Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to share with the group my Christmas present to myself.
(Can\'t get image to post, so here\'s a link. Hope it works:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/551493_2788517249289_223485011_n.jpg )
From the seller, located in the Netherlands, on how he acquired the deck:
\'I acquired the deck from a playing card collector, Norman Handelsman living in LA. It was back in the early 1980’s, before ebay, internet trades etc. so most collecting were direct exchanges between collectors. As far as I remember, Norman H. stated, that deck was made for or used in a kind of performance, probably TV-show or similar and that only very few of them were made. He was quite good at finding unusual items, but died unfortunately in the late 1980 during a holiday stay in France, so he can’t add more info to the question.\"
Does anyone know if any other decks survived, or have any further information on Mr. Handelsman?
That\'s pretty fantastic. Do you have the entire deck or just those four cards?
That\'s pretty fantastic. Do you have the entire desk or just those four cards?
It\'s the full deck of 52. Some cards have small mystery stains on them (which I am scared to attempt to clean),
but for the most part the cards are in amazing condition for their age, with no folds or creases. They\'re printed
on a very heavy cardboard, but aren\'t plastic-coated.
I can take more pictures later, if anybody would like.
Yes I would LOVE to have a picture of the ace and jack (suits do not matter) I have two pictures of Wink and Elaine and would like to make a frame with a small replica of the ace & jack, like the Gambit board had. Nice to see that at least one deck survived. And Thanks in advance!!
I know that one of the decks from the 1990 pilot was on ebay a couple of years back...but this is an amazing find.
Yes, I\'d love to see more. Now hopefully CS decks will show up somewhere, if they haven\'t already...
A few more shots.
Original picture reposted:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/285270_2788568810578_1885228921_n.jpg
Logo recreation requested by joker316:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/72685_2795406901526_2068778245_n.jpg
Back and front:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/61755_2795407221534_1137800073_n.jpg
Size comparison with Bicycle card (Gambit cards are 9.5\"x12.75\"; Bicycles are 2.5\"x3.5\")
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/156425_2795408261560_2041534707_n.jpg
Can\'t help but think how similar these are to the TPIR Hit Me cards. It seems logical to me that the CBS art department would hold onto the original artwork for these, and recycle it when Hit Me debuted [it looks like the queen is the same save for color; look carefully at this photo (http://http://www.golden-road.net/gg/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pid=460#top_display_media)].
[it looks like the queen is the same save for color; look carefully at this photo].
Link fixed. But yeah, they\'re very similar -- it doesn\'t really surprise me that Price would recycle something like this, especially for a game based on Blackjack.
Logo recreation requested by joker316:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/72685_2795406901526_2068778245_n.jpg
I love that even when joker316 said \"suits do not matter\", you went ahead and used the exact cards. :)
Back and front:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/61755_2795407221534_1137800073_n.jpg
Yep, definitely a Gambit deck. :)
The pictures are amazing. I haven\'t watched a Gambit in any incarnation for a while, I assume the face cards are not unlike the Card Sharks version in that they are the same drawing for each court member, with color variants for each suit?
(Speaking of Card Sharks, I am still looking for a copy of a promo shot of Wink for Las Vegas Gambit, where he holds an Ace and a Jack...but they\'re clearly from the CS deck. Adam used to have it on his Facebook, is it anywhere in digital form?)
And I too picked up on the Hit Me connection. As a kid I just had faint memories of Las Vegas Gambit, but when I saw Hit Me on TPIR, I recognized the \"stick-body\" face cards. Though, now having had a good look at some Gambit face cards, there\'s kind of an optical illusion there. You can see it as the two heads of the character being connected by a thin \"body,\" or a shoulder-and-up shot of the character on each side that happens to touch one another.
(Speaking of Card Sharks, I am still looking for a copy of a promo shot of Wink for Las Vegas Gambit, where he holds an Ace and a Jack...but they\'re clearly from the CS deck. Adam used to have it on his Facebook, is it anywhere in digital form?)
