Robot Claw – Page 233 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

Let’s Trade Cards (Part 2)!

May 19, 2021

Time for some more trading cards from that random selection…

I’m sure I’ve seen Shrek 2 but I don’t remember it. These cards from 2004 are unremarkable but have fairly high production quality. I got one foil card (the last shot) but the set also had autograph and sketch cards available by mailing in rare redemption cards. Aside from the autographs, these cards are mostly worthless today.

These Bone cards (1994) are based on the comic and feature seemingly unrelated images of the (in my opinion) ugly title character. They’re boring and clearly of interest only to fans of the comic. Chase cards included an extremely rare ‘medallion’. The set is worthless today.

Back in 2000 when these Backstreet Boys cards were released the band was at the height of their fame. You’d think therefore that the company buying the rights to a trading card set would have done a better job that this awful set. The photos are blurry and ugly, the text on the back is trite and the stickers extremely boring. In my pack was one ‘chrome’ chase card which was as blurry as the rest.

Interestingly there seems to be quite a few different BSB card sets released in different languages, and some look of higher quality than these. So if the topic interests you, seek out a newer release 🙂

These Skeleton Warriors cards (1995) are based on a Saturday morning cartoon and feature some really, really bad artwork. I suspect it’s an early example of computer-assisted art but the character all look deformed and repulsive to me. I would have liked to have gotten one of the transparent or glow-in-the-dark chase cards in my pack, but alas was not so lucky. A well produced set crippled by hideous art.

Toxic High (1992) was a Topps set in the same vein as Garbage Pail Kids, and like those sets I hate it. The cards feature near-photorealistic artwork depicting gross-out topics related to (American) high school life. Funny if you like vomit or pee jokes I suppose. The card at bottom right has four stickers designed like yearbook photos. If they still stick I may use them on postcards!

Another from the ‘they printed anything in those days’ are these Guinness Book of Records cards (1992). It’s a soporific collection of stock artwork with pithy ‘records’ on the back. As a kid I may have liked this, but I’m guessing as a card set it failed utterly since I once passed on an entire box of these cards for under $5!

Cracker Shop

May 16, 2021

We drove to the fireworks shop yesterday. It was a beautiful day for a drive through the woods of Vermont. We didn’t get the chance to do this last year due to covid.

As usual, the store (which is just over the New Hampshire border) didn’t disappoint and the array of products was mesmerizing.

4000 crackers in one go! $100 up in smoke! I wonder how long this would take to go off? I’d love to hear the noise. This was hardly the biggest they had; there was a 16000 cracker version as well!

The art on the packaging was as bizarre as ever and liberally infringed on various copyrights.

I think that’s based on Nicholas Cage?

These were new: fireworks houses in plastic containers. In retrospect we should have bought one…

That’s one of the $400 multipacks they had. You could even buy prepacked selections for $1200!

Except… the prices were all discounted! We couldn’t see any sign for it anywhere but what we bought came to only about $20, which seemed to be a deep discount. Mostly we bought a few light launchers (Roman candles) because only fountains are legal here but had I know how cheap it all was I may have purchased more.

Of course I’ll also buy a bunch of ‘fountains’ from the local sellers once they set up their tents. July 4 promises to be a good one once again this year 🙂

The Sky Is Falling

May 14, 2021

Back in July 1979, I feared that I might die because of Skylab falling on me.

Skylab was the first ‘space station’, built and operated by the USA for 10 months from mid 1973 until early 1974. When the final crew departed they put Skylab into a higher orbit with the intention of leaving it in space until 1983 when the (in development) Space Shuttles could service it. Ultimately nature had other ideas and by 1979 it was clear Skylab would fall to Earth.

NASA’s calculations suggested it would land in the eastern Indian Ocean somewhere. But they didn’t know precisely where or when, and in Australia we were very aware there was a chance it would land smack on us! I can still recall schoolyard doomsayers predicting it could land on someone’s house, and to 7-year old me this was (very briefly) the new big scare to replace King Kong snatching me out of a window one night.

On July 11, 1979, during its 34,981st orbit, NASA made a last minute adjustment to prevent Skylab from falling on the USA. Later that night it entered the atmosphere and while most of it burned up as it fell some parts eventually rained down on remote areas of the western Australian outback.

It didn’t fall on our house, or anyone’s house for that matter. At best it may have given a kangaroo a bit of a start.

The madness quickly transitioned from ‘Skylab will fall on you!’ to ‘If you find Skylab pieces you’ll be a millionaire!’ and treasure hunters of all stripes descended on the outback to find what remained of the space station.

Some were successful, finding many pieces including some very large ones. Much of it is on display now in a museum in the town of Esperance, but some made its way into private collections. While the USA claimed that Skylab was still its property, it never made any attempt to claim debris. Quite the opposite actually: president Carter apologized to Australia and NASA gave memorial plaques to those that found the first pieces of debris!

In the end Skylab was a successful mission, the falling to earth didn’t hurt anyone, and everyone emerged smiling. The world moved on.

There have been many more cases of spacecraft raining down in the years since, and every time it happens (as recently as last week) the media reminds us once again that they might land on our houses! Let’s hope, like Skylab, that when our space trash does fall back to Earth it’s careful enough to land far away from any of us 🙂