Wacky Packages Forum
Wacky Packages Discussion => General Wacky Packages Discussion => Topic started by: Shrunken Donuts on July 12, 2017, 04:37:59 PM
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I'd have to trace it back to 2008 with the release of the Flashback Series. Up until that point, it was fun to collect the newer stuff because all the "chase" cards were obtainable. Even something like Coach Motel, while frustratingly underproduced, was a realistic goal for everyone. Then came the Flasback Series and those DAMN GOLD BORDERS!!! What was it, 70+ Gold titles to obtain with a chance of a gold border in like 1 in every 208 packs? 99% of us could no longer "collect them all." It was all downhill from there. By the way, could Topps have picked a WORSE time to have collectors chasing these Willy Wonka golden tickets with the economy tanking in '08 and '09? Look at all the ANS releases after the Flasbacks: The ridiculous odds, the sketch cards, all the border variations and special subsets and border variations *OF* subsets, etc, etc. ? It was game over for many collectors.
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I believe we can all agree with you in the fact that there are too many chase items with terrible odds. It's almost like you could win the lottery before you pull one of these items....
...and then you buy the item in question because you have the money for it. :]
We can all pray that we can have an OLDS 6 with straight tan or white backs... PICK ONE.
And there are no chase cards. One checklist per pack.
Because they actually want these to be like the OS, right!?
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I'd have to trace it back to 2008 with the release of the Flashback Series. Up until that point, it was fun to collect the newer stuff because all the "chase" cards were obtainable. Even something like Coach Motel, while frustratingly underproduced, was a realistic goal for everyone. Then came the Flasback Series and those DAMN GOLD BORDERS!!! What was it, 70+ Gold titles to obtain with a chance of a gold border in like 1 in every 208 packs? 99% of us could no longer "collect them all." It was all downhill from there. By the way, could Topps have picked a WORSE time to have collectors chasing these Willy Wonka golden tickets with the economy tanking in '08 and '09? Look at all the ANS releases after the Flasbacks: The ridiculous odds, the sketch cards, all the border variations and special subsets and border variations *OF* subsets, etc, etc. ? It was game over for many collectors.
forgetting about the fact that the odds were bad, it was chasing garbage! gold colored borders? Really?
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While I understand (and sometimes buy into) the completist tendencies of collecting in general, the concept of extremely underproduced chase cards has been around for about 25 years now, and the long-term value retention of these cards, or lack thereof, more often than not does not justify acquiring them. What is intrinsically valuable about a gold-bordered variation sticker? I have the utmost respect for the Mag 7 OS pulled titles, die cuts, etc because these were the unintended result of forced production changes. The ANS-era chase cards are a contrived rarity. When the parallel border sets started I just scaled back to base sets and the basic subsets, be they foils, magnets, static clings, etc., and whatever bonus box and blister pack bonus cards I could get relatively easily. For me, jumping the shark has more to do with a drop-off in artistic quality rather than the attainability of chase cards. For the latter, I simply lower my expectations and adjust my collecting strategy accordingly.
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Yep, a more accurate name for them would have been "mustard" borders. Topps should have left the borders black and had an all gold background instead -- a TRUE gold. And made this gold subset tough yet obtainable. Maybe 2-3 golds per box. Instead they opted for unrealistic odds, mustard borders and distracting backgrounds. >(
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For me, it was ANS6.
That was the introduction of the Mega Packs. More than doubling the amount of swill to buy in order to get the chase cards. Coupled with a near doubling of the pack odds to get the chase cards. Meaning 4 times the swill to collect the set. Blatant money grab by Topps.
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I was satisfied until the MLB Baseball set last year. Then it all started going down hill. Don't like made-up products at all. It defeats the purpose of making a parody!
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Don't expect Olds 6 to be in packs or a box. I think it's going to come out as a set to buy due to costs and the last sets sales. Nice simple set of 31 cards (white back I think).
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Don't expect Olds 6 to be in packs or a box. I think it's going to come out as a set to buy due to costs and the last sets sales. Nice simple set of 31 cards (white back I think).
