C-3PO Golden Rod Error Sketch by John Soukup

Today's card is an art "card" paying homage to an infamous Star Wars card, the C-3PO Golden Rod error. Back when the original Star Wars sets were being produced, the C-3PO photo chosen had a bit of costume out of place, leading it to look like C-3PO was rather excited. This was scandalous, and Topps put out a corrected version of the card that removed the offending appendage. The uncorrected version is rather popular and probably one of the more expensive cards from the Star Wars sets now.

Recently, artist John Soukup, whose work I've featured on this blog before, has been posting Star Wars sketches done on wood to his eBay page. One of those sketches called back to the C-3PO Golden Rod error card, and I had to have it for my collection. I've got at least one copy of the error card in my collection, and in fact it makes up part of the background collage for my blog.

Here is the back of the artwork, for the sake of completeness. Not sure what SSW stands for, but it is appropriately labeled as a 1/1.

Boise Public Library Comic Con

I am working every weekend between now and the end of September to make sure all of my work gets done before the government's fiscal year is over, but I took off a little early yesterday to attend the Boise Public Library's Comic Con. For a library convention, there was a surprisingly large amount of stuff to do and see there.

The local Star Wars cosplay groups were out in Force, with representatives from the 501st Legion's Timberline Garrison for the Imperial cosplayers and the Takodana Base on the Rebel side. One of the Stormtroopers let my 8 year-old hold his blaster rifle. Our 6 year-olds were too intimidated to be in the picture.

Some of the cosplayers had their own trading cards printed up, and I grabbed whichever ones I could. I think I wound up with four of them, but they got tucked away in my wife's purse and I haven't asked her for them yet.

There was a pretty big room set up with LEGO displays and a table with a lot of pieces for kids to build. One of the twins focused his energy on building the tallest tower possible. He also liked the Great Ball Contraption that was set up on one side of the room, basically a LEGO Rube Goldberg device that moves little plastic balls around a loop of different machines.

The other twin built a complicated aircraft, while our eldest spent most of his time looking at the builds on display and asking us to come and look at his most exciting finds.

There was a pretty impressive guest list in the Artist Alley, with local artists as well as artists from around the Northwest and beyond. We were able to obtain a few sketch commissions, with the first being this Nightcrawler sketch by a local artist named Joe Bradshaw.

Steve Lieber was probably the biggest name on the guest list as far as published comic book work is concerned. We got a head sketch of Rogue from him for a very reasonable price. My social anxiety ramps up when I am out with the whole family, so I found it difficult to approach and interact with the artists. Luckily my wife was able to do most of the talking while I hung back and derped around.

Finally, we commissioned two small sketches from artist Ron Chan. We asked for Power Girl and Leia, and these sketches are perfect. I really like the Power Girl sketch. For the Leia sketch we asked for any version except Leia as Jabba's slave, and he surprised us with General Leia. I hadn't even considered that version of the character, but once I saw it I was really happy to have it. I think this might be my first sketch of older Leia.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a local library comic convention, but this one was really a nice surprise. There was plenty of stuff to see and do, and I wish we'd had more time and money to spend on art. There was enough stuff to keep the kids occupied, and there were a lot of panels and exhibitions that we didn't even get to see, like a display by the local wrestling club, some craft activities, belly dancing, a cosplay contest, and discussions for people looking to break into the comics industry. It might be worth checking to see if your local library has a comic convention or similar event.

Leia Kills Jabba by Peng Peng

Back in March/April I posted a handful of sketch cards I'd picked up featuring Princess Leia from Star Wars during her time spent as a slave in Jabba the Hutt's palace. There's an eBay seller out there who must have had a huge collection based around that theme, because they listed a ton of Leia sketches from all kinds of artists. The slave costume isn't usually the one I seek when buying sketches or commissioning artwork, but at the prices these were offered at, I couldn't stay away from all of them.

This sketch card comes from a March of Dimes charity set that I believe is an annual thing. The website hasn't been updated in a long time, but the guy who runs it still posts sketch auctions sometimes with the proceeds going to charity.

The artist is PengPeng, who also goes by the name of Penelope Gaylord. She has a website with an attached shop and a Facebook page. It looks like she only has prints in her shop right now, but as recently as Mother's Day she had sketches up on there. Her website also has a tab with pricing for commissions. I don't know much else about her. I just liked the sketch enough to buy it.

The thing I really liked about this one was the dead Jabba in the background, complete with 'X' eyes. I think it's pretty funny. 'X' eyes always remind me of this scene from 'A Christmas Story:'

It was nice to add another sketch to my Leia collection. One of these days I need to make individual blog pages for my sketch collections, as they would probably look pretty good together. Today is not that day, though. I had a doctor appointment in the morning and we went to the shelter to meet dogs in the afternoon. We checked out three different dogs. They were all nice, but not exactly good matches for our family.

