All the GPK to be Found at San Diego Comic Con

Once again the Garbage Pail Kids will have a good sized presence at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. The show is set to kick off this Wednesday, 7/19, with preview night and goes through Sunday 7/23. There will be everything from licensees promoting current and upcoming products, freebies, and exclusive GPK merchandise to purchase. Collectors attending, read on to map out your strategy for the show.

Insight Editions (#2129)

Insight Editions will be promoting their upcoming Garbage Pail Kids Popup Book. The book, which is scheduled to be released this October, will be on display for collectors to checkout. They will also be passing out a promo card Friday and Saturday at their booth to promote the book. Longtime GPK artist, Joe Simko will be at their booth Saturday, 7/22, from 1:00-1:30 signing the cards.

Super Impulse (#1021)

Super Impulse will be setting up at SDCC for the first time. The company will be revealing a number of new products at the show, although it’s not clear is any of them will be GPK related. The third series of their PopTaters line will be revealed and go up for sale at the show. Additionally, the company will be revealing new figures in their World’s Smallest line, and debuting a new product, Three Point Seven Five. There will also be contests for prize packs daily at their booth.

Atomic Toybox (#3921)

Atomic Toybox will once again have a number of exclusive GPK items for purchase at their booth. There will be a new 24” x 18” poster, with art done by Joe Simko, available in two versions, snot green and eggplant. Each poster can be purchased for $60. They will have have two new GPK pins for $14.95 each. The pins depict the certified gross logo and also will come with a GPK Guts promo card. Both the posters and pins are limited to 150 copies. Artist Joe Simko will also be at their booth signing autographs on Friday 7/21 & Saturday 7/22 from 11:30-12:00.

Abrams Books (#1216)

Abrams Books will have a number of their previous GPK releases available at their booth. All three RL Stine books; Welcome to Smellville #1, Thrills & Chills #2, and Camp Daze #3, as well at the GPK Cookbook will be available to purchase. The company will also have a signed and numbered Jeff Zapata print featuring artwork from the books they will be distributing throughout the show.

Monogram (#3625)

Monogram will have their previously released GPK products at their booth for sale. They will have Series 1 & 2 of the foam bag clips, in addition to the Adam Bomb piggy bank.

ToyNK (#815 & #3749)

ToyNK will have the previously released GPK Adam Bomb Light available at both the company’s booths. They will also have the GPK Geekitikis available at their tiki themed display at booth #3749.

Greenlight (#834)

Greenlight Collectibles will be on hand at SDCC showing off some of their GPK die cast cars. Additionally, they will be handing out GPK themed vinyl stickers of Clint (Clutch Clint) Lafollette, Product and Design Manager and Tim (Tangled Tim) Bradley, Director of Global Sales.

Greenlight Releases Final Images for GPK Series 5 Die Cast Cars

Greenlight Collectibles today via their social media, released the final pre-production images for their upcoming Series 5 Garbage Pail Kids Doe Cast cars. The cars are highlights by a Volkswagen Van and an Ice Cream Trailer. The complete list of cars is:

• Buoyant Billie – 1968 Plymouth HEMI GTX
• Crashed Craig – 1968 Volkswagen Type 2 Campmobile with Hurst Bumper – Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Search Team
• Hal Pass – 2008 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor – Junior High Security Guard
• Ice Cream Sandy – Retail Ice Cream Trailer
• Rhetta White & Blue – 1985 Dodge Ram D-250
• Aggravated Angela – 1977 Dodge B-100 Van

Collectors will also be able to find limited Green Machine parallel versions of the card randomly inserted into cases. Series 5 can be preordered now from die cast car websites and is set to be released this October.

Dynamite Launching GPK Graphic Novels w/ Bonus Cards

Dynamite Entertainment is revisiting their recent Garbage Pail Kids comic book series; GPK Origins and GPK vs. Madballs. Both series will be offered as graphic novels by the company. Additionally, each graphic novel purchased comes with exclusive GPK cards featuring artwork from the Origins series. In true comic book fashion, there are a number of different cover snd book choices available for preorder on the company’s website. The Garbage Pail Kids Origins graphic novel comes in four different bundles each with a different cover. While the Garbage Pail Kids vs. Madballs graphic novel also comes in four different bundles, however the cover appears to be the same. There is also one giant bundle where collectors can purchase both novels and get the entire 10 card set. The novels are scheduled to be released in Nov. 2023. Here are the different bundles available:

