Prize Wedge Hunter - Vintage Edition

Agreed, by around season 6 or 7 they seemed to have some more automated means of making transfers for prize wedges. There are several examples of variants starting around then that only differ in where the text is positioned on the wedge, or are clearly a revision of a prior design with some edits. I'm sure CNC machines were used for vinyl cutting on an industrial/commercial level long before brands like Cricut hit the consumer scene.

CYCLE was seemingly used just once as a prize wedge, in [S2-E313 Kathy Jo/Tom/Beth 2/27/1985].

The really odd thing is, this wedge was not even used to represent a motorcycle. It was used to offer an ATV. Motorcycles frequently were offered under the BIKE wedge instead.

The text on this wedge shows the use of keystoning, especially visible in the L and E.

Let me just roll up the CYCLE onto the wheel.

HORSE seemed to be another single-use prize wedge, being offered in [S2-E336 Susan/Beth/Ted 4/3/1985].

The font on this wedge seems to be less extended in width than other more recent wedges.

The prize offered with this wedge was, to my mild disappointment, not a real horse, but an alabaster horse finished in gold and silver leaf. It was a fairly rare sub-$1000 prize, of which only 19 were known to be offered in syndication.

Let's go see a wedge about a HORSE and put it on the wheel.

This is the super-mysterious, very rare BOX wedge. As you might expect from it being called rare, it has been seen in only one episode, [S2-E350 Lu Ann/Rich/Sharon 4/19/1985]. However, what makes this wedge super-mysterious is that we don't actually know what prize was being offered, even though it was won!

The video source currently in circulation for this episode is partial, and comes in in-progress in round 2 with the BOX wedge already on Sharon's podium during Rich's turn. Sharon's turn comes around and she solves for $1,050. This brings her total to $3,400, but we don't know how much of that is from her mentioned Round 1 win, and how much is from the BOX.

What is the BOX??? One guess would be the same Sterling Silver box offered under the SILVER wedge at other times in the season (the one that is "Eye-arresting, contemporary, tactile, rock motif") but the math on that does not work out - that box was worth $1,975, which would require a round 1 total of $375, which would not be likely with no DV wedges ending in 5. The only way I can think of that it could happen is if she had put $25 on account and then lost it to a Bankrupt early in Round 2. It could also be the $2,000 box with the French floral pattern. The math works out better for that, putting Sharon's round 1 winnings at a more attainable $350. We won't know for sure until a better video source surfaces, though.

Capturing this wedge was kind of tricky - with no actual shot of it on the wheel, I could choose between a shot of it on the podium or a shot of Pat holding it up at the end of the round before unceremoniously dropping it to the floor on its short edge. That drop might explain why we never see this wedge again.

The mystery BOX is now on the wheel, whatever type of box it might be!

Next we have another seemingly single-use prize wedge variant. SKI was used in [S2-E354 Diane/Linda/Ronda 5/2/1985], but then was not used again until Season 6 when a new variant was introduced. Starting in Season 9, we start seeing many offshoot wedges: SKI TRIP, SKI COLORADO, SKIING, SKIS, SKI BIG BEAR (my personal favorite), and SKI WEAR. Just plain SKI was last seen in Season 12, with a total of 7 known appearances.

In the season 2 offering, the prize was a Kawasaki Jet Ski. With the later season variants, the prizes were related to snow skiing.

I don't SKI, so I'm going to walk over instead and put this wedge on the wheel.

This JEWEL variant saw a little bit of mileage between Seasons 2 and 5. It completely replaced its off-brand-fonted predecessor, first known to appear in [S2-E358 Karen/Clare/Scott 5/8/1985], and last known to appear in [S5-E782 Sandy/Mark/Jim 9/29/1987] with a total of 6 known appearances. After that it was replaced with a Season 5 variant.

The typography on this wedge is keystoned, like some of the other early prize wedges. There seems to be a lot of unevenness between the various elements, making me think that this wedge might also be in part hand-drawn.

At any rate this is a real JEWEL of a wedge to put on the wheel.

CAR was a fairly popular prize wedge, appearing at least 27 times between Season 2 and Season 10. After Season 10 cars did not seem to be offered directly via prize wedge, but would find their way back onto the wheel through other means.

This particular CAR wedge variant saw a bit of mileage, with 9 known usages between Seasons 2 and 5. It was first seen toward the end of Season 2 in [S2-E368 Carol/Darrell/Debbie 5/22/1985]. It was especially prolific during Season 4, and then it was last seen in [S5-E825 Jean/Kathy/John 11/13/1987], after which it was replaced with a Season 5 variant.

CARs were one of the most valuable prizes offered through a prize wedge. Indeed, through Season 15, the top three known prizes by value were all CAR, and five of the top ten known prizes by value were CAR. The record-holder for top-value prize offered via these Prize Wedges is the $31,211 Cadillac Seville offered in [S4-E655 Michelle/Debbie/Harvey 11/21/1986].

It's a good thing my wheel is nice and sturdy and has good suspension, since now it has to hold a CAR.



This wraps up all known Season 2 prize wedges! There are still dozens of episodes MIA for Season 2, and given the number of single-use wedges we saw in this season, I'd be almost certain that there are a couple of other mysterious uncatalogued wedges out there. Maybe they will reveal themselves in time, but for now it's time to move on to Season 3!

I just had a cursed thought.... what of Sony literally copied Whammy TANPYL's first season and used this in the bonus round after this was picked up in the main game buyavowel.boards.net/post/134018/thread