We've got some phenomenal chip collections posted here. Serious (potentially) playable sets, classic vintage chips, including ones I didn't even know existed, and fantastic customs of all flavors.
That said, I've noticed that people who collect don't tend to limit themselves to just one thing. I've got another collecting "habit" that's been punctuated by a new acquisition. My "other" bad habit is collecting animation art. Yep... stuff from cartoons, but not quite what you think. Here's mine. Feel free to share, and pics are (generally) encouraged. (Please spare us your "spores, molds and fungus" collection. +1 for anyone who gets the reference).
My absolute favorite, and very first piece I ever got:
A 1995 limited edition cel featuring Pinky and the Brain (if you can't quite read it, 155 of 500). I picked this up the day before it officially went on sale, then later discovered it had sold out the run in less than 36 hours! What timing!
Well, the timing
actually coincided with a signing event by Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell and Tress MacNielle... the voices of Yakko, Wakko and Dot from Animaniacs. Turns out, Rob is also the voice of Pinky, and signed the COA for me:
He got a little carried away with the comma after my name, but I'm OK with it. Needless to say, I don't ever plan on parting with this. It's just too perfect. All I need to do now is get Maurice LaMarche (the Brain) to sign it too. Anyone know how to get a hold of him????
A production drawing from a Hershey's commercial from the 1980s. The animators would do the work on paper then hand those off to the "ink and paint" department. There, the cel* would have the artwork traced onto it, then be handed off to be painted with the colors. More recently, the cels were "inked" using xerography. Now, hand drawn animation will have the drawings scanned and digitally inked and painted.
I love this one because Wile E. Coyote looks like he's holding a stick of dynamite or ACME bird seed or the like.
Production cell from the 1980s era of the Pink Panther (hence the period dress on the group of kids). In the lower right corner, the cel has been signed by David DePatie, one of the creators of the Pink Panther (well, the animated one). This came with a reproduction of the background used for the show, but I opted to not have it framed with it as it is rather loud and takes away from the important part of the artwork... our favorite animated panther.
OK... admittedly, this doesn't look like too much, but it's actually amazing that it even exists. This is a storyboard drawing used during the production of the WWII army training film series done by Warner Bros. called
Private SNAFU. The specific short here was called
Payday and was used to educate the troops about the benefits of saving for life once they returned from the war.
I just added this one to the collection the other day. It hasn't been framed yet (which is why I have a scan of it rather than a photo). I've got a framing plan that will include the drawing as well as screen captures of the two title cards (the "Private SNAFU" card as well as the "Payday" card) and a capture of the corresponding part in the film.
So, what do
you collect besides chips???
* The term "cel" derives from the material the transparent sheets were first made from... celluloid. If you have ever seen
Cinema Paradiso, you know why celluloid is bad (highly flammable). Even though acetate was in use for much longer (and not even used today) the term still applies.
In the early days of animation, the celluloid material the cartoons were made on was rather expensive. Once the cels had been photographed and the resulting film checked, the cels were washed and re-used. Once the cel became too worn to re-use, it was thrown away. Some clever dumpster divers (probably studio employees) would hand onto the handful they liked the best. It's for this reason (the washing and ultimately the discarding) that truly vintage cels from the heyday of Hollywood animation are painfully expensive... easily into the five figure range.
All except the Private SNAFU storyboard drawing are framed and under plexiglass. There are some reflections from that, as well as the cel itself (especially in the Pink Panther one). You can see those, but I have done my best to reduce those as much as possible in Photoshop. Ideally, I need to get these into a proper studio to get good photos of them all.
