Obviously '80s, obviously airbrushed

 

Sorry about the intermittent posting, work decided to act up the last three days. But it's Saturday now, the perfect time for mindless wonderings of the card kind.

I received a nice assortment of 1986 Topps Traded from Cards On Cards a couple weeks ago. He'd obviously jumped at my want list, I know he's always appreciated the '86 set. And he knocked out a decent chunk of my needs.

This latest selection got me down to the final 15-20 cards I need for the set (then another arrival today from John whittled that down to the final seven).

I don't need to tell you that '80s Traded sets are enormously fun for catching known players in unusual uniforms. But they're also fun because of the airbrushing tricks executed in '80s sets. Airbrushing was still a thing in this decade and not confined to Traded sets either. But for the most part, you can find a greater percentage of painted hats in the Traded set than the regular set.

Also, 1986 sort of marks a turning point in the airbrushing, at least from my perspective.

The airbrushing became more obvious, as in these examples. It seemed like Topps was trying less to be realistic and fully going with their inner Bob Ross. There are a few examples of this in the regular 1985 set (Dan Driessen, for example), but it really seems to ramp up in '86 Traded.

Then, for the rest of the decade, there are more examples of this Obvious Painting in Traded sets.

I thought it would be cool to look through each of the Topps Traded sets from the 1980s and find the most obviously airbrushed card in each one. There are several examples of obvious airbrushing in most of the sets but I wanted a single one to wow for each year. Let's take a look.

1981: Bobby Bonds

The first Topps Traded set of 132 cards unloaded a series of painted cards on unsuspecting collectors, but I don't think any stick out like the Bonds card. The subdued colors used for his hat and jacket contrast with Bonds' sweaty appearance. In fact, if you look up "glisten" in the dictionary, guess which card you see?

1982: Vida Blue

The first traded set I ever owned was the '82 set, purchased through either Baseball Digest or one of those card collecting sales catalogs like Fritschs or the TCMA Advertiser. I'm very familiar with the airbrushed examples in this set. But the Vida Blue is one of my all-time favorite airbrushed cards as the painted hat and jersey seem to emphasize that Blue is playing for a blue team more than if he was in a regular Royals jersey.

1983: Matt Keough

The card stock of the Traded sets changed in 1983 to the lighter stock, which was a step down for me.

 

The full-body airbrush is always fun, it gives off a sense of daring. As an added bonus you get a second airbrush with the inset photo as it looks like the N.Y. logo is a collection of randomly placed chalk sticks.

1984: Fred Breining

Here is the only card in the list that I don't own. That's unfortunate. Breining appears to be lighting up a darkened basement with just his uniform and hat. The inset photo, meanwhile, is very similar to his 1985 Topps card but not quite.

1985 Topps: Ivan DeJesus

There are not a lot of airbrushed examples in the 1985 Traded set, this is one of the few, and it's pretty good, especially considering how close-up the cap is. I'm not sure what changed in airbrushing philosophy or ability or tactics or whatever, because the switch from 1985 to the rest of the decade is pretty drastic.

1986: Dick Williams

Here we go baby, is Dick Williams wearing a blanket as a uniform? 1986 Traded is the king of the Obviously Airbrushed cards among all the '80s Traded sets. There might be more airbrushed examples in '81 or '82 -- I didn't count -- but the sheer number of no-doubt-about-its in '86 are amazing. Aside from Williams there is Tom Seaver, Ken Griffey, Claudell Washington and so many others that look like they should be on canvas, not cardboard.

1987: Greg Minton

Again, finding airbrushed cards that slap you in the face is not difficult in the late 1980s. Just throwing caution to the wind with this Minton card and a few others in the 1987 set.

1988: Buddy Bell

A toss-up between this card and the Tom Herr card. Both are incredibly obvious, but I went with this because Herr is wearing a helmet and that couldn't have been as difficult as this. Love the hat.

1989: Terry Leach

My heart wanted to pick John Kruk as he's more well-known and he looks particularly crestfallen about his airbrush. But objectively this is more obvious. Why did Topps Gallery feel like it had to exist? Just pull out your '80s Traded sets if you want art on cards.

Sorry if I didn't mention your favorite example, but trust me, I know them all.

I did get a few non-1980s, non-airbrushed cards from Kerry, too.

I see Panini is doing the annoying Topps Co-Signers thing with featuring players from rival organizations on the same card. I don't need any Padre on my Dodgers cards!

Kerry just beat out Topps Cards That Never Were in sending me the Chrome Update Syndergaard and Heyward. I do need other Dodgers Chrome Update cards but I'm sure this is another Topps collation thing.

As for '86 Traded, I'll be getting the Will Clark card in the mail very soon. After that it's picking off a couple of low-hangers and then getting to the annoying task of finding a Bo Jackson and Barry Bonds that should be a buck each but aren't. Why are people hording these?

 

Fortunately I have lots of Obviously Airbrushed cards to take my mind of that for now.