Archive for Entertainment
Special Agent Phil Coulson’s Vintage Captain America Trading Cards
Posted by: | CommentsI recently saw Marvel’s The Avengers and the acclaim it is getting is well deserved in my opinion. It was great watching The Avengers “assemble” and without a doubt one of the main reasons they did so was because of Special Agent Phil Coulson’s vintage Captain America trading cards. That’s right, had it not been for the inspirational speech from Nick Fury to some members of The Avengers while sharing these cards, I’m pretty sure they would have gone their separate ways. And had that happened Loki would now be the supreme ruler of Earth. Thank goodness for trading cards!
But all this is just fantasy right? Well some of it certainly is, but there actually are Captain America trading cards and in fact there are trading cards for all of The Avengers. Some of the best cards out there were produced by your friends here at Upper Deck. Check out some sets you should definitely be aware of if you are a fan of The Avengers.
UD's The Avengers Assemble trading card product packs a punch with all sorts of exciting inserts like this autograph card of Thor himself!
2012 Upper Deck Avengers Assemble – This product has been almost as hot as the movie and has sold out at most retail locations causing collectors to scurry to find more boxes before they are gone. This comprehensive release looks at how The Avengers assembled and gives shots of the current movie as well. There are plenty of other great elements to chase with autograph cards, movie memorabilia cards, sketch cards, printing plate cards and Ultimate Panel Focus cards. Get them while you can!
2012 Upper Deck Marvel Super Hero Squad – Take your love for Marvel to another level with trading cards you can use to play a fun interactive game with friends. Special loot cards can also help you unlock rare items in the Super Hero Squad online game.
Take your love for Marvel to a whole new level by playing the Super Hero Squad trading card game!
2011 Upper Deck Marvel Beginnings I – This comprehensive set is the first of three releases that will chronicle all the main characters in the Marvel universe including The Avengers. This release also gave us the first look at UD’s Ultimate Panel Focus cards with pieces of actual comics.
Marvel Beginnings was a great release for fans of all the characters in the Marvel universe.
2011 Upper Deck Avengers Kree-Skrull War – Upper Deck presented Marvel trading cards in an entirely new format with this set where they can be assembled to create a comic experience with an entirely new story from The Avengers. Additionally there were some cool chase elements like sketch cards as well.
Comic fans could put together the untold stories of the Kree-Skrull War by using cards to assemble the story.
2011 Upper Deck Captain America – Yes, the Captain got a set of his own. Not only do you have all the usual chase elements with sketch cards and autographs, you also have some very cool manufactured patch cards available as well. Check out this video of an artist working on one of his cards for the set featuring Captain America and the Red Skull.
2011 Upper Deck Thor – This release introduces us to Thor and his amazing planet of Asgard. Look for some great autograph cards, sketch cards and most importantly, movie memorabilia cards of Natalie Portman. Nice…
Movie memorabilia cards of all your favorite stars of the Marvel movies are out there for fans to find!
2010 Upper Deck Iron Man 2 – There are some sketch cards of Captain America in the set as well as tons of great content on Robert Downey Jr. as Iron man including autographs and movie memorabilia.
Many of these items are available on the Upper Deck Online Store, but to track down some of the other items you may want to work through an Upper Deck Authorized Internet Retailer.
Popularity: 1% [?]
How Will You See The Avengers?
Posted by: | CommentsThe much anticipated release of Marvel’s latest and greatest movie “The Avengers” is just a few days away from releasing and the excitement at Upper Deck is surging like a repulsor ready to fire. Upper Deck’s 2012 Avengers Assemble trading card product has been very well received by fans and that is likely to continue as the movie appears to be generating some great early reviews. It is sure to break all sorts of box office records when it arrives in theaters here in the U.S. on Friday, May 4.
While I certainly saw a lot of stills from the new Avengers movie while building the trading card set, being able to see it on the big screen will be a huge thrill!
As the release draws closer, I am finding myself making plans to see the movie with equally enthusiastic co-workers — and not all of them are fanboys. Here at Upper Deck, we’ve always enjoyed and appreciated our very special relationship with Marvel, but from a personal level, participating in bringing the trading card product to market and seeing the film head to the big screen has been an awesome experience.
Artists drew "sketch cards" in the new Avengers trading card set which makes each of these cards like their own mini comic book.
My mom never understood why I would spend my allowance on comics or “those silly cartoons” as she called them, but I loved burrowing into my quiet reading place and getting lost in the Marvel universe. It seems like only a handful of my friends ever did get that, but what is interesting now is that these stories are gaining in popularity and notoriety as Marvel brings them to the big screen. That’s right, even my mom is getting into the excitement around the release by organizing a group of her lady friends to, “see the movie my boy worked on.” This of course is completely inaccurate, but I don’t have the heart to correct her, she seems so happy…
You can take home a piece of the movie with authentic memorabilia from the cast of The Avengers!
But I guess that makes it official; everyone and their mother is going to see “The Avengers” this weekend. Buy your tickets early by clicking here and enjoy what should be one of the best super hero movies in recent history.
