Dredd 'The Card Game'

In 1999 word ‘leaked’ out that there was a card game coming out from the world of Dredd, by Round Table Productions. Obviously I contacted the company as soon as I heard the news and very kindly they sent me a load of info about the planned release. So I kept watch of their website and waited and waited, until eventually I could join ‘as a judge player’ and start collecting.

The first release was a 300-card set, issued in 60 card patrol decks (with rule book) and 11 card backup packs. There was a future expansion set planned of between 120-150 cards all about the SJS, alas this never saw the light of day.

The card breakdown was as follows: -

300 cards: -

50 Vital

75 Common

 75 Uncommon

100 Rare

These broke down into the following sets: -

Judges 50

Resources 35

Crimes 25

Scenes 30

Perps 50

Incidents 90

Events 20

Here are a few of those cards from my signed collection, just to give you an idea of their design, as each set had a slighlty different layout. The last four (unsigned) cards were given away at certain times during the run up and release of the game.

The artists for these cards consisted of fan favourites, Colin MacNeil, Trevor Hairsine, Steve Sampson, S.B. Davis, Clint Langley, Peter Doherty, Jock, Greg Staples, Carlos Ezquerra, Siku, Jason Brashill, Dean Ormston, Sean Phillips and Dom amongst others.

When you join the game, so as to play at the planned future tournaments you choose one of four Divisions to join Street, Psi, Tek or SJS, obviously I joined the Street Division!
Once chosen, you receive an ID Card and The Law Bulletin (a six issues a year news magazine), this is crammed with all the latest information, deck designs, rules updates, competition information and numerous other items. One year’s membership costs £15. Included in this membership was the special promo card ‘Best of the Best’. All in all four promo cards were released, the other three were placed on magazines and the likes, Prog 1144 had ‘Get Mean’ on the front cover.

Sadly this went the way of many a Dredd item, it didn’t sell and therefore it soon perished. The predicted expansion sets never got the chance to be made  and only two Law Bulletin's were released. Still I managed to have a letter published in issue two, something even the great Buttonman couldn’t manage ;-)

I have managed to get my hands on five artists proof cards, Judge McCall & Rico Dredd by Jock, Orlock & Vandalism by Colin MacNeil and Crimeblitz by Dom. On the back of Judge McCall and Crimeblitz the artist has drawn a sketch. Alos I have the pencils from the two Colin MacNeil cards, which are to be framed. Also from the set I have managed to obtain two painted cards Perilous Gantry by Dean Ormston and Exemplary Cadet Record by Colin MacNeil. Both of these are stunning cards and the colours on Colin’s card are amazing. Below are the cards, the two MacNeil pencils also show the actual playing cards, for comparison. I suppose I should have done the same for the painted two but time is against me as I am just finishing this piece off before I post it!

Two last things, I am currently in the process of trying to get as many cards signed as I can. At the moment I am 68/300, which isn’t too bad. Also, I have never managed to play this game, mainly due to the lack of Dredd and Gaming fans in Maidstone but also I suppose because they might get damaged, saying that I do have many multiples of most of the cards.

Mean Machine bust

This is a life size bust of Mean Machine, one of the members of the Angel family. I came across this on ebay one night and managed to get it for the first and only bid, which was a pleasant surprise. If you ask me some collectors just don't show true commitment!
The paint job is excellent, apart from the eyes (I'm sure I'll get someone to correct those, one day) and it does need a slight trim on the metal skull plate join but otherwise it looks quite good. Looking at the skull now, I wonder if I could pass that off as a badly welded joint, LOL
When I was looking at the item on ebay I noticed that there was a link to the sellers shop and he was selling these for over £100, unluckily for him, he put the starting price at £49.99.
Seeing as I know bugger all about model making I can't tell you what it's made of but it's very light and is filled out with that expanding foam stuff.
Anyway, here is the all round view of Mean, enjoy!

Judge Dredd Skateboard

Yes folks, you read correctly, there is a Judge Dredd skateboard out there. Well it does have the Clown on it as well but life isn't always perfect!
I managed to buy this at the third Dreddcon, which was held at the Brewery, in London, on the 14th December 2002. If memory serves me correctly, it was in the region of £40 but don't quote me on that.
Anyway I saw this on the 2000AD shop tables and bought it straight away and  then wandered off to get it signed, as both John Wagner and Jock were at the con!

You can see from the pictures that it's just the board, I only wish it had wheels with Dredd's badge on the sides, just to round it off. Not much else to say really, it's a skateboard without any wheels.

This Dreddcon is the one when 2000AD brought out quite a few new items from their shop including polo tops, beanie hats, hoodies, etc.... I'll save all those for another blog but lets just say, I ended up taking two black sacks of stuff back home with me.

Judge Dredd Stamps

I bet this has caught a few of you out, yes a couple of Dredd stamps. Still, not the comic Dredd and one without the helmet on, aaaaaargh! Nevertheless, stamps all the same.
I was informed about these from Rob, who runs the 2000AD collectables site (pop over and have a look). Again, this is something you would never find, even if you looked for them, as they came under Stallone's name and not Dredd's. I think it was an ebay shop, if I remember correctly and it was quite cheap, just the postage from from the US being the costly part.

Here he is, NOT wearing his helmet. The horror of it all....

Just to finish this off correctly, here is the full set depicting Stallone from a few of his films, that Tadjikistan obviously enjoyed.