Base Metals

Here's a 'back to base' post, as I have acquired a run of Tony's base cards from the Skybox range called 'Metal Universe'. These were once high end cards sold by the Fleer Skybox conglomerate. There are probably people who love these cards. I find Skybox cards are almost always off-kilter in some respect, usually odd word choices (like on this insert card!) and sometimes the overall concept is uncanny. 

Metal Universe cards are all super-shiny so I had to use my overhead scanner on them.

Card Number 903: Skybox Metal Universe, 1996; #235

How could you tell that this garish, shiny card with a weird image of Tony mashing milk out of a giant blue sponge ball was issued in the mid-90s? Apart from everything? This is compter-generated imagery from the 90s... on acid. 

The photo on the back is strangely old-fashioned. The unflattering comparison that came to my mind was Joey Tribbiani's explanation of "smell the fart acting". Tony looks mildly troubled by something. 

The interlocking gear teeth image at the bottom is part of the 'metal universe' theme. There are worse ways to waste space on the back of a baseball card. 

Card Number 904: Skybox Metal Universe, 1997; #219

I've over-exposed this scan slightly. But otherwise it just scans incoherently. Instead of making a dash for first base, Tony is running though a fantasy cave complex pursued by bats. I'd like to think the bats are because Tony was an extraordinary wielder of the baseball bat. But there could be a more mundane reason, like using up leftover graphics from a computer game.

There's a more natural photo on the back. The cardback design has a steampunk look. Props to them for giving Tony a number containing the number 19. (No bonus points though!)

Card Number 905: Skybox Metal Universe, 1998; #178

This is probably the nicest of the cards I'm showing in this post. The shiny front has Tony batting... on a sand dune... with the ocean in the background... and it looks very nice. Completely bizarre, but I'm always up for something a bit different. And this is a happy trigger for a digression.

Back in 2004, when I went on a road trip around California with my wife Cathy, we drove down Highway 1 all the way from San Francisco to San Diego, so photos of that Pacific coast bring back good memories. We went to Cardiff-by-the-Sea and sent postcards back to all our friends living in Cardiff. Because we like irony. 

Anyway, back to the card, and the cardback. Ho, boy! This would have looked five or six years out of date in 1998. That kind of graded background was from the beginning of the decade! And turquoise! That was the colour of 1993!

The stats boxes designed to look like a scoring chart are nicely done though. 

Card Number 906: Skybox Metal Universe, 1999; #47

A bonus scan this time to explain the difference the overhead scanner makes. First, here is the flatbed scan.

And here is the overhead scan. 

The rivet marks make this card look like it should be embossed. It's not embossed. Given their usual commitment to gimmicky stuff, this feels like a real missed opportunity for Skybox.

The rivets continue on to the back. It's an odd photo, with Tony looking frustrated. He looks like he is walking back to the dug out after a flyball was caught. I'd also ding this card a point for having unreadable stats information perpendicular to the card. 

And that's it for the Metal Universe. The range only lasted 4 years. There were cards released in 2000 with the brand name 'Metal', and that was the last hurrah for these shiny cards. The Metal cards in 2000 were also the end of cards being sold under the Skybox brand.

Total: 906 cards