Thanks Matt @ Run-Fore!-Kellogg's 1977 Sumo Sportscasters

A huge thanks to Matt over at the Run-Fore!-Kellogg's Baseball Cards and Run-Fore!-Sportscaster Cards.  He sent me out of the blue two extremely rare and hard-to-find 1977 Sumo Sportscaster Cards: the German-language and Italian-language cards.  These are so cool and I never thought I would own one of them given how hard these "obscure" language ones are to find.  I am amazed at the language variety of these cards and how far reaching these were collected around the world. The sumo cards checklist is now at 9 (see below) with the ones in bold the ones I have in my collection.

Thanks again Matt and much appreciated!

03-08 Printed in Italy - Blank Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - A Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - B Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy (German Language)

03-08 Printed in Japan (English Language)

03-56 Printed in Belgium (Dutch Language)

03-56 Printed in Italy (French Language)

03-56 Printed in Finland (Finnish Language)

833-12 Printed in Italy (Italian Language)

Vive la Sumo - 1977 French Sumo Wrestling Sportscaster Card

Sportscaster cards are fascinating to me.  The rich checklist as well as the almost endless variations and languages make chasing parts, or all, of the set really fun and challenging.  The lone sumo wrestling card in the set also has fun variations to chase.  Right now, I know of at least 7 different cards that exist, but almost certainly my checklist is incomplete.

03-08 Printed in Japan (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - Blank Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - A Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - B Series (English Language)

03-56 Printed in Belgium (Dutch Language)

03-56 Printed in Italy (French Language)

03-56 Printed in Finland (Finnish Language)

Recently, a French seller hooked me up with the French Language version of the card and I was able to cross off one more card from the checklist.

Run-Fore-Sportscaster Cards is a great resource on trying to decipher what is out there!

Thanks @ Run-Fore!-Kelloggs - 1977 Sumo Wrestling Sportscaster Cards

Much thanks is owed to Matt over at the Run-Fore!-Kelloggs Blog.  He sent me a care package with 5 Sumo Wrestling Sportscaster cards for my collection and I was able to knock two off my want list.  I don't have an accurate checklist of how many different ones they made of the Sumo, but right now I have 4 of the 7 that I know of.  Matt sent me an extremely cool one from Belgium as well!  Thanks so much Matt and totally unexpected, but much appreciated.  Here it the checklist and two of the cards Matt sent!

03-08 Printed in Japan (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - Blank Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - A Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - B Series (English Language)

03-56 Printed in Belgium (Dutch Language)

03-56 Printed in Italy (French Language)

03-56 Printed in Finland (Finnish Language)

These are a few of my dangerous things....Japanese Toxic Creatures

The late 1970s and early 1980s in Japan were the wild west of trading cards much like the early 1990s was in the United States.  They made trading cards (called mini cards) of a wide variety of subjects and some real head scratchers for sure.  One of these sets by Amada was called "Toxic/Poisonous Creatures".  Once I discovered this set out there, I knew I had to have it.  Comprised of 40 cards as well as winner cards to claim a whole box of additional bonus cards (see picture below), this set captures the creatures from around the world that could more or less kill you.  What kid would not want a set consisting of poisonous sea creatures, snakes, spiders, scorpions, and killer insects?  It reminds me a lot of the educational cards that National Geographic would release to shape influential young minds.  What are your thoughts on collecting these type of odd-ball sets?

1977 Sportscaster Card - Sumo Wrestling

These 1977-1979 Sportscaster cards have always been fascinating to me.  A bit oversized for sure, but the variety of sports has been very intriguing.  They even managed to make a sumo wrestling one, although I am uncertain who the Yokozuna is.  Probably Wajima or Mienoumi.  What is even more interesting is they printed these cards in both Italy and Japan.  I own the Italian version and only recently picked up the Japanese version and am waiting on shipping.  There are a good handful of "foreign" sets (cards made outside of Japan) that have sumo wrestlers depicted and I plan on cataloguing all the ones I know about under a new "Foreign" heading in my book.

Is anyone else collecting these Sportscaster cards?

c1977 Sumo Tonton Game Cards (New Set G771)

I've been eyeing this set for a while and pulled the trigger the other day as I have never held a card in hand before.  It is a late 1970s Tonton unopened taba bundle with 55 packs (50 regular + 5 bonus packs).  I am assuming there are 5 winner packs randomly in the bundle so you would get a bonus pull if you pulled one of these winner packs...thus the 55 total packs.  These cards are awesome in hand and the bundle is quite thick.  The manufacturer is unknown, but likely one of the big companies from the late 1970s like Yamakatsu, Marusho, or Bull Mark.  Each pack contains two game cards which are intended to be folded and used to play Tonton sumo.  The likeness of each wrestler is used and their shikona is written on their mawashi along the middle. Tonton sumo is a tapping game where you place the pieces in front of each other and tap the table or playing board and the wrestlers move and push each other.  The first piece to fall over is the loser.  Each card is about 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" unfolded.  I was particularly attracted to this bundle because it has the famous Takamiyama card attached to the front which was used to show kids and example of the card they could pull from the packs.  I opened up one of the packs and folded the piece to show you what they look like.  The arms can be folded into different positions as well to try and gain an advantage over your opponent.  Good stuff!