Add These Trading Cards To Your Collection

Want to own your own little piece of the Repeat Viewing website, but you're strapped for cash? Now you can purchase postcard size prints of some of our most desirable, imaginary trading card wrappers for less than the price of a convenience store cup of coffee, including:

• Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
• Stand By Me
• The Karate Kid
• Blade Runner
• And more to come! 

Visit the store and collect the set. Trade them with your friends. You'll be the coolest!

Framed Canvas Prints Available in Store Now

Is Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome a children's movie? Consider the facts:

• Max has a pet monkey who leaves Max's boots on the side of the road for him, and tracks him across a desert while dragging a water bottle
• The Collector receives a hilarious blow to the groin
• Ironbar falls into a vat of pig faeces
• Half of the cast consists of precocious/adorable children
• A driver gets smacked in the face with a frying pan for comedic effect
• The amount of near fatal injuries that Ironbar receives, without consequence, suggests he is immortal like a Warner Bros cartoon character
  

 

With Thunderdome's broader audience appeal, it's surprising that there wasn't more child friendly merchandise available during its theatrical run. Even Rambo: First Blood Part II, released in the same year, had a trading card set. Which is why I created a Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome Read-Along book. And a partial set of trading cards, which can be found (with other cards that never existed) by hitting the tab at the top of this page.

  

Although these trading cards exist solely in digital form, you can now purchase the imaginary wax wrapper (and others like it) as a framed canvas print from the Repeat Viewing Pop-Up Store - for a limited time! 

Perseus, Son of Zeus: The Original Nepo Baby

In Clash of the Titans, baby Perseus and his mother Danae are locked into a wooden coffin and set adrift on the Aegean sea by Perseus' grandfather Acrisius, king of Argos. Prophecy foretold of the death of Acrisius at the hands of his daughter's son, so to prevent her from becoming pregnant, he had kept Danae prisoner at his palace with no access to potential mates. Little did he know that Zeus, king of gods and randy old perv, would seduce and impregnate Danae in the form of a "golden shower". To punish Acrisius for attempting to murder his son and baby mama, Zeus had Poseidon unleash the Kraken on Argos,  killing Acrisius and fulfilling the prophecy; albeit in a very roundabout way.

 

 

Zeus proceeded to play an integral role in young Perseus' life, bestowing on him all the perks of being the son of a god. He ensured Perseus' safe passage to Seriphos, an island paradise where mother and child could while away the hours strolling naked along the beach, working on their tans and perfecting the art of trick riding. Perseus grows up to be a young man, blessed with good looks and an over abundance of self confidence. He is also totally devoid of charisma.

 

When spiteful sea god Thetis teleports Perseus to Joppa (specifically to force him to experience some 'real world' problems), Zeus demands that the gods gift Perseus with a super sharp sword, a shiny new shield, a robot owl sidekick, and best of all, a helmet that would make its wearer invisible. Perseus doesn't waste a single moment before using said helmet to break into the bedroom of the hottest chick in town, Princess Andromeda. Andromeda has been cursed by Thetis, so that any man who wishes to marry her must first answer a question, supplied by Thetis' love spurned son Calibos. Incorrect answers win the suitor death by immolation.

 

 

Upon discovering Andromeda's predicament, Perseus uses his invisibility helmet to sneak a look at the test. This enables him to stroll into the royal palace unannounced, present Andromeda with the severed hand of her ex-boyfriend, and win the competition. Thus, he can marry Andromeda and become king of Joppa - none of which would have been possible without a sprinkle of courage, a dash of magic, and a heaping pile of nepotism.

 

At its time of release, Clash of the Titans was clearly targeted at a young demographic, despite its depictions of violence, nudity and grotesque deformities. Action figures, colouring books and a board game were amongst the merchandise that was available; however, no official trading card set was released. To see more custom made trading cards from Clash of the Titans (and a bunch of others that never existed), follow the link or hit the tab at the top of the page.

Memories of Milk Bars

 

The Aussie milk bar was, in its heyday, as ubiquitous in suburban Melbourne as pubs are in the UK. Conveniently situated within walking distance of your home, they provided families with the essentials - milk, bread, newspapers, cigarettes. They were also purveyors of the 20 cent bag of mixed lollies, wax paper wrapped trading cards with pink concrete sticks of nostalgia fuel, and a wide variety of ice-creams and icy poles - Sunnyboys, Two-In-Ones, Eskimo Pies, etc. For a brief period, some milk bars even attempted to cash in on the home video bandwagon; however, based on the amount of sun bleached clamshell tape covers collecting dust in the spinner racks, very few people actually rented them.

