Menu

Page 1

Introduction • General Information • Card and Wrapper Variations Credits • Cards and Stickers • Puzzle Backs

Page 2

Comic, Puzzle Puke, and Would We Lie To You? Backs • Packaging and Contents Errors and Card Details • Reused Ideas

Page 3

Promotions • Media and Publications • Artwork • Closing Comments

 

Promotions

Topps produced similar promotional material for the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 5 as they did for the pervious All-New Series.  From a collector's standpoint, the promotional material did not appear to be as heavily distributed.  The series did not appear to be getting the promotional boost from Topps that it really needed.        On February 3rd of 2006, Topps sent out the wholesale hobby distributor promotional kits for the series.  On February 7th of 2006, Topps sent out the retail distributor promotional kits for the series.  Both kits contained a promotional letter, checklist, sheet, and dealer ad.        The promotional letter to the wholesale hobby distributors (see image above) was exactly the same as the promotional letter to the retail distributors (see image above) except the dates on the letters were different.        The promotional kits contained a preliminary checklist (see image above).  The checklist provided the names of the characters from the regular cards and magnets, and it gave the letter pairings for the alphabet stickers.  Since it was just a preliminary checklist was put together quickly, there were a few typing errors, such as extra spaces; letters that should have been in upper-case; and name misspellings.  There were name changes, and some of the characters were removed or were used for the bonus cards.  The following list denotes the regular card changes from the preliminary checklist to the final checklist: • 2b Cole Hands was changed to 2b Multi-Taskin' Ashton • 5a George Mucous was changed to 5a Marty Mucous • 5b Runnin' Ryan was changed to 5b Runny Ryan • 7b Esther Baskit was changed to 7b Esther Basket • 8a Tom Plunk was changed to 8a Norman Notwell • 8b Dave Gross was changed to 8b Vincent Van Gross • 9a George Brush and 9b Paint Can Dan were used for bonus card B10 Bruce Brush, and the regular cards were now 9a Furious George and 9b King Kyle • 14b Jack Snack was changed to 14b Zack Snack • 16b Gnawed Gabriel was changed to 16b Gnawed Claude • 17b Eyedrops Ian was changed to 17b Pink-Eye Guy • 18b Abigail Ale was changed to 18b Coca-Cole • 19b Jacob's Loader was changed to 19b Decorating Deb • 20a Peter Package was changed to 20a Paul Package • 20b Tongue-tied Tony was changed to 20b Tongue-Tied Toby • 21a Happy-Meal Neil and 21b Bozo Bob were not used for the series, and they were replaced with 21a Eric The Wreck and 21b Moto Carl • 22a Patrick Pinyata and 22b Whacked Jack were used for bonus card B12 Patrick Piñata, and the regular cards were now 22a Courtin' Cody and 22b Al Entine • 23a Sydney Opera and 23b Messy Vanessa were used for bonus card B11 Opera Ursula, and the regular cards were now 23a Claire Snare and 23b Lunchtime Lindsey • 25b Picky Ricky was changed to 25b Picky Dicky • 26a Blake Quake and 26b Jack Atoa were used for bonus card B13 Blake Quake, and the regular cards were now 26a Mikin' Milt and 26b Dairy Barry • 28b Fistin' Christian was changed to 28b Ty Kwon Don't • 30a Pete Heat and 30b Dominick Done were used for bonus card B14 Pete Heat, and the regular cards were now 30a Yoga Olga and 30b Mel Smell • 37a Victoria Secrete was changed to 37a Farrah Faucet • 37b Flowin' Chloe was changed to 37b Leakin' Lacey • 38b Charles Chunnel was changed to 38b Choo-Choo Charlie • 39a Doomed Dominic was changed to 39a Doomed Dwayne • 39b Anti-Ant Anthony was changed to 39b Toasted Todd        The promotional sheet for the series (see images above) describes the cards, magnets, and alphabet stickers; and the promotional sheet also has sample images of the cards, magnets, alphabet stickers, a card back, an unopened pack, and a full display box.  This information spanned to both sides of the promotional sheet.  In the previous All-New Series, Topps had used a 2-page foldout instead of the 1-page promotional sheet.  I felt that the "Snot, Puke, Poop" printed on the back of the sheet at the top was somewhat of an inside joke between Topps and the collectors who continually complained about the overuse of character concepts based on snot, puke, poop, pee, and farting.        The cards displayed on the promotional sheet were changed for the final print version.  Manny Hands became 2a Sam Bidexterous, and the name oval was changed from pink to yellow.  Batty Brad became 4b Batty Brad, and the bats were moved in front of the Garbage Pail Kids banner.  Matrix Max became 6a Matrix Miguel, the Garbage Pail Kids banner was changed from red to light blue, and the name oval was changed from yellow to red.  Slam Duncan became 11a Slam-Dunk Dylan, and the name oval was changed from red to light blue.  Regurgitate Nate became 14a Regurgita-Ted, and the name oval was changed from yellow to blue.        The back of the sheet also was different than what was printed in the final version.  Ronny Nose became 5a Marty Mucous, and the name oval was changed from yellow to pink.  Magnet card Varicose Wayne was numbered at the bottom 1 of 9 for the final version.  Alphabet card B / A had the letter color changed from black to dark blue, the B went on alphabet card 2 B / X, and the A went on alphabet card 7 S / A.  The Puzzle Puke card was used for the back of card 3a Internal Morgan, and it had a copyright date added to it.  The "Gross Stickers" in blue on the pack was changed to black for the final version.  The design of the artwork on the box had changed significantly.  The Garbage Pail Kids banner spanned two lines on the lid and sides of the box for the final version.  The light blue stars on the box were removed, the "Look For" text was changed from white to black, and the "Alphabet Stickers and Magnets" text was changed from yellow to green.  The character on the front of the box was changed from Slam Duncan to 36a Christina Barfarina.  The text for "Gross Stickers" was changed from blue to black.        The dealer advertisement (see image above) showed a sample image of a regular card, magnet, alphabet sticker, card back, unopened pack, and full box.  There is a sample shown of a Puzzle Puke card back, but it mistakenly has "Puzzle Card Backs" printed above it.

