Introduction

The Annotated Wacky Packages pages aim to document Topps' All-New Series (2004 - present) in contextual depth for fans and collectors:

• All-New Series 1 (ANS1 - this page)
• All-New Series 2 (ANS2)
• All-New Series 3 (ANS3)
• All-New Series 4 (ANS4)
• All-New Series 5 (ANS5)
• All-New Series 6 (ANS6)

For information on classic, pre-2004 Wacky Packages stickers, visit the most complete resource on the Web, wackypackages.org.

Annotated ANS1 Index

• Overview - a brief outline of All-New Series 1
• Checklist - a list of the ANS1 titles with links to more in-depth information
• Credits - the creative personnel behind each title, where known
• Promotions - advertising material in print, on the web, and other media
• Packaging - data on shipping cases, display boxes, and foil packs
• Spin-offs/Licensed Products - merchandise derived from ANS1 titles

Overview

In February of 2004, Topps announced that it was producing Wacky Packages All-New Series 1, the first new Wacky product from the company in over a decade. Anticipation for the series was high among collectors: by the early 2000s, the Internet had facilitated a community of fans who remembered Wacky Packs from their childhoods and a vast marketplace in which the classic stickers and related merchandise could be purchased and traded.

All-New Series 1 was published in late May 2004. As the name implied, the set consisted of mostly new material (rather than reprints), but it also included some inventory paintings that had been created for an abandoned series in the early 1990s. While some longtime aficionados were put off by the few titles which relied on gross-out humor (i.e. "Baby Poop" and "Struggle"), most fans welcomed and enthusiastically collected the new series, which included 55 base sticker cards, 9 clear vinyl Clings, and 10 temporary Tattoos.

There were no short-printed titles in the base set. It is unclear whether there were multiple printings, but there is no evidence that any changes were made to any aspect of the series in subsequent printings.

Topps apparently received a complaint from Mars, Incorporated about the parodies of its candy products in All-New Series 1: "Scarburst," "Sneakers, " and "Spittles." The 3 Musketeers parody 3 Racketeers that was held back from ANS1 was dropped from ANS2 for this reason. Twits, an ANS2 candidate lampooning Twix, was also abandoned to avoid further complaints from Mars, Inc.

return to page index

Checklist

Click on the hyperlinked names (more to come) for additional information about individual titles.

return to page index

Credits Matrix

John Williams - Editor and Writer
Jeff Zapata - Editor, Concept Artist, and Writer

#	Title	Final Artist	Writer/Concept Artist
P1	Mr. Coffin	Tom Bunk	Frank Santopadre/?
P2	Sludgsicle	John Pound	?
P3	Coach Motel	Tom Bunk	?
01	La Chew	Zina Saunders	Jay Lynch
02	Scrapple	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
03	Cold Fish	Zina Saunders	Jay Lynch
04	Chimps Ahoy!	John Pound	Jay Lynch
05	Sludge Shoppe	Strephon Taylor	Jay Lynch
06	Foot Gushers	Tom Bunk	?
07	Go-Dirt	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
08	Chimp Stick	Tom Bunk	?
09	Hairy Patter	John Pound	Jay Lynch
10	Gutterade	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
11	Spittles	Sean Greathead?	?
12	Batz	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
13	Gravestones	John Pound	Frank Santopadre/?
14	Mr. Coffin	Tom Bunk	Frank Santopadre/?
15	Lame Boy	John Pound	?
16	Frosted Snakes	John Pound	Jay Lynch
17	Macaroni for Geese	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
18	Fright Castle	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
19	Dork	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
20	Mean Cuisine	Tom Bunk	?
21	Zit Kat	Zina Saunders	Jay Lynch
22	Slop Tarts	Strephon Taylor	Jay Lynch
23	Peter Panhandle	Tom Bunk	?
24	Struggle	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
25	Who Cares? Bears	John Pound	Jay Lynch
26	Obit	Strephon Taylor	?
27	Nutti-Brain	Tom Bunk	Tom Bunk
28	Tix	Glover Brothers	?
29	Baby Poop	John Pound	Jay Lynch
30	Bling Pup	John Pound	Jay Lynch
31	Sneez-It	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
32	Error	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
33	Gearios	Zina Saunders	Jay Lynch
34	Choperation	John Pound	?
35	Martha Skewered	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
36	Sneakers	John Pound	Jay Lynch
37	Pus Pop	John Pound	Jay Lynch
38	Grand Theft Audio	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
39	Antenmann's	Zina Saunders	Jay Lynch (1990s rough)
40	Aquaflush	Strephon Taylor	Jay Lynch
41	Lice Cakes	Tom Bunk	?
42	My Little Phony	John Pound	Jay Lynch
43	Nuttin' Butta	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
44	Smellio's	John Pound	?
45	Foolgers	Zina Saunders	Jay Lynch
46	Dead Bull	Sean Greathead	?
47	Sludgsicle	John Pound	?
48	Sicken McSluggets	John Pound	Jay Lynch
49	Anvil	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
50	Welt's	John Pound	?
51	Gormel	John Pound	?
52	Clodlike	Tom Bunk	?
53	Scarburst	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
54	Sslips	Tom Bunk	Jay Lynch
55	Snots	Tom Bunk	Tom Bunk
B1	Asteroids	David Gross	David Gross
B2	Coach Motel	Tom Bunk	?

