Automan

Automan never aired in Finland, as far as I know. My dad used to watch the Sweden's channels (few of which were visible in our town - lucky me), since his mother language was Swedish. He informed me of the new Knight Rider-like series that was to be on soon. I was excited like a bunny in the meadows.
I was immediately hooked, man! I didn't know about the Tron-comparisons at the time. I knew of Tron only through Aku Ankka's (Finland's Donald Duck comic) editorial office's info corner. When the Tron came out, there was an article about it. It looked cool to the max, but I didn't see it until years and years after.

Back to the Automan. It was so cool it almost removed Knight Rider from power. But... Nah! The creator of both series is the one and only Glen A. Larson. The man!

Same actually happened when we saw James Bond's white Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me for the first time. I think my friends were little compromised, but I stayed true to K.I.T.T.
My quest is to buy a K.I.T.T. replica some day. What season the dash will be, that's anybody's guess. I love them all.

But... Automan's Lamborgini is magic-like machinery. Gotta love it! Oh, and this shirt is self made at the printing company. Thank youuu!

Star Trek - Creation Salutes

I spotted (or is it spocked?) this one when I was investigating the eBay's shirt "stock", just like a shirt-Sherlock.
I very much liked the vintage look, but had no idea what the design was made for. Was it a promo for some game? Or maybe a Trek-Con? And the more important, Am I a squirrel? Eh eh..
Anyway, my band Desyre has a song called "The Creation" and I thought it'd be cool to have a similar shirt. Actually I wore this particular piece of clothing when I went to the studio to sing "The Creation" and two other nice pieces.
The printing is kind of mediocre, but that's just groovy, baby. Unfortunately I have no idea when this was made. I've seen it on eBay couple of times after I bought this.

Stryper - Second Coming (2010)

When Stryper's gig here in Finland was confirmed, I knew I just had to make a shirt for the occation. The design is very retro on purpose. This was printed professionally at work - probably the last one I made before the lay offs came.

I was ever too happy when Stryper's founder and drummer Robert Sweet signed this. I also gave his brother, Michael Sweet my band Desyre's debut CD "Warning Of The Night" that same night. He promised to give it a listen. Haven't heard from him about the matter, though.
Luckily do I have some video-material of the band and fans around the merchandise desk. I've been meaning to edit it into a nice documentary. Somebody stop me... of being lazy!

Stryper - YaBA/SUC (198?)

Very nice bootleg shirt. On front the cover of Stryper's debut Yellow And Black Attack (the orig. design without the missiles and God's hand) and on the back just logo and a simple Soldiers Under Command-text, whick happens to be their second release. The printing isn't even that sharp, but I like this one a lot!
This is the kind of "done in a hurry" design that pleases my eye, because it has a strong nostalgic sense also. I wore this at work years ago and one dude came to me and asked: "What's this Stryper? Does it have something to do with Star Wars?" Too cool, baby!

Empire Strikes Back -pyjama (1980)

"Original Empire shirt" was what I read when I spot this one on eBay. What it turned out to be was a children's pyjama. Funny! The description didn't lie, though. I was just too excited to read it properly.
It's so tight it reveals my belly when I put it on and I can barely move my arms. My wife has that certain look in her eyes when I wear this. But it's so so cool, vintage to the max, baby!
Who can resist a shirt with cartoonish drawings of Darth and Boba?! Not me! Boba Fett is my favorite, anyway! And Vader too, of course.

May the Force be with You!

Battlestar Galactica (1978)

Galactica was probably my first touch with the sci-fi. Finland's MTV2 started to show it in the early 1982. I was just a little boy and super-excited about the space and all the explotions. In the kindergarten it was the constant topic among boys. Cylons were so cool. We were drawing the Vipers and laser guns all the time, as well as the Battlestar Galactica itself (we also built Lego-ships - oh, the memories). A guy across the street knew how to draw a Viper in 3D. He had drawn it on his white cap. He was our hero.

When I discovered this shirt, I had to buy it. It turned out to be smaller than a regular S. But it's ok. I can wear it few hours at a time. Ehh ehh..

That Glen A. Larson is one heckuva guy to create these shows of his.

