecting and build up a collection of Pee-Wee cards, chiefly the Pee-Wee's Playhouse cards that Topps put out in 1988. Wasn't easy, but I eventually completed a master set, and by the end had come close to a second master set, which I'm still working on. 

1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse has just 33 base cards plus a few different insert sets, but with variations, a master set is 159 cards deep. That doesn't sound too bad, but man, it was a challenge! It's tough to find singles online so I figured my best bet was ripping unopened product. The collation is brutal with those packs, though, even sourced from different sellers. Some cards were very tricky for me to track down, while I ended up with tons of dupes of others.

It's kind of a confusing set. As a reference for anyone brave enough to go after it, here's the checklist I put together. I did my best identifying the different cards, but it's not always easy to tell the variations apart.

1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse (master set: 159 cards)
1A	ant top left	45 Neat Things to Do When It Rains!
1B	yellow on right	45 Neat Things to Do When It Rains!
2A	yellow Conky right	"Time to put away my toys, would you like to help"
2B	yellow Dinosaur right	"Time to put away my toys, would you like to help"
3A	yellow top middle	"Hey, kids! Here's a letter from..."
3B	ant low left	"Hey, kids! Here's a letter from..."
4A	yellow top middle	Globey's Travel Tips: Staten Island, N.Y.
4B	red top middle	Globey's Travel Tips: Staten Island, N.Y.
5A	yellow at top	Playhouse Collectors Show & Tell
5B	red on right	Playhouse Collectors Show & Tell
6A	yellow low left	Potato Fun
6B	yellow top right	Potato Fun
7A	yellow low left	Dinosaur Family Dino Facts
7B	ant on left	Dinosaur Family Dino Facts
8A	ant on left	Playhouse Recipe File
8B	yellow low left	Playhouse Recipe File
9A	yellow on left	Dear Peewee,
9B	yellow on bottom	Dear Peewee,
10A	ant on right	"What's Pee Wee doing?" "Connect the dots..."
10B	red on right	"What's Pee Wee doing?" "Connect the dots..."
11A	yellow on right	"I'm looking for a swinging party!"
11B	red on right	"I'm looking for a swinging party!"
12A	ant on left	Pee Wee's Fun Facts
12B	Dinosaur low left	Pee Wee's Fun Facts
13A	yellow low left	"Mekka lekka hi, mekka hiney ho!"
13B	red low left	"Mekka lekka hi, mekka hiney ho!"
14A	yellow low right	Jambi's Fortunes
14B	red low right	Jambi's Fortunes
15A	ant top left	King of Cartoons Drawing Lesson
15B	yellow low left	King of Cartoons Drawing Lesson
16A	yellow top left	Weekly Playhouse Press
16B	red mid left	Weekly Playhouse Press
17A	yellow bottom	"Cool Cat's pounding out the beat -"
17B	yellow low left	"Cool Cat's pounding out the beat -"
18A	yellow low right	Bazooka Joe Meets Pee-Wee Herman
18B	ants on left	Bazooka Joe Meets Pee-Wee Herman
19A	ant on left and top	"R-r-ready t-to ass-ssist y-you P-P-PeeWee!"
19B	yellow low left	"R-r-ready t-to ass-ssist y-you P-P-PeeWee!"
20A	yellow low left	Puppetland Poetry
20B	yellow top right	Puppetland Poetry
21A	yellow low left	"Let's see how big my rubber band ball is today!"
21B	red low left	"Let's see how big my rubber band ball is today!"
22A	yellow low left	"It's Dance Time!"
22B	ants on top	"It's Dance Time!"
23A	yellow on bottom	"Why don't we stroll over to my toybox?"
23B	yellow on left	"Why don't we stroll over to my toybox?"
24A	ant on left	"Dia I say the secret word PeeWee?"
24B	red top right	"Dia I say the secret word PeeWee?"
25A	Clocky low right	"What's the secret word today Conky?"
25B	Pterri low right	"What's the secret word today Conky?"
26A	yellow top	"Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, Let the cartoon begin"
26B	red top right	"Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, Let the cartoon begin"
27A	ants on top	"A cartoon a day keeps the Dr. away!"
27B	Chairry on right	"A cartoon a day keeps the Dr. away!"
28A	yellow on right	"Can you tell me what time is is Clocky?"
28B	red on right	"Can you tell me what time is is Clocky?"
29A	yellow low left	"What does 'cha-cha' mean PeeWee?"
29B	red low left	"What does 'cha-cha' mean PeeWee?"
30A	ant on right	"Snack time's my favorite time, except for lunch
30B	yellow low left	"Snack time's my favorite time, except for lunch
31A	yellow low left	"This seed is going to grow up to be a redwood!"
