Rick and Morty, debating collectables, probably. Image: Adult Swim
I feel like I understand most merchandising decisions. This one is a little lost on me.
As reported by Comicbook.com, Cryptozoic is debuting a series of Rick and Morty trading cards, including characters, moments, and apparently even gags from the series.
The trading card packs also come with temporary tattoos, standees, stickers, and scratch-and-sniff things, like, say, the people toppings ordered by an anthropomorphic pizza in “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind”, in case you’ve ever really wondered what that smells like.
Some of the cards, 1 in every 48, will be signed by a member of the cast. So that’s neat!
A Jessica card from the upcoming Rick & Morty trading card set. Image: Adult Swim/Cryptozoic
I’m still honestly pretty confused. I get trading cards, I think. Collecting characters and moments from things you like: that’s rad. But for some reason the idea of doing that for a cartoon sitcom just doesn’t grok for me. The fun of trading cards are the little details, the character statistics, the lore hints, the fact that nowadays you can usually combine them into a deck and pretend you’re going to actually go to a tournament one of these days (I know, not every trading card set has a game attached to it, but still).
These are pretty minimal: just character pictures, some jokes, and the occasional malodorous sticker.
It just feels like a mismatch of brand and collectible, y’know? Pogs would be the way to go; I would probably pick up some Rick and Morty pogs. But I’m probably just an old woman who doesn’t understand fun. Are y’all going to pick up a booster pack?
Comments
8 responses to “Rick And Morty Has Trading Cards Now, For Some Reason”
Here, I’ll explain it to you; the fans are rabid and will buy anything that even mentions Rick and Morty. So trading cards are a license to print money for the company. 🙂
Side note: I wouldn’t buy the trading cards personally. But I know a few people who would. I do however get the comics. They’re actually pretty funny and in-tune with the humour and art-style of the show.
I’m really hoping Doofus universe Jerry makes an appearance in the series, he’s too good to leave in the comics.
The comics are largely dope. A few writers don’t quite get the R&M style and thus their entries feel a bit out of character, but that’s pretty rare. Although they do shit on Jerry a lot. Like, every writer wants a turn. At least the the show throws him a win every now and then.
Also wouldn’t recommend the Poppy Butthole special. Rick felt way too OOC for my tastes.
Yeah I have to admit, I actually enjoyed the episode where Jerry makes friends with the “dumb” Rick. I guess the comics tend to be a bit limited by their very nature so it’s a bit hard to get as much nuance so they just stick with Jerry is a loser.
On the contrary, I can’t believe it’s only just happening now.
Doug, ren and stimpy as well as Rugrats were part of a set of trading cards about 25 years ago
it came with temporary Tattoos as well, card that pull bits off them such as roger card that was suppossed to be used to kick smalls of paper
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1993-Topps-Nicktoons-Activity-Cards-8-Rogers-Spitball-Soccer-Card-2a7-/232554693423
or a tommy card where you removed a section of the card and by putting your fist in front of the card you were to pretend you were looking at tommy’s bum
http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Non-Sport/91107/91107-6442297Bk.jpg
I’ll trade an ‘Oooooh Geeee, I dunno Rick”, for a “EXISTENCE IS PAIN”
This is actually pretty clever. I was a rabid trading-card collector in my youth – mostly X-Men and Marvel cards, but also Ninja Turtles, Batman, football cards, basketball cards… basically, anything I could get my hands on, because trading cards had a real hey-day in the 90s and late 80s. Everyone I went to school with went nuts for them, until, y’know, puberty hit and such endeavors became childish. And the best thing about the cards were the special inserts, like scratch-n-sniffs or standees or signature-series. I remember, I once convinced the guy at the local trading card store to trade me a pack of Marvel Flair, an expensive $10-a-pack thick-backed set of beautiful cards, in exchange for a pile of junk cards, under the condition that I would give him the insert IF he didn’t have it. He agreed and got a hologram Venom card out of it, and those crappy cards stayed in the display case till they went out of business.
But the point of all this is, 90s kids are grown up now. And they’re watching Rick and Morty. This is a great nostalgia throwback for me. Not that I’ll be buying any, but… I get it.