Remembering The Unreleased 2010 Topps Avatar Widevision 3D Set

2009’s Avatar raked in almost $3 billion worldwide. After all of these years it continues to hold the top spot. That’s incredibly impressive considering the films which have been released since then.

At the time of Avatar’s release there were no plans of a coinciding trading card set. Seeing that Avatar was the start of a new film franchise without a track record it makes sense that a card company wouldn’t want to take on the risk. If the movie bombed nobody would have purchased the cards. This is probably why we don’t have card sets for the first Rocky and Ghostbusters installments.

Upon the world getting caught up in Avatar fever, Topps decided they would produce a set of cards. Topps planned to release them around the time Avatar was coming out on DVD and Blue-Ray.

The 48-card checklist would have used a new type of 3D technology that wouldn’t require the collector to view them using those crazy 3D glasses. If you’re familiar with the 2010 Topps Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back Widevision 3D set, that is most likely what the Avatar cards would have looked like.

Autographs and sketch cards were also in the works for this set before it got canned.

Avatar’s DVD and Blue-Ray release came and went, but no cards arrived. Why was it canceled? Nobody knows for sure. Various reasons could have been the cause.

I’ve only watched one movie in 3D, and that’s Avatar. Its visually stunning. Judging by the would-be checklist this set was packed.

Checklist

Base:

• James Cameron’s Avatar #1
• The Planet Called Pandora #2
• Jake Sully Reborn #3
• Armed and Dangerous #4
• A World of Wonder #5
• The Forest is Alive #6
• Hammerhead Dead Ahead #7
• Threat of the Thanator #8
• She is Called Neytiri #9
• The Woodsprites #10
• Judgement of the Na’vi #11
• The Ways of Shahaylu #12
• Targeting The Hometree #13
• The Hallelujah Mountains #14
• The Mountain Banshee #15
• To Love an Alien #16
• Scaling the Hallelujah Mountains #17
• The Threat of Tsu’Tey #18
• In the Banshee Rookery #19
• Test of a Warrior #20
• “Let’s Dance” #21
• Jake Seals the Bond #22
• Entering the Clan #23
• Kindred Spirits #24
• First Strike Against the Na’vi #25
• Defending the Dreamwalker #26
• Quaritch’s Folly #27
• All for Jake Sully #28
• The Future in Their Hands #29
• Forming a United Front #30
• The Na’vi Take a Stand #31
• Invasion of the Sky People #32
• Defending Pandora! #33
• Operation Shock and Awe #34
• An Unstoppable Force? #35
• Pandora’s Brave Princess #36
• Direhorse Warriors #37
• The Battle for Pandora #38
• Conflict in the Sky #39
• Rocked by the Air Attack #40
• Trudy’s Finest Hour #41
• The Monsters from Space #42
• March of the Ampsuits #43
• Neytiri’s Thanator #44
• Titan Against Titan #45
• Foes to the Bloody End #46
• Death of a Dark Dream #47
• Toward a Hopeful Tomorrow #48

Autographs:

• James Cameron – Director #1
• Jon Landau – Producer #2
• Sam Worthington – Jake Sully #3
• Zoe Saldana – Neytiri #4
• Sigourney Weaver – Dr. Grace Augustine #5
• Stephen Lang – Col. Miles Quaritch #6
• Joel Moore Norm – Spellman #7
• Giovanni Ribisi – Parker Selfridge #8
• Michelle Rodriguez – Trudy Chacon #9
• Laz Alonso – Tsu’ Tey #10
• Wes Studi – Eytukan #11
• CCH Pounder – Moat #12
• Dilpeep Rao – Dr. Max Patel #13

2004-05 NBA Hoops Mysterious Unreleased Master Collection Parallel

If you recall, I was recently contacted by an individual who has in their possession some uncut, unfinished, and unreleased Fleer cards.  I blogged about it here.  Upon posting that write-up, I was hoping to get some feedback from collectors that could shed some more light on these cards.  Thanks to Cardboard History, we’ve had a breakthrough.