Knight Rider (1982-83)

Knight Rider, A Shadowy Flight into the Dangerous World of a Man Who Does Not Exist. My childhood hero - and to this day, still a hero!
This was on eBay and immeditealy I was on a mission to get it! Well, I got it and was happier than a camper. I love jerseys and I love Knight Rider. Win-win-situation. It's in good condition and nice to wear.

Gotta love those series created by Glen A. Larson.

Bride - Live To Die

Bride's 1988 thrash-release "Live To Die" is a classic disc! Back in the day when I bought my first CD ever, it was Bride's "Snakes In The Playground" (1992). The orderform in it contained (among other intriguing articles) the "Live To Die"-shirt. Well, guess what? I didn't order it! Dang! To this day I can't understand why I passed it. One reason could be, that I was quite young and my experience with international orders wasn't there yet. Excuses, excuses. Anyway...

I had to make one myself then. This is professionally printed. The material is video-flex and it's high quality stuff. I used to work in a shirt printing company and sometimes when the business was slow, I did some printings for myself. This was a tricky one with the graphics. But it came out nicely. I didn't use any outside fonts. All the artwork is from the CD-cover.

Bon Jovi - Bad Name (1986)

Wow people! A shirt off of my most favorite album "Slippery When Wet". "You Give Love A Bad Name", one of the many mega-hits from that record.
Once again, got from eBay. Someone put a whole bunch of BJ-shirts on sale at once. For some unexplainable reason, I was one of the few - if not the only one - who made any bids. There were 5-6 shirts on the lot, all from the 80's (oh, I was in heaven). Maybe people thought these were fakes. Well, they weren't. And this was one of them. For once I hit the mother lode!

After I had made the payment, the waiting was longer than... something. In the end I had contacted the seller several times, because the package was nowhere to be seen. For consolation I was promised an interview picture vinyl-set containing 6 pcs 7" pic discs. And finally I received them all. Oh, the happy day! For some reason (probably economical) the seller hadn't used airmail. Dang!

KISS - Rock And Roll Over

This is a replica, but very nice one! This is also an eBay-acquired item. There were also the real one on sale, when I purchased this. The original was not in very good condition, so I made a strange decision not to buy it. Instead I chose this replica. What's wrong with me?
Firstly, this was cheaper and new. It had the same printing (i.e. not some "Farewell Tour 1996-300,00,06" on top or on the back) as the original.

So here we are. Nice piece of clothing. Soft and thin material.

Little piece of lyrics for the occation:

I WANT YOU

In the morning I raise my head
And I'm thinkin' of days gone by
And the thing I want out of life is
I want you (I want you)
I want you (I want you)

Etc.

Stryper - Soldiers Under Command (1986)

This is one nice looking baseball-jersey, lemme tell ya! I got this from eBay. Ever since I saw this for the first time, I wanted it. To me it was the 80's band-shirt personified. I don't remember how much I paid for it, but it was around $20-30 + shipping. It got away from me few times. The price was way up there on those occations, of course. When I made up my mind, I made the winning bid, no matter the price. Luckily it wasn't too silly.

When I first put in on, I discovered it was somewhat strangely sewn. It didn't sit right. My figure is quite unique also. I'm so tall and skinny, that sometimes I don't know is it my tummy and back that's hurtin'. Eh eh.. Anyway, little customisation will fix the problem. Haven't done it yet, though.

You also gotta love the "No Devil"-sign on the back! The devil is a loser! Period!

Heavenly Metal (1987)

I'm pretty sure I bought this one from a Summer Pentecostal Conference back in the middle-90's. Or was it some Youth Happening? It probably was. Who knows...

Anyway, I just loved the design. The graphic sports a very strong 80's vibe (my favorite decade).

As a metalhead and born-again Christian, this was just the thing for me. If I remember correctly (this time), the price was somewhere along 170 mk (Finnish Marks). It was a bit high for my taste at the time, but the money went for the Missionary and that's a good cause. So I bought it.

The back-print is very clever. It states the basic idea of Christianity in black letters. Titles of famous heavy metal and rock-songs have been thrown in with a red lettering. Too cool, baby!

Enlarge the pics by clicking them. Comments are very welcome. :)