The Wraith

How many of us have seen way cool The Wraith? Here in Finland it was titled Kosto Rajan Takaa (which translates loosely Revenge From Beyond). Actually quite cool title. It starred the young Charlie Sheen and Sherilynn Fenn plus couple more known actors. Also the Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor rawks big time!
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an original VHS-copy of  The Wraith (with the orig. artwork) before it came out as DVD. I took the logo from there and vectorized it for this shirt. It wasn't easy, lemme tell ya!

This was and is one of the movies I just had to have a shirt of. I love the movie and now I have some kind of a Wraith-shirt. Gotta go with this (for now). I haven't, actually, seen any official 80's Wraith-shirts. Do they exist, anyone?

Stryper - In God We Trust / To Hell With The Devil

My first Stryper shirt outside of Finland (even though it's a bootleg). A friend got this from eBay for about $30 (plus shipping). I hadn't paid that kind of money for a second hand shirt before. So, did I hesitate? Neva, sir! Back then I was the baddest Predator of Stryper shirts. Nowadays I take it a bit easier. I own at least 20-30 Stryper shirts. At least.

Before this I only had one other professionally printed Stryper shirt. I bought the 1992 European Tour shirt from a friend (practically for free).
BUT... It was the "Can't Stop The Rock" era and Michael Sweet had left the band already and Oz Fox handled the singing duties. In my mind, they weren't a complete band anymore, so I was constantly looking for a shirt from their earlier days. This was the one, mama!

I couldn't believe I was holding in my hands a Stryper shirt with the earlier logo and all. This was my favorite shirt for a long time, until I got my first Stryper 3/4-sleeve jersey from "To Hell With The Devil" tour '87.

Lion

Lion is a band, a great band, I accidentally bumped into. I happened to find a discount box full of heavy metal cassettes (at the brink of extinction of tapes) some 13 to 15 years ago at a department store. They were 5 Finnish Marks a piece, which in today's rates is 0.84€, roughly. So, Lion's European MFN-version of  Trouble In Angel City (1989) was the case here and man, did I fell in love with it! I did, that's what I'm tryin' to say, hey!

I hopped into our car while my mom was making the grocery circulation near by markets. I bought about five cassettes all in all, and slipped them in one by one. When Lion started to play, I was hooked. The intro was and is way cool, but strangely long, and I believe I fast-forwarded impatiently to get to the song it self. The first track is Come On and it kicks some serious behind.

Ever since that moment I've been searching for a Lion-shirt - with no luck.
So, when I was hired to a shirt-printing-company, I made one myself. Thank you very much!
Still I'd like to find a real deal someday.

They Drew First Blood

What can I say about this one? Rambo is one of the most treasured piece of my childhood. I was lucky enough to see it just at the right age. I believe I was 8 or 9 at the time. Just a little ant, anyway. Nowadays, I'm your regular grasshopper!

VCR was kinda rare treat in the early 80's, but there was one at one of my friend's. As I remember it, some years went by until the rest of us (in our gang) got such a machines.

Anyway, they had the coolest films, such as Enter The Ninja, Police Academy, Blues Brothers, Dirty Harry, Lone Wolf McQuade, Poltergeist, and of course the First Blood.
We were watching them all over again, time after time. And didn't get bored, no way! Once in a while we got some silly ideas, like fighting too hard core. Especially when we saw the first Mad Max, our king of the hill got a little rough. Oh, the bloody noses!

When I saw this particular shirt at the 80's Tees, I had to get it. Unfortunately they only had the bigger sizes left. Thus I was forced to customize mine into a sleeveless one. I also shortened it a bit (too much, heeh). So it's a summer-shirt now.
I was ever too happy to see the original cover art printed on the shirt. I think it's one of the coolest movie-paintings ever. Also, the music of First Blood is moving to the max, baby! Kudos to the late great Mr. Goldsmith!

Ratt - Out Of The Cellar

Back in the 1998-99 when I got my hands on this one, I didn't yet have the eBay-account, that's proven to be an important equation in my shirt-madness. My friend had done some business there and he kindly offered to get this for me (thanx Pete!). The price was ridiculously low (something like $10-12 + shipping). When he informed me he made the winning bid, I was a bit suspicuous until the shirt arrived. Suspicuous for the low price, not because I didn't trust the guy - which I did! Go Pete!
The multi-color-printing is not that dazzling, and I've been having my doubts about the genuinity. The vector-printing on the sleeves, however, rocks big time! All in all, this is one cool jersey! Glad to have it!
True piece of the 80's!

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!