Interesting. Would miss having a box and packs to open to be surprised by the contents...but, OTOH, less "stuff" to keep/store appeals to me.
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For me it was OS16. It's been all downhill since then.
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Don't expect Olds 6 to be in packs or a box. I think it's going to come out as a set to buy due to costs and the last sets sales. Nice simple set of 31 cards (white back I think).
How will the sketch be incorporated?
Jim
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For me it was OS16. It's been all downhill since then.
LOL
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How will the sketch be incorporated?
Dave will come to your house and draw it for you. hehehehe
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Don't expect Olds 6 to be in packs or a box. I think it's going to come out as a set to buy due to costs and the last sets sales. Nice simple set of 31 cards (white back I think).
Looking forward to Olds 6 being sold as a set. How much will the gold border sets limited to 50 sets go for? Will there also be pink flourescent background sets for sale?
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Looking forward to Olds 6 being sold as a set. How much will the gold border sets limited to 50 sets go for? Will there also be pink flourescent background sets for sale?
Don't think they will have anything but a white or tan back available (I think it will be white). Don;t know anything about sketches yet.
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Don't think they will have anything but a white or tan back available (I think it will be white). Don;t know anything about sketches yet.
Not having sketches doesn't bother me too much honestly.. And if they are all white back it would be great!
IMO, less inserts = BETTER. I will miss the packs though. That takes a part out of the fun of opening old packs.
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Don't think they will have anything but a white or tan back available (I think it will be white). Don;t know anything about sketches yet.
Glad to hear that. I didn't really expect gold or pink border sets. Nice to hear this release will not be a "maximum collector expenditure" type of set. Looking forward to a set with traditional black borders. I don't prefer the borderless Wackies we got in the 50th set.
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Don't think they will have anything but a white or tan back available (I think it will be white). Don;t know anything about sketches yet.
Maybe it can be wrapped in a pack and inserted in a mini display box.
Just saying.
Pass the word.
Like cool-o-rama, man.
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Hi folks, haven't been on the forum in quite a while. I was reading the posts and agree with what people are saying here about the out of control amount to collect. I know it is your choice, to do that if you wish, but at the same time I do like buying the packs in the retail stores when possible and do not like it when I get variation cards that I know I am not going to collect. Especially when i am just trying to get a cool base set.
I must say, I did enjoy the recent 50th anniversary release. I liked a lot of the parodies and thought I seemed to be more of a real and successful attempt at spoofing products and actually being funny then just a churning out of material just to get it out there.
Hope everyone is doing well and will try to get back on more often.
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Will Olds 6 be printed offset or by like the Print On Demand finish? I like the total feel of the Olds series. But the On Demand had the glossy feel front that might not look good for Olds 6.
Also totally bummed with MLB and 50th Series, Introducing fake or made up products totally kills the Wacky brand we love. It seems like this is what Topps wants now- cheap unmemorable spur of the moment gags that have no lasting power.
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Well MLB Wackys was an experiment. They were a hybrid and named to reflect that. So they aren't full fledged Wackys and I wouldn't judge them as such. As a unique hybrid experiment I enjoyed them for a few reasons. I hadn't purchased a baseball card since I was a kid so it was kinda nice to grab some cards of the home team and be able to once again collect an MLB like set. Also they did have thick borders, the die cut (or kiss cut however you term it) and for the most part were hand painted and felt like Wackys to me.
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For me personally, it was the introduction of potty humor and gross-out humor. I could almost tolerate the lottery-like odds of the chase cards, because once those were introduced, the "completist" in me was shot down. Yeh, it would be cool to have one of the rare cards, but who gave a Ratz ass if I didn't. Some good friends on the forum gave me some of the ultra-rare chase cards, which hold a priceless place in my collection--not so much because of their rarity, but mostly because good friends gave them to me. I did start to tire of all the multiplying "chase" cards that seemed to grow with each new series, but the nail in the coffin was the potty humor. After ANS11, it was no more for me.
Which is a bit of irony. As a kid, I also stopped at OS11, but not by choice....I just never saw OS12 and above in stores!!
