Random Wax: 2021-2022 Contenders Basketball

21-22 Contenders:  Tonight is the NBA draft.  Steph Curry was taken 7th overall in the 2009 NBA Draft.  James Harden, Steph, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday and Blake Griffin were the highlights from that draft.

Speaking of that draft and Harden and Jrue.  Kawhi was taken 15th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft.  

RJ Barrett has become a solid shooting guard in the league.  Last season he averaged 20 points per game shooting 36% from deep.

Donovan Mitchell was taken 13th overall in the 2017 NBA Draft which also featured Jayson Tatum, De'Aaron Fox, Derrick White and Bam Adebayo.

Paul George was picked 10th overall in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft.  Will he still be a Clipper next season?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Joker was taken with the 11th pick in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft.  Definition of a steal.  Outside of games played in 20-21, he has not led the league in a major statistical category.  Joel Embiid and Julius Randle were also highlights of the 2014 draft.  Here's to hoping the Atlanta Hawks just don't screw up the #1 pick in the draft tonight.

BREAKDOWN:

22 – Total Cards

1 – 2021 Draft Class

1 – Game Night Ticket

1 – Green Game Ticket

1 – International Ticket

M*A*S*H (1970)

 I watched M*A*S*H this weekend.  The passing of Donald Sutherland made me think of the source material for one of the greatest television shows of all-time.  I like the movie but it has been some time since I watched it.  The movie can be very crass at times, but it's also lots of fun.  There's a great cast including Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, and Robert Duvall amongst others.  There are plenty of differences between the movie and the series but they don't take away from the movie.  The only thing that had me wondering is how Margaret really goes from one extreme to the other halfway through the movie.  But again, the movie is funny.  I don't think MASH is a dark comedy but the comedy comes at the expense of the others.  The movie may not be for everyone, but it is a good R-rated version of the TV show.  A fun watch taking me back in time.

Random Wax: 1990 Pro Set Football (4 Packs)

 1990 Pro Set: Deion was nothing if not colorful and we get to see him here in a great Atlanta Falcons uni.  Not enough photos of him in that all-time great uni.

Great players and photos.  I like all three of these for different reasons but all nice cards.

Two all-time great coaches as well as a NFL Collectible insert.

The backs of those Super Bowl Collectible cards are pretty nice. I really enjoy all the non-football specific information.  And they let the owner of one of the teams do the coin toss?  Doesn't seem like a conflict of interest at all.

Defensive excellence.

These Leader and Award Winner cards are another great opportunity to see greats from the game.  I like the Keith Millard photo.

Pro Bowl cards with in game photos and the Pro Bowl logo.  Nicely done.

Backs are really nice and colorful and hit the mark for what I want to see.  Ellard was always so good and he had Jim Everett throwing to him at this point.  The Rams went to the NFC Conference Championship in 1989 losing to eventual champion San Francisco 49ers.

Some Redskins and kicker love.  These are so many memories in this set and they are lots of fun.  I have plenty more to share over time.

BREAKDOWN:
60 – Total Cards
6 – Pro Bowl
4 – Super Bowl Collectibles
3 – Coaches
3 – League Leader
2 – Award Winner

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Finally got to see this one and it was still in the theater which I had to myself yesterday.  I wasn't sure where the Planet of the Apes franchise was going but I'm a big fan and was excited to see the new movie.  You can see the trailer here.  This movie is set a few hundred years after the last movie from the franchise (2017).  The movies starts out with ape Noah and his clan.  From there we see conflict with other apes and we get a human who at this point isn't that common.  

I really enjoyed this movie.  I thought the plot made sense and enjoyed the characters.  The trailer had me wondering but I got it watching the movie.  Plenty of mention of the original trilogy's Ceasar and I like how his legacy is used here.  The plot was fairly straightforward but there were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting.  Bottom line I liked it. I liked the characters and I liked the journey they took us on.   The ending sets up the next movie in the franchise really well.  

Random Wax: 2021 Topps Big League Baseball

2021 Big League Baseball:  The Toronto Blue Jays are struggling this season but Vlad Jr. is having a good if not great year.  I know Blue Jays fans would like for him to find his power stroke.  This is one of the three Orange Parallels in this pack.

Some nice star power in this pack.  Clayton Kershaw and his career 2.48 ERA are still injured and haven't taken the mound this year but I think he's expected back soon.

Jonah Heim showing off the hair.  All three of these youngsters haven't had much success yet but they have spent plenty of time in the majors.

We don't get all of a player's stats on these but it's still not a bad card back.

Tatis Jr. hot pack.  I like the look of the Wanted inserts.

I'm disappointed they don't have names with the photos but I get it might be tight.

Yordan Alvarez is having another excellent year in his age 27 season.

You have to think about it but yes those win totals are correct.  We're looking at 2020 which was a short season for baseball and many other sports.