 

Media and Publications

There was only one article that I was able to find about the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 5.  The shortage of articles about the All-New Series 5 and anything relating to Garbage Pail Kids was probably because of the lack of advertising for the All-New Series 5 and the declining interest in Garbage Pail Kids.  I also included any articles that I could find on Garbage Pail Kids that were printed around the time that the All-New Series 5 was released.        In "The Comics Issue", volume 13 / issue number 5, of Vice magazine (see image above); there is an article on page 32 about the creation of Garbage Pail Kids and a so-called controversy between two of the Garbage Pail Kids co-creators, Mark Newgarden and Art Spiegelman.  The article begins by making it sound as if Art Spiegelman was angry over Mark Newgarden's latest book's cover where the cover has the phrase, "Mark Newgarden, creator of Garbage Pail Kids" printed on it.  For some reason, the author of the article wanted to twist the meaning of the phrase by implying that it contained an imaginary "the", which would make the phrase, "Mark Newgarden, the creator of Garbage Pail Kids".  Anyone who is familiar with Garbage Pail Kids knows that it is a team effort to create any of the series.  There is a tremendous amount of planning, writing, and artwork needed in order to put together a series.  Yes, Mark Newgarden can put he is "creator of Garbage Pail Kids", and so can Art Spiegelman, John Pound, Tom Bunk, Jay Lynch, etc.  The important part of the article is when it mentions Arthur Shorin (incorrectly spelled as Arthur Schor in the article) giving the approval to begin creating Garbage Pail Kids.  Without the approval and financial backing, there would not be any Garbage Pail Kids series.  You can create an endless amount of ideas, but if there are no means to implement those ideas then the ideas are of no use to anyone.  The article ends by giving us a "who cares?" statement about the real creators of Garbage Pail Kids, which kind of defeats the purpose of taking the time to even write an article about the topic.  On a side note, it was not easy to obtain a copy of the magazine at the time it was issued.  I contacted Vice magazine for a copy, and they actually told me to look on eBay.  Out of all the new issues of magazines that I have tried to get copies of, this was the only one that could not help with my request.        In the August/September 2006 issue of Non-Sport Update magazine (see image above), there is a brief article on page 50 about the All-New Series 5.  The article incorrectly states that there are four different puzzles that can be put together from the "a" card backs and six different puzzles that can be put together from the "b" card backs.  There are only five different puzzles for the entire series, and all of them require a mixture of "a" and "b" card backs.  The article also mentions the alphabet cards and magnet cards.  While it was the magazine's opinion that the alphabet cards were great, most of the Garbage Pail Kids collectors I have heard from thought the insert cards were the weakest part of the series.  Unfortunately, the article in Non-Sport Update was the only one I have come across about the All-New Series 5.  I do not post the full Garbage Pail Kids articles that appear in Non-Sport Update because someone from the magazine complained to me about doing so.  Other websites have posted full Non-Sport Update articles from the magazine.  If the magazine does not want me to post their Garbage Pail Kids articles on my Garbage Pail Kids reference website, I will not post them, but they are the only publication to make any complaints about it.        In the July 1-August 15, 2005 issue of The Wrapper on page 2 (see image above), there is a notable mention of Wayne's Garbage Pail Kids References.  I greatly appreciate that the magazine had mentioned my website and provided the URL to it.  It is very common for people to link to the http://www.wgpkr.com/GPK/ directory, but the website actually begins just at the domain, http://www.wgpkr.com/.  The Tobacco Bad Kids website is also mentioned in the same paragraph.  To help with the magazine's shortage of Garbage Pail Kids cards, I did send over some singles, so that they can be distributed when subscribers are renewing their subscriptions.  If you would like to donate some of your extra Garbage Pail Kids singles, please contact The Wrapper.

 

Artwork

The United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 5 was the first series where Topps had the Garbage Pail Kids artists were to reference the model sheet that John Pound had painted for the style (see image above).      Luis Diaz allowed me to post all of the final paintings he created for the All-New Series 5 so that all the collectors could view them (see images above).  Some of the paintings have a lot more details in them than what can be seen on the cards.  I provided information about these details in the Errors and Card Details section.  The card numbers and character names are listed below. • Painting 1: 2a Sam Bidexterous / 2b Multi-Taskin' Ashton • Painting 2: 4a Matt Mobile / 4b Batty Brad • Painting 3: 6a Matrix Miguel / 6b Skinned Jim • Painting 4: 9a Furious George / 9b King Kyle • Painting 5: 11a Slam-Dunk Dylan / 11b Jumpshot Josh • Painting 6: 17a Red-Eye Rob / 17b Pinkeye Guy • Painting 7: 21a Eric The Wreck / 21b Moto Carl • Painting 8: 24a Stormcloud Shawn / 24b Boltin' Colton • Painting 9: 27a Hay Bailey / 27b Petey Wheatey • Painting 10: 30a Yoga Olga / 30b Mel Smell • Painting 11: 31a Turntable Tim / 31b Dee-Jay Jason • Painting 12: 38a Railroaded Richard / 38b Choo-Choo Charlie      John Pound created the painting used for the All-New Series 5 cards 3a Internal Morgan and 3b Demonic Danielle (see image above).  The painting was based on the winning entry of the Topps Garbage Pail Kids website's Build-A-Kid contest.  This was the third Build-A-Kid contest held by Topps, but it was not mentioned by Topps nor were the winners of the contest mentioned on the Topps Garbage Pail Kids website.  Les Kenyon won the contest with his creation "Gut Less".  Les was kind enough to take the time to contact me and share the information about his experience with the contest.  Les also provided me with a scan of the letter that came with the painting and a scan of the grand prize, which was the John Pound rendering of his Build-A-Kid concept.  There was no information on the back of cards 3a Internal Morgan and 3b Demonic Danielle to indicate that the painting was based on the winning entry from the Build-A-Kid contest, but anyone that had used the Build-A-Kid tool would easily be able tell that the painting was based on something from the tool.  The Build-A-Kid pin codes Les had used were from his All-New Series 3 cards.  The pin codes unlocked more features on the Build-A-Kid tool.  The contest ended shortly before the All-New Series 4 came out, but it took a while for Topps to distribute the prizes.  The other contest winners received All-New Series 4 boxes, and Les won the painting and a couple of All-New Series 4 boxes.      Dave Gross allowed me to post the sketches he created for the All-New Series 5 (see images above).  The item numbers, card numbers, and character names are listed below. • Item 1: 16a Al Poe / 16b Gnawed Claude • Item 2: 24a Stormcloud Shawn / 24b Boltin' Colton • Item 3 and Item 4: 28a Karate Kyle / 28b Ty Kwon Don't • Item 5: 32a Gamblin' Gabe / 32b Luis Vegas • Item 6: 35a Quick-Pick Rick / 35b Mega-Million Mike • Item 7: 38a Railroaded Richard / 38b Choo-Choo Charlie      Mark Pingitore sent me the sketches he created for the All-New Series 5 (see images above).  The item numbers, card numbers, and character names are listed below. • Item 8: 13a Inmate Nate / 13b Last-Leg Luke • Item 9 and Item 10: 15a Armless Aaron / 15b Unarmed Adrian • Item 11: 20a Paul Package / 20b Tongue-tied Toby • Item 12: 22a Courtin' Cody / 22b Al Entine • Item 13: 26a Milkin' Milt / 26b Diary Barry • Item 14: 30a Yoga Olga / 30b Mel Smell • Item 15 and Item 16: 33a Tether Bill / 33b Sporty Spencer • Item 17: 36a Christina Barfarina / 36b Spewin' Shannon • Item 18 and Item 19: B12 Patrick Piñata      Jay Lynch has created hundreds of sketches for the All-New Series.  Only a small percentage of the concepts Jay comes up with are actually used.  Even if a sketch was created for one of the previous All-New Series, it could end up being used for any of the upcoming series.  The ToppsVault auctioned off some of these unpublished sketches (see images above).  Since the sketches were not going to be used, I decided to post them on the website.  In the listing below, I provided the item numbers, character names, and any notations on the sketches. • Item 20: Names: Airy Ari, Compressed Ari, Ed Behead, Louie Blooey, Pumpin' Byron, Ronald Pump, and Rube Tube.   Notes:      (at top): Kid runs a bicycle repair shop. He is pumping tires with a bicycle pump - but it has become                   lodged in his a*** - so when he pumps, it blows off his head.      (arrow on left side near middle): Denim coveralls. • Item 21: Names: Alice In Chunderland and Spewous Carol.   Notes:      (arrow on left side near middle): Blue Dress.      (at bottom): Based on Tinille drawing. / Drawing - Cheshire Cat barfs on Alice. • Item 22: Names: Barfed-Up Billy, Bart Barf, Cass Sidreflux, Duke Puke, Puked Duke, Purged Paul,             Purged Paula, Regurga Kate, Regurga Nate, and Vomited Vaughn.   Notes:      (at top): GPK scratch & stiff. / Smell is vomit smell. • Item 23: Names: Bloodshot Ivan, Dot Of Life, Eyeball Paul, Pu Paul, and Pupil Paul.   Notes:      (arrow on right side near middle): Sculpted black, glossy pupil is also kid's face. • Item 24: Names: Ashton Future, Crashed-On Ashton, and Punk'd Peter.   Notes:      (at top): Celebrity G.P.K. / Ashton Kutcher.      (arrow on left side near bottom): Ashton picks up a dollar bill. String attached to dollar bill                                                         trips safe - which falls on Ashton.      (arrow on right side near middle): In the window - an MTV guy video-tapes all of this. • Item 25: Names: David Litter Box, David Wetterman, Drenched Dave, Sol Soaked, and Stuart Pet Tricks.   Notes:      (at top): David Letterman / Celeb GPKs. • Item 26: Names: Beau Digestion, Ferited Ferdinand, Legion Ari, Pete Peepers, and Sidney Vashtar.   Notes:      (at bottom): Here's the gag: The kid is a bugler in the French foreign legion.  He goes to                         blow revilee - and there is a ferret in his bugle.  So the bugle is clogged - and                         the pressure makes his eyeballs pop out.  In the lower right hand corner is a                         tiny cel phone - 'cause kids like cel phones.  Maybe this gag is no good, since                         you did a cel phone gag already in series on.  Though. • Item 27: Names: Gino Frappachino, Matty Latté, Moe Cachino, and Tino Capacino.   Notes:      (at top): GPK Series & Scratch N' Stink.      (arrow on left side near middle): A bunch of uptight academic types in a Starbucks sneer as our                                                        hero obvially defies convention.      (arrows on right side near middle): Green circular Starschmucks trademarks on wall, cups, and menus.      (arrow on right side near bottom): Spelling? • Item 28: Names: Gus Usher, Lou Boo, and Yohan Yeah.   Notes:      (at top): Celebrity G.P.K. Usher.      (at top): ... or show mock scene from Usher's upcoming movie on screen in background - maybe                   mock title superimposed over movie image.      (arrow on left side near middle): Horror movie cliche image of woman terrified of werewold is on                                                        movie screen.      (arrows on right side near top): Usher farts - and everyone in the theatre smells it.      (arrows on right side near middle): Background kids and seats and floor are painted in                                                             blues & grays.  Only usher, his fart cloud, and movie                                                             screen image are in color.      (arrows on right side near bottom): Compass around his neck instead of watch. • Item 29: Names: Burnin' Bernie and Hot Ray.   Notes:      (at top): The ray-gethering art is all done with color - Yellow / orange sun - Ray goin into glass                   is yellow against blue sky - ray coming out of glass is yellow-graduating to color of sun.      (at left near top): He looks at sun thru a magnifying glass - glass concentrated sun's rays to a                                 laser-like ray which burns thru his head. • Item 30: Names: 100-Yard Dash, Gunner Runner, Incredi Bill, Johnny Faster, Mad Dashiel, Speed Damion,             and Zoomin' Shuman.   Notes:      (at top): Celeb GPKs / The Incredibles Kid.      (arrow on left side near top): Black background - like the real movie poster... but it graduates to                                                   gray at the bottom (so that shadows cast by kid & suit are visible - for                                                   gag clarity).      (arrow on left side near bottom): The gag is that he runs so fast that he rips out of his costume - and                                                         he is embarrassed and he blushes.      (at bottom): What is this character's real name in the movie?  His GPK name would be based on                         his real name. • Item 31: Names: Invisible Manny, Phil Adelphia Experiment, Unseen Gene.   Notes:      (arrow on left side near middle): Invisible kid pukes. • Item 32: Names: Gary Glutton, Liquid-Lunch Louis, Over Eatin' Ethan, Sam Manila, and Sam Minella.   Notes:      (at top): GPK Scratch N' Stink / Smell is vomit smell.      (arrow on right side near middle): The Dagwood thing. • Item 33: Names: Chesty Chelsea, Creamy Mimi, Enhances Nancy, Glam Pam, Nancy Enhancey, Pam Mams,             Pamela Glanderson, Pamela Glandularson, Stacked Jackie, and Stacked Stephanie.   Notes:      (at top): Pamela Anderson / Celeb GPKs.      (arrow on left side near middle): She wars a slip.      (arrow on right side near middle): Barbed-wire tattoo.      (arrow on right side near bottom): The gag is: she puts breast development cream on her breasts,                                                           which cause them to grow large - but her hand (with which she                                                           applied the cream) has also drastically increased in size. - To                                                           which she reacts with a shocked facial expression. • Item 34: Names: Aerobics Anna and Patty Pilatis.   Notes:      (at top): GPK / Scratch 'N' Stink / Smell is fart smell. • Item 35: Names: Nuclear Nick and Pukeular Pete.   Notes:      (arrow on left side near bottom): Barb wire. • Item 36: Names: Cursin' Curtis, Eddie Epithet, Foul-Mouth Fred, Hot-Head Fred, Pete Seat, Potty-Mouth Paul,             Swearin' Aaron, Swearin' Erin (girl), and Tommy Toilet-Mouth.   Notes:      (arrow on right side near middle): Toilet seat for mouth / Curse marks fly out of mouth. • Item 37: Names: Cat Like Carlos, Feline Frank, and Garth Field.   Notes:      (at top): Celebrity GPK - Garfield / It's a kid... but he looks like the live-action Garfield The Cat                   character in the new Garfield movie.  So his flesh is orange-ish - his hair & beard are                   orange - and he wears an orange fur coat.  So he's not a cat - but he connotes the                   Garfield character's image from the movie (rather than the comic strip).      (arrow on left side near middle): He sips the innards of mouse through the tail.      (on right side near bottom): And recapitulates the image of the real cat in the background, who                                                 sips a 7-11 Big Gulp drink through a straw.      (on right side at bottom): Both kid & cat have same facial expressions - same position - same                                              body language. / A red drip comes out of each's mouth. • Item 38: Names: Connie Continent, Country Joe, and Land-Mass Cass.   