Young Guns | Cavalcade of Awesome

Archive for Young Guns

More Young Guns vintage trading cards!

Posted in 80s, Billy the Kid, books, movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Movie Novelizations, movies, pop culture, Young Guns on July 8, 2015 by Paxton

A month or so ago Shawn Robare and I unveiled our custom set of vintage Young Guns trading cards. I showed you the even numbered cards in the set (Billy, Dick, Charlie, Tunstall, etc) and Shawn showed the odd numbered cards (Doc, Chavez, Dirty Steve, Murphy, etc). Also, if you guys were paying attention, we both revealed some variant/chase cards over on Cult Film Club which featured alternate image cards as well as custom book covers for the movie novelizations Shawn and I so wish existed. Click the cover below to see these alternate card images plus see the other Young Guns novelization cover.

As such huge fans of the Young Guns movies, Shawn and I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I mean, if we do an entire custom made vintage set of trading cards for the first Young Guns movie and then can’t do one for the sequel, then what are Shawn and I doing here? Not our jobs, I’ll tell you that much.

So, we dug in and made a second set of cards for the sequel and now it’s time to see those cards. Like last time, I’m going to show you half the set here. If you want to complete the full set of Young Guns II cards, hop on over to Branded in the 80s and see Shawn reveal the second half of the set.

First off, lets check out the wax paper wrappers. Here’s the main wrapper with Billy.

And as is sometimes done, we made a variant wax wrapper for the set featuring Pat. Shawn even has a rare third wrapper variant over in his article featuring Arkansas Dave. Check it out.

YG2 wax wrapper 2

Now, let’s take a look at the odd numbered cards in this set. Like I said, jump on over to Branded in the 80s to see the even numbered cards in the set. You can click any of these images to see them BIGGER on Flickr.

Continue reading →

Young Guns vintage trading cards are gonna shoot you in the face with AWESOME

Posted in movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags movies, pop culture, Young Guns on May 12, 2015 by Paxton

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of Back to the Future, retro video gaming and the Young Guns movies. I’ve reviewed the movies on this blog for Billy the Kid Week and I’ve done a double episode of Cult Film Club where I talk about my complete thoughts on the Young Guns movies.

My good friend and CFC co-host, Shawn, is also a huge fan of the Young Guns movies. You can hear him talk all about them on that double CFC episode as well. We also take some time to wax regret that Young Guns wasn’t merchandised as well as it should have been. No toys. No movie novelizations. No photo magazines. NOTHING like that exists for this franchise.

So, Shawn has been busy making custom vintage trading cards for his favorite 80s movies (Adventures in Babysitting and Monster Squad) and they are AWESOME. He and I started talking and I talked him into joining me and creating a set of vintage trading cards for the Young Guns movies. BOTH Young Guns movies.

So, let’s start off with the first movie. Shawn and I made around 20 cards for the first series. We collaborated on the “look and feel” of the card as well as what characters should be included. Then we split them up into Odds/Evens and each completed our portion in Photoshop. It was an awesomely collaborative process that is fun to do with Shawn anyway because we are simpatico about many things, but especially about these movies.

To begin with, I’ll show you half of Series 1 here. Then jump on over to Branded to complete the full set.

Let’s ride!

Here are the two variant wax wrappers we made for this first series of Young Guns vintage trading cards.

Now, let’s take a look at the cards themselves. Like I said, I’m showing you the odd numbers of the set. Shawn will show all the even numbers.

Click the images to make them BIGGER! And head over to Branded in the 80s to complete this set of Young Guns trading cards!

Shawn and I also did a second series of this featuring images from Young Guns II. They will be revealed shortly. PLUS, we have a few other surprises in store including some chase and variant cards to this set. So stay tuned.

I’ve had so much fun these last few weeks working with Shawn on this set of cards. I just wanted to thank him for indulging me and letting me join him in bringing these to life. So much fun that I’m sad it’s nearly over. Luckily, I still get to talk to him every month on Cult Film Club.

UPDATE! – 5/18

Want to see more of these? We just released two movie novelization book covers for Young Guns and Young Guns II. Plus, there are some alternate/chase cards on display. Check them out at Cult Film Club.

6 Comments »

Cult Film Club does a Young Guns Double Feature!

Posted in Billy the Kid, Genres, movies, podcast, pop culture, Western with tags Cult Film Club, gunfighters, gunfighters and lawmen, movies, podcast, Young Guns on December 16, 2014 by Paxton

This month Cult Film Club does our very first double feature episode! In this double feature we are discussing BOTH Young Guns movies!