  • Origins Softcover w/ Card #1 $9.99
  • Origins Hardcover w/ Cards #1 & #2 $19.99
  • Origins Hardcover signed by Adam F. Goldberg and Hans Rodionoff w/ Cards #1, #2, #3 $39.99
  • Origins Hardcover w/ remarqued sketch by Ken Haeser w/ Cards #1-#5 $75.00
  • Madballs Softcover w/ Card #6
  • Madballs Hardcover w/ Cards #6 & #7
  • Madballs Hardcover signed by Schools Fisch w/ Cards #6, #7, #8 $39.99
  • Madballs Hardcover remarqued sketch by Jason Crosby w/ Cards #6-#10 $75.00
  • Both Origins & Madballs Hardcovers w/ remarqued sketches w/ Card #1-#10 (one card signed by Goldberg and Radionoff) $150.00

 

 

Greenlight Passing Out GPK Vinyl Stickers at SDCC

Greenlight Collectibles will be attending this year’s San Diego Comic Con to help promote there their upcoming Series 5 Garbage Pail Kids die cast cars. They company will be passing out at their booth, (#834), two exclusive GPK vinyl stickers of members of the Greenlight team, Clint (Clutch Clint) Lafollette, Product and Design Manager and Tim (Tangled Tim) Bradley, Director of Global Sales. The characters were created by longtime GPK artist Joe Simko. The stickers will be limited, so collectors will want to hit up their booth early. SDCC is set to take place from 7/20-7/23.

Topps VP of Licensing, Ira Friedman, Leaving Topps

Ira Friedman’s over 33 year career at Topps is coming to an end. In a farewell letter to fans, Friedman announced today his final day with Topps will be 7/31. Ira has been the Vice President of Licensing for a number of years for the company. His leadership over Garbage Pail Kids licensing has been one of the key reasons the brand has flourished over the past few years.

Below you will find his final farewell to not only Garbage Pail Kids but collectors as well. I can tell you from my personal experience, there has not been a bigger supporter of GPKs at Topps the past few years as I’ve ran this website. Ira always had collectors in mind while working there. That seems to be a rare quality these days. The brand won’t be the same without him. Thank you Ira!

It’s All About Fans First!
by Ira Friedman

Ever since my first publishing gig at STARLOG and FANGORIA sci-fi and horror magazines in the late ‘70’s, it’s always been about the fans. In 1980, when I worked atLucasfilm Ltd., I saw firsthand how much care and attention George Lucas placed on fostering an authentic connection with Star Wars fans everywhere. When I later branched off on my own, I produced official tie-in magazines for fan-fueled properties including: BladeRunner, The Goonies, Gremlins, Back to the Future, among others, and created the official E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Fan Club for Amblin Productions and Universal Studios.

When the Garbage Pail Kids blindsided the world in 1985, it didn’t take long for me to get hooked on everything GPK. In 1987, I acquired the publishing rights for an official “one-shot” magazine, based on the ill-fated Garbage Pail Kids movie. The film tanked at the box office yet has become a cult favorite to some many years later. While not particularly fond of the movie, it did not undermine my fascination with this quirky and outrageous property. Nor did it discourage the legions of fans who just couldn’t get enough of GPK.

In 1988 I joined Topps as the company’s Director of New Product Development. I got to ‘play’ in the firm’s non-sport ‘sandbox’ and spent much time immersed in things like Wacky Packages, Mars Attacks, along with many outside licenses and other company creations, most notably Garbage Pail Kids. My obsession with this irreverent-yet-adorable, controversial-yet-hilarious brand was in full blossom. While I was technically in charge of the GPK trading card program, the bulk of the credit goes to the artists – both back in those halcyon days and to the current times – whose incredible artwork and boundless creativity hit a nerve that continues to reverberate throughout the fan community.

In more recent times I have functioned in the role of chief architect of the GPK licensed merchandise business. It’s been a blast working with like-minded partners from all areas of commerce as they’ve passionately translated GPK into a wide variety of innovative consumer goods. This diverse range ofofficial products span: Monopoly board games, 8-bit video games, middle-school books by R.L. Stine, comics written by Adam F. Goldberg, a stunning 78-card Tarot Deck and the upcoming, first-ever GPK Pop-Up book, plus a myriad of amazing toys and lots of other cool stuff.

