Garbage Pail Kids News
GPKNation is planning an all new character launch. Tomorrow, 3/5, at 3:00 PM EST, the company will launch an officially licensed Garbage Pail Kids patch of Reese Pieces. The patch is based off the character of the same name from OS 4. No price has been revealed yet, but collectors can purchase the pass from the GPKNation.com website. This won’t be the last collectors see of Reese, the company has plans on launching coins and pins based on the same character.
Monogram International sent over the official pictures for the Series 1 Garbage Pail Kids Bag Clips. The clips can be found soon in FYE, Hot Tropic stores, and online. They also created a YouTube video to discuss the new product, be sure to check it out!
Collectors will soon be able to decorate their backpacks in style. Monogram Products is set to launch new officially licensed GPK bag clip figures. Thanks to GPK collector and sketch artist Justin Olson for the heads up on the new product. Garbage Pail Kids Figural Bag Clips Series 1 consists of 11 different figures offered in blind box format. The characters are made of foam with a plastic clip to attach to bags. The character lineup features Adam Bomb, Dead Ted, and 9 others. Each box contains 24 blind packs. Toywiz currently has preorders available for $5.99 per pack or boxes for $139.99. Toywiz lists these shipping in March/April, while Previews World shows May 25, 2022.
GetAGrip Skateboards has been busy teasing collectors all this week for their next release coming this Friday. In an interview on the new GPK Boys Podcast, GetAGrip artist Rory McQueen showed off examples of the newest skateboard deck. As collectors had already guessed, Dead Ted will be the character in the company’s latest Heritage Deck series. Rory also showed off three different parallel decks that will be randomly sent out to collectors. The company hasn’t released any other info yet. They generally don’t release pricing, print runs, or release time until the day of release. Collectors will want to stick to GetAGrip’s Facebook page for the latest information.
In the excellent GPK Boys interview, Rory also gives collectors a sneak peak at some of the Series 2 skateboard wheels. There is still no word when the wheels will launch from the company. Rory also mentions, Topps will be launching series 2 of Rory’s GPK Skateboard Sticker cards later this year. Be sure to check out the entire interview at their YouTube page.
Another day, another preorder with no pictures! Monogram International is going all in with the Garbage Pail Kids! Entertainment Earth has a preorder up for the Monogram Garbage Pail Kids Series 2 3D Foam Bag Clips. Monogram isn’t waiting around to see how Series 1 of these blind bag toys sell. Each case contains 24 figures. There are no pictures available yet of the product. However, the description reveals collectors can collect Tee-Vee Stevie, Double Heather, and Bony Joanie. There is also mention there will be special rare figures to hunt down. Entertainment Earth also has listings up for the series 1 bag clips that are set to release in May 2022. Series 2 should release in January 2023.
Monogram International continues to expand their GPK license. Entertainment Earth has a preorder up now for the Monogram Garbage Pail Kids Adam Bomb PVC Figural Bank. The plastic “piggy” bank measures 8” tall, features a slot for coins, and a plastic cork at the bottom to remove the money. There are no pictures of the product available yet. The bank costs $24.99, and is set to release in August 2022.
FYE and Greenlight have been partners with Topps now for a few years. Now the two are teaming up to offer an exclusive diecast Garbage Pail Kids car. Today FYE launched the Volkswagen Type 2 Panel Van. Each car comes with a Cotton Kandy GPK card. The car comes packaged in the familiar Greenlight GPK packaging. The car is exclusive to FYE and can be purchased for $12.99 on their website, and will be in stores soon. According to FYE, there will not be a “green machine” version of this car produced, only the base version.
If you collect Garbage Pail Kids you probably are a child of the 1980’s. The new History Channel show, Adam Eats the 80’s, brings back all the nostalgia around food from that decade. Episode 2, Only in the 80’s, features the candy collection of long time Garbage Pail Kids collector, Russell Vandiver (RusVan). The host of the show is Adam Richman, you may recognize Adam from various food channel shows such as Man vs. Food. The show features Adam traveling across the country to relive popular food items from the 80’s.
In the second episode of the show, the last two segments feature what is probably the largest vintage candy collection in the US. GPK collectors might recognize the owner of that collection, Russell Vandiver. Russell has been a long time member of the GPK collecting community. He was part of the old GPKUG forums, and continues to be an active part of various Facebook groups. Russell is also the foremost expert on GPK Cheap Toys from the 80’s. The show spends a lot of time on his GPK collection both cards and Cheap Toys.