31B	yellow top right	"This seed is going to grow up to be a redwood!"
32A	yellow on right	"Why don't you read me a story?"
32B	red on right	"Why don't you read me a story?"
33A	yellow on bottom	"Breakfast is the most important meal"
33B	red on bottom	"Breakfast is the most important meal"
1	sticker/flipbook	So funny I forgot to laugh/chickie baby/yehaw/pee-wee
2	sticker/flipbook	So funny I forgot to laugh/chickie baby/yehaw/pee-wee
3	sticker/flipbook	Cool/why not/arg/egg roll/baloney/pee we
4	sticker/flipbook	Cool/why not/arg/egg roll/baloney/pee we
5	sticker/flipbook	Flower power/get lost/hello/connect the dots/pee wee
6	sticker/flipbook	Flower power/get lost/hello/connect the dots/pee wee
7	sticker/flipbook	Ants/today's secret word is fun/hi/arf/pee wee
8	sticker/flipbook	Ants/today's secret word is fun/hi/arf/pee wee
9	sticker/flipbook	Miss Yvonne
10	sticker/flipbook	Miss Yvonne
11	sticker/flipbook	Pee-Wee
12	sticker/flipbook	Pee-Wee
13	sticker/flipbook	Dirty Dog
14	sticker/flipbook	Dirty Dog
15	sticker/flipbook	A/O/W/?
16	sticker/flipbook	A/O/W/?
17	sticker/flipbook	M/C/O/J
18	sticker/flipbook	M/C/O/J
19	sticker/flipbook	U/!/H/E
20	sticker/flipbook	U/!/H/E
21	sticker/flipbook	A/X/D/G
22	sticker/flipbook	A/X/D/G
23	sticker/flipbook	Give me air/made you look/i know you are but what am i
24	sticker/flipbook	Give me air/made you look/i know you are but what am i
25	sticker/flipbook	I love that Story!/Moo!/Sit on Me!
26	sticker/flipbook	I love that Story!/Moo!/Sit on Me!
27	sticker/flipbook	Like cool/Hi/fishy/P-man/Wish you were here
28	sticker/flipbook	Like cool/Hi/fishy/P-man/Wish you were here
29	sticker/flipbook	Let the cartoon begin/Hi/Globey/I'm board/It's a Pee-Wee World
30	sticker/flipbook	Let the cartoon begin/Hi/Globey/I'm board/It's a Pee-Wee World
31	sticker/flipbook	Randy
32	sticker/flipbook	Randy
33	sticker/flipbook	Pterri
34	sticker/flipbook	Pterri
35	sticker/flipbook	Jambi
36	sticker/flipbook	Jambi
37	sticker/flipbook	S/E/O/T
38	sticker/flipbook	S/E/O/T
39	sticker/flipbook	Y/P/&/N
40	sticker/flipbook	Y/P/&/N
(41)	sticker/checklist	CL #1 Cards/Photo Stickers (I/F/B/Z on front)
(42)	sticker/checklist	CL #2 Playhouse Tattoos/Wiggle Pictures (I/F/B/Z on front)
(43)	sticker/checklist	CL #3 Alphabet stickers/playhouse foldies/flying things (V/L/K/R)
(44)	sticker/checklist	CL #4 Finger-Nose Cards/Mini-stickers/Disguise Cards (V/L/K/R)
1 of 12	tattoo sheet	skull (I'm labeling these by top-left image)
2 of 12	tattoo sheet	heart eye
3 of 12	tattoo sheet	Reba
4 of 12	tattoo sheet	Cowntess
5 of 12	tattoo sheet	big head pee-wee
6 of 12	tattoo sheet	octopus
7 of 12	tattoo sheet	jumping pee-wee
8 of 12	tattoo sheet	Pterri
9 of 12	tattoo sheet	Dog Chair
10 of 12	tattoo sheet	mom heart
11 of 12	tattoo sheet	pee-wee caterpillar
12 of 12	tattoo sheet	Randy
1	wiggle toy	Miss Yvonne/Cowboy Curtis
2	wiggle toy	Pee-Wee/Ms. Rene
3	wiggle toy	Conky/Reba
4	wiggle toy	Pterri/Randy
5	wiggle toy	Pop Eye/Pee Wee & Miss Yvonne
6	wiggle toy	Cool Cat/Pee-Wee with bicycle
7	wiggle toy	Jambi/cartoon Pee-Wee
8	wiggle toy	Randy/Miss Yvonne
9	wiggle toy	Penny/Pee-Wee
10	wiggle toy	Chairry/Globey
11	wiggle toy	Jambi/Chairry
12	wiggle toy	Pee-Wee/Cowntess
1	puppet card	Pee-Wee/Mr. Kite
2	puppet card	Miss Yvonne/Pee-Wee
3	puppet card	Chairry/Conky
4	puppet card	Roger/Randy
5	puppet card	Jambi/Pee-Wee
1	opening door	Fridge
2	opening door	Randy
3	opening door	Playhouse Door
4	opening door	Floory
5	opening door	Dirty Dog
1	flying things	Flying Pterri
2	flying things	Flyin' Randy
3	flying things	Flying Pee-Wee
4	flying things	Pee-Wee Copter
1A	disguise card	skull mask (flatter top crack on left)
1B	disguise card	skull mask (flatter top crack on right)
2A	disguise card	green mask (shading on left fang)
2B	disguise card	green mask (shading on right fang)
3A	disguise card	3 eyes mask (green eye on left)
3B	disguise card	3 eyes mask (green eye on right)
1	foldies	Penny
2	foldies	Conky
3	foldies	Randy
4	foldies	Pee-Wee
5	foldies	Jambi

I wanted to go more in depth with the set, hence this post languishing in my drafts for over 3 years, plus I've been meaning to create some supplemental customs to go with the set (--There's tragically little from the first season of the show represented in the cards). But I'm not sure when I'll get to that, so for now I'll just give an overview.

