It Came From The Oddball Box - part 1

I had an epiphany this weekend and came to the conclusion that I am Burned Out. Pretty much in all aspects of my life. Unfortunately in the next two weeks, things will be getting Much Worse and not better. As a result, I have decided to take off from serious blogging until after Labor Day.

I don't want to drop off the face of the earth through, so I've pulled out two weeks' worth of goodies out of an old box of junk cards I found in the basement this weekend. I don't think I've seriously looked through this box in well over a decade if not two. Warning: very little baseball content follows so find alternate means of fueling your hardball card fix 'till after the holiday. This card is tangentially related to baseball, as Jim Bouton was the founder of the card company.

Leading off is a Big League Cards promo for the DeKalb County, Georgia Fire Department. This robot looking thing went to schools and told kids not to burn the house down too much or some such wisdom. There's sort of an unholy lovechild of Robbie the Robot and Fireman Sam theme going on here. Love does what it will, I shall not judge. I don't recall ever seeing this refugee from a Dr. Who episode in person, but the card ended up in my possession somehow.

The back shows where the metallic monster got its name. A local furrier helped bring it online on 1/1/86. Thus, Captain Avanti. Oddly the copyright on the card is 1985. There's some kind of Skynet Terminator schtuff goin' on right here, I know it. Since it only weighs 120 pounds there's probably a lot of futuristic lightweight alloys in the frame of this fire fighting killing machine. Most frightening is the listing of two of his favorite things: children and breakdancing. I'm sure there was a lot of breaking going on during that dance, especially if children got a little too close.