Vintage Film and Television Trading Cards

Back in the 70’s and 80’s, there seemed to be a set of trading cards for every mildly successful TV show and movie. Even the cringeworthy Mork & Mindy had trading cards. Each pack usually included ten cards and a cracked piece of petrified chewing gum, which mostly served to make the cards smell good. No kid is his right mind dared to chew it.

Looking at these things for the first time in years is hilarious, the registration was guaranteed to be way off on every card, you could play connect the dots with the halftone patterns, and the cards weren’t trimmed straight. But that’s what makes them so awesome. All these imperfections added up to whole pile of personality in every card. You can’t find that today, everything is printed so perfectly that there isn’t any discernible difference from card to card. I can remember getting doubles or triples of the same cards back then, but each one was printed differently. Each one had it’s own unique quirks…loved that stuff.

Primarily for me, the E.T. and The Empire Strikes Back cards were what I was most into back then. I posted a collection of ‘Empire’ cards over on Swivelarms, give them a look if you’re interested in some Hoth-sized adventure.

Looking back now, I realize there were so many good sets of cards ( the Superman the Movie and Star Trek the Motion Picture cards were truly wicked ) that I wish I had collected more of them. At the same time, however, I’m glad that I can discover them now as if they were new thanks to Flickr users who upload gobs of this stuff.

Nothing can quite compare to the rush of excitement I got as a kid seeing this stuff for the first time, but it’s important to me as a creative person to remember how that feels, and to try to find ways to experience it still.


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8 responses to “Vintage Film and Television Trading Cards”

  1. Jake Avatar

    Wow! I LOVE that Knight Rider logo. Good stuff.

  2. Dave Avatar

    Great post, Paul! We can always count on you for a healthy dose of 80s nostalgia.

    Surprisingly, I didn’t have any of these in my collection. I had Star Trek 3, Back to the Future 2, Batman, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and many of those have VERY similar designs to these.

  3. paul Avatar

    Thanks, Dave! Yea so many good ones I couldn’t include them all, the Batman ones are great! A lot of them seemed to use the same templates and similar frames, but I think it makes them all a part of a larger group together, looking back on it.

  4. Wendy Avatar
    Wendy

    I had tons of those! Somewhere I still have the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band set, but I think the rest are lost in the sands of time.

  5. james Avatar

    I love that last one. Looks like Rocky is going to take a punch right in the pills.

  6. jason Avatar

    I can still taste that gum. Yeah, I was never in my right mind.

  7. Jonny Avatar
    Jonny

    JAWS! YES!

  8. Simon Avatar

    Whoa!!! The Hulk with a pink aura…so wrong…and yet….????

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