Round Robin: We Made These!

(Apologies if this entry takes a long time to load. I saved some of these photos in a larger size than usual so you can click on them and, I hope, read the text in the pictures if you're so inclined.)

It's Round Robin time again! This week's topic, "I Made That" was suggested by Jennifer Robin of Robin's Woods. She wants us to photograph something we made, other than photos, of course!

First off, let me state for the record that I'm not at all good with any kind of craft work. I can't sew, knit, do needlepoint, create macramé or decoupage, or build a coffee table (except maybe from a kit). I've had lousy eye-hand coordination all my life, so I seldom attempt to make any kind of physical object. The last one I recall doing was my Tiki mask last year. It took me all night, and it was...well, acceptable, let's say.

Consequently, nearly all my creative endeavors are technology-assisted. I blog and take photos, I write fiction, I mess around with photo editing software. When it comes to making an actual thing, I need a printer, or a buttonmaker, or...

Bingo.

Back in the early 1980s, John, his friend Kal and I owned a record store called Rockarama. I was the manager. Among our wares in those days were handmade buttons, based on topical rock and roll images or slogans, or cut up photos from magazines.



In the 1990s, the Murray twins and I made Quantum Leap and Doctor Who buttons for the fan clubs and conventions. They came in two sizes. Eventually I shipped the buttonmaker that produced the smaller, more popular buttons off to Margaret Colchin so she could continue to produce "goodies" for Project Quantum Leap members.

A commercial grade badge maker from Button Up

We kept the large buttonmaker. It's still sitting in a closet here at the Museum of the Weird, along with our leftover Doctor Who buttons and a bust of Sherlock Holmes (and no, we didn't make that!).

No, I didn't make this standup. John designed it and put it together.

During roughly the same era, John went into the trading card business. He designed and produced trading card sets for the anime properties Robot Carnival and Akira, British favorites The Avengers and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and even the rock group KISS.


In 1994, John's company, Cornerstone, made the first of four series (or was it five series?) of Doctor Who trading cards. I introduced the project to some of the key actors at a convention in late 1993, because the BBC had told us we needed to contract with each of them individually.


Later I wrote the backs of nearly all of the cards that had text in Series One through Series Three. I also selected the quotations for the cards in Series Four, some of which came from interviews the Murrays and I had conducted ourselves. Before Series Three I even got to accompany John and his business partner to London, to help select pictures for the cards from the BBC archives. The writing turned out to be surprisingly difficult, because the extremely limited space on the back of a trading card forces the writer to be very concise, which isn't my strong suit. Still, I'm very proud of what we did with these.


Eventually the Doctor Who cards license ran its course. John made another Monty Python set and a couple of Austin Powers sets before the bottom fell out of the trading card market and he had to get a real job.

No, there isn't really a Dalek guarding this case of trading cards.

But here at the MotW we still have binders and boxes full of trading cards that John designed and I wrote. I didn't run the printing press, didn't diecut them from the oversize sheets, and didn't pack them in cartons to be shipped. But all in all, I think it's far to say that John and I made those cards. Don't you?

Now let's go see what the other Robins have made!

Karen

Linking List

Jennifer Robin - Posted!
Robin's Woods
http://robinswoods.blogspot.com/

Steven - Posted!
(sometimes)photoblog
http://sometimesphotoblog.com/

Wammy - Posted!
The Ellis Family Cincinnati
http://theellisfamilycincinnati.blogspot.com

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Olive - Posted!
Ur Olive
http://urolive.blogspot.com/

ronda
rookieblogger
http://4familymagic.blogspot.com/

Jill - Posted!
Letting Crazy Take a Spin
http://lettingcrazytakeaspin.blogspot.com/

Jan - Posted!
The Prytz Family
http://www.theprytzfamily.com/

Jama
sweet memories.....
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

maryt/theteach - Posted!
Answers to the Questions
http://maryt.wordpress.com

Sandra - Posted!
Strong Chemistry
http://strongchemistry.blogspot.com/

Robinella- Posted!
Not A Stepford Wife
http://notastepfordwife.blogspot.com/

Janet - Posted!
fondofsnape
http://www.fondofsnape.com

Carly- Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Kiva - Posted!
The Eclectic Granny
http://eclecticgranny.blogspot.com

Teena- Posted!
It's all about me!
http://purple4mee.blogspot.com