I claimed some cards from Baseball Cards Come To Life! awhile ago when he offered up most of the 1985 Topps Wendy's/Coca-Cola Tigers set.
I'm one Barbaro Garbey card away from the complete set, hopefully I can afford to add that this week. You know how demanding the Christmas shopping gets around this time.
This is a set I was only slightly aware of but it's got a lot of things going for it. First, it doesn't have just one sponsor but two and displays both sponsor logos on the cards! Second, it recognizes a specific team, the 1984 World Series champion Tigers. Third, it includes just about every player from that roster. It's a 22-card set. None of this present-day pretending that a team has 8 players and 2 of them retired 70 years ago.
For me, the set automatically slots into my top 10 food issues from the 1980s. As far as food sets go, the decade doesn't get a ton of thought from me because I was so obsessed as a kid with 1970s Kellogg's and Hostess. That's what I think of first when I think of my favorite food sets.
But I've covered '80s food sets plenty on here and I think I should finally get to my 10 favorites. The '80s marked a slight increase in food issues over the '70s, which was mostly Kellogg's, Hostess, Shakey's Pizza and a bazillion disc cards. The '80s sets also run the gamut from nonlicensed, cut-off-the-box varieties to slick sets produced on the down-low by Topps.
Admittedly, I like the licensed sets over the nonlicensed ones. I do love my logos. But I'll fit in couple unlicensed ones, too. Let's see the top 10.
10. 1989 Cap n' Crunch
The rare food-issue set produced by Topps but not licensed by MLB. These cards were issued two-per box of Cap n' Crunch with a stick of gum included. Hey, moms, want to wreck your kids' teeth extra quick? Here's a sugar-coated cereal with gum inside!
Not the most attractive cards, rather primitive. But the backs are clear (and different from the '89 Topps cards) and it does the trick.
9. 1987 M&M's Star Lineup
I admit this set is here because it amuses me. It's another nonlicensed set but this time produced by MSA (Mike Schechter and Associates, which created a good portion of the disc sets from the '70s and '80s. The cards were issued two at a time in packages of M&M's and you could separate them.
Many of the cards look like standard unlicensed fare but several cards seem rushed:
Whoever designed this seemed very afraid the design ribbon up top overlapping. But in a rare moment of clarity it threw caution to the wind with the Cal Ripken card.
Although maybe that's not the greatest look either.
8. 1986 Topps Quaker Oates
These full-color cards were issued three-per box of Chewy Granola Bars. You could also send away for the full set. The cards look similar to a couple of other Topps-issued food sets from the mid-1980s so thank goodness for the Quaker Oates guy in the corner of each card (and also the Chewy Granola Bars in bright, thick, red letters).
One of the interesting features of this set is the expressions exhibited by some of the players.
7. 1987 Topps Nestle
Topps/Nestle issued two similar-looking sets in 1987, one containing current players and one with old-time players, which it then separated into "Golden Era" and "Modern Era". Even though it's unlicensed, I think this is a sharp set and I have long loved the Jackie Robinson card, which I received in one of my very first blog trades (it took me years and years to get the other Dodger in the set, Duke Snider).
I think Angus bought a portion of this set at the card show over the weekend (I'm thinking it's the "Golden Era" portion as Lou Gehrig is on the front). I passed on it, probably because a Yankee was showing.
6. 1985 Topps Wendy's/Coca-Cola Tigers
Here it is, debuting way up at No. 6. Another great aspect of this set is I believe all of the photos are unique to this set, no reapportioning by Topps. Not even some of my very favorite '80s food-issue sets can claim that.
The backs of these cards look like the 1985 Topps cards but instead of them being green, they are red. This is incredible and the first time I experienced Topps doing this was with the 1982 Topps Traded set (again changing green to red) and I fell in love instantly.
5. 1986 Big League Chew Home Run Legends
I don't own any of these, and I should considering how it's stealing the design of one of my all-time favorite oddball sets, 1980-88 SSPC Baseball Immortals. It looks almost exactly the same except for the heading nameplate.
This set contains the 12 players who had hit at least 500 career home runs at the time. They were issued with packages of Big League Chew, the shredded bubble gum (inventor: Jim Bouton). You could also send away for the set.
Also, this card is fantastic.
4. 1980 Topps Burger King Pitch, Hit & Run
Fresh off of the 1978 and 1979 Burger King team sets, Topps and the Home of the Whopper teamed up again in 1980 in conjunction with MLB's Pitch, Hit & Run promotion. Weirdly, I never saw these in 1980 but was aware of them.
The best part of these is that it uses the 1980 Topps design but several (not all) of the pictures are different from the ones in the 1980 Topps set. And how about retaining the All-Star banner? Excellent choice.
3. 1980 Kellogg's
I debated leaving Kellogg's out of the list because it's so connected to the 1970s. But it did continue to issue 3-D sets for four years of the '80s, so I had to let it in. It's Kellogg's, the set that introduced me to food set love!
This is the skinniest 3-D card set that Kellogg's ever issued, which I'm sure I didn't like at the time. Today, I think they're rather nice, no extra fluff. I also like how Kellogg's drastically changed its design virtually every year beginning in the mid-1970s all the way through 1983.
These were the last Kellogg's card to show up inside cereal boxes until the 1983 finale.
2. 1981 Drake's Big Hitters
I loved this wildly over-the-top set (also produced by Topps) as soon as I saw it. It was the first food-issue set I ordered complete through the mail (after being shot down by not enough allowance for all those Kellogg's sets). It was the only way I'd get it anyway. Ring Dings weren't allowed in the house.
For the most part, the photos used are condensed versions of the 1981 Topps photos, but I didn't notice. I was distracted by the change in color between AL and NL players.
Red for the AL and blue for the NL, as the universe intended.
1. 1981 Coca-Cola
It is amazing what a little corporate logo can do. These cards are similar to Topps 1981 cards in every way except for that Coca-Cola logo in the corner, and that's all it took for me to pine for these cards for decades.
There actually are a few differences. Both the Carney Lansford and Sixto Lezcano cards are updates from the main Topps set because the players changed teams. But they're also different from the Topps Traded photos from 1981, which is fantastic.
One of these days I need to do a side-by-side comparison of all the differences.
Coke presented team sets for 22 of the 26 MLB teams (I eventually collected them all). One of the excluded teams is the Dodgers.
But I just can't hold it against them. It's that Coke logo.
So that's all I have to say about food issue sets from the 1980s.
Until I get another food set like the '85 Tigers one anyway.
Comments
And, yes, the Nestle cards I bought were from the Golden Era set. It was the first nine cards. I'll show them in my part two post.
The '85 Gardner's Brewers set is fantastic, I've just never seen it in person and have no personal experience with it. Same with Hostess Braves set.