On a recent trip back to Melbourne I found myself searching for the milk bars of my youth; in some sad way hoping I could walk in and find cartons of Return of the Jedi trading cards on the counter, a freezer full of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon icy poles, or flyers advertising the double features playing at the drive-in. Of course, most of the milk bars are now gone, superseded in the nineties by the big chain supermarkets.

To alleviate this nostalgia, I spent the better part of this week creating a milk bar illustration from several reference photographs, and populated it with paraphernalia and advertisements from the late 70s/early 80s - from overtly sexual depictions of meat and vegetables deep fried into pastry tubes, to ill-conceived and unfortunately branded children's confectionery. Despite its anachronisms, I find the images of Panini sticker albums and defunct newspaper logos strangely compelling. Maybe you will too. And yes, that is a daybill for Alby Mangels' World Safari II: The Final Adventure.

The FAQ of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Mel Gibson's third (and final) adventure in the wastelands of the Australian outback, is widely regarded as the weakest film in the franchise. Many supporters of this sentiment claim that Thuderdome's tribe of children, cartoonish violence and M rating were detrimental to The Road Warrior's R rated legacy. The plot itself might also be responsible for alienating its audience, with its holes and questionable logic. To assuage your confusion and increase your enjoyment of the film, I have compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions about Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and trawled through Joan D. Vinge's novelisation to answer them in the time honoured format of the 'trading card'.

The Karate Kid And The Perfect Movie

People tend to throw the phrase 'a perfect movie' around quite a lot these days. More often than not, they are referring to a certain type of movie; not 'a masterpiece', but something with broader appeal. 'Perfect films' usually include competent acting, invisible editing, a rousing score or soundtrack, and follow a generic plot structure that consists of:

• a male protagonist who is at a low point in his life; someone whom the audience can identify with and follow on his journey
• a complication that propels the protagonist into action (with little hope of success)
• a resolution in which the protagonist overcomes his obstacles, allowing the audience to feel a sense of satisfaction and, on a subconscious level, their own personal achievement

Raiders of the Lost Ark is one such movie. Die Hard is another. Despite the fact that it's lead character, Daniel LaRusso, is arguably the apparent instigator of all his own problems, 1984's The Karate Kid can also be considered 'a perfect movie'. But not the sequels. The sequels are guilty pleasure trash.

Inexplicably, The Karate Kid never had a set of trading cards. With the magic of Photoshop, it does now...

To see more of this set and others that never existed, follow the link or click on the TRADING CARDS tab at the top of the page.

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey Trading Cards

Much has been written about Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I have no intention of adding to the noise. Instead, I've created a set of 2001: A Space Odyssey trading cards, plugging a gaping hole in the pop culture stream while simultaneously avoiding doing anything real or worthwhile or meaningful with my weekend. Enjoy!

Click on the TRADING CARDS tab to see more of the set.

Collections Tabs Added To Obscure Pop Culture Blog

Do you dislike words? Do you prefer your blogs to be more show and less tell? Well you're in luck - collection tabs have been added so you can now see my trading card and Read-Along mock ups in all their collated glory. Just follow the links or click the tabs at the top of the page, and you won't be bothered by words any longer.

And for those who are interested, here are some more Stand By Me trading cards, including the wax paper wrapper:

More Stand By Me Trading Cards

Been hanging out for the next batch of fantasy trading cards based on Rob Reiner's adaptation of Stephen King's novella The Body? Well, you can now relax because the wait is over. Three more Stand By Me trading cards are complete and ready to add to your collection. You can see the first nine cards here, or simply scroll down the page to my previous entry. It's that easy!

Stand By Me Comes Of Age

I thought I'd get a head start on the wave of nostalgia that is due for Rob Reiner's 1986 classic Stand By Me, by putting together a set of trading cards for it's 30^th anniversary. Here are the first nine cards, as they might have looked back in the day, ready for you to hoard away in box under your stairs for the next 30 years. More to come soon!

More Blade Runner Trading Cards

Following on from my previous post, I've gone and made a mock up of the wax paper you might've bought your Blade Runner trading cards in. I've also put together seven more cards, all at no extra cost to the consumer. Add them to your collection, trade them with your friends, or peg them to the spokes of your BMX. The choice is yours!

Again, I've tried to include images that didn't make it into the theatrical version, and created another card for a deleted scene. 

Trading Cards And The Pre-Digital Era

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: