The Good Kato, Not The O.J. Kato

This will probably be the last Bruce Lee card I add to my collection for a while because the rest on my wants list are significantly more expensive, but I put my Bruce Lee collection on hold with a very cool sticker from the 1966 Donruss Green Hornet release. This Kato sticker (#5) is one of my favorites of all of his cards and I really can not explain why. Probably being an action illustration with bold colors.

I have never seen one of these stickers centered, they are always off and seeing a diamond cut card is common, so I did pretty well with this one. The borders are discolored and there is a smudge along the bottom border and there are some minor marks along the front of the card but not noticeable unless you look for them.   

The next Bruce Lee cards on my want list are a 2007 Breygent sketch card, a 2008 Breygent Movie Poster suspenders relic and the big boy of them all… the 2009 Upper Deck Prominent Cut robe relic.

Kato Kicking Ass

My most recent Bruce Lee addition is from a 1993 Green Hornet promotional release and shows Bruce Lee as Kato tossing a couple of throwing stars. The company NOW Entertainment called the card Hologravure Cards, a fancy name for lenticular.

The show was on before I was born but I have seen a couple of episodes and Bruce Lee’s character Kato was an all-around bad ass and that is what I love about the card. The determined look, the action shot and the throwing stars coming at you.

More Injections In My Spine But With Bruce Lee This Time

Because of a delay with my insurance company my second spinal injection, which should have been two weeks after the previous one on September 14^th, got pushed back until today (5 weeks). I had the second round of injections this morning, three shots, and hopefully there is no delay for the third round.

I am in tremendous pain so I am posting a post that I had previously partially written.

Because the back of the card is blank and the seller had no information about the sticker I have no idea what set it comes from. The image is from the movie Game of Death, which was halted when Bruce Lee died during the filming of the movie, but was eventually released in 1978. If you have a keen eye you will notice that the man he is fighting in this scene is extremely tall, 7'2" to be exact, and is none other than NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

A little six-degrees (five degrees actually) of separation I have with Bruce Lee. Beginning in 1964 Bruce Lee trained with Ed Parker, the founder of American Kenpo. Ed Parker trained Bruce Denton in American Kempo in the 1980s. Bruce Denton then took on Loren Holmberg as his student in the early 1990s and in 1998 Loren Holmberg took me on as his student.

Here I am, a much younger and healthier Corky in my Kenpo gi, when my kids were younger they liked it when I wore it around Halloween. My son went as a ninja for 3 years in a row because he wanted to be like his "ninja" dad (as he put it). On a side note, I would be the worst ninja ever even challenging Chris Farley.

Vintage Card Of The Month: 2010 SportKings Series D And 1974 Towa Bruce Lee

 

This month’s VCoM is a double dose of the Master with the first card coming from a pseudo vintage set, the 2010 SportKings Series D. The Sports Kings name had been brought back in to existence by Dr. Brian Price in 2007 with the release of 2007 SportKings Series A and was produced through 2013 SportKings Series F and last year the brand was sold of Brian Grey of Leaf along with Dr. Prices other licenses.

Even though I was only a year old when Bruce Lee died I still felt like I was brought up watching him with my older brother. I grew up watching The Green Hornet reruns along with his movies. I looked up to him and like every other kid imitated his martial arts moves, eventually training in American Kenpo for years before I was disabled.

Lee does not have many collectibles even with his popularity the options are limited. Along with the 2010 SportKings release he is on the 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter’s checklist plus the 1966 Donruss The Green Hornet release. Additionally, he has a couple of foreign releases like the second half of the VCoM post, this 1974 Towa card from Japan. He does have a couple of relics and sketch cards but they are usually triple digits and up.