Notes:      (arrow on left side near bottom): 2 off the cost islands imply turds.  They eminate odor lines.      (arrow on right side near top): Water.      (arrow on left side near bottom): Kid is a large green & brown land mass with forests, cities,                                                         trees, roads, mountains, etc. • Item 39: Names: Revil Lee.   Notes:      (on left side near middle): World War I uniform kid with bugle.      (arrow on left side near middle): Army tents.      (arrow on right side near middle): Dark - dawn sky. • Item 40: Names: Hum-V Dee and S.U.V. Lee.   Notes:      (at top): Scratch & Stink / Smells like gasoline.      (on left side near top): Puking humanized SUV / Hummer.      (arrow on left side near middle): Puke is the color of gas. • Item 41: Names: Haddon Sat-On, Practical Jack, Sat-On Dollie, and Whoopie Cushion.   Notes:      (arrow at top): Kid is a whoopie cushion. • Item 42: Names: Armless Arnold, Kirk Jerk, Liftin' Clifton, and Pumpin Ivan.   Notes:      (arrow on left side near middle): Sez "Dork" instead of "York". • Item 43: Names: Magical Maurice and Tricky Mickey.   Notes:      (at top): GPK Scratch 'N' Stink. / Smell is fart smell. • Item 44: Names: Cosmo Krameroe, Crappy Cosmo, Crappy Cramer, Neighbor Lee, Poo-Shoe Lou,             Ray Merde, Visitin' Virgil.   Notes:      (at top): Kramer / Celeb GPKs.      (arrow on left side near top): Enters as would Kramer- slides into room.      (arrow on left side near middle): Leaves footprints in hall but not on doormat.      (on right side at top): (There is a tiny sketch of the same concept except another person is in the                                       foreground and has a surprised expression.)  Seinfield kid reacts in foreground.      (arrow on right side near top): Thrift store shirt.  Colors faded. Retro pattern.  Could be fleur-de-lis.      (arrow on right side near middle): Wears loafers- their soles are covered with dog poop.      (at bottom): (There is a tiny sketch of the character picking his nose.)  (Or he could be picking                        his nose- and his name is "Van Nose-Strand")  A long strand of snot coming from                        his nose to his finger. • Item 45: Names: Bernard Discard, Bruce Refuse, Disposa Bill, Johnny Trash, Recyclea Bill, and Uncanny Danny.   Notes:      (on left side near middle): For package of series 4- maybe something that just cuts right to the                                              essence of it all. • Item 46: Names: Nick The Geek and Zeke Geek. • Item 47: Names: Ventrillo Chris.   Notes:      (arrow on left side near middle): Dummy is smaller version of kid.      (arrow on left side near bottom): Kid holds in vomit- dummy expels vomit.      (arrow on right side near middle): Tuxedos on kid and dummy.      (on right side near bottom): Both their faces have green tinge. Items 48, 49, and 50 are unpublished sketches from a never-produced product called Garbage Pail Pets.  The Garbage Pail Pets concept was short-lived, and there was no further development after Jay created the three sketches. • Item 48: Names: Bawlin' Beagle, Blubberin' Bonnie, Cryin' Shane, Frettin' Fido, Onion Beagle, Pitiful Pokey,             Sobbin' Shenequa, Sobbin' Sniffles, and Tearful Toto.   Notes:      (arrow on right side near middle): Beagle in a garden.  Eats an onion, which causes beagle to cry. • Item 49: Names: Barfin' Bootsie, Hairball Paul, Kitty Splat, Pukey Pookey, and Throw-up Tabby.   Notes:      (arrow on right side near middle): Cat throws-up a giant hairball... on expensive oriental rug.      (arrow on right side near bottom): Show $5,000 price tag on rug somewhere within the die cut area. • Item 50: Names: Cutie Pie, Dirty Birdie, Dora Droppings, Polly Puddle, Polly Wolly-Doodle, Poopey Petey,             and Tweety Paraketey.

