Alien 3 trading card set

[Machiko Naguchi]

I finally got my set of Alien 3 cards sorted and put into a binder. Overall I thought it was a strange set for a couple of reasons. I really liked the behind the scenes photos and information section of cards. It had more cards and better information than all the other sets I believe.

But I found a few strange things that I didn't like as well. First of all the card that you think is the title card with the movie name and logo is actually number 53 and is randomly right in the middle of the set. I decided to put it at the beginning because it obviously acts like the title card.

The next thing was as the cards are telling the story it builds up to the end and then completely skips the killing of the alien and moves onto the WY commandos. Finally as I was going through the pictures of cast members (which strangely are at the end) I found that there is no Ripley card. I thought that it was odd to not have a card for the main cast member even though they have many inmates that are barely in the movie.

Anyone else find these things odd?

[Nightmare Asylum]

I actually have most of this set. Bought it at a card show a while thinking it was complete, but a handful of cards were missing.

Never noticed the lack of images from the finale, but if I had to guess it's because the CGI wasn't finished in time for the makers of the cards to get images and still have the set published in time to tie in with the film. The Alien exploding was the most CGI heavy shot in the film.

No comment on the lack of Ripley. Never noticed that myself, though it's been ages since I looked at the cards.

[Corporal Hicks]

The Alien exploding was the most CGI heavy shot in the film.

Twas the only CGI shot in the film, as I recall.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Probably, yeah. The Bambi-burster was only CGI in the AC, right? Because that's what I was thinking of.

[Corporal Hicks]

Twas CG they had done specially for the AC.

[Machiko Naguchi]

Well on some cards I noticed the picture didn't match perfectly with the story text on back. So they could have at least had a picture of the alien in the leadworks mold and had the text explaining how they blew it up.

Also, I thought there were a couple of cgi shots of the alien running on all fours along the floor/ceiling? Were these only in the Assembly Cut because that is what I have watched the last several times.

[Corporal Hicks]

It was something called mo-motion. A rod puppet filmed against blue screen and then inserted into the footage.

[Mr. Domino]

I'm still missing one smegging card from this set lol. Never fancied buying any more of it to finish it out, though.

[Corporal Hicks]

Which card?

[Mr. Domino]

*rummages through binder*

Looks like it was card # 55

[Corporal Hicks]

I'll check to see if I have any spares.

[HuDaFuK]

Just picked up this set myself, complete from eBay. I do agree it's a bit odd that the title card is #53, and that there's no Ripley card. Haven't had a chance to read through the adaptation (if you wanna call it that) of the film on the back yet.

One other slightly odd thing I've noticed though - considering all the stuff that got cut from the theatrical release of the movie, I thought it was a bit weird that the three outtake cards all focus on the same scene, namely the one in the abattoir. Nothing at all about the Alien actually being successfully trapped in the original cut, or Golic's original role, or any of the other changes.

Does anyone know when this set originally came out? 1992, obviously, but when in the year? May, to coincide with the film's US release?