GPK Blog

Garbage Pail Kids Cheap toys were introduced in 1986.  The toys were small plastic / rubber figures.  They were sold with “crummy candy” in a small green plastic “garbage bag.”  The bag also included a checklist.

Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys Packaging

Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys Candy

Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys 1st Series Checklist

There were two series of Cheap toys.  Each series included 10 figures.  The toys came in a wide array of colors.  Some colors were more rare than others.

Below is a complete collection of Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toy Figures.  The top row is the 1st series.  The bottom row is the 2nd series.

Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys 1st Series & 2nd Series Figures

1st Series Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys from left to right: Crater Chris, Brett Sweat, Brainy Janey, Adam Bomb, Thin Lynn, Grafitti Petey, Double Heather, Leaky Lindsay, Muggin Megan, & Alice Island.

2nd Series Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys from left to right: Picky Mickey, Distorted Dot, Still Jill, Galloping Glen, Catty Kathy, Beserk Kirk, Mouth Phil, Ali Gator, Les Vegas, & Fishy Phyllis.

There is much much more to learn about Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys.  You can learn a lot at GPKUG.  The godfather of cheap toys goes by the name Rusvan on GPKUG.  He knows everything there is to know about cheap toys.

There have been some people making custom Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys.  Some of the custom cheap toys are the exact same sculptures as the original cheap toys.  The custom toy designers have also made GPK cheap toy figures that Topps did not release in back in the 80s or created variations of characters from the 80s.

Custom Nasty Nick Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toy

Custom Adam Bomb Sitting GPK Cheap Toy

Custom Grim Jim GPK Cheap Toy

In early 2011, spanning a time frame of approximately two months, eBay seller ‘nakedrabbits’ listed a large amount of Garbage Pail Kids on eBay.  At any one time there are approximately 15-18,000 listed on eBay for the search term Garbage Pail Kids. To make his auctions stand out, nakedrabbits used a hot chick to model the items he put on eBay.  In my opinion this guy was a marketing genius.  Judge for yourself…

What OS2 GPK Box?

Are they getting bigger?

That's a fine set... of Garbage Pail Kids Posters

Tiny Tim has got a great view!

A different kind of "Rack Pack"

On eBay this nakedrabbits character has his location listed as ‘Behind the Zion Curtain, United States.’   In one of his auctions he listed a piece of Garbage Pail Kids Final Art and mentioned that it was framed by ‘Well Hung Framing‘ in Utah.  I don’t know what kind of weird $hit is going on in Utah but I have no problem with it as long as this chick is involved.

Now that's what I call a fine piece of art.

Prop 'em up there

The certificate says they are real!

I have no idea if the use of  this model helped nakedrabbits get higher prices for his auctions but what I can tell you is I’m sure he got more watchers and page views.  This OS1 Garbage Pail Kids full sheet sold for $1724.99; worth every penny in my opinion:

Thank you for wearing gloves

"Hold it steady honey"

Motorboat Anyone?

"Is this dress too tight?" Absolutely not!

April 13th 2011 was a sad day for GPK collectors, nakedrabbits and America as a whole.  All of nakedrabbits eBay auctions were pulled down for violating eBay’s terms of service.  I know this because I had his auctions saved in ‘My eBay’ and I received notice when they were pulled. I would like to know who the loser was that decided to complain?

Luckily we have Google cache and I was able to locate the following pictures. Now we can save them here forever. Lest we forget nakedrabbits, a true pioneer in Garbage Pail Kids eBay marketing.

Garbage Pail Kids 2nd Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 2nd Series Box Close-up

Garbage Pail Kids 3rd Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 4th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 5th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 6th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 7th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 8th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 9th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 10th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 11th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 12th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 13th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 14th Series Box

Garbage Pail Kids 15th Series Box

Lately Topps has been using a lot of borrowed ideas from their Wacky Packages brand on the Garbage Pail Kids.  Evidence of this would be the Wacky Packages Flashbacks that were released in 2008, 2 years before the GPK Flashbacks in 2010.  Also Wacky Package Erasers were released in 2011.  A Garbage Pail Kids Erasers set has been rumored for April 2011 but the latest news has it being released in late 2011.

For the Wacky Packages All New Series 7 release in 2010, Topps packaged some of the card in Cereal Boxes.  The Wacky Package ANS7 Cereal Boxes were packaged together in sets of 3 Cereal Boxes. Each Box contained 18 Wacky Packages Stickers and 2 “Exclusive” Stickers.  The price for the pack of 3 Cereal Boxes was $14.99.

Wacky Packages ANS7 Cereal Boxes

There were rumors that Topps was going to use the Cereal Box packaging for the Garbage Pail Kids Flashback 2 release in 2011.  Topps artist Jeff Zapata even developed the below concept:

GPK Cereal Box Mock Up

Unfortunately Topps did not release Cereal Box packaging for the GPK FB2 release.  This was disappointing to many collectors, especially after seeing the concept.

