RRParks Turns Unwatchable Movies into Essential Trading Cards
by Alan Biegel
S
cience will be a mys-
tery no more when
RRParks CARDS
launches Mystery
Science eater 3000
Series One trading cards
late this summer. Known
for making unwatchable
movies essential viewing,
the MST3K TV show aired
seasonally from 1988 to
- Now, thanks to a very
successful Kickstarter cam-
paign, the screwy sci- favorite is back for an unprecedent-
ed new season of 14 laugh- lled episodes on Net ix.
e show, which is as silly as its concept, tells the tale of
janitor Joel Robinson (played by show creator Joel Hodgson),
who is shot into space and forced by some evil nogoodniks
to watch really bad movies. To preserve his sanity, Joel builds
a number of lovable robots to help him wisecrack his way
through the stinkiest lm clunkers one could ever imagine.
When Hodgson le the role in mid-season ve, character
Mike Nelson (not-so-coincidentally played by actor/writer
Mike Nelson), took over the madcap team.
MYSTERY BASE &
INSERT CARDS
Just like the show’s main
resident mad scientist, Dr.
Clayton Deborah Susan
Forrester, Richard Parks of
RRParks CARDS is deep in
perfecting his experiments.
In Richard’s case, that means
concocting trading cards
as cockamamy as the show.
Currently in template/
design phase, the main base
set is dedicated to Experiment (a.k.a. episode) cards and
feature scenes with Joel, robot friends Crow, Tom Servo
and Gypsy, and the “MADS” (a.k.a. really mad scientists).
Collectors should seek out choice promo cards as well
as special e ect subsets, manufactured in foil and other
eye popping printings. Supporting subsets are principally
based on the “Invention Exchange” routines between Joel
& the Bots and Dr. Forrester. Video stills from the rst
three seasons of the original MST3K TV show will be em-
ployed. Richard advised that since the majority of movies
14 Non-Sport Update