Family Guy Fun Time

This post started as 3 different posts that I decided to join together to make a single Family Guy autograph post to keep things organized.

Some fun additions to my Family Guy autograph collection, Alex Borstein as Trisha Takanawa. I have been a fan of Alex Borstein since her days on MADTv, I still crack up at her “He look like a man” skits. I hope to eventually pick up her Lois version autograph card.

I also picked up a Mike Henry IP autograph, he does the voice for Cleveland Brown. I have to admit, I prefer him on Family Guy over The Cleveland Show. There was nothing wrong with The Cleveland Show but his character was natural in Family Guy and spin-offs rarely work, even for Seth McFarland.

A recent Family Guy autograph is Debra Wilson from the 2011 Leaf Family Guy release. Wilson has done a number of “additional voices” over the years from the show including “Nurse” from the episode “And the Wiener is” which is depicted on this card. She also did voices for one of the most underappreciated animated shows of the early 2000s The Oblongs, but I picked up this card for her work on MADtv. She was hilarious on the show during its 14 year run… well 10 good years and 4 years of people wishing it was funny again.

I love deals, who doesn’t? So when I came across a dealer selling a couple of the 2011 Leaf Family Guy autographs for insane prices I jumped on a couple fast like my chair was on fire. He was a new seller and his shipping is a little high ($4.00 each) but he had a nice selection of official autographs and was willing to combine shipping on multiple purchases.

In the end I spent $17.00 plus $4.25 shipping on a 2011 Leaf LeVar Burton autograph ($12) and 2011 Leaf Alfonso Ribeiro autograph ($5). You cannot find the LeVar Burton version for under $20 and the Ribeiro for under $12 so to pay $21.25 for both cards including shipping I was well ahead of the game. The LeVar Burton autograph is on-card while the Ribeiro is on a sticker though both are quite beautiful signatures.

Preview: 2011 Leaf Family Guy

Schedule Release Date: August 31, 2011

Box Configuration: 53 cards per box

SRP: $70/box


Box Break:

50 Base cards

2 Insert cards

1 Autograph card


My Thoughts:

The last time we saw a Family Guy set was 2008 with Inkworks A New Hope series, before that was the 2005 releases of Inkworks Family Guy Season 1 and Season 2. With Inkworks now gone Leaf has picked up the torch and delivered a 50-card base set for Seasons 3, 4 & 5. Each box gives you a complete 50-card base set along with 2 inserts and an autograph all for $70. Not a bad deal for Family Guy fans or comic card fans.

Leaf did a nice job keeping the focus on the characters and not over-designing the card and this works out well, a nice design keeps collectors happy along with nice selection of autographs and other inserts.

The autograph checklist is decent, including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher from the Blue Harvest, Something…Something…Something Dark Side and It’s A Trap Star Wars based episodes along with regulars Patrick Warburton and Patrick Stewart (Of course he is mostly on American Dad but still on the occasional Family Guy episode) plus guest stars Gina Gershon, Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling and more.

The inserts include 1/1 Sketch Cards, inserted at 4 per case, originally stated at 2 per case but Leaf updated that last month. I have not seen the checklist or list of artists but apparently these cards are created by actual Family Guy artists so you will be getting cards by the people who create the animation for the show.

Character Die cuts, inserted at 3 per case, this insert includes 10 characters from the show and the final insert is the Quotables Metal Cards, inserted an average of 18 per case (1-2 per box). These metal cards contain “favorite” quotes from the various episodes.

So to highlight, each 12-box case will contain 18 Quotables Metal cards, 12 autographs, 4 sketch cards and 3 Die Cut Character cards plus there will be “Hot Cases” that contain 12 Sketch cards. I find it interesting that the sketch cards are an easier pull then the die cut character cards.

I am going to have to hunt down the “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin Christmas” card.


Pros:

A complete set in each box

1 Autograph per box

A 25% chance of pulling a sketch card per case

Cons:

Sticker autographs

Not a huge con but usually sketch cards sell partially based on the artist and with these cards being created by the animators we will have to see how these sell.

Rating:

Admittedly I am biased, I really enjoy Family Guy and I like the odds when it comes to the inserts. I cannot really rate this set on the same level that I would rate a sports card set so I will leave it at “I love it” and finish with that.