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I assume I had a full set of all 45 The Champions collectable cards back in the day, but if not, I certainly had most of them. The accompanying 'confectionery' is anathema to me, so was swiftly disposed of by either immediately binning it or giving it to my brother or a friend. (Its precise fate would obviously depend on who - if anyone - was with me at the time of purchase.) Nowadays, modern card sets featuring all sorts of subjects are sold by themselves (usually in packets of 6) without the need to indulge a kid's sweet tooth - if only it had been like that back in my day.
I think the cards first became available in 1968 not long after the show debuted on TV, but they'd disappeared from my neck of the woods sometime in 1969. To my mind they were 'old hat' by 1970, so imagine my surprise when on holiday in Rothesay that year, I rediscovered them in abundance in a newsagents not far from where we were staying. I bought a goodly number of them, and, if I didn't have a full set first time around, I did this time.
Inexplicably, back home from holiday, I cut the margins off the cards, but for some reason never disposed of them; they lay scattered around the 'floor' of our loft for a couple of years and, when we moved house in June of '72, I gathered them up and took them with me to our new home where they took up residence in the attic. I guess I'd just become so used to seeing them in our old loft that I wanted to continue that familiarity in our new abode. They were there, if I recall correctly, for close to the entire 11 years of our first term in the place and, unless at some point I gathered them up and disposed of them before flitting, perhaps some yet remain there, awaiting rediscovery.
Anyway, thought you might enjoy being reminded of something from your youth if you're old enough to remember them, so here's the first card in the series along with its secret decoder. Any memories of the cards or the TV show that spawned them? Then feel free to share them in the comments section.
Incidentally, Alexandra Bastedo died in 2014 at the no-age-at-all of 67, and Stuart Damon passed away in June of this year, aged 84. The third and final Champion William Gaunt (though he's filled out a bit now) is still with us today, also 84. A few years ago I treated myself to the DVD boxed set of the show, but haven't actually watched any episodes - must get around to it sometime.
23 comments:
In was, and still am, a big fan of the ITC series, of which The Champions was one, and enjoyed the series whenever it was sporadically screened down here in Australia.
I have since acquired the box set and put an episode on from time to time. Takes me right back to the early 70s, when I used to see them here. Never knew about the card series but I guess there were not too many series around the 60s and 70s that didn't have a card series version.
I have The Champions, The Saint, Man In A Suitcase, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), and quite a few other box sets of classic British telly, PC, not all by ITC of course. In some ways The Champions was a disappointment, because their 'superpowers' were never shown in a dynamic enough manner for me. Still, there was always Alexandra Bastedo to ogle at - and I did.
I'm watching this show every Sunday night on talking pictures tv even though I have the box set which I can't be bothered to go and look for Fantastic show Andrew L
Yes, it was an enjoyable show, AL, but I still wish they'd 'punched-up' the superpowers angle.
I like the part just after the opening credits where they focussed on a certain superpower. Last 2 weeks Sharon could see in the dark and Craig stole a gun by using his pickpocketing power. Not too exciting
Think what they could do if that show was made today, eh? There was talk of a movie back around 2007, but nothing seems to have come of it.
There was a shop near us when I was growing up who sometimes sold sweets that were obviously way past their sell-by date and had probably been forgotten in a storeroom for some time
For example, they were still selling Kojak lollies (with drawings of Telly Savalas's grinning face on the wrapper) in 1987! I'm also nearly sure I saw sweets with the Jon Pertwee version of Doctor Who on them a couple of years before that too...
I can't recall when the 'sell by' or 'best before' dates were introduced, DS. Can you remember? Most are only to safeguard the manufacturers against lawsuits anyway, they can't really know for sure when an item will go off - unless it's fruit or something like that.
I loved the Champions when I was a kid. I seem to recall there was a sound when the movers used their powers that we would imitate. I haven't seen it in years although it is on TV quit regularly I don't recall the cards at all
Yeah, it was like a wee musical cue, especially when they were using their ESP or extra-sensory perception, McS. I'll get around to watching them some day (I hope).