Who woulda thunk Chris Sale would be doing this well after his trade to Atlanta.  He was the May National League pitcher of the month.  He's been huge for a starting staff dealing with injuries.

BREAKDOWN:

36 – Total Cards

5 – RC

4 – League Leaders

3 – Orange Parallel

2 – Award Winners

1 – Wanted

1 – Souvenirs

1 – Defensive Wizards

Jerry West Passes Away

Jerry West passed away last week.  While I never saw him play, I'm a big fan and love his game.  He was a baller.  His competitive fire had few peers.  Think MJ.  His game was amazing.  He played defense.  He could shoot, he could score and he could pass.  In the second act of his life became an great executive.  I read his autobiography some years back.  It isn't for every NBA fan but it's a good book.  Jerry West is a true legend of the NBA.  The Logo will be missed.

Boston Celtics Win the 2023-2024 NBA Championship

The Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks four games to one to win the 2023-2024 NBA Finals.  The series played out like it probably should have.  We all wanted seven games or at a minimum some close games but it wasn't to be.  The Celtics won two games by seven points but the three other games were blowouts.  Boston was the better team hands down.  Too much talent and really good defense that came from multiple players.  Luka and Kyrie had good stretches in games but overall they didn't seem comfortable.  Neither could hit a three either.  Tatum and Brown couldn't either but the rest of the Celtics picked up the slack.  Jaylen Brown was MVP but I could make an argument for Jrue Holiday.  No complaints from me though.  Brown guarded Doncic a lot and he did a good job.  I had no dog in this fight but I've always been an Al Horford fan so it was fun seeing him be so happy at age 37.  Tatum, Brown, Holiday, White, Porzingis and head coach Joe Mazzulla all deserved this too.  Boston was great all season, great in the playoffs and great in the NBA Finals.  Congratulations Boston Celtics.

Random Wax: 2021-2022 Hoops Blaster with 2500 Panini Points

21-22 Hoops:  Devin Booker had another outstanding season, but he and the Suns still struggled to stay healthy and assimilate Bradley Beal into the lineup.  Nice photo of Michael Porter Jr. trying to chase Booker down.

Purchased plenty of this when it came out.  Beal is a Phoenix Sun, Ayton is a Trail Blazer and LaMelo is hurt.

Cade Cunningham is a star in the league but the Pistons are just bad.

All three of these are pretty nice though the Skyview inserts don't give you much space for the photos.  I used to subscribe to Slam magazine and I like these cards.  This Gary Payton Slam is a Yellow Parallel.

I really like these horizontal Lights Camera Actions cards and I think basketball cards could do more like this.

Nice photos of Fox and Zion.

Brook Lopez, Star Wars fan extraordinaire.  

That red parallel is #/75.  I also pulled 2500 Panini Points.  I sold it pretty quickly on eBay when I pulled it.  I've never collected enough of those to make it worth my while and I haven't found much that interested me when I did think I wanted to use them.

Fun box of cards.  Hoops has done well in recent years, and this is one of those examples.

BREAKDOWN:

88 – Total Cards

12 – RC

2 – Blue Parallel

2 – Lights Camera Action

1 – Slam

1 – Skyview

1 – Class of 2021

1 – Retired Great

1 – Purple Parallel

1 – Frequent Flyers

1 – Red Parallel #/75

1 – Panini Points (2500)

McFarlane Kilowog & Kyle Rayner Green Lantern Gold Label Two Pack

 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.  Today I'll show off the Gold Label Green Lantern two pack with Kilowog and Kyle Rayner.  I was very excited to see Kilowog being released and I was also wanting this version of Kyle Rayner with the white uniform front as well so it was a win win.

The Kilowog figure is a McFarlane megafigure standing 9" tall and he comes with a nice looking hammer as well as his own lantern.  I'm a big Green Lantern fan and wasn't sure we'd ever see this guy coming from McFarlane

This is a great looking figure.  Kilowog is one of the favorite Green Lanterns and is a drill sergeant training new Lanterns.  He's famous for calling newbies "Poozer" which means useless rookie.

Solid sculpt and look on this figure.  He's very solid in hand.  Fairly poseable considering how large he is.

No real complaints with this guy.  Love the look and figure.

Kyle Rayner, one of earth's Green Lanterns, also comes with his own lantern.  Rayner took over as earth's sole Green Lantern in the nineties as DC rebooted the series.  I've always liked his character but I admit it felt odd to go in a direction without any of the original earth Lanterns.  His character has a complicated history after he came onto the scene.

Kyle comes with two swords as well as armor which are all generated from his ring.

I prefer the smaller of the two swords.  My only issue with his figure is the mouth.  At some angles it looks like a goofy smile or even that he's had Botox injections. 

Outside of the face decisions they made, I like this figure and I'm very happy to have it as part of my collection.

Always fun when you can add favorite figures to your collection and Kilowog in particular will be a favorite of mine.