In 1986, Major League Marketing became the fourth fully licensed card producer. In March, they released their debut trading card set: Sportflics. Developed by Optigraphics of Arlington, Texas, the cards used a state-of-the-art printing process called "lenticular printing." They were referred to as a "Triple Action Magic Motion®" card. Each card changes its picture three times. One headshot and two action shots of one sequence given the effect of the player either hitting or pitching. Optigraphics trademarked the idea on March 22nd, 1976. Sportflics was trademarked on December 15th, 1985. Optigraphics was owned by Ann Blake, whom later produced Score cards in 1988, and eventually start Playoff, Inc.
The 200-card set plus 133 trivia cards were touted as “Series #1” and the back of the packs told collectors to “Watch For New Series”, however, no second series ever materialized.
The 200-card set was made up of 139 base cards and 41 subset cards. Most of the stars of the day had five to eight cards each.
The front design (intentional or not) is very similar to the 1953 Bowman set. The back of the cards when applicable gave a relatively extended overview bio of the player along with their basic raw statistics for their career. The back of the card is also noteworthy because it lists the player's uniform number. A first in baseball card information.
Intended as innovation - it appeared to be gimmicky. Amurol Products president A.G. Atwater, the company responsible for distribution, said "Sportflics are official baseball cards but they have much greater dimension that other cards." [1] Nevertheless, The Hobby, in general, couldn't see pass that the cards were reminiscent of the Kellogg's 3-D cards (1970 - 1983) and the 1984 Seven-Eleven Coin set.
The unintended innovation came in its packaging. This was the first time that a tamper proof foil wrapper was used.
Card #182 showcasing "1985 Milestones" uses the picture of young fan, Matt Tallman, to represent the record setting attendance at MLB games.
Considered to be the least produced of the four licensed MLB card products from 1986.
According to hobby lore, 50 to 100 copies of the Robin Yount's card with a Yankees logo were produced.