One of the items this person has in his collection is a 4-card uncut sheet from 2004-05 Fleer SkyBox NBA Hoops.  The players include Antawn Jamison, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, and Clifford Robinson.  Other than being uncut, all seems normal except for a mysterious gold dot found on each card.

The 2004-05 Fleer SkyBox NBA Hoops set consists of (200) cards.  Each card in the base set has one parallel – Hoops 100 #’ed/100.  If the base set looks familiar, that’s because its a throwback tribute to 1994-95 NBA Hoops.

Before settling on the Hoops 100 parallel, I believe Fleer had another parallel in mind and then decided to can it.  Getting a closer look at the gold dot it says “MASTER COLLECTION” around the outside.  Inside it states “Trading Cards, FLEER, Frank H. Fleer Established 1906”.

This unreleased MASTER COLLECTION parallel probably would’ve been another tribute to the 1994-95 NBA Hoops set.  A 50-card insert set called Supreme Court was made for 1994-95 NBA Hoops.  These cards look just like the base, except they have a gold stamp that says “Supreme Court NBA Hoops” on them.

Another big difference is that the NBA Hoops logo on the MASTER COLLECTION parallels are printed in blue foil versus the standard silver.  Now, these cards were at the finishers at the time they were acquired.  Whether or not that logo was going to stay blue is something we’ll never know.

As always, your thoughts are gladly welcomed.

Uncut, Unfinished, & Unreleased Fleer Cards

Ok.  I’m going to need some help from all you super-smart collectors out there.  Every week I receive questions from people.  Some of these questions can be answered quickly, while others need more thought and can be turned into a blog post.

I recently received a question about some uncut, unfinished, and unreleased Fleer cards that an individual has in their possession.  This person was looking for a value.  When it comes to cards like this, its very difficult to put a dollar amount on them.  Basically, they’re worth whatever someone is willing to pay.  One of two things will happen.  First, collectors won’t want anything to do with them.  Second, collectors will go nuts for them.  Its very hit or miss.

While talking with this individual, I came to find out he worked at the press where these cards were being printed/finished.  By the looks of it, people would slip him items for his own collection every now and then.  Very cool, and certainly not the only time and place this has happened.The first treasure he showed me is this 2003 Fleer Showcase Football Avant Card uncut sheet.  It contains jersey cards of Tom Brady, Michael Vick, Chad Pennington, and Jeremy Shockey.  Not only are they uncut, but they’re missing the serial numbers as well.  Another thing that stands out to me are the borders.  From what I can find, jersey cards from this specific set did not have gold borders.  Only silver.  Its possible the printing process wasn’t over yet before this sheet “fell off the truck.”  The hot stamp would’ve been another process.  According to my guy, these cards came from finishers who would add the foil, embossing, and die-cutting.  The borders are done in ink, not foil.  PMS 871 Gold Metallic Ink to be exact.

Next up we have three batches of cards.  Starting in the upper left corner we have a 3-card uncut sheet from 2003 Fleer Avant Baseball.  The players are Craig Biggio, Garret Anderson, and Pedro Martinez.  I think these look like standard base cards, but the owner calls them “die-cut frame cards w/ gold metallic ink.”  Printing lingo.

In the upper right corner is a 4-card uncut sheet of basketball cards from 2004-05 Fleer SkyBox NBA Hoops.  Antawn Jamison, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, and Clifford Robinson make up the sheet.  On the front of each card is a gold dot.  I have zero clue as to what that dot was used for.  None of the parallels I’ve seen for that base set have a dot there.

Lastly, there are some Legendary Foils cards.  I’ve never heard of these, but I highly doubt they have anything to do with Fleer.  Most likely they were printed/finished in the same facility.  Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, and Roberto Clemente are in this lot.  None of them have backs.  In my research, they seem to have been released in 1993.  I’d put them in the same class as those mass-produced, embossed, gold cards that almost nobody wants.

Part of the Bertelsmann Printing Group, Dynamic Graphics from Horsham, PA is where they originated from.  The company is still operating today.

Anymore thoughts about these cards are gladly welcomed.