Wax Paper Pop Art #20, More wrappers saved from the garbage pail (pun-tastic!)

Been doing a bunch of collection culling, house cleaning and framing these past couple of weeks (trying to get a jump on Spring cleaning I guess), and in the process I’ve been digging back into my collection of Garbage Pail Kids. I’ve always wanted to find a fun way to display some of the GPK card art on the walls of the Branded abode, but I didn’t want to go with an uncut sheet or one of the checklist style posters that was released back in the day. The cards themselves are a bit too small to really pop on the wall too, so aside from trying to procure some of the original artwork (way too pricey) my thought has always been to pick up some of the 5″x7″ Giant 1st series cards. Up until recently though I’ve resisted this urge since I wasn’t as familiar with that set (having missed in while collecting as a kid), and I felt a little weird framing some of those pieces. After stumbling onto the majority of the 1st series by chance this past year though, I decided ‘what the hell’ and picked up some of my favorites from the set to frame. I haven’t hung them yet, but they look freaking spectacular in the frames so I can’t wait until they’re on the walls peppered throughout the rooms…

I figured this would be a good time to share some more of the GPK wax wrappers in my collection, so beginning where I left off with the 1st WPPA, here is the 6th series pack released in 1986…

It never occurred to me that it was a little weird that Topps switched from using the Adam Bomb imagery for the wrappers with this set, but now that I think about it, it is a little weird that they switched to an image of Potty Scotty. In the sets following the wrapper designers started highlighting a new sticker from each set as the wrapper image, so I wonder why they chose to dip back into the 1st series for this 6th wax pack? Especially when you consider that this set featured an updated variation on the kid-in-a-toilet concept with JOHN John & Flushing Floyd. Actually, there was also an updated on the Adam Bomb concept with Dyna Mike & Newlydead Ed that would have been pretty damn cool for the wrapper. Guess it can just be chalked up to a missed opportunity…

The 7th series was released in 1987 and was one of the last series that I heavily collected back in the 80s…

Next up is the wrapper for the 8th series also released in 1987…

The 9th series is pretty much where I stopped buying. It’s also the last “classic” series that featured the original GPK arched logo, Cabbage Patch Kid inspired eye design, and the softer imagery of plush dolls for the kids. It was around this time that Topps settled a lawsuit with the makers of the CPKs, part of which was to augment the artwork to feature harder looking dolls with larger, rounder eyes and cracked skin. Though I wasn’t aware of the impending changes at the time, I’m sure I would have scoffed at the coming 10th series as too much of a change. 25 or so years later though I find that I have a soft spot in my heart for the last six original sets and have been able to get over the imposed changes to the series adding a bunch of them to my collection. I guess being a completist is a stronger urge than a traditionalist…