I'm currently reading the latest issue of SFX magazine which mentions the death of Stuart Damon so this post is quite a coincidence!
Another coincidence in this month's issue: I recently mentioned an issue of SFX from a few years ago which reviewed a DVD box set of 'Supercar' and they said that Mike Mercury looked like Prince Charles - well, this month's SFX has another review of 'Supercar' but on blu-ray disc this time. The series is given 4 stars (out of 5) and Mike Mercury isn't compared to Prince Charles!
I think whoever said that Mike Mercury looked like Prince Charles must've been on drugs, CJ. They look nothing like one another. What do you think?
Kid, I've never seen Supercar so I had to google Mike Mercury - I wouldn't have instantly associated him with Prince Charles but that reviewer might have been attempting humour anyway!
Maybe he was trying to suggest that Prince Charles was a bit of a puppet, CJ.
No idea when best-before dates were introduced, but health & safety was much more fast and loose in those days!
They were basically boiled sweets anyway, so I don't think those go off.
My memory says everything about The Champions was a disappointment. The wooden performances by the cast reflected the daft story lines. They just looked confused all the time.
William Gaunt was good in Sergeant Cork which was Scotland Yard tales set in Victorian times.
Boiled sweets? That'll be things like Spangles and Polo Fruits then, eh, DS? And Barley Sugar sweets.
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I think you see it through different eyes from me, T47, being around 11 years older than I am. I was only 10 when The Champions was first broadcast, so you'd have been around 21 and probably far too old for the subject matter of superpowered agents. You saw it as an adult and I saw it as a kid, and we always tend to have a certain affection for things from our childhood regardless of their actual merit. Having said that, objectively-speaking I don't think I'd disagree with you. But hey - it had Alexandra Bastedo! What more did it need?
Sadly The Champions was not made as a kid's show. Nice that as a kid you enjoyed it and while Alexandra Bastedo looked good her acting left a lot to be desired.
The earlier blog with Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg showed that women who could act could hold their own in an action show especially if the scripts/plot were good.
Wasn't suggesting it WAS a kids' show, T47, but the far-fetched theme was certainly one that would appeal to kids - and given the fact that any merchandise (comic strips, cards, etc.,) was aimed at kids, ITC certainly knew a lot of kids would make up a good chunk of their audience.
The Avengers was stylish and had polish, but the plots and acting were as camp as Larry Grayson, and a few episodes aside ('The House That Jack Built' for example), none of it was ever meant to be taken seriously.
As for Alexandra's acting, that's not what I was interested in anyway so I wasn't bothered. Having said that, she was only in her very early 20s at the time, if I recall correctly, and probably even she knew that she was there for her looks.
I'd forgotten about the Champions card set, Kid. Thanks for the memory trigger! I had the full set, I believe. From memory, most of the cards were from the pilot episode? (I may be wrong) Like you, Alexandra Bastedo was a great incentive to watch the Champions. I always liked William Gaunt in preference to Stuart Damon, I seem to remember. I'd forgotten that the cards had a secret decoder piece of cellophane, which was the same idea used to decide the Riddler's riddles on the back of set 5 of the Batman cards a few years earlier.
Is the box set worth getting?
I believe that the photos did come from the pilot episode, B. As far as I know, there is no box set of The Champions cards available - if you're thinking of a deluxe set like the 1989 Batman cards reissue.
The Champions had a great premise and music. Good acting. I found the scripts and plots to a bit weak in that they never quite pinned down what were their powers exactly. The show never seemed to want to fully embrace it's super hero tendencies.
I think their powers were telepathy, endurance, increased physical strength and speed - that sort of thing, PS. Perhaps they were constrained by budget and the fact that they couldn't really do the sort of effects necessary to make the characters' powers convincing.
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