The segment with Russell was filmed in November of last year. Producers decided to film only part of the collection! Filming was done on the living room displays, while other parts of his collection reside in the loft and spare bedroom of his house. GPKNews asked Russell how the spot on the show came about, “I had a buyer in my GARBAGE ARCHIVE store for several years that turned out to be a producer, who was pitching a new show about food from the 80’s. History took it, and then they contacted Topps and asked Topps if they could film on their location. Topps said they have almost nothing of their old candy lines and then signed a rights document over to me, so that I could represent Topps for this program. This then lead to an interview, which lead to me sending pics and them forming a script. During this process I had to fight to get some of the attention at least off candy and get GPK, and mainly Cheap Toys mentioned. Unfortunately, in post-production Topps changed their mind and said they did not want to be mentioned in the show, which meant almost 95% of my lines were cut because all day I talked about Topps! Also if you notice, they cropped out most of the Topps logos in the images, but they did miss a few.”
While the filming took a long 13 hours, Russell had a great time with Adam and the producers, “Incredible, the energy coming off this guy was nothing I’ve ever experienced. I realized why he hosts a bunch of different shows, Adam is amazing!” The edpsode first aired on The History Channel on Feb. 27, 2022, and is now available to watch online through your local cable company or Amazon Prime Video.
According to The News-Gazette, the Illinois state attorney has dismissed sexual assault charges against former GPK artist Luis Diaz. Charges were originally filed back in April 2020 alleging sexual assault against a child in his care. Luis was a final card artist for Topps during the ANS series, completing over 30 paintings for published cards. In 2017 Topps filed a lawsuit against Luis accusing him of various trademark violations. Luis in turn countersued Topps, accusing them of using his concepts without permission. That lawsuit was settled out of court in 2019. Terms of the settlement were not released. After this tragic ordeal, hopefully the family’s involved can begin the healing process.
Update 3/6/22: As we mentioned in the original article below, Topps oversold the set and had to find a solution. They decided to commission a second round of sketches from artists. The list of additional artists for the second round with the amount completed for the set are; Adam Dobrzeniecki (25), Justin Olson (25), Chad Scheres (50), Erik Muller (25), Robert Ball (25), Slippa Chervascus (25), Nik Muggli (25), Victor Moreno (50 more), Jasmine Contois (50 more), Andrew Artz (30 more), and Brandan Snyder (40 more), Nik Castaneda (50 more), Dan Contois (30 more). Artists were given an extremely aggressive deadline of just over a week to complete and return the sketches to Topps. The second round of sketches at 450 added to the first round of 560, means there is now a total of 1010 sketches. This gives Topps extra for damage replacements. The good news for collectors is the odds for getting a sketch is now better given the new sketches. Topps will surely keep some combo of sketches and foil card behind for replacements, but using 904 as the sketch number, (difference between sets sold and foil cards), makes the new odds 1:2.74 sets, Much more favorable for collectors.
After ending yesterday, Topps has revealed the print run for 2022 Garbage Pail Kids Valentine’s Day Disgusting Dating. According to Topps, the set sold a total of 2,479 copies. The total sold is just under the last On Demand GPK set, Krashers. The set proved popular with collectors as it sold out Monday. Topps didn’t reveal the odds for sketches on this release, but did say each set would contain a foil card or sketch. Topps gave GPKNews a list of sketch artists on the set. Additionally, GPKNews contacted each artist to see how many sketches they completed. The artist list is; Greg Treize (40), Andrew Artz (30), Jasmine Contois (40), Barry Nygma (30), Brandhen Snyder (40), El Smetcho (40), GPK Nik Castaneda (40), Victor Moreno (40), Chris Meeks (40), Darrin Pepe (40), Chenduz (40), Bekki Jayne Sharp (40), Simone Arena (40), K Grimm (40) and Dan Contois (20). This is a total of 560 sketches for the set. If each of the base cards, including the header, has foil cards made the breakdown of foil cards is: Gold Foil /50 * 21 cards in set = 1050 Gold cards. Rainbow Foil /25 * 21 cards in set = 525 Rainbow Foil cards. When you add it all up you get 2,135. So how did Topps sell 2,479? What are the extra 344 cards that are unaccounted for? That’s a mystery. Maybe sketch artists did more sketches than previously reported to GPKNews? Maybe there are additional sketch artists that Topps didn’t report to GPKNews? Maybe the Topps sales number is wrong? Regardless the math doesn’t add up. So what are the odds a collector receives a sketch card? If there are 560 sketches then it’s 1:4.42 sets.
Topps updated distributors today with their latest product release date updates. Sadly for Garbage Pail Kids collectors, once again the sets that were scheduled to release last year, were moved back. Both 2021 Series 2 GPK Vacation and GPK Chrome OS 4 are now listed as “April TBD” on the official Topps calendar. The Topps calendar still shows 11 products from 2021 that haven’t been shipped yet. Topps has seen delays in printing due to demand and the Covid pandemic. Other licensed brands have taken priority over the Fanatics/Topps owned GPK brand. Collectors should not trust any dates from online box sellers or distributors as many of them add placeholder dates for the products that are TBD. GPKNews will have the latest updates when available.