Check my FB again. It\'s still there.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!
@JMFabiano: Actually, that\'s not quite correct: while the Gambit cards are indeed the exact same drawing for each court member, the Card Sharks cards followed the so-called \"standard\" pattern (one-eyed Spade and Heart Jacks, one-eyed Diamond King, and oversized Spade Ace).
As for Card Sharks, the only deck I\'ve seen is a promotional one that was on eBay a looooong time ago. It had been acquired by someone who, when very young, had written in and asked for a deck of the giant cards used on the show; someone on the production staff took pity at their naivete and sent them a normal-sized deck. I had been the high bidder on it until it was highlighted here on the forum as an \"eBay find of the week\"; I\'d like to think it was won by a fellow forum member who appreciates it as much as I would have.
True...though the faces and the bodies remained the same, with minor tweaks here and there. (only the one-eyed Jacks and the King of Diamonds had \"unique\" heads)
I actually had a deck of the promotional CS cards at one time. I was disappointed to discover that they didn\'t use the same artwork, instead having a modified version of...I forget the company, but they had the artwork that featured crosses on the King and Queen of Hearts\' sashes, a yellowish-brown King of Spades, and more.
I actually have a number of cards from \"Card Sharks\" which just made the move with me to Austin TX, they\'re in a box I still haven\'t unpacked. No face cards, just number cards. They were on e-bay a number of years ago.
I actually have a number of cards from \"Card Sharks\" which just made the move with me to Austin TX, they\'re in a box I still haven\'t unpacked. No face cards, just number cards. They were on e-bay a number of years ago.
1) which version and 2) one of them wouldn\'t happen to be the Three of Clubs, would it? :)
I actually have a number of cards from \"Card Sharks\" which just made the move with me to Austin TX, they\'re in a box I still haven\'t unpacked. No face cards, just number cards. They were on e-bay a number of years ago.
1) which version and 2) one of them wouldn\'t happen to be the Three of Clubs, would it? :)
either 70s or 80s, probably 80s considering the years elapsed. Dunno about the three of clubs, when they\'re unpacked I\'ll check. I honestly have hardly touched them since I got them, used them as background for some photos of watches and that\'s about it. (that last sentence actually makes sense, if you know me)
I actually have a number of cards from \"Card Sharks\" which just made the move with me to Austin TX, they\'re in a box I still haven\'t unpacked. No face cards, just number cards. They were on e-bay a number of years ago.
1) which version and 2) one of them wouldn\'t happen to be the Three of Clubs, would it? :)
.....is everyone around here a P&T fan too?
(....is this your card?)
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/19802_2795412421664_1668257673_n.jpg
.....is everyone around here a P&T fan too?
(....is this your card?)
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/19802_2795412421664_1668257673_n.jpg
We have a novelty shop here in Seattle called Archie McPhee. One day I was in there and in one of the multitude of \"schlocky party favor item\" bins they have there, they had a metric farkton of clear Superballs with a picture of a little playing card embedded inside of each. I immediately started digging through and with minimal effort found a Three of Clubs, and it was a favorite desk toy of mine for quite a while until I lost it in some office move or another.
/yes, that card was sitting on a 3d-printed Weighted Companion Cube
These are just simply amazing. I\'m in shock and awe. Guard those cards with your life.
I wish that I personally had the Card Sharks cards, but I doubt that day will ever come. If nothing else, when I started doing Anime Card Sharks last year, I did the next best thing and made my own decks for the show. And yes, those things ARE heavy.
These are just simply amazing. I\'m in shock and awe. Guard those cards with your life.
I wish that I personally had the Card Sharks cards, but I doubt that day will ever come. If nothing else, when I started doing Anime Card Sharks last year, I did the next best thing and made my own decks for the show. And yes, those things ARE heavy.
Those look incredible...how long did it take you to make them?
@JMFabiano: Actually, that\'s not quite correct: while the Gambit cards are indeed the exact same drawing for each court member, the Card Sharks cards followed the so-called \"standard\" pattern (one-eyed Spade and Heart Jacks, one-eyed Diamond King, and oversized Spade Ace).
