Some new oddball "rookies" I've picked up. 1972 Yamakatsu Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris

eagles33

While looking for more wrestling cards from Japan I stumbled on these. They were also produced by Yamakatsu and were meant to promote the movie Way of the Dragon. The cards are slightly smaller than a traditional card.

Bruce Lee card number 1 of the set


Chuck Norris card number 71

wrestlingcardking

Get a grade on that Bruce Lee, I saw that on ebay.

Big80s

Hey Chad - what year is the Bruce Lee set from?

eagles33

I think it's 1972-73.. I know he has earlier green hornet cards but none that know of where he wasn't in character.. I like these better. The only info I could really find on then was a description on worthpoint that came up in a google search... I don't have worthpoint so don't know what that lot sold for... Just was able to read the description. The only other early bruce lee cards that I know of are 1975 stig.. Which is a gigantic post card size card and 1974 Joepie which was a sticker insert in some Swedish magazine. This is what I'm going to use as his rookie. Psa initially sad they can't grade it because it isn't cataloged... But they grade Yamakatsu baseball cards from the 70s so I don't see why they shouldn't grade these. I'm still debating with their specs dept about it. If they won't BGS will.

Big80s

I like them a lot! I grew up on Bruce Lee movies.

eagles33

SumoMan. Do you have any info on this set? This is another one I'm trying to get graded. Thanks a lot for your help with these!

bishop

Outer space exists because it does not want to be on the same planet as Chuck Norris

SumoMenkoMan

Eagles33,

Yup, I've eyed these cards for a while, but never have picked them up. 1972 Yamakatsu Bruce Lee Dragon Mini Cards. These cards are still-frame photos from the The Way of the Dragon movie(only called "Dragon" in Japan). Issued in two series.....Series #1 was Cards 1-48. Series #2 was Cards 49-96. Series 2 cards are harder to find and they usually are 3-4 times as much as Series 1. These cards have gold winner stamps on the back as well as 4 different albums.

These cards sell for about 200 yen each for Series 1...about 800 yen each for Series 2.

I don't have a checklist for them since I don't have the set. What sort of checklist medium is PSA looking for to grade these? Book, internet, forum..?

I have a book, Sumo Menko and Card Checklist, and I publish a new version every year. I focus on sumo menko and cards, but have always wanted to start a Japanese Mini Card Checklist book since there are so many facinating subjects from the 1970s and early 1980s.

eagles33

I think psa would prefere a website with a checklist. If it is published in a book then in sure a scan of that would be ok. This great information. I really appreciate the help

Big80s

Great info, Sumo! Welcome to the boards.

blee1

Very cool, something else I definitely need!

eagles33

Yikes. I def over paid if they go for 200 to 800 yen. They are tough to find in the us.

SumoMenkoMan

Eagles33,

I'll see what I can do. I've got a couple of leads that might help me land a Series 1 set and partial Series 2 set. It's good motivation to encourage me to pull the trigger.

I'm speculating through a quick Wikipedia search about the movie that Chuck Norris only appeared at the end of the movie and thus most, if not all, of the cards that contain him are from Series 2. Seems to make sense if the cards where printed in chronological order of the movie scenes.

As far as packaging is concerned, Mini Cards came in boxes of 100 packs for about 10 yen per pack, one card per pack. 10 yen was only about 1/3 of a cent in the early 1970s. There were 4 "Winner Cards" per box and 4 albums per box that the shop owner would give to the kids that won. The manufacturers would stick the 4 Winner Card packs in a separate plastic bag so when the owner opened the box for display he'd already know which ones where the winner. Not sure why this was done, but presumably so the shop owner could either A) slow roll the albums getting won and the kids would keep coming back to buy more cards(great marketing) or ease of manufacture so they could keep track of only putting 4 "Winner Cards" into each box. When you buy old deadstock of these boxes nowadays, it's convenient because you know which packs contain the winner cards.

It was interesting to read that Colt(Chuck Norris) was killed by Bruce Lee's character, Tang. I'm sure there is a Chuck Norris joke in there somewhere, but I am not witty enough to find it.

Thanks!

SumoMenkoMan

Eagles33,

That's 200 yen to 800 yen. When you import them to the States you have to basically triple the price through all the fees and shipping from Japan. Now if a US seller wants to add profit you can see where they could easily get to be $10 a card or more. The exchange rate is really horrible now compared to 5-6 years ago. I get killed on that, but not much you can do. I'm constantly buying so I basically spread out my shipping costs over a bunch of cards and it isn't terrible.