return to page index

Promotions

Promotions for ANS1 included stickers, flyers and other printed advertising; ads on the Web; and a television commercial.

Print Advertising

Promo Cards

Three promotional stickers were released, appearing in Diamond Comics Previews magazine, in Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 2 packs, and elsewhere. The promos were the same size as a standard trading card, but the die-cut sticker images were smaller than a typical Wacky to allow for the inclusion of the logo on the front; the borders were a burgundy color rather than white; and the numbers were printed on the backs.

The paintings used to create the three promos were more than 10 years old, having been commissioned for the unpublished 1992 Wacky Packages series.

Mr. Coffin

Sludgsicle

Coach Motel

Brochures/Flyers/Sell Sheets/Posters

Advance Brochure

A four-page preview brochure was distributed in March of 2004. It is likely that this brochure was developed before any new art was finalized, because only images from the unpublished 1990s crop of Wackys were shown.

	Page 1 "Choperation" is shown incomplete on this page, missing much of the text of the final sticker.		Page 2 The final ANS1 pack was different in many ways from the mock-up shown here.
	Page 3 The "Mean Cuisine" image includes a spelling mistake that was corrected before publication.		Page 4 The display box mock-up differs from the final; "Plop on Pop" was not in ANS1.

Sell Sheet		Dealer Letter
	The ANS1 sell sheet distills elements from the brochure, above.		The February 19, 2004 letter to wholesale hobby distributors

Preliminary Checklist

This checklist was sent to retailers in February 2004. A number of differences can be found between it and the final ANS1 checklists, including the number of cling titles (originally 15, reduced to 9) and the replacement of several base set titles.

"Notebook" Flyer

Side 1 This flyer was released in April, showing several ANS1 titles that had not been seen to that point.

Side 2 The second side highlights the magazine inlay stickers campaign.

Auction Preview Flyer

Issued to promote the Topps Vault art auctions beginning on June 26, 2004. An auction preview was held June 24-26 in New York City.

Magazine Inlay Promo Stickers

The inlay sheet of three die-cut stickers was bound into subscription copies of Mad magazine and a number of DC Comics titles. Several changes were made to the "Fright Castle" image between the release of this promo and the initial printing of ANS1 to appease the White Castle company.

Store Displays

Target Display Sheet (Excell Marketing)

Designed by trading card distributor Excell Marketing, this display was featured in the card sections in many Target stores. The sheets were marked to be removed by 6/10/04.

"On Sale Here" Window Sign

Sign Designed for retailers, the vinyl "cling" sign was meant to be displayed in store windows. The printed side adhered to glass

Sign Flyer A photocopied flyer accompanied the sign

Internet Advertising

While there were many web pages that promoted ANS1, this section concentrates on official Topps web content.

Topps.com Sites and Links

The Topps Newsletter (Vol. 18, 03/18/04) announced the new series, displaying "Bling Pup" and "Struggle." The article promises "15 different reusable Clear Cling Vinyl Decals." This was scaled back to 9 for the final release. (See the preliminary checklist for the 15 proposed titles.)

Topps.com Pop Culture Topps posted its first preview web page for ANS1 in March 2004.

Garbage Pail Kids World Late in 2004, an ad graphic that linked to wackypackages.com appeared on Topps' Garbage Pail Kids official site in a cross-promotion effort. The ad proclaimed "If you like this site, you'll love Wacky Packages."

Topps' Official Wacky Packages Site

Collector Greg Grant was the owner of the wackypackages.com domain name when Topps was preparing to launch its official site. Topps traded some original art to Grant in return for the URL, while he kept the wackypackages.org address for his site.