Wacky on,
David
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I hate the potty humor. It's totally not needed and disrespects the original series which emphasized clever, borderline rebellious gags.
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A lot of interesting points. For some, Wackys jumped the shark before Fonzie did. For others, it was the gross-out humor that would never have been adopted in the days when grown-ups walked the earth.
For me too, it was the explosion of chase cards and other manufactured rarities. (I called this "the TV Guide treatment.") Once I had a fixed, exact number of titles; now I wouldn't even try. I'd go crazy just trying to maintain a master list, never mind trying to "Collect 'em All."
Still, in 20 years, there will be collectors chasing that ANS title they never could find back in the day. It'll be interesting to see which ones are most in demand.
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Still, in 20 years, there will be collectors chasing that ANS title they never could find back in the day. It'll be interesting to see which ones are most in demand.
I highly doubt it, unless it's a wealthy member of this forum looking for something to do in retirement.
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The 2016 Wacky Packages MLB series when they started to not spoof real products and that process continued mostly into the 2017 Wacky Packages 50th. Anniversary series?
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I highly doubt it, unless it's a wealthy member of this forum looking for something to do in retirement.
They won't be out there in any great numbers. But as we approach mid-century, there'll likely be a handful of die-hards looking for a Coach Motel here, or an Easy Burn there. We shall see.
Trying to amass all the titles and variations could keep one busy throughout retirement.
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Trying to amass all the titles and variations could keep one busy throughout retirement.
Unintended variations (production errors, running out of paper backing and printing on whatever you could get) -- yes. Intended variations solely for the purpose of gouging the buyer for more money (different color borders, different color backs) -- no.
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I've got to put in my two cents' worth here. Wackys jumped the shark for me not only when they started doing different colored borders, but also when they started doing stickers from specialty boxes that you couldn't get in regular brick-and-mortar stores. I'm glad I stopped when I did (originally at ANS8; I only got Chrome a little bit later because I wanted to) because after that, it just got too much for me, money-wise. ANS10, ANS11, 2014 S1 and 2015 S1 (the last two should've been called what they were: ANS12 and ANS13) - all of them really killed it for me. I would've got ANS9 if there had been only one Awful Apps subset with 20 stickers in it, just like the Wack-O-Mercials in ANS7. When they only did 10 Awful Apps in ANS9 and then another 10 in ANS10 (which was the point when it started getting too extensive - and expensive - for my tastes) I knew that was it. Since I'm unemployed (and still am to this day), I couldn't afford it anymore. However, once again, I might've gotten ANS9 if all 20 Awful Apps had been in it, thus completing what I call the Wacky Internet sub-series or the Wacky World Wide Web (the 20 Awful Apps and the 55 previously-released Wacky Websites from ANS1 to ANS4 and then later in ANS7), but Topps didn't even think of that one, unfortunately for me. Ah well, what might have been...I'd have had all of the single digit ANS if that had happened. I have to admit, though, I originally stopped at FB 2 and couldn't even get ANS7 and ANS8 until I found this forum. To the person(s) who helped me get them, thank you.
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For me, it was Original Series 11 back when I was a kid. I was only about 10, but hated the magazine covers and could see that they were trying to imitate Fleer Crazy Covers. There WERE some good stickers in series 12-16, but most drug stores where I was at stopped selling them. Not sure if sales were down, or what. Eventually I stopped buying. I am not 100 percent sure if I lost interest and stopped looking for them, or they actually were not available in my area any more...
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For me, it was Original Series 11 back when I was a kid. I was only about 10, but hated the magazine covers and could see that they were trying to imitate Fleer Crazy Covers. There WERE some good stickers in series 12-16, but most drug stores where I was at stopped selling them. Not sure if sales were down, or what. Eventually I stopped buying. I am not 100 percent sure if I lost interest and stopped looking for them, or they actually were not available in my area any more...
I could never say OS jumped the shark, only that they had to get more creative with available products to spoof. Fewer kiddie cereals and more drain cleaners, spark plugs, board games, etc. But you may be right that some sellers gave up on them in the later series. The fad/craze aspect may have fizzled out by the time Series 9 or 10 was reached.