 

Closing Comments

The United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 5 continued on the path of the previous All-New Series, and Topps was still experimenting with the design.  The key to the success of the Garbage Pail Kids is to interest the dedicated collectors and make the product draw in new collectors.        The overall appearance of the All-New Series 5 card front artwork was one of the best out of the five All-New Series released.  The card print quality was also improved, but the colors still seemed somewhat dulled down and dark.  The dulled down colors may be from the high-gloss coating added to the cards.  The style guide created for the series seemed to slightly help some of the artists understand how to paint Garbage Pail Kids, but there was still room left for improvement.        Just like all of the previous All-New Series, the card numbering started back at 1a and 1b.  It could be very confusing to distinguish the cards from the different series if the checklists were not available for comparison.  The cards with non-puzzle piece backs had "® & © 2006 THE TOPPS COMPANY, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED." printed on them, which could help distinguish them from the other series.  As mentioned in some of my reviews of the other All-New Series, it would be better if Topps put unique markings on all of the cards so that collectors knew which series the cards were from.        The promotional material created for the series was adequate.  However, the actual promotion of the series to consumers through advertising was non-existent, which I felt severely hurt the sales of the series.  It is extremely important to promote a series to potential collectors because they need to be introduced to the new product and its features.  While the previous All-New Series were costly to collect, the All-New Series 5 was relatively inexpensive, and there was 1 more card inside of every pack.  Mentioning those types of details along with samples of the best artwork from the series would be ideal for advertisements for the product.  It was wrong of Topps to make the assumption that the series would sell strong without advertising it, and I felt that was the biggest flaw with the All-New Series 5.        The distribution for the product was similar to the All-New Series 4.  Vintage, the distributor for K-Mart and Toys R Us, did such a poor job with the All-New Series 4 that they did not even distribute the All-New Series 5, which also meant they did not have a unique bonus box and bonus card designed for them.  The distributors should get the product on store shelves within a couple of weeks, but many times it would take much longer for some stores to receive the product if they ever even received the product at all.  This problem lead collectors to purchase the items through Internet auctions and Internet card dealers.        One of the stronger points of the release was that Topps did not over-think the design.  The design of the hobby boxes and retail boxes was the same.  The All-New Series 5 box design was the same as the All-New Series 4 retail box design.  I have yet to see a hobby dealer who sells Garbage Pail Kids display one of the hobby posters.  Some of the retailers carrying Garbage Pail Kids would sell the packs for less than $0.99 even though the packs were pre-priced 99¢, so it might not be a bad idea just to leave the pricing information off of the packs.  It might be even easier if Topps had just one box for hobby and retail, which would mean the boxes would all look the same; have the same box codes; have unpriced packs; contain the same types of insert cards; and not come with a poster inside.        It was not difficult to complete the sets of the alphabet cards and magnet cards.  Up to this point, all of the insert cards printed on foil have not looked good, and the blue foil the alphabet cards were printed on was no exception.  While kids were supposed to use the stickers on the alphabet cards to spell out their names (or whatever else they could come up with), collectors found no interest in this novelty.  The magnet cards looked nice overall, but Topps reused artwork from the original series instead of coming up with something different.  The idea of the magnet cards was not bad, but the artwork on them needed to be something collectors had not seen before.  