1990 Sportflics #7 |
In my collection: 1
Griffey
looks: blurry
Is this a
good Griffey card? Yes. The first use of lenticular technology on a
Junior card.
Sportflics
first came out back in 1986, but it wasn’t until 1990 that the set was graced
with a Griffey card. There’s not much to
the design: a blue box for a name plate, little orange and yellow lines that
seem to slide around the border, and an alternating team/position below the
name.
After this
set, Sportflics would take a three-year hiatus only to return in 1994 under
Pinnacle as Sportflix 2000, a more
well-rounded and modernized brand. Unbeknownst
to them, lenticular technology was not
about to catch on, but just in case it did, a lenticular mini-explosion was
ignited by card makers. Two come to
mind: Pinnacle marketed a second lenticular 3D product called UC3 the following
year, and so did Topps who came out with Dimension III (D3). Both were a’ight, but even as a kid it was
clear that this would be a passing fad.
And did I
mention that these cards are the scourge of card bloggers because they can’t be
scanned effectively? I tried to get a scan of both front images, but kept ending up with an unaturally multi-limbed amalgam. Here it is:
The card depicts the bottom half of Junior’s trademark swing in two parts. It’s blurry, too, as lenticular cards have always been pretty imprecise. Image quality is sacrificed for the multi-view effect, and the result tends to be meh.
Lenticular
printing would eventually improve but not by much. Its limited return in the mid-90’s would mark
the end of its use as a base set concept. Good
riddance to silly Happy Meal technology.
I used to like the music I could make dragging my fingernail over these cards.
ReplyDeleteMe, too! Not the Griffey, of course.
DeleteWhere did all that spacing come from? Blogger is weird sometimes....
ReplyDelete