As for Card Sharks, the only deck I\'ve seen is a promotional one that was on eBay a looooong time ago. It had been acquired by someone who, when very young, had written in and asked for a deck of the giant cards used on the show; someone on the production staff took pity at their naivete and sent them a normal-sized deck. I had been the high bidder on it until it was highlighted here on the forum as an \"eBay find of the week\"; I\'d like to think it was won by a fellow forum member who appreciates it as much as I would have.
True...though the faces and the bodies remained the same, with minor tweaks here and there. (only the one-eyed Jacks and the King of Diamonds had \"unique\" heads)
I actually had a deck of the promotional CS cards at one time. I was disappointed to discover that they didn\'t use the same artwork, instead having a modified version of...I forget the company, but they had the artwork that featured crosses on the King and Queen of Hearts\' sashes, a yellowish-brown King of Spades, and more.
These are just simply amazing. I\'m in shock and awe. Guard those cards with your life.
I wish that I personally had the Card Sharks cards, but I doubt that day will ever come. If nothing else, when I started doing Anime Card Sharks last year, I did the next best thing and made my own decks for the show. And yes, those things ARE heavy.
....this thread has now referenced three of my non-game show hobbies.
I had two of the Aces pegged before you began showing the cards, and got the third
Ace by process of elimination after you revealed Rei Ayanami. I\'d have had Belldandy
as a Queen and bumped Mononoke back down with Kiki and the other Miyazaki
heroines, but that\'s just me. (My license plate reads HOLYBEL; I may be biased.)
I was rather surprised Lum didn\'t make the cut, though...
(The Gambit deck weighs about 8.5 pounds, box and all.)
....this thread has now referenced three of my non-game show hobbies.
I had two of the Aces pegged before you began showing the cards, and got the thirdAce by process of elimination after you revealed Rei Ayanami. I\'d have had Belldandy
as a Queen and bumped Mononoke back down with Kiki and the other Miyazaki
heroines, but that\'s just me. (My license plate reads HOLYBEL; I may be biased.)
I was rather surprised Lum didn\'t make the cut, though...
(The Gambit deck weighs about 8.5 pounds, box and all.)
Those look incredible...how long did it take you to make them?
8 1/2 pounds? Man, did I get off easy, cuz those things look so much lighter. Maybe the real CS decks WERE as heavy as Jim said back when.
These decks took about 4 months of on and off work, and were finished literally the night before we had to use them. As far as the characters, I chose none of them. My teammated Robert & Trevor decided on who ended up where. Far as I can tell, they decided the more iconic the anime, the higher its value was. We kept our promise of 52 cards = 52 anime. A couple of their personal favorites made the lower end of the scale. But if I never have to redraw LilyBit again...
Oh Rstrata. After seeing these pics, I have broken a commandment...\"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor\'s posessions\". Those cards look in incredible shape for being 40 or so years old. The entire deck?
Forgive me if this has been asked before, but did that deck include jokers? I know they never used them on the actual show.
You mentioned something about stains on some of the cards? Are they like stains from aging, or was something possibly spilled on them?
A truly magnificent and most prized game show prop posession you have sir. Because of how much I loved \"Gambit\" and adore those giant cards, I would never allow myself to come to your house to visit to look at them, out of fear that my DROOL might in some way, shape or form further taint those beauties!
Such a shame that \"Catch 21\" didn\'t use these types of cards. If ever you take a picture of all 52, I\'d LOVE to see that! LOVE LOVE LOVE to see that, especially those gorgeous face cards. Love the way the Clubs are drawn. Just phenomenal.
I\'d also love to get my hands on a pair of the original Trebek High Rollers\' dice.
I cannot tell you how creeped out I am right now. Especially what with that last sentence.
I was already creeped out at \"Anime Card Sharks\" above that.
How exactly would you carry that out? What kind of questions would you ask to 100 anime fans?