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For me it was the border variations. Far too many of them and who cares about border colors? And the MLB set was terrible.
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The border colors and hard-to-complete chase sets are frustrating, but since I am not a completist, I only concentrate on buying what I like. Personally, I am VERY thankful that Topps revived Wacky Packages in the 21st Century. It honestly came as a complete surprise to me...and even better (for an old 55 year old like me), was the advent of the Old School concept. For me these are like having Series 17, 18, 19, 20, etc. from back in the 70s. If you lie awake at night thinking of the stickers that you might never be able to add to your collection, then yeah, the modern strategies are aggravating. But from Topps' standpoint, how do you milk the profit out of what is arguably a niche market of (I'm guessing) mostly middle aged collectors?
This is probably a topic for another thread, but I wonder if anyone will still be collecting these stickers in 50 years??
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I agree with most of the comments on this thread & have always been a bit of an OS snob. But I think the biggest mistake with the ANS wasn't 'chase cards' in general. It was that it's ridiculous to CHASE something you already HAVE, namely the base set of artwork. I'm not a fan at all of 'manufactured rarity' and high cost of completion as concepts. But... the CHASE should be for something COOL... like a new title that isn't in the base set. THAT feels more like trying to get the "Bum Chex" that Johnny down the street has for some reason even though your checklist doesn't even list it and his does. But when it came to the titles themselves, we didn't care if some kid wrote his name on the back or peeled the border... if you had the titles, your set was complete. And so it should be with ANS. If you own a copy of the MonaLisa... would you really pay 10x more to have another one with an UGLY PINK BORDER??? I think not.
"He says they've already got one!"
-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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For me, it was Original Series 11 back when I was a kid. I was only about 10, but hated the magazine covers and could see that they were trying to imitate Fleer Crazy Covers. There WERE some good stickers in series 12-16, but most drug stores where I was at stopped selling them. Not sure if sales were down, or what. Eventually I stopped buying. I am not 100 percent sure if I lost interest and stopped looking for them, or they actually were not available in my area any more...
You've got to admit, though, Wacky Magazines (which, btw, was originally going to be a separate series from Wacky Packages before they merged the two) didn't just imitate Crazy Magazine Covers, they outright surpassed them, and not just artwork-wise. Just compare the two of them and you'll see what I mean. I ought to know, I collected them both back in the day (however, I only got the first of Fleer's three series and never even saw the other two, or even knew they existed, until later). This contest is no contest, pure and simple. In fact, not only should it not be considered a contest, it never even was one to begin with the way I see it.
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I don’t want to be that guy, but I will be. I hate the ANS sets, because my OCD hates the fact you can’t complete the sets without remortgaging the house. I also don’t need 20 copies of the same artwork in different parallels. I would rather they offer a regular set with some short printed cards. To me when you buy a full box of cards and you can’t basically have a full set, that’s a fail. These cards should be about fun…
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I don’t want to be that guy, but I will be. I hate the ANS sets, because my OCD hates the fact you can’t complete the sets without remortgaging the house. I also don’t need 20 copies of the same artwork in different parallels. I would rather they offer a regular set with some short printed cards. To me when you buy a full box of cards and you can’t basically have a full set, that’s a fail. These cards should be about fun…
The early ANS sets weren't impossible to complete without a trust fund. At least through ANS7 as I recall, and maybe 8.
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The early ANS sets weren't impossible to complete without a trust fund. At least through ANS7 as I recall, and maybe 8.
You're right, Pat; that's why I originally stopped at ANS8.
As I stated in my previous post on pg. 1, I would've got ANS9 (and then stopped at the end of the single-digit releases) if the Awful Apps subset would've had all 20 in this series and was not divided between it and the next series (10 in ANS9 and 10 in ANS10). That way, within the nine series, I could've had 55 Wacky Websites and 20 Awful Apps, thus having a sub-series I would've called the Wacky Internet or the Wacky World Wide Web.
