Card of the Day: Brian Harper 1995 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice #181

Under The Tree: 1995 Gottlieb Big Hurt – The Pinball Game

Frank Thomas was the cover man for Big Hurt Baseball during the mid-90’s.  Big Hurt Baseball is a video game that was released for various consoles between 1995 and 1996.  The video games aren’t nearly as collectible as the pinball counterpart.

Gottlieb released a pinball version of Big Hurt Baseball in 1995 simply titled Big Hurt – The Pinball Game.  Just under 2,000 machines were produced, which according to pinball collectors isn’t many.  A small portion of them have been registered on the Internet Pinball Serial Number Database and the Pinball Owners Registry.  With Frank Thomas having a huge fan base, this machine is in high-demand.  Finding one that’s in excellent, fully working condition isn’t the easiest thing to do.  If you do find a complete example that functions properly, it’s going to cost into the thousands.  Roughly what a Frank Thomas 1990 Topps “No Name” rookie would set you back.  It would’ve been great if they could have incorporated one of those into this machine’s design.

You have to admit, a piece like this would make a great addition to any Frank Thomas collection.  Just as long as you have the money and space.  Even if you don’t have the money and/or space for one of these, collectors still buy loose parts for their collection.  It really wouldn’t surprise me if one day we see parts from one of these pinball games embedded into cards.

Game highlights include:

• Roaring crowds
• Play-by-play announcer
• Moving baseball glove obstacle
• (3) flippers
• (2) pop bumpers
• (2) slingshots
• Drop targets
• Captive ball
• 4-ball multi-ball capability

If you woke up to one of these pinball machines on Christmas morning, your tree must have been huge.

1995 Fleer Christmas Trading Cards – Don’t Eat The Yellow Snowflakes

Wow!  Junk wax from the 80’s and 90’s really produced some crazy stuff.  That includes entire products dedicated to holidays like Easter and Christmas.

Fleer’s Christmas Trading Cards hit store shelves in 1995.  This isn’t a sports product with Christmas characters randomly thrown in like we see done today.  Oh no.  In fact, there are zero sports figures included in this set.  Its nothing but Christmas characters.

The entire set contains (42) cards.  Over those (42) cards, (6) themes are covered – Twas the Night Before Christmas, The Twelve Days of Christmas, The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol, The Velveteen Rabbit, and Christmas Songs.  Its a very artistic set.  Contributing artists include Greg Hildebrandt, David Delamare, Joe Boddy, and Turl MacComble.

Have you been dying to know if there are any chase cards?  Yes there are.  One card from each theme has a Golden Memories parallel.  Looking almost exactly like the base, these parallels have the Golden Memories logo in the upper left corner on the back.  Gold snowflakes also adorn the back instead of the standard yellow ones.  I don’t think anyone enjoys yellow snowflakes.

Needless to say, this product never made it past the Premiere Edition.  Boxes, packs, and singles are readily available on the secondary market.  Unless its a small, niche set sold as an online-exclusive, Christmas products such as this traditionally don’t survive.  (36) packs of Christmas cards is just way too much.

If you’re going to make a Christmas product.  Go all-in and make it super high-end.  I want a cut signature of the actual St. Nick that lived from the year 270 A.D. to 343 A.D.  Charles Dickens cut signatures.  Redemption card for a 1st edition of A Christmas Carol.  Cut signature of Clement Clarke Moore, author of Twas the Night Before Christmas.  We could call it A Transcendent Christmas.

Card of the Day: 1995 Playboy Chromium March 1990 Cover Cards Edition 1 #85

Card of the Day: Randy Johnson 1995 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice Special Edition Silver Signature #123

Card of the Day: Darren Daulton 1995 Topps #477

Card of the Day: Ken Griffey Jr. 1995 Pinnacle #128