NEW NSU: Volume 22 – No. 2

Posted: April 10, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Collecting Stories, Comics, Fantasy, Magazine, Marvel, Non-Sport Update, Series Review | Leave a comment

NSU’s latest issue came out last week, and I was pleasantly surprised to see The Invisible Woman (from the Fantastic Four) featured on the cover; and if that was good, things kept getting better at every page-turn, as this month’s issue came jam-packed with very interesting reads.

One particularly appealing article was “Classic Cult Cards-from Sci-Fi to Sword & Sorcery”, written by Charlie Novinskie, and it reviewed the soon-to-be-released fantasy and sci-fi series from Cult Stuff. So if you are an FPG collector and a fan of its fantasy artist sets-as I sure am- I highly recommend this piece.

This issue’s Promo column discussed different promo cards from the animated series “Thomas & Friends”. In another period of my life, this article would have been ignored, but parenthood has a weird effect on people (lol). My kid loves the show, so it was cool to learn a bit about these cards.

 Lastly, it is worth to mention Dave Thopson’s new column Beyond Non-Sports. This new section centers on themes not directly link to NS cards but yet related in some way. This column premier gave a glimpse of the “Magic: The Gathering” world. It was very informative and entertaining piece with some very interesting insights and ideas on the card game.

Here’s the list of articles on this issue as display on the NSU webpage: 

 

  • Editorial: Where, Who, What?

 

  • Venturous Vixens: Rittenhouse Archives presents the darlings of dilemma in this splashy new Marvel set.

     

  • Beyond Non-Sports: The Game is Afoot! – NSU thinks outside the non-sports box in the premier edition of this exciting new column.

     

  • Classic Cult Cards—From Sci-Fi to Sword & Sorcery
Barbarians, dragons, and…Martians?

     

  • The Notorious Bettie Page:
The original Dangerous Diva!

     

  • Horror Monsters Mystery.
There’s more to this creepy classic than most collectors realize.

     I cannot end this review without mentioning the Notes column by Roxane Toser where she shared some of her frustration with the downfall of our hobby and the apparent apathetic attitude of some collectors. On this note I have to say that indeed we’ve been somewhat “dormant” with the growth of our hobby. There’s much we can do in order to get people hooked with collecting. We HAVE to get young people back on collecting; and we HAVE to be creative if we want Non-Sports to survive this recession.

Non Sport Update – February 2011

Posted: February 14, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Comics, Marvel, Non-Sport Update, Promotional | Leave a comment
So, after doing the long trips every two months to Borders, struggle between magazines and bothering a couple employs to get me the very last issue, I finally got a subscription to Non-Sport Update. I got to say that its been great. Every two months its right there in the mail; no lines, no gas expenses, no needless wait. 🙂
This month came the last one. I have to say that issues keep getting thinner. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t mind less advertising and more articles. But those advertisers are an important part of the magazine since they contribute a huge chunk of the budget -which, in this economy, is really need. The issue has even been address by the editors that have talk about the problem in the last two editorial columns. It’s a sad thing seen this hobby threat by the downs of the economy and the greed of some dealers.
The issue had some interesting articles revolving around the new premium card packs. There were counter point opinions which I thought was a genius move because it gives you the opportunity of making up your own mind and see it from all the angles. Another awesome article was a flashback look to the Garbage Pall Kids collection. I remember buying some of those of the Ice Cream wagon that pass by my elementary school -my mom hated this cards!.
The Promos that came with the issue were awesome: a Yoda Card from Topp’s the Star Wars Galaxy 6 set; the other one was from Rittenhouse’s Dangerous Divas. Both cards were awesome and I just cant wait for the Star Wars ser to arrive. I got to have at least one box of them.

 

DivasDivas
Star Wars Galaxy 6

 

 

Pepsi Cards: Drinking, recycling, and collecting.

Posted: February 13, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Collecting Stories, Comics, Hispanic Series, Marvel, Promotional, Series Review | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Back in 1995 the Pepsi Corporation thought of another way of making kids addicted (beside the sugar and caffeine that is). The idea was similar to the one implemented by Gum companies back in the 1930`s: add some cool cards with the buy of the product for kids to collect. In the case of Pepsi, the gimmick was to give a pack of cards to kids in exchange of a couple of empty cans plus fifty cents. It’s not a surprise that this strategy worked, making it one of the biggest and successful promotional campaigns ever.

I remember being 12 and going around the block collecting empty cans. My closest competitor was my best friend, who was into them too. Now, thinking back, I can see that we did plenty of good for our planet ( LOL ). After gathering enough cans, we used to go the mall`s Burger King with a couple of dollars and, bang, we had a lot of fun for the afternoon.

The set is basically a reprint of the 1994 Flair Marvel (Inaugural Edition) American set. There are some differences in both sets. Flair`s cards are thicker (ergo a little heavier), glossier and with the Flair logo on a corner written in a golden finish. The caption at the foot of the card is also in gold. The back of the cards are totally different. The Flair set is in English in difference to the Pepsi edition which is in Spanish. It also has different art on their backs as well as logos.

The Pepsi set consisted of a base set of a 100 cards with 9 prism chase cards. The cards have the great art of the original Flair set.  The quality of the images is outstanding. The colors are sharp and brilliant. It also has the story and mythologies of the different characters in the Marvel Universe. Back then there wasn’t a computer in every house. Most of had access to the internet in school at most. So it was kind of difficult to keep track with the ever-expanding Marvel universe and its spinning and turning storylines. To that problem, those summaries on the back of the cards were great and accurate.

The chase cards weren’t that hard to find but I can say pretty confidently that there were some more scarce than others. The Spiderman and Cyclopes cards were the rarest followed by the iron man one. The other ones were relatively easy. All of the chase cards were prism with black backs featuring a close up of the character in the middle and no text. Ironically in this set the common ones seems harder to find. Some of them were pretty scarce and hard to find. In my experience the “hardest cards to find are number 2 (El Increible Hulk), 18 (Dr. Doom) 32 (“El juicio del Sr Fantastico), 41 (Nightcrawler), 45 (Venom), and 93 (Bishop).

Those set are really coveted by Latin non-sport collectors all over America. If you enter different bidding sites, these babies can go as high as 500 dollars for a master set. Its popularity goes beyond the set itself (after all, they’re a lot of sets with better quality than this). This set is so great because of the memories attach to it. The hours and hours of can gathering, wrapper opening, and card sorting. The great childhood days of running, eating, sleeping, collecting and swapping.