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I don’t want to be that guy, but I will be. I hate the ANS sets, because my OCD hates the fact you can’t complete the sets without remortgaging the house. I also don’t need 20 copies of the same artwork in different parallels. I would rather they offer a regular set with some short printed cards. To me when you buy a full box of cards and you can’t basically have a full set, that’s a fail. These cards should be about fun…
The way I always approached it was to complete the base set (usually would end up being 3-4 sets, and if there were extensive back variations I’d make sure to finish at least one extended set), and what I would call the basic subsets each series had, such as magnets, motion cards, what’s in the box, and so on. Never extensively pursued colored borders, sketches, or any other “inserts” beyond that. Of course some would come my way just from buying packs, which was fine. I’d keep a few things I liked (for instance I liked the flash foil borders from the ANS8-10 timeframe), but generally used most of it for trading, because I was usually looking to round out some extra base sets and/or get some expendable extras for homemade magnets, while most traders were trying to work on the parallels and other chase material. Just a brutally pragmatic (and fairly frugal) approach. Always worked well for me, but I seem to be the exception.
And I understand the OCD tendencies for sure, but I think mine have mellowed with time thank goodness. I seem to have tamed my completist tendencies from earlier life very well, but there is still the problem of having collected too many different categories of stuff over the years. Will need to start planning some purging. Pat has stated similar challenges....
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I also don’t need 20 copies of the same artwork in different parallels.
The more things change the more they stay the same. Fortunately we don't have parallel borders anymore, but with the weekly sets, monthly sets, and the new ads, you get a base set with every order. So now if you buy 10 or more sets to try and get a complete set, you get a lot of exactly the same stickers but without the various borders. What a waste.
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And I understand the OCD tendencies for sure, but I think mine have mellowed with time thank goodness. I seem to have tamed my completist tendencies from earlier life very well, but there is still the problem of having collected too many different categories of stuff over the years. Will need to start planning some purging. Pat has stated similar challenges....
I don’t know what it is. It’s specifically when it comes to card sets like these. I collect stamps, sports cards and other stuff, but there is something about a set of 55 cards or so with parallels which seems obtainable until you realize all the inserts. I am considering ANS 1 now as a logical extension of Wacky collection so far have the “first” relaunch series in 1985 & 1991. So 2004 technically can fall in line with that. I just want to find some boxes and open packs like I did as a kid. Unfortunately these aren’t 25 or 45 cents a pack ;D
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Many hobbies allow only allow for completion if the wallet is deep enough. Wacky's are not unique in this respect and never will be. The problem comes when a sensible perspective can not be had. Chase cards, to me, are added bonuses that don't impact a base set in the least.
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The problem comes when a sensible perspective can not be had.
Very true. Or if you know yourself, you avoid the kinds of things that cause you trouble. Personally the fun for me is opening packs and completing sets. However, after much research it seems 15-16 packs should get you a base set of ANS 1. That’s good enough for me. Doubles to trade if I decide to go for inserts, but to be honest, I don’t care for the tattoo cards ;D so I think I’m safe.
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I felt the baseball and 50th anniversary sets were really bad, but otherwise there's been lots to love across everything new since 2004.
Two things work against appreciating them on the same level as the original series: nostalgia and the volume of cards in each set. With only 30-33, the quality was much higher back in the old days, whereas doubling that number means diluting the best stuff.
But there's still plenty of great material! I was thinking of trying to come up with a best-of set covering each 3 year time period since ANS1, since the originals ran for basically 3 years before fading away.
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Out of the past seventeen years or how long it has been since ANS1, the only defugalty or two I have really found were the movie and baseball series. Now that is not a slam at the artists because I dislike both not due to the art/gags but because of my, well, extreme dislike of modern movies and and an even more extreme dislike of professional sports. I'd be inclined as going as far as replacing dislike with hatred.
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As bad as the premise sounded, I would still liked to have seen the Star Wars - Wacky cross over set - it couldn't have been worse than the Baseball set...???
But, surely, that would have been when Wacky's jumped the shark...
A
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Do NOT underestimate the Star Wars episode of Family Guy…….
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As bad as the premise sounded, I would still liked to have seen the Star Wars - Wacky cross over set - it couldn't have been worse than the Baseball set...???
But, surely, that would have been when Wacky's jumped the shark...
