80s Wednesday - a couple of 80s oddballs

Here's a trip back almost four decades to when baseball cards started to proliferate in '88...

Card Number 966: Nestle, 1988; #40

I seriously doubt Nestle needs any introduction. They are one of the biggest food conglomerates in the world. The company has also been the target of a decades-long boycott due to the way it markets baby milk formula in the developing world. (I'm relieved to say that my acquisition of this card was not linked to the purchase of any Nestle products - although originally it would have been.)

The card itself is semi-licensed with a strange airbrushing job removing the Padres logo from Tony's cap. Unlike modern cards in the twilight zone of player licensing, this card includes the franchise name.

This card was produced by oddball card producer Michael Schechter Associates (also known as MSA) and printed in Canada. It has a comprehensive write up on the cardback compared to most oddballs. 

Card Number 967: KayBee Superstars of Baseball, 1988; #13

I've done a brief explanation of the KayBee Toys company on the blog before. I still love their little soldier in the logo. 

These cards were produced by Topps. When I came to wite this post I had a moment of deja vu. A quick look through my Topps folder and I realised why.

Topps re-used this photo in 2009 in their Legends of the Game insert series. The print is darker, but that is clearly the same photo.

A couple of years later, Topps used a cropped version of the photo for the Golden Greats insert card in 2012. (In fact, if you click on that link, you can see it was also used on a card from 2010 as well!)

It's unusual for the photo on an oddball card to reappear several years later, but I suppose this was in the Topps photo archive. It hadn't been used in an official Topps set and I doubt anyone at the company thought a random blogger would ever notice this.

Anyway, back to the card sold in Kay-Bee Toys and here's the back of the card sold in Kay-Bee Toys.

Although it has a photo on it, this doesn't have the impact of the Nestle card. June 1987 was a very hot month for Tony with an incredible average nearer to .500 than .400!

Total 967 cards

80s week: Young Superstar, Big Hitter

Tony's cards from the 1980s, as he was breaking on to the scene, are a great resource for building a picture of him as a player before he became the legendary figure of "Mr Padre". It's weird to think that at one point he was a hot rising star. In a strange way the hitting machine of the 1990s with his powerful mature physique has eclipsed those early days. I find it hard to imagine him as a young man.

And yet here he is, heralded as a young superstar.

Card Number 495: Kay-Bee Young Superstars of Baseball, 1986; #17 

Like the Fleer cards I posted about yesterday, these cards were sold in self-contained sets of 33 cards. They were made by Topps and sold exclusively in K.B. Toy Shops. (The little toy soldier logo is really cute!) 

You can tell these were a high quality product for Topps at the time because there was a photo on the back and a write up that is actually about the player.

The way they describe Tony's college career is a bit misleading. He attended university on a basketball scholarship and was allowed to play baseball after one of his high school contemporaries with a baseball scholarship badgered the baseball team's coach into asking him to play, and even then initially the basketball coach said no.

Although this card was manufactured by Topps, I regard it as an 'oddball'. Our second card today is also a Topps card, but one they manufactured for a bakery.

Card Number 496: Drake's Big Hitters, 1985; #14

As the card says, this was the fifth series of Drake's cards. It was also the final one with Topps. The sets produced for Drake's after that were produced through Michael Schechter Associates (MSA), who created a lot of 'oddball' sets. 

There were 44 cards in this set, which were included in Drake's products.

The back just tweaks the cardback from the Topps regular sets, except with the addition of the Drake's logo by the upper right corner of the stats box and the addition of Drake's Bakeries to the boilerplate text underneath the box. However, compared to the regular Topps set this cardback is much more readable.

This is the regular Topps cardback from 1985 which must be a nightmare for people who are colourblind.

(I mean, red on green? Seriously?)

So, here we are, almost at the end of 80s week. I've decided it's going to be an 8-day week with a bonus card tomorrow as well.

Total: 496 cards

Toy Store Topps Exclusives

Updated post - thanks Fuji

K.B. Toys was a chain of toy stores founded in 1922. The chain was a victim of the 2009 recession, when its stores closed for the last time. Also known as Kay-Bee Stores, the chain sold baseball cards, naturally, and was a big enough Topps customer to have exclusive cards made, which it sold in small 33-card sets.

I'm undecided whether to classify these as oddballs or not, because they were made by Topps. But they are definitely slightly unusual.

Card Number 92: Kay-Bee Superstars of Baseball, 1987; #15
I acquired this card in with a massive lot of Topps 1987 base cards. There was almost a complete set of the Superstars of Baseball.

I like the toy soldier in the Kay-Bee logo. He's rather cute.

The cardback features a black and white photo and three statistical factoids about Tony. I think this could be the first ever range of cards produced by Topps with photos on the back.

Card Number 93: Kay-Bee Kings, 1990; #14
I bought this card a few years ago off a UK-based sports cards website, which never seemed to add to its stock of baseball cards, and now seems to have disappeared.

I like the bold red border. It really makes the card stand out. Topps included their logo on the front as well.

The back is quite dull in comparison, although the purple and white stripes make me think of candy for some reason.

I don't know when Topps stopped producing exclusive cards for toy stores. But given the parlous state of toy retailing, it's unlikely to be something they start doing again.

Total: 93/394