Hey kids, remember a time before VOD,
DVD and VHS, when you saw a movie at the cinema or drive-in and that
was it? Prior to the binge and purge mentality of the digital age, it
could take years before you'd see that film again in your living
room. When it finally made it to free-to-air television, you'd get a
jerky, pan-and-scan, watered down version, sometimes with whole
scenes or pages of dialogue missing. If you were lucky enough to own
a VCR you might even manage to tape it, sitting rigidly with your
thumb hovering over the pause button as you valiantly tried to skip the ads from the recording. That neutered rendition would become the
only version you knew, right up until the DVD revolution of the turn
of the century.
In the olden days, film novelisations,
soundtracks, Read-Along books on vinyl, souvenir magazines and
trading cards were some of the many ways you could relive your
cinematic experience in that dark period following a film's
theatrical run. Trading cards were a particular favourite. The smell
of the concrete hard bubble gum, the adrenalin rush of peeling back
the wax paper, the junkie's ever increasing desire for more, more,
even when every card in the pack was a soul crushing double.
There appeared to be no rhyme or reason
to which film or television show warranted a set of trading cards.
And more often than not, it was a film's sequel that produced the
trading card set rather than the superior original.
With this in mind (and with clearly too
much free time on my hands) I decided to right the wrongs of the past
and create my own trading cards for something that deserved it more
than, say, this abomination:
Back in 1982, a little film called
Blade Runner was released. Loosely based on the novel Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep by visionary genius Philip K Dick, it had
film noir sensibilities, existential dilemmas, Japanese fetishism,
graphic violence and vaguely consensual sex with robots – all the
things kids in the 80s loved. So why no trading cards? And for that
matter, why no action figures? Here is my attempt at rectifying this
oversight:
One of the things I loved about trading cards was when they included an image that definitely wasn't
in the movie, like the octopus scene in The Goonies.
Before we ever even knew the term 'deleted scene', this was as close
as we'd get to seeing beyond the film. Knowing there was more out
there than what we saw on the screen was mind blowing. For this
reason, I've included a card for one of Blade Runner's notorious
deleted scenes, which only became available to the general public in
2007 with Ridley Scott's Final Cut and the excellent documentary
Dangerous Days.
A cursory search of Google reveals I am
not alone - there are countless others
who have created their own trading card sets for film classics. One of the best
examples of this can be found on the website Branded in the 80s. This
guy has been making trading cards for ages, amongst
other awesome things, and is definitely worth a look.
A pleasant read for a Sunday afternoon. Thanks for the memories. :D
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. Thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love these! I'm a professional artist and a big fan of Blade Runner so I may give making these a go. I'll post here with the results if you're interested in seeing them...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely! It would also be cool to hear if you get them printed on real card stock. I’m curious to know if it’s possible at a reasonable price.
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