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I respectfully disagree with you. Isn't that exactly what Galactic Groceries is? It includes other science fiction topics as well, but Star Wars Wacky-ish paintings are the central components. Although it is coming out at an agonizingly slow snail's pace (and a DEAD snail, at that!), what HAS seen the light of day is of exceptional quality. If we could only chain the artist in place, and make him finish what he started, it would be a fantastic set!
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Do NOT underestimate the Star Wars episode of Family Guy…….
I have a really cool set of trading cards and inserts from The Family Guy's "A New Hope" episode. Maybe something else I should sell off........... Too much stuff!!
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I respectfully disagree with you. Isn't that exactly what Galactic Groceries is? It includes other science fiction topics as well, but Star Wars Wacky-ish paintings are the central components. Although it is coming out at an agonizingly slow snail's pace (and a DEAD snail, at that!), what HAS seen the light of day is of exceptional quality. If we could only chain the artist in place, and make him finish what he started, it would be a fantastic set!
I'm not saying that the Star Wars cross over would be a badly drafted set, in fact I think it would be otherwise, I just think that it stretches what we think are Wacky Packages, which makes it a 'jumping the shark' set - I'm hoping that images exist!!!!
A
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I respectfully disagree with you. Isn't that exactly what Galactic Groceries is? It includes other science fiction topics as well, but Star Wars Wacky-ish paintings are the central components. Although it is coming out at an agonizingly slow snail's pace (and a DEAD snail, at that!), what HAS seen the light of day is of exceptional quality. If we could only chain the artist in place, and make him finish what he started, it would be a fantastic set!
What George has done with Galactic Groceries is truly inspired.
What Topps was planning to do with Wacky/Star Wars was truly awful. Just bottom of the barrel garbage. The sample 'gags' were some of the lamest crap I've ever seen. Simplistic fictional items, with a vague SW relationship. Nothing real, or even wacky, about them.
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Going way back into the 1-16 sets, a lot of people probably experienced a "jump the shark" moment at the 14th/15th transition too. 11th was weird with the magazines, but I remember that one being out for such a short time, and 12th dropping right away, which looked and felt SO much like series 8 in its gags, and brightly-colored art (even the bright checklists again!) that I remember it pulling me right back in as if the weird magazines never happened. A complete 11th just sat in my box, not getting much replay, but it was a bump in the road. Then came 13 and 14, which were reminiscent of much earlier series, too. Put 7 and 13 together, and they look like one set. 6 and 9. 8 and 12. 10 and 14. There's something weirdly common about these pairs, the gags, art, colors, style... and then after a longer delay than usual... BOOM! Series 15 hits. Back to the whiteback stickers we hadn't seen since series 2 (for those of us who only saw 3rd, 13th and 14th tans), and the art was somehow different. Still Wacky. Still good. But different. The cans and packages seemed more airbrushed, and the puzzle was weird. And it didn't seem to last very long either. You had to just buy all the packs you could or you didn't finish it. Then silence... Wackys were dead. Star Wars came out. Darth Vader was way cooler than our old stickers now. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, 2 years later, Harrison Ford reprised his role... I mean Wacky series 16 came out. And it looked and felt like something not-Wacky.
...and then of course decades later, Harrison Ford AND Wackys reprised many times again...
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So you experienced Series 16 in the wild, circa 1976? I don’t think most of us ever saw them or even knew of their existence until returning to the hobby a couple decades later.
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So you experienced Series 16 in the wild, circa 1976? I don’t think most of us ever saw them or even knew of their existence until returning to the hobby a couple decades later.
I never saw the 16th series in the wild. And oddly, the same thing happened with the 14th series. I never understood how it went from the 13th series to the 15th series. Then in 2004, I saw a local newspaper article talking about how Wackys were making a comeback. The article referenced Greg Grant and his website, and it was there that I found info about the 'missing' 14th and 16th series.
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I never saw the 16th series in the wild. And oddly, the same thing happened with the 14th series. I never understood how it went from the 13th series to the 15th series. Then in 2004, I saw a local newspaper article talking about how Wackys were making a comeback. The article referenced Greg Grant and his website, and it was there that I found info about the 'missing' 14th and 16th series.