The base cards look like this. Each has a background variation, with an analogous baseball card situation being like with 1990 Donruss how there are "paint splatter variations" with the factory set versions of the cards. I don't believe there was any short-printing going on in the set, so I don't think any variation has a premium on it.

The sticker/flipbook cards might be the toughest to complete. And the backs...

The funky letter stickers were recycled from an older Topps release but they fit right in.

The oversized interactive cards are fun but can make storage more of a pain. The three mask cards have mirror image variations that can be tricky to pair up. I pulled so many of the "blue eye on the left" of the 3-eyed mask card (yet the "green eye on left" variation was super tough to track down, go figure) that I even popped one out of the card to play with it as intended.

I've been saying the master set is 159 cards, but if you really want to be OCD about it, you can bump that number up to 171 cards thanks to the "wiggle toys" that rotate between two images. The above photo appears to be 24 minis, but it technically includes just 12 different cards despite what your eyes tell you. Yep: Lentrical variations! Maybe you've encountered this phenomenon when you get a couple Sportflics dupes together and notice that the images are reversed from the same vantage point. Similar with these "wiggle toy" inserts. They are one-per-pack, so you get a lot of them in a box. And when you lay a bunch of one of these out together, it's striking when they're all one certain image except for one dupe that shows the other image. "Is it a dupe?" Depends on how you look at it. Literally! If I can see two clearly different images when looking at the cards side-by-side, I reserve the right to count them as variations in my collection, not a duplicate. Is that weird?

Anyways, there's 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse in a nutshell. I have lots of dupes to trade, so if you're building the set, feel free to get in touch. I'd like to trade my dupes with other Pee-wee setbuilders, and then once I've got a second set done, I suppose I'd look to trade it for something cool (preferably Pee-Wee related) or sell it.

Anywoo, I'm fifteen cards away from a 2nd master set. My needs as of 7/31/23:

sticker/flipbook #7 Ants/today's secret word is fun/hi/arf/pee wee

sticker/flipbook #8 Ants/today's secret word is fun/hi/arf/pee wee

sticker/flipbook #14 Dirty Dog

sticker/flipbook #24 Give me air/made you look/i know you are but what am i

sticker/flipbook #25 I love that Story!/Moo!/Sit on Me!

sticker/flipbook #28 Like cool/Hi/fishy/P-man/Wish you were here

sticker/flipbook #33 Pterri

sticker/flipbook #40 Y/P/&/N

sticker/checklist CL #3 Alphabet stickers/playhouse foldies/flying things (V/L/K/R)

puppet card #3 Chairry/Conky

puppet card #5 Jambi/Pee-Wee

opening door #5 Dirty Dog

flying things #1 Flying Pterri

disguise card #1B skull mask (flatter top crack on right)

foldies #3 Randy

As long as I'm showing off Pee-Wee cards, here are some others that came out after that Topps set from '88.

Topps reprinted one of the cards in its 75th Anniversary set (2013) that featured non-sports Topps sets of the past. I've got the base, a foil parallel, and a pair of sparkle parallels (/75). Then there was an online-only set of cards featuring wrapper art that included the '88 Pee-Wee cards, so I grabbed one of those.

Here's some Pee-wee stuff that doesn't feature Pee-wee. The Conky toy is mine from childhood-- glad I hung onto it and wish I hadn't gotten rid of my Pee-wee figure. I'm not looking to really go down the "toy collector" route until I win the lottery or something, but I made an exception and scored myself the Captain Carl figure a few years ago. Love Phil Hartman. Plus Captain Carl didn't get a figure released back in the day (neglected 1st season!), so this is a toy-that-should-have-been, as opposed to, say, the revamped Conky figure they put out in that same line of toys marketed towards adults.

I've been meaning to make a custom cut-auto using that signed index card of E.G. Daily (who played Dottie in Big Adventure). ...one of these days.

Pee-wee or Paul sadly never got a Ginter card or nod in Archives or anything, but he at least got certified autographs thanks to a Star Wars animated guest spot. This is an "inner circle" card in my collection right up there in my eyes with autographs of baseball greats I never dreamt of owning as a kid, not to be too over-the-top about it.

But the big boy in my PW collection is this record..

It's signed by Pee-wee and Paul separately, and Danny Elfman. I've been meaning to hang this up on the wall in the cardroom since I got it a couple years ago. Bummed it took me till today to get around to it, but it's up now.

Thanks for everything, Pee-wee!