BLACK FRIDAY COMC PICKUPS - PART 40: MONSTER SET

UP UNTIL NOW I'VE BEEN SCREWING AROUND BUT NOW IT'S TIME TO GET SERIOUS. TIME TO COMPLETE A SET THIRTY FIVE YEARS LATER

1987 TOPPS WWF STICKERS - KING KONG BUNDY

KING KONG BUNDY STICKER CARD. THIS CARD WOULD FIT NICELY WITH THE KAIJU IN MY MONSTER CARD COLLECTION. I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT BUNDY OTHER THAN I'M A FAN OF HIS NAMESAKE BECAUSE I WASN'T A HUGE WRESTLING FAN WHEN I WAS A KID. I WAS VERY SERIOUS ABOUT SPORTS AND WAS ALL LIKE 'WRESTLING ISN'T A REAL SPORT, IT'S FAKE AND THEY'RE JUST MAKING THINGS UP' LIKE A BIG DOPE. OF COURSE IT'S FAKE AND THEY'RE MAKING IT ALL UP, THAT'S WHY IT'S FUN. IT WAS TOO POPULAR TO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT AT ALL THOUGH, THERE WERE COMMERCIALS AND SATURDAY MORNING TV SHOWS AND WRESTLERS WERE IN MOVIES ALL OVER THE PLACE. ENOUGH FRIENDS LIKED IT TO MAKE NERDY STAT HEAD LITTLE ME MORE ACCEPTING OF THE FAKERY. SO WHEN I FOUND A BOX OF 1987 TOPPS WWF IN THE CLEARANCE BIN AT THE CARD SHOP FOR SEVEN BUCKS IN THE LATE 80S I GRABBED IT AND RIPPED. WRESTLING IS FAKE BUT CARD PACKS ARE REAL AND I COULDN'T PASS UP OPENING A WHOLE BOX FOR 20 CENTS A PACK. COLLATION IN THE BOX WAS PRETTY GOOD. I GOT THE ENTIRE 75 CARD SET AND ALL BUT ONE OF THE 22 STICKERS. SINCE I WAS IN FULL 'I'M GONNA FINISH A GODDAMN SET IF IT KILLS ME' MODE DURING MY BINGE IT WAS A NO BRAINER TO FINALLY GRAB THE ONE STICKER THAT ELUDED ME 

THE BACK OF THE STICKER FEATURES THE HULKSTER'S HAND. I ALREADY HAD THE COMPLETE PUZZLE BACK SINCE THE 22-CARD STICKER SET REPEATS THE SAME 10-CARD PUZZLE TWICE ON THE BACK ALONG WITH TWO FULL PUZZLE BACK CARDS. MAYBE THAT'S WHY I NEVER FELT AN INSATIABLE URGE TO FINISH THE SET BEFORE NOW? THAT AN I COULD NEVER REMEMBER WHICH CARD I ACTUALLY NEEDED SINCE THE STICKERS RECYCLE PHOTOS FROM THE SET. I'M PRETTY SURE I ALMOST BOUGHT THE GEORGE 'THE ANIMAL' STEELE STICKER AT A CARD SHOW ONCE THINKING THAT MIGHT BE THE ONE I NEEDED BUT HELD OFF. THAT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN A BAD PICKUP IN RETROSPECT. IN ANY CASE, KING KONG IS NOW SNUGLY TUCKED IN THE BINDER WITH THE REST OF THE SET. HERE'S A NICE PIC OF THE NOW COMPLETED (SECOND) PUZZLE:  

AND YOU KNOW I'M NOT GOING TO POST ABOUT COMPLETING A SET WITHOUT SHOWING THE WHOLE DANG THING OFF SO HERE WE GO!

FINISHING THINGS FEELS NICE! THIS ISN'T THE LAST SET I COMPLETED EITHER, SO STAY TUNED

2010 Panini World Cup Sticker Wantlist

I had a hell of a time finding these buggers in 2010, everywhere seemed to have plenty of albums but no stickers. And I mean NO stickers. Even the free pack of stickers glued to the album was gone in every case. Thanks to perseverance and a sticker blowout at a local card shop I managed to get a good chunk completed. I have no idea where to even find these anymore but what the hell, let's post a wantlist.

No image because I forgot to scan the album like a doofus.

