A recent obsession of mine has been collecting old wax packs of trading cards from the 80s & 90s. Sure, I have a ton of these non-sport cards from when I was a kid, but the artwork and design of the packaging is something I missed. When you would buy one of these packs you would tear it open and throw away the wrapper. Never giving it a second thought. Seeing these again brings back memories of feeling the slick paper in your hands, seeing the simple artwork and the smell of bubble gum. Let's dive into a few of these packs that I have on display...AGAIN!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 (Topps, 1992)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 may be my least favorite of all the TMNT movies, but I actually dig these cards! I like the borders of the base cards, the backs are nice looking and the art cards subset is a very cool addition. I only picked up a few packs of these when I was younger, but I look to rectify that error soon. I would like to add this set to my TMNT collection.
About a week or so ago, a coworker of mine was having a yard sale and said he was selling a bunch of movies for about $1 a piece. He is a big movie aficionado, so I was curious to see what flicks he was selling. I dug through his DVDs and grabbed a few. Nothing too great, but he did throw in about a dozen more of his picks for me to watch for free. On the way back to my car I noticed a box of VHS tapes stashed under a table. Something told me to take a look. I noticed the familiar box of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie box and took it out. Something was different about this box though. It was a lot slicker and was missing the familiar FHE logo. Also, the Turtles on the front were flat, not embossed as usual! What the heck was this?
I took a closer look at the sides and noticed some more slight differences. Once again the FHE logo was replaced by an odd Alliance Releasing Home Video logo and a small Ninja Turtles cartoon head was placed under the picture of Donnie.
I took a look at the other side and noticed the same thing along with the addition of an MCA logo at the bottom of the box. I pointed these differences out to my coworker who never noticed these irregularities before. As a collector himself, I thought he was going to take the tape back, but he let me keep it. I asked if he knew where he got it from and he could not remember.
I took the VHS Turtles home and excitedly told my not so excited wife what I had found and noticed a few more things were awry on the back of the box! The first critique was not highlighted in red and the info on the bottom of the back was different too.
Finally I pulled the tape out of it's box, now this is where the differences were the most noticeable. This was a rental copy complete with green "Family" sticker and "BE KIND PLEASE REWIND" notice plastered to the tape. I love finding things like this. I wanted to see if anything was different with the actual movie recorded on this tape, so me and the kids popped it in and got ready for some radical action! The movie was exactly the same, except the commercials that ran before the movie were missing entirely!
Later that night I did what I should have done as soon as I got home and Googled "Alliance Releasing Home Video". It turns out this is the Canadian version of the TMNT Movie VHS tape! Who knows how it ended up in my buddy's yard sale, all I know is I am glad I have it! Now the question is, should I start seeking out all the other countries versions of one of my favorite movies of all-time?
