It doesn't matter if you feel there is a void in material the bottom line is you can't steal other people's art or intellectual property for your own benefit. Definitely doing a new Old School set for this year and I suspect there will be a few other WP products coming down the pike.
SlamJim,
I am not trying to defend Jason Hanks and his "assholery" (great word, by the way, MoldRush,) nor was I trying to imply that it is okay for anybody to forge art and profit from it for any reason. What Hanks is doing is wrong, wrong, wrong, and yes, it must suck and I'm sure nobody here can blame you (and others) for getting pissed. (Nor is it okay for others to reproduce somebody's art and slap the name "Lost Wackys" across the package.) And then for Hanks to retaliate and come back at you in the manner that he did... well, I'd be livid, too, and probably entertain serious thoughts about searching him out and giving him a few whacks upside the head with a Wiffle ball bat. (That or driving him out of his mind by signing him up for a hundred magazine subscriptions, pizza deliveries, anonymous complaint letters from neighbors, etc., etc., etc..)
Art forgery has been going on for centuries and will continue to go on for centuries to come. And there really is no way around it. It can be made more difficult, however. Is Topps policing the playing field, however? No. (When I say Topps, I mean the few individuals making the ultimate final decisions, not the peripheral artists and concept writers.) Did Topps crack down on the Lost Wackys? No. They're still out there. One can bid on them this very second. The only thing that was cracked down upon was the shilling, and this was done by eBay. To be honest, I wonder if Topps
really cares that much about Wacky Packages at all? I see little or no active promotion (yet I receive baseball card promotions
everyday.) More often than not, WP are not their own separate entity any longer, but instead lumped under the GPK banner. I'd even go so far as to say that if you and a few other people didn't push for Wackys, there would probably be little or no Wackys at all. In fact, I would bet money on this (and I'm not a betting man.) Again, Topps really doesn't seem to care. Wackys are not something even left on the back burner, but rather in a bowl in the back of the fridge.
A couple towns over from me, there is a small community with a revitalized "Main Street." Rather than let it languish, though, the town actively fosters and promotes businesses and events. They show films in the park, have a weekend farmer's market, close off streets and hold book signing events, have parades, and hold concerts in a glorious old theater with a stained glass ceiling (to name but a few things.) I have attended many concerts there - Kansas, Jethro Tull, Renaissance, America - as well as frequent many of the community shops. The streets are well-lit, free of trash and graffiti, and well-policed. Sound familiar? One finds these revitalized towns scattered along the east coast. What's more,
I spend my money there.
However, what if this town
stopped caring? What if they no longer promoted and hosted events? What if they no longer were proactive, but rather looked the other way and focused on other interests? All too soon, the town would become a veritable shit hole. What's more, you would have more of a criminal element moving in. This is the kind of "void" I am referring to. If Topps refuses to be proactive when it comes to Wackys - I mean, fully embrace Wackys and give them equal attention as any other of their franchises - then they should expect the rats to come out of the woodwork. Its inevitable. I'm not saying that creeps like Jason Hanks are justified in doing what they're doing - not at all. But apathy is only paving the way for just such people to operate freely and unfettered.
Topps should be embracing your sets, Neil Camera's sets, and any other artist who wishes to contribute a decent set. Topps should be embracing the elements that made Wackys strong, great, and funny back in the 70s, as well as their millennium renaissance. Topps should be putting Wackys back in loaves of bread and cereal boxes. (As a teacher who hands out Wackys as incentives, I can tell you that my kids love them. Yet how on earth would my kids even know about them if it wasn't for me handing them out? It's not as if there are any advertisements for them. It's not as if they walk into Walmart or Target and spot a placard stating, "Hey, kids! Wacky Packages right this way!") Topps should be making deals with retailers and cereal companies to manufacture exclusive boxes: "Frosted Flakes" featured on one side; "Frosted Snakes" featured on the the other. Topps should be licensing mini plastic figures of WP characters. Unlike Disney, most companies do not have a problem with WP. They are free advertising. Again, FREE ADVERTISING. I could be mistaken, but I would think that Pepsi would definitely embrace a limited edition "Pupsi" can. It would make people warmly laugh and smile. It would place their product directly into people's hands (and the people's money directly into Pepsi's coffers.) Topps should also be actively protecting their property and going after the bootleggers and forgers.
And yet, Topps isn't doing any of this. Instead, we get pink borders (golly gee whiz!) or medallions or relics that 99.9% of kids cannot even afford. I am not a businessman or mathematician, however I would think that millions of kids would equate to millions of dollars (even if every kid only parted with one dollar.)
Again, what child cares about the following?
Why would they care about it?
Seriously? What adult cares about it either? I, for one, don't. It's not as if it has mass market appeal.
And I really don't believe that Topps gives a shit, either. And when you don't give a shit, that's when things start to fall apart.
Rob
By the way, looking forward to your next set. At least a few people still care. Thank you.