An appreciation of '60s and '70s bubblegum trading cards

Dangerous Minds recently did a nice image gallery of selected bubblegum trading cards of the 1960s and '70s, including some sci-fi classics, Bo Derek, What's Happening, and Dukes of Hazzard.

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  Why can’t I meet a guy with clothes and hair like that?

  And that Telly Savalas one is just utterly incomprehensible. It’s like putting a picture of Judi Dench in a bikini in your bag of Skittles. She’s a James Bond star!

• [decriss]

  In my purge of stuff I don’t need, I am trading in my card collection with a local shop. I have a bunch of these but not full sets. I’ll be trading it in on about $100 of completed sets. It was fun to look back at the odd cards I had. From ET to Mork and Mindy, to Moonraker, even MASH.
  But I will love the sets I am keeping and the ones I’ll get in trade more.

• [Jack]

  I love this stuff. I love, love, love this stuff. And the context needs to be made 100% clear: Trading cards like these became popular because VCRs didn’t exist and neither did the Internet. So mementos like this were the only cheap and fun way to relive memories. That and fan magazines.

  While I like the fact I now actually have all the music, movies and TV shows I like on my hard drive, I miss the days of magic and mystery when buying a pack of gum.

  Also, Telly Savalas. The 1/2 nude, bald sex icon who could get away with stuff like that. Bless the guy!

  • [Halloween Jack]

    You got it right, Jack. I used to have Starlog #1, and one of the most thrilling things about it was that it had stills from some of the Star Trek TOS episodes–I’d never been able to simply examine any of the scenes in detail before. (That was just before a number of Trek books, photonovels and magazines hit the market.)

    • [Jack]

      Well, in the case of Star Trek did you know that unused 35mm scenes that were left on the cutting room floor from filming episodes were literally gathered and cut up and sold to fans at the original sci-fi conventions before there was this crazy collector merch industry? This guy has an excellent Flickr stream where he shares scans of his collection of unused images from Star Trek and my fave is his collection of “clapper” shots:
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdofthegalaxy/sets/72157619546833392/

• [bunnyman2112]

  Wacky Packs. ‘Nuff said.

• [jtegnell]

  Posed for action!

  • [Anonymous]

    Isn’t the correct phrase “Poised for action?”

  • [Jake0748]

    “Posed for action”… yeah, that’s kind-of an oxymoron isn’t it?

    I forgot how cute that Partridge Family chick was. :)

• [Anonymous]

  When I was a kid I collected Star Wars and Charlie’s Angels trading cards. Kind of a weird combination I guess.

• [Anonymous]

  @Jack #18

  Actually, the 35mm “slides” weren’t from the cutting room floor. Herb Solow, Star Trek’s producer in his book “Inside Star Trek : The Real Story” asserts that Gene Roddenberry went into Desilu’s film vaults and took actual workprints to cut up and sell as slides.

  These weren’t “camera originals” as asserted by the flyer from “Lincoln Enterprises”, Roddenberry’s merchandising company. The originals were negatives, the ‘slides’ were obviously positive images. This made it very difficult for the editors in the later seasons to access stock footage scenes without ordering new workprints.

  And yes – I still have my original ‘slides’.

• [Anonymous]

  Is it wrong that I still have an almost-full set of the BSG cards? I can’t bring myself to get rid of them. I always threw away the gum.

• [igpajo]

  Wacky Packs RULED!!! Man I used to collect Charlie’s Angels, Star Wars, BSG, Pretty sure I had a few packs of ET and an assortment of other films too. God what a rush of nostalgia there!

• [CH]

  Still have my Space:1999 cards, which was such a big treasure of mine when I was a kid (who am I kidding… still is).

• [peter x]

  It didnt take long to get all the Star Wars cards (first series) because all the kids at school collected them – lots of trading.

  It took me forever to get all the Space 1999 cards because no one at school shared my interest in that show.

  and then…there were the Garbage Pail Kids…

• [bbonyx]

  In the top of my closet is an old, red Reebok box (from back when “Reebok” meant a singular style of shoe) that contains a full set of the BSG series above. Along with a full set of Alien, Star Wars, ESB and RotJ cards. In addition to the “3D” animated baseball cards that you could send off for from Frosted Flakes. They come out every once in a while when I indulge in 70s nostalgia. Don’t think I’ll ever part with them.

• [DoctressJulia]

  I collected Star Wars cards and whatever Pac Man stuff I could get my hands on. I only can find one Star Wars card- it has Chewie on it and says ‘Busy as a Wookie’. :3

  I want a cape…

• [idontwant2liveinoprahsworld]

  Does anyone remember the cards that came in a loaf of Wonderbread? I believe both Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica were issued, although a year or two apart.
  I still have some Charlies Angels stickers and the display box without the lid. Me and a friend bought out a stores supply and they included the box, but the lid had been torn off by that time.
  I seem to remember Horror movie cards with “funny” dialog captions.
  Don’t forget the KISS cards as well.

  • [Jack]

    Does anyone remember the cards that came in a loaf of Wonderbread? I believe both Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica were issued, although a year or two apart.

    Yup! And it was actually fun to go shopping with my dad and helping him figure out what loaves of bread we should buy so I could get a complete set. Ahhhh! Stormtroopers and bleached flour bread!

• [Nelson.C]

  Damn, I saw that picture, and for a second I swear I could smell the bubblegum.

• [Donald Petersen]

  Holy crap! “Here’s Telly”?!

  I may never enter a hot tub again.

• [hassenpfeffer]

  Whoa. Katee Sackhoff had WAY better hair than Dirk Benedict. I’m also glad that Ron Moore got rid of the military’s capes. Can you imagine Jamie Bamber or Tahmoh Penikett mincing around the hangar bay in a frakkin’ cape?

  • [Donald Petersen]

    Bamber? All too easily.

• [Shay Guy]

  Whenever I read the word “bubblegum” these days, I automatically expect it to be followed by “crisis.”

• [franko]

  aww, i liked the capes : (

• [UhOhChongo]

  Actually, that’s “Good Times” and not “What’s Happening”…