I had the exact same experience - 13th then 15th! I don’t remember if there was a gap in time between the two and some sort of distribution problem that caused me to miss the 14th, but miss it completely I did. Can’t imagine that my interest would have just stalled and then jump-started again either.
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I collected Wackys like a field from the time I found series 1 on a family vacation to Rhode Island in June '73 through about series 8. For series 9-11 or 12, I started to waver. I don't think I really ever collected 12/3-16, though I do recall buying some 16th packs in '78 for a friend while on a family vacation in Minnesota. I suspect the reason I eventually gave up was not liking the magazines in series 11, but I think it was really more just "growing up" and thinking Wackys were for kids. Somewhat ironically, I think that as I started to abandon Wackys as being too childish, I switched from buying Archie and Disney comics to Marvels and DCs (which, a couple years later, I also gave up on because of their perceived childishness. At least until I started collecting them a few years later). I do recall being totally into series 1 of Topps Star Wars cards, though I don't think I bought any series, other than perhaps a couple series 2 cards, after that. Funny how quickly my mind could change back in the day.
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So you experienced Series 16 in the wild, circa 1976? I don’t think most of us ever saw them or even knew of their existence until returning to the hobby a couple decades later.
Yep. If I hadn't been sick, I'd have bought the whole box. But I was out for the count with a crappy summer flu, and my brother went out to get us some push-ups or orange-50/50 bars from the icecream man, and he brought me 7 packs of Wackys, as that's all he had left after buying the ice-cream (he may have just kept them if I hadn't been really sick... heh.). Seeing the packs, I knew right away they were a brand new set. So, my long-dead Wacky-jones returned and I pulled out my shoebox of sets to add the new ones. And after that, I never saw them again. Checked Sav-On and Stop-n-Go... nothing. They came & went. And I kept waiting for a series-17... to no avail. It's weird to think that any kid with $100 could have bought up a full case or two of 16ths and sat on them for 30 years, PSA graded them, and probably outperformed the stock-market and Bitcoin.
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I owe a big apology to the 11th Series. I just got a full set of 11th series, and some of the magazines are better than I remembered. Saturday Evening Ghost and Sleepy are good stickers. Actually all of the magazines except for Mud and TV Garbage are good stickers, IMHO. As for the non magazines, there are some great stickers like Cult 45, Stinkertoy, King O'Scare, Swiss Fright, Alpain and Gulp. Only a few clunkers like Dizzie and Muler's Dregg Noodles. Maybe my tastes have changed as an adult, but I really didn't love this series as a kid. I might have been comparing them to Fleer's Crazy Covers. Now, they look pretty darned good. Anyway, Wackies definitely did NOT "Jump the Shark" with the 11th Series.
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Oh, the Wacky magazines, artwork-wise, were definitely 10 times better than Crazy Magazine Covers' three series were, looking back on it now.
In fact, OLDS 1 parodied one of them right away and this series called them Crappy Magazine Covers. IIRC, the Wacky duplicated the same pictures that the real wrapper had; only the company and the product's names and the taglines were changed.
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Well, after much hard work and consideration, these are all of the post-OS run Wacky series that I've got, along with everything (sticker-wise) that goes with them:
*the 1985 Series,
*the 1991 Series,
*ANS1,
*ANS2,
*ANS3,
*ANS4,
*ANS5,
*ANS6,
*Wacky Pack Flashback,
*Wacky Pack Flashback 2,
*ANS7,
*ANS8,
*ANS9,
*ANS10,
*ANS11,
*Wacky Packages Chrome.
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Good man. You're right to stop there for a bit, the MLB series is weak - solid art, poor gags. Restricted by what MLB would allow? Who knows.
The 50th series - is that all computer art? Really bad. An insult to the anniversary.
And Goes To The Movies? Just unbelievably stupid aside from a handful of solid cards. More really bad art, too. I only collected the subsets.
The care that the Attacky, Postcards and Old School series get put them head and shoulders above most of what we've got the last 10 years, though ANS2023 was a solid entry and leaves me hopeful for the future.
