Random Wax: 1997 Bench Warmer with Autograph

1997 Bench Warmer:  A pack I snagged off eBay from one of my favorite sellers of non-sport packs, Bob Rewak.  Always fun pulling an auto and Anita Hart is a cutie.  She is a stuntwoman, actress and model.  I believe this is her only autographed card.

October is when breast cancer awareness is at the forefront so these posts, while 99.9% a guilty pleasure, also allow me to bring up this important subject.  More information can be found at the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

One of the simplest designs you'll find but it works.  I like the Bench Warmer color logo and the fact the rest of the card is all about the ladies.

The backs are just as much fun.  A different photo of the ladies found on the front.  Nikii Ziering and Brooke Burke, a personal favorite, are names many will find familiar.

These sets are always fun.  Doesn't matter what the ladies are doing - working out, lounging or enjoying time on the water.

Never complain when two pretty gals are sharing a card.

Some of the colors and clothing help date these but this was all in my wheelhouse growing up.

I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

BREAKDOWN:

8 – Total Cards

2 – Double Play

1 – Bonus Card

1 – Authentic Autograph

2004 Topps Star Wars Heritage

2004 Topps Star Wars Heritage:  May the 4th be with you...  Had to.  Grabbed this as part of my recent eBay purchase of non-sport packs.  This set was the first to cover the first six Star Wars movies.  It keeps with retro design and card stock from the sets from the original trilogy.

Each movie's cards takes on a different design and/or color.  I pulled one Star Wars (blue star field), two The Empire Strikes Back (silver), one Phantom Menace (red) and one Revenge of the Sith (blue/no star field).  Normal screen grabs you'd expect but I like the overall designs and photos.

 A couple from The Empire Strikes Back.

The dialogue on the back doesn't necessarily jive with the photo on the front. This is the back of the first Empire card just above.  Below is from the Phantom Menace back and again doesn't match the front.  A little different.  A fun pack.  I could see grabbing more of these or at least key singles.

BREAKDOWN:

5 - Total Cards

2 - The Empire Strikes Back

1 - A New Hope

1 - Phantom Menace

1 - Revenge of the Sith

1978 Grease Series 1 Pack

1978 Grease:  Another pack from my Bob Rewak ebay store purchase.  This one is Grease with the lovely Olivia Newton-John.  I'm sure there are others in the movie as well but boy did she leave an impression on young lads like myself.  And the music video to Physical hadn't even been released yet!  But Black Leather Sandy was a knockout!  This is a fun movie I always enjoy.

The design on these is great.  I love the Grease logo as the car.  The cards numbers on the front is again a fun addition like we saw on the King Kong cards.  Maybe that was a 70's Topps thing.  Series II cards had green borders.

The pack comes with a sticker as well.  In this case I got the sticker twin to one of my base cards. 

The backs had a piece of a puzzle or a generic write-up like this one.  There was also a piece of bubble gum in the pack that somehow never broke in the last 42 years.   

These are fun cards.  It helps that I like the movie of course.  The centering can be way off but that is another 70's thing.  The screen shots are fun and take you back to fun moments in the movie. I really enjoyed this pack and I'm glad I picked this one up.

BREAKDOWN:

8 – Total Cards

1 – Sticker

1 – Piece of Gum (Whole)

  

1976 Topps King Kong

1976 King Kong:  I'm not hitting the store much nowadays so I went back to Bob Rewak's eBay store for some non-sport packs.  King Kong packs were a little more pricey than the cheap packs I normally go for but the movie is so iconic and I love it.  I was eight when it came out and I was instantly a fan.  This close up is a great photo of Kong's face.     

I like the designs on these overall.  There isn't a ton going on but it works.  Odd putting the copyright on the front of the card.  I'm OK with having the card number on the front.  Different and doesn't take away from the card.

  The backs for most parts are part of a larger puzzle.  A few do have a brief description.  On the right is a sticker.  On the cards I pulled I liked the screen grabs.  In some sets they can be hit or miss but I'm happy with these.

The pack did come with a piece of gum.  It was on the back of one the cards and the stain wasn't too bad for being so old.  I'm really glad I picked up this pack.  Fun cards and an all-time favorite movie of mine.  

BREAKDOWN:

6 – Total Cards
1 – Sticker
1 – Piece of Gum

2013 Cryptozoic DC Comics: The Women of Legend Trading Cards (2 Packs)

2013 Cryptozoic DC Comics: The Women of Legend Trading Cards:  I've purchased non-sport packs from Bob Rewak's eBay store before and went back for more since getting to a local store for cards isn't a thing right now.  This is a set I wasn't familiar with.  It is made up of sketches of the women of DC Comics.  They range from the cartoony to more true renderings.  I'll kick this off with Batgirl and Black Canary.

  Star Sapphire, Amanda Walker, Huntress.  I actually knew Star Sapphire from the Green Lantern comics and Huntress primarily from when she teamed up with Batgirl and Black Canary in the Birds of Prey comics which were great.

