1970 Kellogg's 3-D Football

One of the more fun (and easier) football sets that I put together during my recent football kick (pun intended) was this gem. Kellogg's only did two football sets, both 3D, of course. This one, the 1970 set, was available to consumers in complete form with a mail-in order option. Their followup the next year wasn't offered thru the mail so if you wanted the full 60 card set you had to eat (or at least buy) a crapload of  Corn Flakes and Raisin Bran.

This 1970 bunch (and I'm assuming all the Kellogg's 3-D sets) was produced by the Xograph Company. The design is simpler than the 1971 offering which had a border of stars around the photo. I must say I prefer this cleaner look.

Not much point in typing a lot on these. They are probably familiar to most collectors. There are plenty of stars and future Hall of Fame players included. I haven't double-checked this but I saw it mentioned online that only five players appeared in both years.

Juice here looks to be on the team's bench in this photo. That's about as close as you'll come to an actual game action shot.

Here's one...Johnny U. My hero. I had the Colts from this set, Unitas, Bubba Smith, Tom Matte and John Mackey, in my Colts collection. But since these are pretty inexpensive it was an easy call to just grab a second copy for this set's binder.

Speak of the devil...

George Webster was a terrific player, very much an overlooked talent both then and now. Like John Mackey above, he's been placed in front of a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum background.

I've heaped praise on Gale Sayers on this blog many times. This is another card I grabbed a second copy of. No need to cannibalize my Sayers collection, small thou it may be.

Sayers' teammate, Dick Butkus. A real badass.

Yes, Alex Karras played football. He wasn't just that guy in Blazing Saddles.

Speaking of actors. 

Recently Night Owl did a fun post in which he took a deep dive into the card numbers on Topps baseball through the years. There were a few that failed the 'Is it easy to sort these?' test, especially if your eyes have a few years on them.

Well, even the toughest Topps number font/color/position takes a backseat to these things.

If you're not familiar with the backs, well, the number is down there on that line in the lower right-hand corner. Don't squint, I've done the work for you:

The backs had various configurations of pretty much the same info, depending on whether the player had stats to display. In general, they all listed basic vitals, some notes on his college, what Kellogg's called 'personal info' which was a blurb about being drafted, traded, injured, and so on. 'Pro Honors' was just that. One thing they didn't include, front or back, was the name Kellogg's. I'm sure someone knows why.

To fill space some cards had 'It's a Fact' blurbs.

George Webster got two of those. Here's a closer look.

And a few more backs showing how they moved the blocks around to fit the space.

For the sake of comparison here's the Kellogg's 1971 Colts LB Bob Grant. Again, there is no mention of Kellogg's anywhere.

At least the number is a little bit bigger.

Catching Up

Alternate Title: I'm About Ready To Deep Six My Scanner

Right after I got the first envelope from Mark Hoyle I received one from Jeff Jones who writes Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum (don't we all?).

Jeff stuffed an envelope with Orioles cards and all but one are new to my collection. Up top are a couple of minis that I really like. I don't think I've ever actually bought a mini card (except for the Topps 1975 versions) but I have received a bunch through trade packages and as inserts when I was buying Allen & Ginter boxes for Gint-a-Cuffs. Last card show I went to I found some pages that they fit into and that solved my biggest mini issue, having them fall out all over the floor every chance they get.

That Machado looks really good with the black border. I'm guessing that's some sort of alternate border. Either way it's nice. Jim Palmer gets the GQ sepia treatment. And I like Gypsy Queen minis more than full sized version. I think the design works nicely in that smaller format.

Next is a Stadium Club Brooks Robinson. I think it's a 2014 SC. I wish the Orioles would break out this 1964/65 look from time to time. I know people think its bland but I love everything about it.

I got a pair of Frank Robinson cards. The first one is a busy thing, isn't it? If my math serves the 50 year logo pegs this as a 2001 card.

Another Topps insert. I've thought from time to time how hard it would be to actually attempt a 'complete' PC of a player like Frank Robinson. Or Brooks, or Mays, Aaron, etc. Forget 'hard', it would be impossible. Maybe that's why I chase players like Billy Pierce, Bob Moose, Ellie Hendricks and Moe Drabowsky.

The Bird!! Three different cards of the O's mascot.

And on these next two you get a look at why I hate my scanner. We can put a guy into orbit for a year, deliver a package with a drone and produce craft beer but we can't get a scanner/printer to scan a whole Topps card.