Edit: in my haste, I forgot to mention the 2020-2022 weekly and monthly series. These are really quite good as well.
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Good man. You're right to stop there for a bit, the MLB series is weak - solid art, poor gags. Restricted by what MLB would allow? Who knows.
The 50th series - is that all computer art? Really bad. An insult to the anniversary.
And Goes To The Movies? Just unbelievably stupid aside from a handful of solid cards. More really bad art, too. I only collected the subsets.
The care that the Attacky, Postcards and Old School series get put them head and shoulders above most of what we've got the last 10 years, though ANS2023 was a solid entry and leaves me hopeful for the future.
Stop for a bit? I'm stopping for good this time.
First of all, Mitch, you're absolutely right...MLB, 50th Anniversary and Go to the Movies deviated enormously from the basic Wacky format so much (in fact, as I've said before, the last two of these were both made entirely out of subsets) that I didn't even consider getting them at all.
However, I'm also not getting 2014 S1 and 2015 S1, for these main reasons:
*they're both not titled what they should've been titled, namely ANS12 and ANS13 (if they had been, then I'd have bought them anyway in spite of the other two reasons listed below),
*2014 S1 was really messed up. First, only the base stickers had the classic white backgrounds with black borders, while all of its subsets had what was called in it "Mod Rad" backgrounds, which was a mere variation in said base stickers. Second (and this one was admittedly very, very strange, I must say), two of said subsets - Ridiculous Reads and Terrible TV - had white borders instead of black ones, which had never been done before and which have never been done since.
*2015 S1 was a little bit better, but it had one major flaw: there were three subsets originally announced for it on Cardboard Connection's page on the series when it was first released: Crazy Collectibles (with five stickers), Batty Baseball (with 10 stickers), and Coming Soon (again, with five stickers); however, instead of releasing them as such and even having the subsets' titles on the card backs like what was supposed to have been done in the first place, Topps merged them into the base stickers instead (their formats as the three subsets, meanwhile, were still preserved for unknown reasons).
Btw, unlike the various Garbage Pail Kids series at the time that were having two mainstream series released every year (this is still being done to this day, I believe), only one mainstream Wacky Packages series was released in both 2014 and 2015. Big mistake, Topps, big mistake indeed. If you had only done that like you've done with GPK, maybe Wackys would've lasted in retail stores a little bit longer.
Also, does anyone else besides myself figure that what would've been the Batty Baseball subset in 2015 S1 just may have been both the basis and the inspiration for MLB Wacky Packages in 2016? It's certainly worth both some thought and consideration.
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Stop for a bit? I'm stopping for good this time.
Please tell me you're not playing an April Fool's joke. PLEASE!!!!!!! Stop for good!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Please tell me you're not playing an April Fool's joke. PLEASE!!!!!!! Stop for good!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is definitely not an April Fools' joke, PP, I've never been more serious in all my life.
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Please tell me you're not playing an April Fool's joke. PLEASE!!!!!!! Stop for good!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nah, I've loved these silly cards for 50 years, I couldn't stop now if I tried. As Pacino once said, "Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in!"
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Nah, I've loved these silly cards for 50 years, I couldn't stop now if I tried. As Pacino once said, "Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in!"
Same here...keep em coming!
A
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Oh, I do agree with keeping them going, don't worry about that. I'm just not going to do it anymore after I get the three bonus stickers that I need to finish ANS11 (B2, B5 and B6).
I'm still going to get things like the Off the Market series for as long as they last, however, that I can do.
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Is it just a money thing? Or the hassle of tracking everything down? Or diminished quality of the product? I just set parameters of what i am
Going to collect, and then spend my time time and money on those items…
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Is it just a money thing? Or the hassle of tracking everything down? Or diminished quality of the product? I just set parameters of what i am
Going to collect, and then spend my time time and money on those items…
It's the first one. That, and all the reasons that were mentioned above. In short, even I know my limits.
It also boils down to deviations from the norm, whether major or minor. Everything from 2014 S1 all the way up to Wacky Packages Go to the Movies did just that.