You can also score autographs of your favorite characters in 2012 Marvel Avengers Assemble from Upper Deck!
The only question now is if I will see it in 3D, real D 3D, IMAX 3D or just plain old 2D like the pages of a comic? I guess I need some advice — how will you see “The Avengers” this weekend?
Travis Wingo has worked in the commercial printing industry for the past twelve years and has been an Upper Deck employee for the last four. He specializes in quality control, digital file preparation and is also a copywriter for Upper Deck contracted Marvel products.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Brag Photo: Marvel Super Hero Squad TCG in Production
Posted by: | CommentsWhen we announced Upper Deck Entertainment would be producing a physical version of the online Marvel Super Hero Squad game, the response was very positive, especially from those who actively play the game at www.heroup.com. We are thrilled to see the game coming to life as we visit the manufacturing facility. We wanted to share a few behind the scenes images with our fans so they could see how the production of this new Marvel TCG is coming along. We can’t wait for fans to get to enjoy the product first hand when UDE’s Marvel Super Hero Squad hits store shelves on April, 24!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Upper Deck Entertainment Uses Comic Artists to Create New Facebook Timeline Profile
Posted by: | CommentsBrands across America are preparing for a change from Facebook that will force companies to move to the Timeline profile by March 30. Some big brands have got on board and rolled out their new Timeline page already. Upper Deck Entertainment did so this week as well with a new profile picture that was created by two of the company’s more talented sketch card partners; Mick & Matt Glebe.
“The artists we partner with are extremely talented and we use their work a lot in our entertainment releases for our Marvel license in particular,” said Nick Leslie, Upper Deck Marvel/Entertainment coordinator. “We have a lot of different entertainment releases so we wanted to come up with a generic image for the brand page that would show our love for superhero properties. In working with our social media manager we came up with the idea of using one of our artist partners to create this banner image and one of the first people I thought of for the project were the Glebe’s.”
Mick & Matt Glebe worked in collaboration on Upper Deck’s new Marvel Avengers and Marvel Beginnings II products set to hit shelves in the coming months. They created some very compelling sketch cards that will can be found in those packs and will likely be highly collectible. Take a look at some of their work from those sets:
If you like what you see, make sure you become a fan of Mick & Matt’s Facebook page to see more of their work!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Featured Collector: John Stever Assembled The Avengers!
Posted by: | CommentsEach month Upper Deck spotlights one of its valued collectors to showcase their collection or pursuits. The great thing about sports collectors is that they are all very different in what they collect, how they collect. With Marvel fans getting more and more excited about the release of The Avengers movie this summer, there seems to be renewed interest in a product Upper Deck released this summer called The Avengers: Kree-Skrull War. Assembling this set required patience, problem solving skills and a key comic eye; which are all attributes John Stever possesses. Here is his story:
“I have been a Marvel comic fan for close to 40 years now and I bought my first trading cards 35 years ago. For over a decade I wasn’t really interested in either. Then one day I went into a Toys “R” Us in search of football cards for one of my younger brothers and I discovered Marvel cards. Sure, I bought the old Marvel sticker cards back in the ‘70′s, but these new cards had fantastic art. I bought some packs of the Marvel cards for two of my other brothers and one for myself. Well, before I left the parking lot all the Marvel packs were opened. My wife and I were instantly hooked. We’ve bought all the Marvel sets from the ‘70′s to present day.
“So naturally when Upper Deck announced The Avengers: Kree-Skrull War series, we had to have it. It seemed like it would be difficult to put together and there were not the same ratios for pulling rare inserts like sketch cards like in other UD sets, but I got three boxes figuring that I would be able to get an entire set of the story from that.
“I opened the boxes immediately when they arrived and realized this was a different kind of Marvel set where you are basically putting together the story yourself. The album would be a big help in doing that so I sent the redemption certificate for the albums in right away. I was pretty busy last summer, so I put off collating a set.
“While it did take awhile for the album to arrive, I was happy when it did as it drew me back to the cards. I finally sorted out my cards and found I was short 21 cards. I posted my want list on the NSU forum. I traded for 19 cards I needed and another forum member gave me the last two to finish off the set. During my first attempt at sorting I found I had extra character and retro character cards. I gave many of the triplicates to my nephews and nieces. After a long search on eBay, I was finally able to pick up a sketch card for a reasonable price since I didn’t pull any. Their rarity is keeping the price quite high.
“When the 19 cards arrived I figured it was time to put them into the albums. Thinking there might be too many, I stared backwards. The comic cards were a perfect fit. The album comes with the nine promo cards that I left in, which where the same cards being given away at select conventions last year. There was no room for the character cards, the retro character cards, and the cover cards; which is unfortunate. I will probably put mine in with my Marvel Beginnings cards.
“The comic book compilation cards are a neat idea, but not for everyone. The cover cards are nice. I really like the art in The Avengers: Kree-Skrull War set. Last, but not least, I love the character and retro character cards.”
Popularity: 2% [?]