YG_doublefeaturey

And the discussion went on so long we had to split it into two episodes. So, Episode 22a of the Cult Film Club podcast focuses on the first Young Guns movie. We talk about our history with the movie, our favorite scenes, the voluminous cast and the lack of movie score.

Then, Episode 22b is all about the sequel, Young Guns II. We discuss our history with that movie, our favorite scenes, the voluminous cast and cameos, the awesome Silvestri score as well as a little bit of Billy the Kid’s history.

It’s a super fun discussion and we hope you have as much fun listening to it as we did recording it. And if you did enjoy our Young Guns double feature go check out Shawn and my list of our ten favorite movie gunfighters.

Download the latest CFC episode from iTunes or Stitcher.

Billy the Kid Week 2010: Young Guns turns 22 years old this month

Posted in Billy the Kid, movies, pop culture, reviews with tags anniversary, Billy the Kid, Billy the Kid Week, movies, reviews, Young Guns on August 12, 2010 by Paxton

Welcome to Day 4 of Billy the Kid Week. I’ve been reviewing Billy the Kid movies every day. Here are the previous days’ reviews:

Day 0: Young Guns II 20th birthday
Day 1: Howard Hughes’ The Outlaw
Day 2: The Left Handed Gun starring Paul Newman
Day 3: Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Which now brings us to today’s movie review, Young Guns, which also celebrates its 22nd birthday today.

Young Guns was released on Aug 12, 1988. I was fourteen years old. I didn’t see it on the day of release, I saw it later that year. I didn’t know that much about the movie going into it, only that it was a western starring Emilio Estevez. I decided to see it on a lark towards the end of the movie’s run.

When I was done watching it, I was blown away. I had no expectations going in so this movie blew me out of the back of the theater. I loved it. I was especially in love with Emilio’s portrayal of Billy the Kid. He played the living sh*t out of that character. Also, the movie was full of action and snappy dialogue. I loved the movie so much I started reading everything I could get my hands on about Billy the Kid. I checked out library books about real life gunslingers and started reading western fiction including titles like The First Fast Draw by Louis L’Amour and other Billy the Kid titles like Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry. It really shaped some of my interests during high school. I was even Emilio Estevez’s version of Billy the Kid for Halloween one year.

So, for the 22nd anniversary I sat down with my wife and watched this movie for the first time in probably 9-10 years. It was the first time ever for my wife to watch it. When I watched this movie last I remember thinking that I had started liking Young Guns II better, I thought it was more fun. I remember thinking that Young Guns was a little more boring than I remembered. Well, I’m here to say that my 10 years ago self was full of crap. This movie is anything BUT boring. I still love it.

Continue reading →

4 Comments »

Young Guns II turns 20 years old today plus Billy the Kid Week

Posted in Billy the Kid, movies, nostalgia, sequels with tags anniversary, Billy the Kid, Billy the Kid Week, movies, pop culture, Young Guns on August 1, 2010 by Paxton

As you know, we love movie anniversaries here on the Cavalcade. Together, you and I have seen huge franchises reach their 25 and 30 year anniversaries (Back to the Future, The Empire Strikes Back), which, I don’t know about you, makes me feel old as hell. Anyway, today’s movie could still be considered a “young” one (compared to these other franchises, oh, and PUN!). It was released in the first year of a new decade, 1990, but is hands down one of my favorite movies from when I was growing up.

Young Guns II was released on August 1, 1990, 20 years ago today. I was 16 years old when this movie was released.

The original Young Guns was one of my favorite movies of all time. So, needless to say, in 1989, while watching MTV Movie News, when I first saw a report about the filming of Young Guns II: Hell Bent for Leather (original subtitle while it was filming), I nearly lost my damn mind. I had no idea they were going to make a sequel (oh, the days before the internet).

So, I saw this movie the day it came out and I loved it nearly as much as the original. In my mind, it had a few flaws but it was a solid sequel. Both of these movies touched off a love in me for the Old West. I was soon reading everything I could get my hands on about Billy the Kid and other famous gunfighters like
Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Sundance Kid. I even started reading Louie L’Amour novels (which are boring as all hell). It was the Young Guns movies that got me to watch Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns (The Good, Bad and the Ugly) and newer “modern” westerns like The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Unforgiven, The Quick and the Dead and Tombstone. I actually had a picture of Clint dressed as Josey Wales hanging above the bed in my college dorm for 4 years. I still have a love for westerns (as well as Billy the Kid).
Continue reading →

13 Comments »