In April 2011 -TCT from GPK Underground Forum decided to advance the Jeff Zapata GPK Cereal Box Concept and produce and limited edition “Wacky Garbage” Garbage Pail Kids Cereal Box Card.  Tiny TIMMAH (also from GPKUG) printed up the cards on the same equipment used to print the Farsi Garbage Pail Kids Fan Set.  Approximately 80 Wacky Garbage cards were produced and -TCT distributed them to Garbage Pail Kids collectors at GPKUG.

GPK “Wacky Garbage” Cereal Box Card Front

GPK “Wacky Garbage” Cereal Box Card Back

GPK “Wacky Garbage” Cereal Box Card Letter

Dollar Tree stores have been stocking Garbage Pail Kids Flashback 2 Packs in their card sections.  How can this be you say?  Well since every item in the Dollar Tree store only costs $1, Topps has made special 4 card packs vice the 8 card regular retail and hobby packs.  Additionally, the 4 card GPK packs sold in Dollar Tree stores appear to only contain base cards, no parallels, sketch cards, printing plates or 3d cards.

As you can see in the below images, the Dollar Tree packs do not contain ratio information for parallels, sketch cards, etc.

Dollar Tree 4 card GPK Pack Front

Dollar Tree 4 card GPK Pack Back

Retail 8 Card GPK Pack Front

Retail 8 Card GPK Pack Back

Hobby 8 Card GPK Pack Front

Hobby 8 Card GPK Pack Back

Below is an opened Dollar Tree Pack

Opened Dollar Tree GPK FB2 4 Card Pack

The 4 card GPK FB2 packs came in gravity feed displays as seen below…

4 Card Garbage Pail Kids Flashback Pack Gravity Feed

If you decide to head to a dollar tree in search of these lame 4 card base card packs then please be warned!  The class of people that you will find in these stores can be quite scary.  Additionally their card sections (like the rest of the stores) are unorganized and inconsistent from store to store.

Dollar Tree Trading Card Section

It has been said that Dollar Tree also carried 4 card Garbage Pail Kids Flashback 1 packs similar to the above packs. I have been unable to confirm this. If anybody has any information please post it up!

Topps released the Garbage Pail Kids Flashback 2 in late February 2010.  The GPK Flashback 2 release consists of mostly Original Series (OS) GPK cards reprinted with really ugly borders, a few Lost GPK cards (from the U.S. 16th Series that were never printed back in the 80s) and some Where Are They Now cards.  There is also an Adam Mania sub-set and a 3D sub-set of cards.

Apparently Topps did not spend a lot of time on quality control with the new GPK FB2 release as they had a huge mistake that should have been caught before hundreds of thousands of cards were printed and sold to collectors.

Lets start with a review… (For Topps sake)
This is the OS2 Card #79; Sewer Sue / Michelle Muck:

Garbage Pail Kids - Sewer Sue

Garbage Pail Kids Michelle Muck

This is the OS2 Card #75 Off-the-Wall Paul / Zach Plaque:

Garbage Pail Kids Off-The-Wall Paul

Garbage Pail Kids Zach Plaque

Now here is what Topps printed up and sold to collectors in the GPK FB2 release:

Michelle Muck? FAIL

Sewer Sue? Wrong!

Ooops!  Good job Topps!  Topps put the wrong artwork on the card.

I am pretty sure this is the individual that Topps hired to do quality control for the FB2 Release:

Likely Quality Control Associate for Topps

Contact Topps if you wish to express your dissatisfaction with their mistake!

Adam Bomb is the most iconic Garbage Pail Kid of all time.  He graces the front of countless U.S. and Foreign packs/wrappers, boxes, posters, advertisement literature, etc.  Here I will post all of the U.S. and Foreign Adam Bomb cards that I can think of.  I am sure I am missing some so please let me know if you know of any other Adam Bomb cards.

Adam Bomb U.S. Giant GPK Card

The U.S. first series Garbage Pail Kids are 3.5″ x 2.5″ and have a die cuts.  The U.S. version of the cards came with two back variations; matte and glossy.  The UK 1st Series Garbage Pail Kids are smaller than the U.S. version (3.0″ x 2.1″) and are not die cut.

U.S. 1st Series Adam Bomb

UK 1st Series Adam Bomb

In 1986 44 card test sets were released in Europe.  These sets consisted of only ‘a’ cards.  The test sets were found in Germany, Denmark, Holland, France, Jordan and Belgium.  The cards were smaller than U.S. Garbage Pail Kids and measured approximately 2.125″ x 3″.

German Test Set Adam Bomb

French Test Set Adam Bomb

Dutch Test Set Adam Bomb

Below you will see the Australian and New Zealand versions of Adam Bomb.  Both cards are found in the 1st Series releases for the respective countries.  You will notice the main diference between the cards are the banners.  The Australian Adam Bomb uses a straight banner while the New Zealand version has a curved banner.  Both cards are smaller than U.S. versions and the same size as the UK version.

Australia 1st Series Adam Bomb

New Zealand Adam Bomb

Below is the French and Spanish versions of Adam Bomb.  Both cards are from the 1st Series releases.  Both versions of the card are 2.5″ x 3.5″ which is the same size as the U.S. version.

French 1st Series Adam Bomb

Spanish 1st Series Adam Bomb

Next we have a couple offerings from South America; Argentina’s Alex Plosivo and Brazil’s Rambo Bomba.  Both versions of the card are 2.5″ x 3.5″ which is the same size as the U.S. version.  Notice that the Basuritas card has a die cut while the Gang Do Lixo card does not.

Argentina - Adam Bomb

Brazil - Adam bomb

Up Next we have two of the coolest and rarest Adam Bombs; the Japanese Bukimi Kun and the Israeli Havurat Ha’zevel.  Both of these cards are the same size as the U.S. cards.  Very few Bukimi Kun cards are known to exist and the Israeli version of Adam Bomb also seems to be quite rare.

Japanese Bukimi Kun Adam bomb

Israeli Adam Bomb GPK Card

Here are a couple of Argentine Adam Bombs from the Basuritas and Monsters release and an Adam Bomb from the Chile Solo Adam Bomb release.  All of these South American Garbage Pail Kids cards are quite small and printed on very thin paper.

Argentina Adam Bomb Certificate Card

Argentina Basuritas Adam Bomb

Chile Solo Basuritas Adam Bomb

Italy had quite a few releases.  The card on the left is from the 1st series GPK release.  This card is 2.5″ x 3.5″.  The card on the right is from the Italy Mega Sgorbions release and measures 3.4″ x 4.8″.  Please note that there was a second series Mega Sgorbions released with an Adam Bomb having the identical front as the one seen below.

Italy Sgorbions Adam Bomb

Italy Sgorbions Mega Adam Bomb

A series called Holiday Sgorbions was also released in Italy.  This set contained two Adam Bombs.  The one on the left is the Metallic Adam Bomb and measures 2.1″ x 2.7″ The card on the right is the Adam Bomb Tattoo and measures 1.7″ x 2.4″.

Italy Holiday Metallic Adam Bomb

Italy Holiday Adam Bomb Tattoo

The I Mitici stamp set was also released in Italy.  The card on the left is from this set.  The card on the right is a lenticular Adam Bomb card that goes with the Italy Kakkones 1st series.

Italy I Mitici Adam Bomb Stamp

Italy Kakkones Adam Bomb

The next two cards we have are the ANS Adam Bomb Releases from Argentina and Brazil.  At some point the Adam Bomb on a lot of the newer cards started looking more cartoonish than previous older versions.

Los Asquerositos ANS Adam Bomb

Brazil ANS Gang Do Lixo Adam Bomb

Here are a couple of lesser known versions of Adam Bomb from Europe.  Both Sweden and Finland released ANS1 sets which included silver foil sub-sets.  The first card in each sub-set was an Adam Bomb.

Finland ANS Adam Bomb

Sweden ANS Adam Bomb

Next we have two Adam Bombs from the U.S. ANS1 release; one gold and one silver.  These were part of foil chase card sets for the U.S. ANS1 release.

U.S. ANS1 Gold Adam Bomb

U.S. ANS1 Silver Adam Bomb

On the left we have the gold foil Adam Bomb game card from ANS4.  On the right we have the gum wrap-around Adam Bomb which was found in ANS1.

ANS4 Adam Bomb Game Card

Adam Bomb Gum Wrap

Up next on the left is the Adam Bomb Alphabet card that was found in ANS5.  Back to ANS4 we also have an Adam Bomb Tattoo as seen on the right.

ANS5 Adam Bomb Alphabet Card

ANS4 Adam Bomb Tattoo Card

In the U.S. ANS4 release Topps did this card to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the original Adam Bomb card printed in 1985.  On the right you see a Wacky Packages parody of Adam Bomb.

ANS4 Adam Bomb Anniversary Card

Wacky Packages Adam Bomb Card

In 2010 Topps released the Garbage Pail Kids Flashbacks.  Card 3a was Adam Bomb.  There were multiple levels of parallel colored borders (yellow, green, pink, silver and gold).

GPK Flashback Adam Bomb - Yellow

GPK Flashback Adam Bomb - Green

GPK Flashback Adam Bomb - Pink

GPK Flashback Adam Bomb - Silver

There was also a Garbage Pail Kids Where Are They Now (WATN) sub-set included in the 2010 Flashback release.  Of course Adam Bomb was featured in this sub-set.

Adam Bomb Flashback WATN Yellow

Adam Bomb Flashback WATN Green

Adam Bomb Flashback WATN Pink

Adam Bomb Flashback WATN Silver

Now with the new Garbage Pail Kids Flashback 2 release hitting stores there will be many more Adam Bomb cards to come…