Saturday, April 2, 2016

Mirror Mirror

I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with it but the 1988 Pee Wee's Playhouse set has definitely cost me some hours researching matters and comparing cards to see what I had against what is a 159 card master checklist.

The set was covered here a while back

33 base cards with 33 variations
44 stickers, including 4 checklists
12 lenticular wigglers
12 tattoo sheets
25 activity cards, including 3 mirror variations

The mirror cards have been driving people nuts for almost thirty years now and I thought I would show them here so you all can see what you may or may not have in your collections if you collect this set.

The first mirror image concerns a skull:


The easiest way to make out the differences are by looking at the cracks atop the skull.  If you look at the 11 o'clock example on the tops card, you will see the crack snakes up in a zigzag pattern.  The bottom, mirrored image, has a straighter line in that position.

The second mirrored card's variations are a little easier to discern:


The size of the little white triangles at the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions around each eye are the best clue here.  It's still subtle but a little bit more obvious then the skull cracks!

Card #3 is by far the easiest of the mirrors to ID.  You can see the most prominent difference quite easily:


The blue and green eye color switches are a dead giveaway!  The "reflectors" are also rotated in an obvious way.

Each of these have other differences as well but they are very, very minute and easier to see than describe if that makes sense.

The base cards each come with two different borders: 


It's pretty easy to see the different borders and in fact, all are quite simple to spot.  I'm not going to catalog these but you can drive yourself around the bend looking to fill in the variations across all types of cards in this innovative set.
I'm down to needing two stickers (nos. 11 & 40) to complete mine.  And yes, that is a big hint!



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