1980 Donruss Prototypes

Topps monopoly over baseball cards was starting to crumble by the late seventies. Donruss and Fleer were both starting to make headway into the hobby, but they would still need a court decision to turn in their favor.

In anticipation to the late 1980 court ruling, Donruss made prototypes for cards, so they weren't caught off guard by a quick decision.

Donruss created three different prototypes. One of Reggie Jackson, one of George Brett and one of a blank card.

As you can see, this design is in line with the first official baseball sets from Donruss. There are bright primary colors and lots of precise lines. Donruss took so much care in this prototype, that the pictures look better than some of the pictures actually used in the 1981 set.

In fact, Donruss liked the picture of George Brett so much that they used it on two different cards in the 1981 set. Donruss used a cropped version of Reggie Jackson's prototype picture of one of his three cards in the 1981 set.

The most amazing aspect of the 1980 Donruss prototype is how similar it appears compared to the 1980 Topps set. Both feature flags wrapped around the top and bottom of the card and a large area for a picture.

Below is an uncut sheet of all three prototypes.

Samples and Promos

Some time ago, JackPlumstead asked for some help with cards that featured "Sample" and "Promo" across them. I put in my two cents, and for my efforts, he sent me some of the cards!! That is fantastic! Even better? I received them in the mail on my birthday - now, how cool is that!?

The first card is a Score '96 SAMPLE of Raul Mondesi (Dodgers). There were eight players in the SAMPLE set (plus a 'header card'), and each player was featured on a regular card (seen here) and also on a "Dugout Collection" version, making the set total 17 cards:

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Next, we have Michael Young (Rangers) on a 2005 UD Reflections "UD PROMO" card. The first 100 cards in the Reflections regular set were included in this special PROMO set. PROMO cards were issued in various TuffStuff magazines:

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The next two cards are from the 2004 UD Yankees Classics PROMO set. Unlike the card above, EVERY card in this set was made into a PROMO card. That begs the question: What makes it PROMO? I guess the fact that you could get these inside TuffStuff as well...

Here is Steve Balboni (Yankees):

And Jerry Coleman:

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The last card I received comes from the 1999 Fleer Brilliants "Promotional Sample" set. "Set" is a bit of an overstatement, as the JD Drew (Cardinals) card was the ONLY card in the Brilliants promotional set. I have to say, this really is one 'brilliant' card - great foil, nice pic, the back is just as nice (no foil, but the uniform look of the text on back is "noice"!!

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A big "Thank You" goes out to JackPlumstead from across the pond for these promo cards!

2007 Spaceballs Promo Card

Out of all the cards that I've profiled, this is by far the most disturbing. This is a 2007 San Diego Comic Con promo card for the upcoming Spaceballs: The Animated Series. It measures 5 x 7 inches and I'm assuming was given away at the convention. The last time that I was at a comic book convention, Star Trek: TNG was still a rumor.

I'm wondering exactly how this series will work. Will it really suck? It seems like the time for expanding the Dark Helmet story has passed. I was assuming that a second Spaceballs movie would have been written spoofing the second trilogy of Star Wars and poking fun at the sci-fi movies since 1987. I was wrong.

Instead, Mel Brooks has interrupted his Broadway milking of his biggest hits to approve a cartoon series. I suppose I should be psyched about this, but I'm not. I can quote the movie pretty much verbatim. My biggest concern would be towards the legacy of the movie.

How can someone step in and replace John Candy? He has some big shoes to fill. I don't mean from his weight. John Candy had a certain presence that I can't see anyone replacing. Any attempt at imitating would seem hollow. Just look at John Caponera's Harry Caray ads for AT&T. Even though John's imitation was sincere and he did have the late broadcaster's approval of the imitation, it came off as being creepy and in poor taste.




And now for the real thing.


Since I've subjected you to those, here's what you really came for.