These cards aren't all that common in Japan either and there is a small community that collects Mini Cards so it's harder to snag up a steal.

digicat

<< <i>It was interesting to read that Colt(Chuck Norris) was killed by Bruce Lee's character, Tang. I'm sure there is a Chuck Norris joke in there somewhere, but I am not witty enough to find it. >>



Lee was getting knocked around until he grabbed a hand full of Chuck's chest hair (yes, he had enough for Lee to grab a hand full) and pulled it out. Then the fight became totally one-sided as Lee got faster and Chuck got slower.


Might be some sort of Sampson thing.

SumoMenkoMan

After looking at the information on some of the backs of these 1972 Yamakatsu Bruce Lee Dragon Mini Cards, it appears that it will be difficult to checklist them using the backs. Most of it is information on Bruce Lee, his martial arts background and his life. In fact, the information repeats on numerous cards. The only useful info is the number for checklisting purposes. Series #1 from Card 1-48 and Series #2 from Card 49-96....all containing different images of Bruce Lee in the movie...it could be a nightmare unless we come up with a good system. What are you thoughts on something like this highlighting the most prominent feature on the card:

Card #4 - Enemy Leg Grab
Card #5 - Right Arm Extended
Card #6 - Large Right Hand
Card #7 - Nunchaku on Right Arm
Card #9 - Hands Crossed
Card #10 - Enemy Flipping
Card #11 - Right Leg High Kick
Card #12 - Three Cuts on Stomach
Card #16 - Crouched Ready to Strike
Card #17 - Enemies on Ground
Card #19 - Knife Near Head
Card #20 - Enemy Chest Kick
Card #22 - White Suit
Card #25 - Twirling Nunchaku
Card #26 - Flying Kick
Card #27 - Enemy Stomach Kick
Card #28 - High Jump Kick


and so on and so forth....

eagles33

The things I've been asked for in addition to a checklist is scans of the original packaging or something that proves the year. If you could get anything like that ill try to see if a checklist is needed. Also do you know what the standard dementions are for these mini cards? These and the wrestling cards seem to be the same size but the only ones psa has seen are the ones i have sent so they don't have anyway of knowing if all of mine are trimmed or not. Obviously mine are not but I understand their point. Thanks again. I really appreciate all of your help. It will be great if psa would slab these and the wrestling cards. I think the Andre the giant card slabbed has huge potential. The hand cut card from 73 sold for over 600. The hand cut cards are way more common than the 1976 Japanese cards and it is his first card on actual card stock.

SumoMenkoMan

All Japanese Mini Cards are about the same dimensions, 5cm x 6.5 cm, but there are minor variations between companies and even minor variations within the same set. I happened to dig up a few examples of this set in an old binder I had stored. I forgot I had them as they came extra in another auction I had. The dimensions are 5cm(1 15/16") in width and 6.7cm(2 5/8") in height. In both dimensions there was a natural variation of +/- 1mm on a few of the cards. Probably something that PSA doesn't like to hear, but it is how the Japanese manufactured them.

I'll keep working on the packaging and see what I can come up with. No luck searching around for images yet. Hopefully they won't stay ellusive for long. I have tons if packaging images from other 1970s Yamakatsu stuff....

Proving the exact date of issue would be very difficult. i'm sure we can come up with something though.

SumoMenkoMan

Since the Yamakatsu action seems a little slow recently, I thought I'd post a picture of a 1974 Yamakatsu Bruce Lee Green Hornet box. These are very hard to find.









Here is the checklist from what I've been able to piece together:

97 Kato and Green Hornet
98
99 Kato and Green Hornet
100
101 Kato Right Arm High
102
103 Kato and Red Villian ¡V Veritcal
104
105
106
107 Kato and Green Hornet with Guns
108 Green Hornet
109 Green Hornet and Kato
110 Kato Light Blue Shirt
111 Green Hornet Trench Coat
112 Kato Punching
113
114
115 Bruce Lee Suit and Tie
116 Gold Suit Woman
117
118 Kato Legs Spread
119
120 Green Hornet
121 Kato High Kick ¡V Horizontal
122
123 Kato Arm Block
124 Britt Reid Facing Villian
125 Britt Reid Facing Away from Villian
126
127 Kato and Red Villian ¡V Horizontal
128 Gold Suit Enemies Fighting
129
130 Kato Punching
131
132
133 Kato High Kick ¡V Vertical
134 Gold Suit Woman
135 Kato and Black Beauty
136 Britt Reid Talking
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144