Home Page

	Topps' initial posting was a simple "coming soon" placeholder page.
	The official site went live with an interactive "Wacky Mart" theme in early June 2004. The site included simple games for site visitors to play; completing the games allowed visitors to collect points toward downloads such as desktop wallpaper, screensavers, and cut-and-fold Wacky boxes. Efrain Cintron was responsible for much of the site's background artwork, animation, and game designs.

Topps E-mail Ads

"Celebrate the Season with Topps!" The company promoted ANS1 and other products in a holiday-themed e-mail advertisement dated November 11, 2004.

Television Advertising

A 30-second TV commercial for ANS1 ran on the cable channels Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Toon Disney, and Discovery Kids in the fall of 2004.

The flyer which heralded the commercial

A screenshot from the TV ad (thumbnail links to an mpeg movie file on wackypackages.com)

According to a Topps flyer, the commercial ran again in the New York metro area starting January 10, 2005 on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

return to page index

Packaging Details

ANS1 display boxes were red, featuring a yellow Wacky Packages logo. Boxes sold in both hobby and retail channels held 24 packs. Two "bonus" boxes were produced for the distributors Excell Marketing and Legends, LP; each contained 10 packs, with 1 extra pack and 1 exclusive card.

Pack wrappers were also red with a yellow logo, echoing the pack color scheme of many of the previous "first" series (1973, 1979, 1985). The red tended to appear more rust or orange early in the run. Packs contained 6 cards, with a 1-in-4 packs chance of finding a cling insert, and a 1-in-6 chance of pulling a temporary tattoo.

Shipping cases were brown cardboard with little more than the logo and case codes in black print.

Display Boxes and Packs

• Hobby Box code 1-777-30-01-4
  • contained 24 packs (no price) with code 0-777-89-01-4
    (Hobby boxes contained a folded "On Sale Here" poster which retail boxes did not.)
• Retail Box code 1-791-30-01-4
  • contained 24 packs (99 cents) with code 0-791-89-01-4
• Retail Box code 1-791-30-02-4
  • contained 24 packs (no price) with code 0-791-89-02-4
• B2 Bonus Box code 1-789-30-01-4 (sold at Target, Shopko, others)
  • contained 11 packs (99 cents) with code 0-789-89-01-4, plus 1 cellophane pack containing Bonus Sticker B2, "Coach Motel"
• B1 Bonus Box code 1-789-30-02-4 (sold at Wal-Mart, Sports Authority, others)
  • contained 11 packs (99 cents) with code 0-789-89-01-4, plus 1 cellophane pack containing Bonus Sticker B1, "Asteroids"

Shipping Cases

• 16-Box Shipping Case code 2-791-40-01-4 (The cardboard case was printed with multiple sub-codes, which were checkmarked to indicate the contents)
  • #791 contained Retail Boxes code 1-791-30-01-4
  • #791-E contained Retail Boxes code 1-791-30-02-4
  • #777-R contained Hobby Boxes code 1-777-30-01-4
• 8-Box Shipping Case code (presumed) 2-777-40-01-4
  • #777-H contained Hobby Box code 1-777-30-01-4
• 16-Box Bonus Case code 2-789-40-02-4
  • #789-WAL contained B1 Bonus Boxes code
    1-789-30-02-4
• 16-Box Bonus Case code (presumed) 2-789-40-01-4 (this case has not been seen)
  • #798-TAR should contain B2 Bonus Boxes code
    1-789-30-01-4

Thanks to Paul Furth for the breakdown of the case, display box, and wrapper codes!

Specialty Packaging

Rack Packs

Excell Marketing and Legends, LP offered multiple configurations of rack packs (trading card packs sealed in a clear plastic blister, meant to be hung on a store peg) for ANS1.

return to page index

Spin-offs/Licensed Products

Vending Stickers

The first batch of Wacky Packages Special Edition vending stickers was distributed starting in February 2005 by Vending Supply, Inc. The set, which was intended for sale in sticker vending machines only, consisted of 15 separate card backs with 22 images derived from ANS1. Some of the cards were cut in the shape of the Wacky outline while others were rectangular cards, containing multiple die-cut stickers.

A second series of vending stickers debuted in September 2005. Along with additional images from ANS1, this set contained classic Wacky Packages titles like "Tied" and "Kook-Aid."

None of the ANS1 parodies of products made by Mars, Incorporated—"Scarburst," "Sneakers, " or "Spittles"—have appeared (or will appear) in vending sticker form due to a "cease and desist" request from the company.

return to page index