My 33+ year love affair with GPK is about to come to its professional end as July 31 will be my last day at Topps/Fanatics. The company has assembled a competent team to carry the torch and I look forward to seeing GPK persevere, prosper and continue to charm and infatuate the “little kid” inside us all.

As for me, while GPK will always hold a special place in my heart, it’s time to move on and explore other opportunities. Thanks to every one of you for being a part of my GPK adventure and for allowing me to play some part in your GPK experience. In my book, it’s always been — and always will be –about fans first!

– Ira Friedman, July 2023

P.S. And may the Farts be with you, always! J

 

Abrams To Offer Signed Jeff Zapata Print at SDCC

Abrams has announced their Garbage Pail Kids plans for this year’s San Diego Comic Con. The company will have many of their recent GPK releases available at their booth, (#1216), including; Welcome to Smellville, Thrills & Chills, Camp Daze, and the GPK Coolbook. Abrams will also be distributing throughout the show signed prints by artist Jeff Zapata. The prints are hand numbered /750 and feature artwork from the Thrills & Chills book. This year’s SDCC is scheduled to take place 7/20-7/23.

Atomic Toybox Reveals SDCC Garbage Pail Kids Merchandise

The reveals continued today as Atomic Earth released their SDCC Garbage Pail Kids merchandise info via the SDCC Unofficial Blog. The company has traditionally had both prints and pins at their booth and this year is no exception. First there will be two versions of a GPK Blacklight poster available. The Snot Diego poster will come signed by the artist, Joe Simko. The poster measures 18” x 24” and comes in either super snot green or eggplant. Each color is limited to 150 copies and will be priced at $60 each.  Additionally, Atomic Toybox will have two versions of the Certified Gross logo in a glow in the dark enamel pin. The pins are also limited to 150 copies, but will also come with an exclusive GPK Guts Promo card. Each pin will cost collectors $14.95. All items will be available at the Atomic Toybox booth (#3921) during this year’s SDCC happening from 7/20-7/23.

More Details on Super Impulse World’s Smallest GPK & Wacky Micro Card Collection

Without much fanfare or marketing, details recently appeared on Super Impulse’s website for their World’s Smallest GPK and Wacky Packages Micro Card Collection. The card collection is now out in the wild and available. Although, so far only two small online toy websites, (Little Obsessed and Sweets & Geeks), have had any available, and both sold out quickly. GPKNews was able to get more details from Super Impulse on the set, and was sent some samples to checkout the new product. Read on for what is known so far about the series.

Each card measures 1” x .125” x 1.5”. The cards are similar in size to the small cards included with the micro GPK toys released in 2021. The GPK cards contain the full “Garbage Pail Kids” licensed banner. Perhaps the nicest part of these is they are each die-cut stickers! Both GPKs and Wackies come die-cut. Topps eliminated die-cuts from GPKs years ago, so it’s refreshing to see Super Impulse use them for this series. Each pack comes with 1 GPK 5-card pack (Pink or Blue), 1 Wacky Packages 5-card pack (Red or Yellow), and 1 mystery pack that contain either GPK or Wacky Packages cards. The color of the pack doesn’t appear to have an effect on the cards included. According to Super Impulse, and confirmed with pack breaks, the GPK and Wacky labeled packs contain Standard cards. The GPK mystery pack contains 5 Rare cards, while the Wacky mystery pack contains 2 Rare cards, and 3 Standard Wacky cards. Also according to Super Impulse, the complete set contains 50 Standard GPKs, 20 Rare GPKs, 47 Standard Wackies, and 10 Rare Wackies. Collectors are going to need to bust a lot of these to complete a set.

The company tells GPKNews there is no checklist available for the series. This is where things get confusing. It appears there was no rhyme or reason for how Super Impulse chose the characters to be included in the set. All Standard GPK cards appear to be reprints of OS 1 characters. However, if Super Impulse’s set size is correct, not all OS 1 cards were included. To add to the confusion, in some cases only “a” names were included, or only “b” names, or even both “a & b” names. Each Standard GPK card contains the original card number from OS1, so many numbers are skipped. The backs of each of the Standard GPK cards feature the classic award backs from the series. The Rare GPK cards are all reprints from the recent 2021S1 Food Fight set. Again, the choices appear to be completely random. What is even worse on the Rare GPKs are the numbers that appear on the cards. About half contain the original card number from the Food Fight, while the other half look to be assigned a random card number. Early results look like Super Impulse chose 10 a/b character sets from Food Fight to make up the 20 Rare cards. The backs of the Rare cards are puzzle pieces for two of the included Food Fight characters. The Standard Wacky Package backs all contain puzzles, while the Rare backs contain the Wacky Packages logo with a red or blue background.