Pack of the Day 161: 2017 Topps Star Wars Sugar Free Online Exclusive

Here's another of Topps' online-exclusive products that sucked me in. This is a boxed set featuring trading cards inspired by the wrappers of the 1978 Topps Sugar-Free Gum product. Here is a web page I found that describes the 1978 set in great detail, with pictures of the packaging and the wrappers. I think the initial plan for Topps was to include the 49-card set and 2 autographs in the 2017 Topps Star Wars Sugar-Free Gum product, but later they decided to add some value by making parallel variations of the base set and adding them to the boxes..

The front of the box only mentions the card set and the autographs. I am guessing that the art was done by the time the decision was made to add parallels to the set, as the odds and text on the back mention parallels, but nothing on the rest of the box mentions it. The Cardboard Connection profile on the set mentions that you get 3-5 parallels per box.

Here are the pack odds and NPN information. I might actually send in an envelope for the NPN on this one. I usually don't bother with most products, but it can't hurt to try it out. The MSRP on these sets through the Topps website is $99.99 + shipping, but on holidays Topps will run sales on their site. I used one of those sales to get my box, so I got mine for a little less. The parallels come in four varieties: Blue, Green, Gold, and Red. Odds are only listed here for some of them, as the assumption is that you will find the others in every box anyway.

I chose 8 of the horizontal base cards to scan. In the original product, these photos were printed on the inside of the gum wrapper. Apparently the legend is that George Lucas pushed for the creation of this product so that diabetics could have a Star Wars candy collectible.

The horizontally-oriented cards tend to feature more characters and action poses. Most of the main characters make an appearance or three, but some of the minor Star Wars characters also appear in the set.

Each card back features has one of these four designs on it. These designs were the outside art on the actual gum packs from the original product. The legalese in the yellow block at the top was different and there was a blank area for the perforations above that, but these are pretty true to the gum wrappers.

I got three parallels in my box of cards. They are all of the more common varieties. This Green C-3PO is the rarest of the bunch, numbered # 21 / 40.

This Blue Darth Vader is pretty neat. It is numbered # 15 / 75. Nothing changes from the base cards to the parallels outside of the colored border on the front and the serial numbering on the back.

My last parallel was this Blue action photo of Han Solo. It is numbered # 72 / 75.

I got one base autograph and one parallel autograph. The autographs are on stickers. The base autograph has the signature of Rusty Goffe, who played a Jawa. I believe all of the autograph cards have the same background design, with the signature block at the bottom, the red and blue areas behind the portrait, and the starfield behind that. This autograph is numbered # 022 / 199.

My second autograph is a Blue parallel of Kenneth Colley as Admiral Piett. It is a pretty limited card, being numbered only # 09 / 25.

I did okay on this box break. I can't say that my autograph and parallel pulls blew me away, but I got some pretty good characters on the parallels and I got one pretty limited autograph. I didn't have a Goffe or a Colley autograph in my collection yet, so I am adding some variety to my collection. Multiplying the pack odds out by the number of parallels suggests that there were 2100-2200 boxes produced, and all of the big name signers from the original trilogy are on the checklist (Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Ian McDiarmid, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew), so you could do worse as far as odds of pulling a really nice autograph. I might take a shot on another box if they go on sale again. At $100 this feels pretty steep, but at $75 or less it seems like an okay value for 2 Star Wars autographs, 3-5 parallels, and a 49-card base set.

A Painted Leia by Ingrid Hardy

One of the artists I've been chasing for a long time is Ingrid Hardy. She does some amazing landscapes for various Star Wars sets, as well as spacecraft and characters that are also top-notch. I think she's done a little bit of superhero work in the licensed sketch card world, as well. Her Topps Star Wars sketch cards rightfully sell for quite a bit, as they are usually pretty awesome.

I follow Hardy on Facebook, and every so often she'll post an eBay listing or something she's listed on her Etsy shop. Often they sell before I even see the post, but a while back she posted about this Leia personal sketch card that she'd made available, and I was the first person to click through and get it. I was really excited to get an Ingrid Hardy sketch card, and also excited that it featured Leia, the subject of my biggest sketch card collection. I was surprised at how thick the paint application on the card is. Hardy art has a lot of texture to it, and it is surprisingly detailed for how thick the paint looks.

She also included this autographed base card from Star Wars Galaxy that features her work on the front. This gives you a good feel for her Star Wars landscapes. I especially like some of the ones she's done that show action on the ice planet Hoth, with AT-ATs looming on the horizon. I also like the way she paints clouds.

She included a couple of business cards with some more art and her contact information and her website link on them.

I was pretty happy to get an example of Hardy's artwork for my collection, and especially happy that it featured Leia from Star Wars.

How Much is This in Imperial Credits?