\"We asked 100 anime fans: Who was your favorite character in Ranma 1/2? How many of them said their favorite was P-Chan?\"
\"We asked 100 anime fans: Have you ever sculpted a Totoro out of a baked potato? How many said yes, they did?\"
Honestly, he without sin. There are lots of ways to target a survey at a niche audience.
How exactly would you carry that out? What kind of questions would you ask to 100 anime fans?
\"We asked 100 anime fans: Who was your favorite character in Ranma 1/2? How many of them said their favorite was P-Chan?\"
\"We asked 100 anime fans: Have you ever sculpted a Totoro out of a baked potato? How many said yes, they did?\"
Honestly, he without sin. There are lots of ways to target a survey at a niche audience.
Totoro out of a baked potato? Hadn\'t thought of that one yet, not sure I would have ever.
I have a survey form on my website where we ask our current surveys. We ask things relating to things associated with being an anime fan and the convention world, as well as cosplay, characters or plot points of particular anime, and even some \"what would you do\" kind of questions if you were in the anime yourself. A fast couple examples:
We asked 100 Naruto fans: If you could ever become a ninja, would you choose orange as the color of your uniform?
We asked 100 cosplayers: The first time you ever saw yourself in a new cosplay, did you ever think to yourself, \"Boy, do I look ridiculous?\"
We asked 100 American AND 100 international Hetalia fans: Do you feel that America\'s character is overexaggerated, or did the writers nail our country right on the head?
We\'re asking that last one right now on the survey form. You can also see our first YT episode for more (another coming soon). Gotta be creative, yes, but we\'ve done a good job so far, because it\'s quickly become our #2 game behind PYL. In the year and a half since we started surveying, we\'ve asked 72 surveys, and completed 43 of them. And we\'re taking fan-submitted questions on the site too. So to any of you who know a little something, come on by and fill in some things and make a few of your own.
@wdm1219inpenna:It\'s the full deck of 52, with no jokers; I doubt any were ever made, since thegameplay of Gambit doesn\'t require them. There\'s no way I can take a pictureof all of the cards at once without a stepladder, and I don\'t think my livingroom floor is big enough to spread them all out on anyway. Upon closerinspection, some of what I originally thought were stains are actually spots inthe cardboard itself, while others are mysterious shiny splotches or scuffmarks. In my experience, on (what seems to be so far) a one-of-a-kind itemlike this, it\'s best to just leave them alone.
Well they didn\'t have to be perfect cards- just enough to be seen clearly on TV without any major marks visible. I\'m wondering if the scuff marks/splotches have to do with how the cards were sealed after they were shuffled? The CS cards were put in a giant envelope and taped shut, but it looked like (from the surviving ep) the Gambit cards had some sort of a paper band put on them- I wonder how often they made new decks? (I also remember that on a Perry CS ep a card got damaged when the freeze bar got caught in it when it was moving- they didn\'t necessarlily have to junk the deck, just make a new replacement card). Plus you think they\'d have to have several decks to work with for each taping session (figure they needed 4-5 for each episode, since they used a new deck for each match and each bonus game)...
![https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/551493_2788517249289_223485011_n.jpg](\"https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/551493_2788517249289_223485011_n.jpg\"){kind=link}
![https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/285270_2788568810578_1885228921_n.jpg](\"https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/285270_2788568810578_1885228921_n.jpg\"){kind=link}
![https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/72685_2795406901526_2068778245_n.jpg](\"https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/72685_2795406901526_2068778245_n.jpg\"){kind=link}
![https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/61755_2795407221534_1137800073_n.jpg](\"https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/61755_2795407221534_1137800073_n.jpg\"){kind=link}
![https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/156425_2795408261560_2041534707_n.jpg](\"https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/156425_2795408261560_2041534707_n.jpg\"){kind=link}
![https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/19802_2795412421664_1668257673_n.jpg](\"https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/19802_2795412421664_1668257673_n.jpg\"){kind=link}