  I recognized Batwoman whose come on in the last few years.  I didn't recognize Talia al Ghul from the Batman comics and movie The Dark Knight Rises.  That is Bleez as a Red Lantern.  I got the Red Lantern thing but Bleez doesn't ring a bell.  I don't actively read comics right now but do like to keep up with them as I can.

The backs are nice in my opinion.  There is a subdued part of the front photo in the bottom left and the write-up while simple does well.  That is Madam Xanadu and Enchantress on that first card.  I did not know that.  That is Godiva and Vixen on that last card.  Godiva is new to me.  These were fun.  I don't think I'll go looking for more packs but I wouldn't mind seeing some singles of the gals I follow in comics.  

This is a Katie Cook sticker insert (2:24) of Poison Ivy.

BREAKDOWN:

2 - Packs

10 - Total Cards

1 - Katie Cook Sticker 

2012 NECA The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 Trading Card Pack

Most of you are probably shaking your head right now.  Twilight?   Yeah Twilight. My daughter was a huge fan back in the day so yep I've seen all the movies...and read all the books.  It was OK for what it was.  Nothing more nothing less.  I picked up this 2012 NECA The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 pack up as part of the buy I did from from eBay seller Bob Rewak.  Alice leads off this post.  She was a favorite character of mine from the series and this was definitely my favorite from the pack.

  The set contains character, story and poster cards.  I'm OK with the cards overall.  This was the final Twilight movie and we got to see the big battled we'd been expecting.  It was a decent fight though how it played out in the end didn't appeal to everyone. 

  The Volturi were antagonists and I liked their characters.  Dakota Fanning's character Jane (far left) was another favorite of mine.  Overall Twilight was designed for tweens and was fine for that audience.  The books were an easy read and the sparkly vampires, werewolfs and love triangle appealed to it's target audience.  

BREAKDOWN:

6 – Total Cards

1999 Inkworks Sleepy Hollow Trading Cards

These are 1999 Inkworks Sleepy Hollow cards and another pack from Bob Rewak's eBay store.  I really like the movie so this was a good pickup.  I like the cards and the full bleed photos work well.  I'm not sure I'll pursue a complete set but I'm glad I gave these a look.

  There were 8 cards in the pack and either show movie scenes or highlight behind the scenes elements.

The backs are pretty simple with a synopsis pertaining to what is on the front of the card.  It is standard stuff but it works well here.

I enjoyed these card's simple design and nice photos.

BREAKDOWN:

8 Total Cards
2 – Final Cut

2013 Bench Warmer Bubble Gum

This pack of 2013 Bench Warmer Bubble Gum cards are another of the non-sport packs I purchased from eBay seller Bob Rewak.  Bench Warmer cards are of course known for highlighting lovely ladies and this set doesn't disappoint.  I purchased this some time ago and unwittingly pulled a future hall of famer in Torrie Wilson (below center) who is a member of the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame class.  Congratulation Torrie!

Each card front has a young lady with a sporty aspect that was anything from boxing gloves to a bowling ball.  I like the dual photos on front with a full color offering and a black and white head shot in the background.  I pulled one rookie in my pack.

The cards are a bit "bright" to me but overall I really have nothing to complain about.  No idea what I'll do with these cards but I still find it fun busting these packs.  Probably for the obvious reasons.  There are autos and relics to be found in these packs.  Boxes run for around $30 while sets can be found for under $20. You'll probably know a few names on the checklist to include Carmen Electra but I didn't know the vast majority of the gals.

The backs of the cards appropriately showcase the backs of the lovely ladies.  I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of information on the backs but had to smile when I notice they omitted the year from the birthday. For some reason the fact Torrie Wilson was in wrestling was omitted from her write-up.  Maybe a trademark thing or something.

No good reason for showing the back of this card other than I just really liked the back of this card.  I'm bad I know.

BREAKDOWN:

6 – Total Cards

1 - Rookie

2001 Wizards Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone Trading Cards

I picked up some random packs of non-sport cards from the eBay seller Bob Rewak and I'll recap those over the next few weeks.  This 2001 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone pack contains cards I've seen described as widevision but they are just a bit smaller than what we know as widevision.  My daughter was into the Harry Potter books and movies well before me.  I've read all the books and enjoy the movies and consider myself a fan.  She'll be the recipient of these cards.  There aren't any inserts in this set so there'll be none seen here. 

  

The fronts are pretty nice though there seems to be quite a bit of wasted space.  The photos taken from the movie are good but would be better bigger.  I'm good with the basic design but it seems it could have been tweaked a bit to make it look better.

The backs have a short description or back story to what we are seeing on the front of the cards.  The design is fine with me.

These movie seem ripe for trading cards.  The visuals of the Harry Potter world are so great and visually cool how can it not work?  This is where I think some larger photos would have added to the appeal here.  There were also vertical cards in the set. They give you a larger photo which I do like a bit more.  Overall not bad cards and it was a fun look back at the movie. 

BREAKDOWN:

7 - Total Cards