Sportflics gets an X

Sportflics got updated in the mid-90s to Sportflix. The cards continued using the same lenticular finish though, making them difficult to capture properly for blogging purposes. I've had a go...

Card Number 1016: Sportflics 2000, 1994; #25

(They added '2000' to the set name because back in 1994, "2000" was really futuristic. The Millennium was coming!)

The way Tony's name moves when this card is tilted is quite nifty.

I hope that silhouette on the back is actually Tony's silhouette, but I suspect it isn't. The photo looks familiar, but I've gone through my Pinnacle Brands binder and I can't see this particular photo used on any other cards. Pinnacle used a lot of photos that look like this in their various sets - they often used head and shoulders candid non-game shots on their cardbacks. So it's more the type of photo that's triggering my deja vu rather than the actual photo. 

It's a mid-90s colour scheme as well. Double gradated colour like that was novel at the time. It looks well dated now. 

Card Number 1017: Sportflix, 1995: #HT10

This card was in the Hammer Team insert set for successful batters. (The base card is blogged here!) Tony is dodging a rain of sledgehammers on the front.

It is all a bit reminiscent of those brothers with hammers in a certain cartridge-based video game manufactured by a Japanese company starring an Italian plumber.

A hammer is falling towards Tony on the back as well!

Even though he 'topped the majors' (what a quaint phrase), Tony only had the tenth card in this insert series. He should have been #1, surely. 

1995 was the peak year for Sportflix as, in addition to the lenticular set, there was also a 3D set called UC3. (Yesterday I was blogging about UD3. Today it's UC3! Tomorrow it's... no, I don't have a set called UB3.)

Card Number 1018: Sportflix UC3, 1995; #133

This is the second 'base' card in the set with Tony on. I blogged the other one previously here. 

3D cards don't scan well, but they're better than lenticular cards. On the back we go "In-Depth" which is hyphenated for some strange reason. That's a very short summary considering. It doesn't feel like it is in any depth. 

And do you see my point about head and shoulders candid non-game photos on the cardback? Because here's another one. 

Tony had a third UC3 card. It's another quirky insert.

Card Number 1019: Sportflix UC£, 1995; #CS13

Tony is a member of the Cyclone Squad! It sounds pretty cool even if it doesn't really mean anything.

The effect on the back is meant to be cyclone-related but it just reminds me of the Rebel Alliance tactics room at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope, as Princess Leia waits to hear if Luke Skywalker has blown up the Death Star.

Does anyone else see that, or is it just me?

Card Number 1020: Sportflics, 1996; #9

And back to the lenticular cards. As this card is tilted it flicks (or flix) between Tony's name...

... and his batting average

The back is probably the best-designed Sportflix cardback, listing the previous season's stats and Tony's career stats. Tony has an odd expression in the photo, though, even if it is the tried and tested candid non-game style photo!

That's it for my collection of Sportflix cards. 1996 was the final year they were produced, and I think overall I have now blogged the complete run. 

I hope so, because I really don't like scanning lenticular cards!

Total: 1020 cards

Scanning Nightmares: Sportflix (with an X)

In the mid-80s a company called Pinnacle issued lenticular cards called Sportflics. These haven't aged well based on the examples in my collection (none of which are of Tony!) as the lenticular plastic has fogged up a bit and they are prone to cracking. 

Shortly afterwards, Pinnacle made their first foray into regular baseball cards with the launch of Score cards, followed by Pinnacle branded cards, and then in 1995 decided to update Sportflics for the overproduction era and put an X on the end of the set name, as Sportflix. Nowadays, the whole Pinnacle family of brands are owned by Panini, who sometimes release cards under the "zombie brand names". I don't think Sportflics or Sportflix have reappeared yet.

Lenticular cards are hard to scan because they rely on movement to reveal all aspects of the design.

Card Number 428: Pinnacle Sportflix, 1995; #16

This card shows Tony from behind at the plate stepping into a hit, or side on at the extreme end of his follow through.

The scan shows the rear view:

Here's a photo of the card angled to show the other picture:

The back of the card has a comment about Tony's .394 batting average in the previous season, and a weird reflection in his Oakleys.

For stats, Pinnacle just chose some career totals to date. He had batted in almost ten times as many runs as he had hit homers at this point.

Incidentally, this cardback was quite hard to scan as well - the plastic on the front makes the card warp and the sides curve upwards, making it difficult to line up on the scanner. I had a few scans with an edge trimmed off but eventually I got an acceptable scan.

In addition to the lenticular cards, Pinnacle also released a set of 3D cards in 1995 as well.

Card Number 429: Pinnacle Sportflix UC3, 1995; #69

I feel embarrassed by how bad that scan is, but I haven't bothered with a photo, sorry.

The back has a photo that is nicely centred on the Padres 25th anniversary sleeve patch.

Pinnacle used the same set of career stats on the back but they didn't explain that they were career stats. It's fairly obvious they are as the season record for RBI is a lot lower - 191 set in 1930 by Hack Wilson. (Almost all the RBI season records were set in the 1930s, many of them by Lou Gehrig! 1930 was a good year for batting in runs, with 4 players recording 165 RBI or more.)

If anyone has any tips on the best way to scan lenticular cards, please share them in the comments!

Total:429 cards