Comics UK

Interesting article on those free Panini sticker books that came free with comics in the 1980's.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27051215

There were so many - Return of the Jedi was heavily promoted in many comics in 1983 plus other's. My brother loved the football ones.

Panini have a football magazine 'Strike-it' with some starter free stickers at the moment.

I've started buying for the nephews the latest World Cup stickers. They seem interested - will keep you posted to see if they're interest is maintained.

I used to love collecting the panini stickers & books & every year bought football 80.81 etc & remember collecting the return of the jedi ,smurfs etc that came with my comics.I had to complete them & remember swapping them in the school playground & the mad fights when kids used to chuck doubles in the air & yell scramble I even collected a cricket one of which i had no interest in at the time & still hate cricket to this day
Is this the 1st year in a long time panini have reintroduced the sticker album because they have spent the last few years doing football cards etc not stickers?

For me, it was the cards to the Superman movie that I collected. I did collect some of the football cards, but was less than impressed with those stickers when they appeared.

The nephews are loving the Strike-it magazine's Panini sticker album. Though rather than 1 book each they are pooling all their stickers into 1 collection.

Thought it was nice, as when I was younger we had a little sibling rivalry.

I wonder if Strike-it has many readers?

The one I always loved was the Prehistoric Animals album, but I don't think it was ever a free gift. The other one was the Hulk album free with Hulk Comic No. 1

I could be wrong but that Prehistoric Animals album reminds me of one that was given away with an issue of Look & Learn.

- Phil Rushton

do any of you old fogies remember those old football cards that didn't have an album to accommodate. They were made of card, no adhesive on the back, and were usually numbered either 5 or 6 along with a piece of bubble gum within a packet. In the seventies, they were actually a financial commodity within schools. You could trade swaps or even play them in order to boost your collection. The most basic game was that each player would flick a card against a wall, and the card that ended up nearest the wall would win. The best game was "topsides" where each player would flick a card against a wall until a card fell upon any cards thrown earlier and win. And then there was the "knockdown" where each player would erect a card against the wall and the objective was to knock those cards down by flicking their cards against them. The player who knocked the last card down would win all the cards thrown in the game. Sometimes, up to twenty cards may have been thrown to win the game. Serious business then; I ended up with a bust nose when I won such a game - and I lost the cards! He was bigger than me.

geoff42 wrote:do any of you old fogies remember those old football cards that didn't have an album to accommodate. They were made of card, no adhesive on the back, and were usually numbered either 5 or 6 along with a piece of bubble gum within a packet. In the seventies, they were actually a financial commodity within schools. You could trade swaps or even play them in order to boost your collection. The most basic game was that each player would flick a card against a wall, and the card that ended up nearest the wall would win.

If I'd been collecting those cards, Geoff, I certainly wouldn't have been chucking them against any wall. Can you post a scan of one or two please so that we might possibly recall them. I can't remember any that just had a 5 or a 6 on them. What was that for?

I don't have any at hand, phoenix, but, as I recall, they were really big in the seventies. Each season, they would be around ninety cards available with a checklist card to tick off your collection. Each card depicted a football player (they weren't stars then) from various clubs and were available to buy from virtually any corner shop. Maybe it was a Northern fascination. But we really did gamble with them at school, and other pupils were prepared to pay more than the norm for the ones that they couldn't obtain. You have to remember, Phoenix, in those days that "Mint" had no relevance to a ten year old boy. He just wanted that card in any shape.

just been googling, phoenix, A@BC were the early pioneers of football cards with bubblegum. In 1975, they were taken over by Topps (US company) and carried on until 1981. So, I'm obviously talking about Topps football cards that were produced exclusively for the English Division football clubs. They did do a set for the Scottish clubs, that were separate. Ah... the nostalgia. But, no albums were ever offered to accommodate these cards... only bubblegum.

These were the first cards I ever collected.



The backs of the cards joined together to form a huge picture, so they certainly weren't intended to be placed in any kind of album.

Everybody appeared to go soccer crazy in the 1970s, with football comics popping up all over the place. I guess 1966 didn't seem such an awfully long time ago back then!

Does anyone remember these?



(...come to think of it, does anybody remember Cleveland petrol stations? )

- Phil Rushton

tony ingram wrote:The backs of the cards joined together to form a huge picture, so they certainly weren't intended to be placed in any kind of album.

I really liked cards that did that. Here's another example featuring Captain Scarlet where you could join them all together to reveal a giant Ron Embleton painting on the back.





- Phil Rushton

geoff42 wrote:I'm obviously talking about Topps football cards that were produced exclusively for the English Division football clubs.

Yes, these were the ones. It was a set of 330 cards produced in 1977. Most were just photos of players but there were also some Team Leaders cards with the club history on the rear, and some All Stars cards, which seemingly were selected by the editor of SHOOT. I have the full set in mint condition. Technically they belong to my two lads as they collected them at the time. However, they are quite valuable, and since I paid for them............

Here is the reverse of the George Best card. He was the first in the series. Funny how ageing stars ended up at Fulham. Bobby Moore went there too. I saw him get sent off against Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park, the only time it happened to him in his career.

I do also have quite a few cards, actually they were paper, possibly with sticky backs, from earlier series of the A&BC sets. I will post some when I remember where I've put them. I think they are probably in one or other of my filing cabinets, but since I use them as drawers, it may take me a while.