Nowadays when I see The Bird I'm reminded of the time his hat fell off into the dugout and Adam Jones tried it on for size.

people get bent out of shape about the 2016 Topps design but I really like this Manny Machado card. It's the Opening Day set which always puzzles me. How it this different than the regular set? Outside of the OD logo I mean.

Heritage Orioles team card. O's are off to a good start in '16. I hope I can see a lot more of this type of celebration.

And I'll close out with Kellogg's cards! 3D in all it's glory. First up is the ever underappreciated Bobby Grich. That's a 1977 Kellogg's card.

Next, a 1979 Mike Flanagan. I was a big fan of Flanagan back when he pitched for Baltimore. Never had a clue as to the problems he had battling depression. His is a sad story with a tragic ending.

This last one was the only card I already had. At least I think so. Could be that it's just a familiar pose. Another '79 from the shaggy hair era. Nowadays I wish I had enough hair to wear it shaggy.

A great package of Orioles goodies. Thanks so much Jeff. I enjoy your blog and I hope you'll continue to read and comment on mine.

1971 Kelloggs' John Unitas

This '71 Unitas is the last one I needed for the small group of '70/'71 Kelloggs cards issued for Baltimore Colts. The 1970 Kelloggs are seen on a previous post. The '71 are a bit harder to find than the 1970 version because they were not available through the mail as they had been a year earlier.

Kelloggs' cards from that era tend to crack and Johnny U. is about as badly cracked as one can get but that made it very cheap and hey, it's Johnny U.! The backs of both editions of the Kelloggs' football cards are crammed with info. What sets the two issues apart for me is the fact that the 1970 cards are much more appealing to me visually. There is 'more picture' on the 1970s since there is no border of stars around it. And the blue helmet is a better choice although that may just be because it looks better to me next to the blue Colts jerseys.

Pretty impressive 'wall of numbers' on the back, no? Until just now it hadn't dawned on me that they don't have the team listed on those yearly stats. Except for the sets that have only the previous year and career totals lines I can't think of an instance where this is the case.

1970 Kelloggs Baltimore Colts

I've got plenty of Kelloggs baseball cards. Probably have every Orioles player that Kelloggs issued but these are my first Kelloggs football cards. I'm not even sure I was fully aware of the fact that Kelloggs made football cards available at all.I know I never picked up any in a cereal box.

The '70 baseball versions were the first 3-D cards for Kelloggs and the football versions are very similar. The set consisted of 60 cards. They were found in cereal boxes AND available through a mail-in offer. John Mackey, John Unitas, Bubba Smith and Tom Matte are the Colts in the set. I picked them up in one transaction recently and they are in generally good shape. They are all curled as you would expect, Kelloggs cards of that vintage all seem to do that. Only the the Unitas card has the usual Kelloggs cracking although they are not as noticeable in hand as they are in the scan. The Matte and Smith cards each have a tiny crack on the upper left only. The corners are sharp.

The cards have a nice write-up on the reverse and a very limited stat summary. They also add a listing of the player's 'Pro honors' i.e. All Pro, All NFL, etc. That's a nice touch. There are no team logos and the copyright credits the NFLPA.  I'm not sure about the Matte card but Unitas and Mackey are shown against a background that is Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum.

Here are the rest of the Colts:

The Matte card may be my favorite of this set since it's not a picture I've seen before.

This Bubba Smith shot proves that Kelloggs got their pictures from Topps.

Kelloggs' football cards returned in 1971 as another 60 card set. Only Johnny Unitas is a carryover player from the '70 set. In fact only five players total from the 1970 sets were repeated in 1971. And the '71 cards are scarcer due to the fact that they were not available through the mail, only in cereal boxes. I had bought a '71 Mike Curtis card from an online dealer but the dealer refunded my money because they discovered the card was too severely cracked.

So the hunt for the '71 Kelloggs Colts continues.

O-R-I-O-L-E-S!!!!!!!! Game 2

Well, the postcard blitz worked for Game One, so let's try a fun vintage 3D post to bring the Orioles good luck in Game Two.

Many of these are Kellogg's cards, some are not. But all of them are neat relics of the 70s and 80s. Until I started re-organizing my stuff a few months ago I wasn't really aware of how many of these things I owned. These are a few of the cooler ones.

 I miss the days of sports cards coming as premiums. 

Go Birds!!!!