It might have also been a good idea to print something on both sides of the magnet cards so that they could be displayed two ways.  Possibly, Topps could have a 9-piece puzzle for the magnet card backs since there were 9 magnet cards for the set.  Topps still needed to work on the design of the insert card sets, but making the insert card sets easier to complete and more affordable was definitely a very positive improvement.        Thankfully, Topps did not create unique insert cards or items (other than the display poster) for the hobby version of the release.  As I mentioned before, the simplicity of the design was one of the strongest aspects of the release.  The retail sales were a disaster for the All-New Series 4 because the All-New Series 4 hobby boxes were the only ones that contained the sketch cards, and collectors were only interested in buying boxes that contained sketch cards.  Making the hobby boxes and retail boxes contain the same items is ideal.        While there were just two bonus boxes to collect for the series, most collectors did not find them very appealing.  The main problem with the bonus boxes was the high purchase price, and the only reason a collector would want to buy a bonus box was for the bonus card.  Since the bonus cards are not very different looking from the regular cards, they definitely do not deserve to cost $9.99 (i.e., the cost of the bonus box).  The 4-pack blister packs Topps created were a great improvement.  The "randomly" inserted bonus cards inside of the blister packs was not a bad idea, but it might have been better if Topps made a unique blister pack for each bonus card.  The unique blister packs could all come inside of the same blister box, but the different designs would allow consumers to know which bonus card they were getting at the time of purchase, which is similar to how the bonus boxes are.        The gravity feed displays created for the All-New Series 5 could have been designed a little better.  The packs were always grouped together at the bottom of the gravity feed, reinserting packs through the slot at the top of the display could damage the cards as the packs drop down, the artwork on the sides of the display could be blocked by other gravity feeds displayed next to it, and the majority of the space inside of the gravity feed is empty.  It would be better to combine the design of the Wal-Mart power wing display (used for the All-New Series 2 and All-New Series 3) with the design of the gravity feed.  This new display would have separate compartments/shelves like the power wing, but it would take up as much space as the gravity feed and be hung up like the gravity feed.        Even though there were already four previous All-New Series, there still should not have been as many repeated first names used for the All-New Series 5 character names.  There should not have been any first names used more than once in series, but that happened with three first names, Al; Kyle; and Nick, in the All-New Series 5.  There are thousands of first names that could be used for character names, and there are still plenty of first names that were never used for any Garbage Pail Kids series.  It would be ideal if Topps noted all the first names they had previously used in the All-New Series, so they could use different first names for new characters.        The All-New Series 5 was a well-designed series, but Topps still needs to improve on some of the design elements.  The artwork was much improved over the previous All-New Series, but all of the artists need to follow the Garbage Pail Kids style guide John Pound had created.  The concepts were also better, but there still needs to be less concepts that deal with "bathroom humor".  It was a huge improvement that the series was not very expensive to collect, and changes like that could help make the product more appealing to kids and potential collectors.  The main thing that Topps needs to do is to focus more attention on the advertising and promotion of the series, so that everyone is aware of the product and its features.

 

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

 
 
 
 

Copyright © 1998-20XX Wayne's Garbage Pail Kids References All images and information may not be reproduced without permission.