Over a year ago, I posted about some painted dollar bills I'd gotten from artist John Soukup. Those ones were superhero-themed. A couple (few?) months ago, I picked up another handful of them from his eBay store, with this batch focusing on Star Wars characters. It took me a while to scan them and get them to the front of the posting queue.

First up are a couple of Star Wars heroines, Leia and Rey. In the typical Soukup fashion, both are holding pickles in their hands. I haven't thought to ask him, "Why pickles?' but I imagine he has his reasons. The Leia card is what drew me in to bidding on these, but I usually check out his auctions anyway, just to see what cool stuff he's come up with. 

I also got a few other characters, including cantina patron Momaw Nadon, bounty hunter Greedo, and Darth Vader. At the time these were up for auction, there was also a Boba Fett bill listed that I lost out on when I got distracted as the bidding closed. That was disappointing, but I've become a lot better about not getting worked up when I lose an auction. There will always be another cool thing out there for me to add to my collection, and most of the painted bills on offer wound up coming to me anyway. I really ought to stop by the Art-o-mat machine here in Dayton while I'm in the area. I'm in a different hotel this year, so the gallery is pretty far out of my way. It still might be worth the trip, though, to see what they've got in the machine this time.

Katie Cook Stormtrooper Sketch

It's time for another Star Wars sketch, but this time it's not a sketch of Princess Leia. I would love to get a Leia sketch from this artist, but her work is quite popular and I haven't seen one come up in my price range yet. When I can't get a sketch of my favorite characters from an artist on my wish list, I will usually just put bids in on auctions until I get one at a discounted rate. That's what happened here.

Katie Cook has a distinctive art style and is pretty famous, especially in the Star Wars and My Little Pony worlds. She has done a fair amount of licensed sketch card work, and Cryptozoic devoted an insert set to her work in the DC Comics: Women of Legend trading card product.

The sketch I picked up was one of her mini-paintings, which is her way of making sure the largest number of fans can get an example of her work at conventions. This is a Star Wars Stormtrooper, who has apparently seen something that causes concern. I'm guessing he's seen an enraged Wookiee. Someday I would like to get something a little more robust from Cook, but this is a nice placeholder until that day comes.

She's got a Facebook fan page and an Instagram feed that she is updating with regularity as of this writing. There is also an art agent who seems to represent most of the My Little Pony art talent, and Katie Cook's page has a few pieces of published art and some prices and examples for commissioned work. A couple of sketch commissions from her are on my wish list, for sure.

2016 Topps Star Wars 3D Widevision: Attack of the Clones

Topps recently released another Star Wars 3D Widevision set, Attack of the Clones. There were immediately complaints about the lack of sketch cards and the relatively weak autograph checklist. I knew that I would be getting a set anyway, so none of that really deterred me. The sets have been placed on sale during Topps' recent holiday promotions, but I paid full price for mine, pre-ordering it to take advantage of a free shipping offer that I saw on the Topps Facebook page.

The set is packed out in a box with an embossed lid. Each box contains the 44-card base set, an autograph, and a second hit which can be a patch, medallion, or another autograph. The hits all have different parallel variations.

I'm not sure if I saw the print run listed anywhere else, but my box was numbered # 1874 / 2500. I guess that means there are 2500 sets out there in the world.

The base cards feature lenticular printing, which gives the images a 3D effect. The cards follow the story of the film, with an explanation of the scene on the back. I like that Topps used a different image on the back of the cards, rather than recycling the photo from the front.

I tried to select photos for these scans to show main characters and lightsabers, as well as to show different character portraits on the card backs. I wasn't a huge fan of the prequel trilogy, but there were some good battle scenes in the films. I can forgive a lot when it comes to Star Wars, and there was a lot that needed forgiving in these films, especially when it came to dialogue.

Yoda is always cool, and it was exciting to see him putting in some lightsaber work. He was surprisingly agile during a sword fight.

My first hit is a patch card of Mace Windu. This is the Gold parallel, which is seeded 1:22 sets and serially-numbered # 03 / 10. I guess it's pretty cool, although patches and medallions aren't really my thing.

My guaranteed autograph is Bonnie Piesse as Beru Whitesun. It's not Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, or Ian McDiarmid, but it's up there as one of the other signatures on the checklist I might want to add to my collection. In the Revenge of the Sith set, the hits were packed in the center of the box, but in this set they were in the bottom of the box, and I think that contributed to some corner damage on this autograph card in particular. The rounded corners and plastic construction of the base cards make them a bit more durable than your standard cardboard, and they do better on the ends of the stack. The damage isn't extreme, but you can tell the card was squished a little at the corners.

That's it for this set. I was relatively happy with my box. I don't think I'd pay full price for another one, but at the discounted holiday sale rate you might be able to convince me. I don't know how many they have left in stock, but there are 500 more sets of this one than there were for Revenge of the Sith.