2010 Panini World Cup Sticker wantlist
1 FIFA World Cup Trophy
10 Stadium Johannesberg
16 Stadium Nelson Mandela
30 South Africa Team
50 Mexico Emblem
61 Giovani Dos Santos
63 Cuauhtemoc Blanco
64 Javier Hernandez
70 Fernando Muslera
73 Maxi Pereria
74 Martin Caceres
78 Cristian Rodriguez
79 Sebastian Eguren
80 Alvaro Pereira
83 Edinson Cavani
85 Diego Forlan
90 Steve Mandanda
95 Lassana Diarra
103 Thierry Henry
107 Argentina Emblem
111 Walter Samuel
112 Nicolas Otamendi
113 Javier Zanetti
114 Esteban Cambiasso
122 Lionel Messi
135 John Oki Mikel
136 Seyi Olofinjana
139 Nwankwo Kanu
143 Yakubu Aiyegbeni
143 Lee Woon-Jae
155 Cho Won-Lee
180 Georgios Samaras
191 Frank Lampard
197 Emile Heskey
198 Wayne Rooney
203 Tim Howard
207 Jonathan Bornstein
213 Maurice Edu
217 Damarcus Beasley
233 Mourad Meghni
250 Andrej Komac
254 Zlatan Ljubijankic
259 Deutschland Emblem
263 Philipp Lahm
264 Heiko westermann
284 David Carney
298 Vladimir Stojkovic
299 Nemanja Vidic
319 John Pantsil
329 Haminu Dramani
332 Matthew Amoah
333 Dominic Adiyiah
337 Giovanni Van Bronkhorst
338 Joris Mathijsen
345 Rafael Van Der Vaart
347 Ibrahim Afellay
349 Eljero Elia
360 William Kvist
366 Martin Jorgensen
371 John Dahl Tomasson
372 Japan Team
378 Atsuto Uchida
382 Hideo Hashimoto
385 Kengo Nakamura
389 Shinji Okazaki
397 Nicolas N'Koulou
401 Thimothee Atouba
406 Somen Tchoyi
417 Nicola Legrottaglie
421 Gennaro Gattuso
424 Mauro Camoranesi
428 Vencenzo Iaquinta
229 Paraguay team
431 Justo Villar
450 Mark Paston
453 Ben Sigmund
457 Tim Brown
468 Slovakia Emblem
485 Filip Holosko
489 Lucio
493 Daniel Alves
494 Andre Santos
498 Elano
510 Ri Kwang-Chon
514 An Chol-Hyok
515 Ri Chol-Myong
526 Boubacar Barry
554 Joao Moutinho
560 Liedson
578 David Silva
584 Ludovic Magnin
595 Hakan Yakin
603 Maynor Figueroa
609 Emilio Izaguirre
610 Amado Guevara
618 Carlos Costly
622 Gonzalo Jara
626 Ismael Fuentes
629 Carlos Carmona
630 Roberto Careceda
637 Jean Beausejour

Does Panini still sell the individual stickers maybe?

The Cure for Blog Laziness

Post a complete set of 1991 Topps The Rocketeer Stickers.

I have somehow managed to acquire TWO of these things so if you want one, holler.

Some Panini World Cup Singles

World Cup quarters start today so here's some stickers I got at Atlanta Sports Cards. You can get two packs of 8 stickers for $1.50 each or 20 loose stickers for $3. I chose quantity over randomness and picked out some shineys and my three favorite teams. First up:

Jabulani! Now we all know that all the weird goals and bungles scoring opportunity are not the ball's fault. The ball has nothing on all the blind, brain dead sociopathic referees out there. Do they get a sticker? Hell naw.

Here's Zakumi the precocious lion? cheetah? Jonas Brother? mascot. This critter is on just about every page of the album as he shows up in the team colors of the nation on that page. This one is in his official uniform (even though he's not holding the official ball) and is surrounded by holographic fireworks. Oh wait, LEOPARD. Spots. Aaaaahh, got it. Zakumi the leopard.

I have the other half of the South Africa logo and my OCD was driving me nuts until I found this half to past in the book.

Here's the teams I got:

ITALIA!!! Oh wait, I mean italia... after that miserable performance.

USA! USA! USA! FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! How the heck do you lose to Ghana two cups straight anyway?

The looks on these guys' faces pretty much sums up the performance of England 2010. Wayne played like Andy.

This confused the hell out of me. A couple of the stickers I picked up had blue backs. Panini parallels?? Who cares, they're stuck.

Notice how all three of my teams failed with various levels of spectacularness? The team that wasn't supposed to be any good actually did the best of all three. Time for me to find another team to root for. Maybe...

THE DUTCH

vaaaaaat?

England to the rescue

I've had a Thorzulian dedication to posting the packages I've gotten in the mail recently, but a completely unexpected one came in a couple of days ago that I couldn't let pass.

Air mail? Royal Mail? The heck is this?

A customs form? Football cards? Did Canuck send me some 1990 Pro Set or something? Wait... John Arnold... He's that Pursuit of 80sness guy from England. Hey... wait a minute...

ENGLAND

FOOTBALL

COULD IT BE....

YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS

PANINI WORLD CUP STICKERS

AND RANDOMNESS 

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I've been hunting down packets of Panini World Cup stickers like Caspar Gutman chasing down the Maltese Falcon and John sees boxes and boxes of 'em at every newsstand. He was kind enough to send 8 packs here to the colonial wilderness. Here's the first one:

I'm officially rooting for England now. Which means I probably put the curse of death on 'em but nothing can be done about that. Panini Stickers + Rik Mayall = I'm a fan of Bloody Ol' England. I haven't gotten any stickers from anyone in Sam's Club so don't give me any mess about how you're gonna get me. Here are the teams I'm rooting for the restof the tourney:

#1 England
#2 ITALIA!!!
#3 United States of CAN'T FIND ANY FOOTBALL STICKERS ANYWHERE DAMMIT
#4 Germany (One of my great great great great great grandfathers was from there or something so I'm not just jumping on a bandwagon)
#5 Anyone playing France. EFFING HEADBUTTING HANDBALLING FROGGIES

I'm ripping the other seven packs today while I watch Mexico beat the hell out of France this afternoon. If I'm feeling particularly saucy I might do a liveblog/rip.

Also: Now that I have some stickers in my hand I'm finally going to do that trade post tonight.

Also Also: Football shall invade A Pack to Be Named Later.

Gotta go, need to chill the beer and warm up the vuvuzela.  Bzzzzzzz.