There were a number of errors made by Super Impulse on the cards in the set. Perhaps the biggest is the “Loony Lenny” card. The Lenny name plate was put on the Dead Ted artwork with the 5b card number. Both 5a (Dead Ted), and 5b (Jay Decay), also have cards in the set. So there are three standard cards with the same artwork. Another mistake is the Food Fight Adam Bomb card is spelled “Atom” on the name plate. Finally, In addition to the random numbering on the GPK Rare cards, the Sour Scott card is actually numbered “49ba”. Each pack is wrapped in a sturdy paper stock “wrapper” that is closed by a tab and slot system. The quality of the cards out of the packs is poor. Almost no cards are cut cleanly with “hanging” pieces on many card corners or edges. Additionally, a handful of cards from pack breaks are coming with creases completely through the cards. There won’t be any PSA 10’s here.

Because there is no available checklist, GPKNews has been unable to confirm the set size supplied by Super Impulse. It’s also impossible to know which cards are missing. And don’t bother asking about print runs. There is no way to determine how many Super Impulse printed. However, when it comes to the GPK cards, because of set size and math, the “Rares” are most likely not rare, and could be slightly more common than the Standard cards. One other unknown is if any of the Standard cards are more rare than others. With the GPK Micro blind box figures from 2021, it was clear Super Impulse printed different amounts of some of the figures, but that info was never confirmed by the company. GPKNews, along with Wacky Packages collectors Andrew and Jacob so far have busted a combined 21 packs. We’ve been able to identify 37/50 Standard GPKs, 15/20 Rare GPKs, 40/47 Standard Wackies, and 10/10 Rare Wackies. GPKNews has created the following checklist for the release that will be updated as new cards are found. Please contact GPKNews if you find any new cards from the set.

Super Impulse GPK/Wacky Micro Card Checklist

Finally, if you want to get your hands on a couple of packs, go check out the GPKNews Facebook page on 5/30/23 and enter a contest to win two sealed packs!

 

Garbage Pail Kids 2024 Calendar Images and Theme Revealed

Back in February we shared preorder information for the Abrams 2024 Garbage Pail Kids Wall and Desk calendars. The company has updated the information now to include this year’s theme, along with pictures. The Garbage Pail Kids: Stuck in School 2024 Day-to-Day Desk Calendar features 366 GPKs on a daily tear off style calendar. Each month focuses on a certain theme involving school. Once again each image credits the names of the set and artist from the card. The daily calendar can be preordered for $17.99. The Garbage Pail Kids Wall Calendar is a 16 month calendar featuring the same Stuck in School theme. The 12” x 24” classic wall calendar features a number of popular GPK form through the years. The Wall calendar can be preordered for $15.99. Both calendars can be preordered anywhere books are sold. Both calendars are also set to be released on the same day, 10/10/23.

Greenlight Releases Mockup Images for Garbage Pail Kids Die-cast Series 5

Greenlight has released deco images to distributors for their next Garbage Pail Kids Die-cast cars, series 5. There was also a change to the car that will come with the Bouyant Billie sticker. A couple of vans, a police car, and even an ice cream trailer highlight the vehicles chosen for this release. Individual pictures for each car along with its included card is below. Cars can be preordered now from various diecast websites. Greenlight GPK Series 5 is scheduled to launch in the Sept.-Oct. timeframe.

• Buoyant Billie – 1968 Plymouth HEMI GTX
• Crashed Craig – 1968 Volkswagen Type 2 Campmobile with Hurst Bumper – Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Search Team
• Hal Pass – 2008 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor – Junior High Security Guard
• Ice Cream Sandy – Retail Ice Cream Trailer
• Rhetta White & Blue – 1985 Dodge Ram D-250
• Aggravated Angela – 1977 Dodge B-100 Van