The Good: Good photography, Good value per box
The Bad: Orientation problems, No chase cards
The Basics: A surprisingly good set for the time, Batman Returns Stadium Club cards can be found on the cheap now and are worth picking up for Batman fans!
It is a rare thing that I will go backwards in card collecting and collect anything that I did not originally collect back when it was first released. In addition, there are very few things I will buy from outside my preferred trading card company, in this case Rittenhouse Archives. In fact, since Rittenhouse got the Star Trek trading card license, I have not collected much from anyone else. So, when I found a bunch of boxes of Topps Batman Returns cards on the cheap, I actually surprised myself some by picking them up. I even picked up some of the Batman Returns Movie Photo Cards (reviewed here!). Sometimes getting something inexpensive makes it worth it and that is probably why I picked up the boxes I found being clearanced at my local comic book shop.
The better box of Batman Returns cards was the Batman Returns Stadium Club trading cards. These were harder to find back in the day and look and feel more like what trading card collectors are used to, as opposed to the lesser first release of Topps Batman Returns trading cards. Still, in retrospect, the set is remarkably average and is not going to impress many collectors today.
Basics/Set Composition
The Batman Returns Super Premium Stadium Club trading cards were originally released in boxes with thirty-six packs, packs containing fifteen cards within a plastic wrapper. The set consisted of one hundred trading cards and that was all. This set predates the obsession trading card collectors had with bonus cards and harkens to the times when it was fun to collect common card sets. Still, the boxes of the cards have plummeted in value and can be found collecting dust on stores that do not care about such things as space and holding onto merchandise long past its day. The set is most commonly found these days in complete sets or unopened boxes as opposed to random unopened packs. Unopened packs are usually disproportionately more expensive than the sets.
Batman Returns Stadium Club cards were found in boxes of thirty-six packs with packs containing fifteen cards each. Despite the name, Batman Returns Stadium Club cards are a standard trading card size and they look and feel like other trading cards. They utilize photo transfer technology pioneered by Kodak, a fact they seem to be quite proud to advertise on the box and packs.
Common Cards
The Batman Returns Stadium Club trading cards were a ridiculously simple set. There were one hundred trading cards in the set and perhaps the worst thing to say about them is that they were all oriented different ways. Some of the cards are portrait oriented, some are landscape oriented and when one puts the set in a binder, that sort of irregularity is just annoying. At least the backs of all of the cards are landscape oriented.
This set of trading cards is not the best assembled set in the history of the world, at least for those who bother to read them. While the front of each card starts with some nice character portraits, the backs talk not about the characters or actors, but the making of the film in very general terms. As the pictures begin to take on a more chronological view of the film, the backs continue to randomly describe directoral comments from Tim Burton, casting decisions and special effects notes. In other words, this set assumes fans have seen the movie, loved it and want to know all about it, outside the obvious plot recaps.
The pictures on the front are full-bleed, which is nice. This means there are no borders and the color contrasts are decent, especially for a movie that was so dark. The backs, in addition to all having the same orientation, feature smaller window shots from the film or behind-the-scenes on the movie. That last part is real neat and seeing things like the camera dolly engineered to steady the camera while the Penguin's basket floated down the river at the film's outset on the back of card 98 gives fans a wealth of information. This, despite the fact that the set has no real sense of order to it.
As well, the images on the fronts are a decent combination of press release shots (character portraits for republication) and on-screen shots, so at worst it is a visually interesting set that fans of Batman Returns will get a thrill out of seeing, if for nothing else than nostalgia value.
The cards have the modern card appearance, which is that they are glossy and appear to contain a UV resistant coating which was being pioneered at the time. The backs of some of the cards are a little grainier because of that process, but when in binder sheets, they still look great.
Chase Cards
There were no chase cards in this set. Thus, collectors only have the one hundred cards in the box to hunt down. Also nice is that each box had three to four complete sets in it!
Non-Pack/Box Cards
The closest to cards from this set not found in the box was a promo set of ten Stadium Club cards found in the other Batman Returns trading card release as bonus cards there. They are fundamentally the same as cards in this set, save they have promotional numbering of A-J as opposed to the numbers found on the common cards in this set.
Overall
A box of these trading cards, unopened, is often obtainable for $10 - $20. Complete sets of all 100 cards and stickers tend to run anywhere from $10 - $15. Investors will find this set is a generally poor investment, especially with the advent of Ebay. Still, it is a fun set and for those who truly love the "Batman" films, it is a welcome collection of great images from one of the better movies in the franchise.
This set culls from source material found in Batman Returns reviewed here!
For other trading card collections based upon films, please check out my reviews of:
Star Trek (2009 Movie) trading cards
Star Trek Cinema 2000 trading cards
Twilight trading cards
This set of trading cards is one I proudly sell in my online store! Check out my current inventory by clicking here!
6/10
For other trading card sets, please click here to visit my index page on the subject!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment