Lately I’ve been going back through some of my older sticker posts here at Branded and looking for gaps in what I’ve covered (80s pop culture-wise.) I was kind of surprised that I never invested in any E.T. stickers when I initially started collecting. So I’ve since remedied that and thought it was high time I shared the handful of stickers I’ve picked up over the last year. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial is one of those touchstone flicks that basically defines the childhood experience of the early 80s, establishing and creating the template for the glut of kid adventure films that would come in its wake.
The merchandising blitz for the flick touched on pretty much every possible product from lunchboxes to toothbrushes, so it was no surprise when Topps released a set of trading cards and stickers in 1982…
Like a lot of the Topps card sets this one featured a sticker-card subset which featured 12 cards instead of the normal 11 that Topps typically issued. Not only was there an extra sticker to collect, but it was presented in a slightly weird format. Usually Topps featured full card size, die-cut stickers, and this one did have a lot of them, but two of the cards are actually comprised of 16 mini sticker sheets. I think this is the only time Topps did this if I’m not mistaken…
As was pretty standard for the time there were 9 different card backs which form a puzzle poster…
Topps wasn’t the only E.T. sticker game in town though as the merch blitz for the film was pretty damn intense. I’ve only managed to pick up a few other examples of stickers, though I think they’re pretty cool, in particular these Diamond Toymakers Sniff-Ums scratch and sniff stickers (also from 1982)…
There were at least 4 different scents; from left to right Flower, Grape, Peanut Butter and Pine. I love that the line art on these was repurposed so much within the set…
Next up is a Hallmark sticker sheet that I assume was meant for teachers to use on homework and tests….
I freaking love the idea of E.T. playing arcade games and I feel like this was a total missed opportunity in the film. I was wonder if there were any Atari commercials featuring E.T. playing his doomed game, and sure enough there is a Christmas themed one where he does just that! Also, while I’m on the subject there’s also another rad E.T. Atari commercial that features Andre Gower (Sean from Monster Squad) as Elliot too…
The last sticker I have to share today is another Hallmark sheet, though this one features just one single giant sticker…
I know there are way more E.T. stickers floating around out there (I’ve seen pictures of plenty of puffy and fuzzy stickers as well), but this is all I have in my collection. Anyone have any other favorite E.T. stickers in your collections?
