Remember Garbage Pail Kids?

When I was growing up in the 1980's there were some fabulous toys and novelties out there. This of course was before the electronic age of gadgets really took off. Today you look at kids and their toys and there are portable gaming systems, "smart" phones, a million bells and whistles, little brightly colored plastic things that have their own hard drives! We had the Walkman. That was mind blowing to us. The first Nintendo Game Boy wouldn't even be out until late 1989. Let alone the Discman, and now your PSPs and DVDs and Leap Frogs and....

We had things like baseball gards, GI Joe action figures, and yes, Garbage Pail Kids. The Cabbage Patch craze had been in full effect and the Topps Chewing Gum company, who supplied me with most of my baseball card collection at the time, came up with the next great thing.

In true 80's fashion each package of cards was accompanied by a thin and ultimately tasteless piece of chewing gum that lasted maybe five seconds if you actually dared to eat it. But the real joy came from the fact that you never knew what funny, creepy, slightly demented imagery would be yours to behold.
Maybe you got one with the name of a friend, or even better a playground foe, and therefore instant ammo for the immature name calling sessions that might accompany recess.
Though I still find them creepy and sort of disgusting, perhaps even more so compared to when I was a kid, I certainly can't deny that I still think they are genius, creative, artistic, and satisfyingly tactile.
...and perhaps still apt in terms of some of their social commentary. hmm, yeah, maybe that's a bit of a stretch....
Garbage Pail Kids were created by series, each series about 80 cards, forty unique drawings with two different name options, "a" and "b". If you were serious you had all the cards in a given series.

These are just a few from series 2, 3, and 4 (circa 1985-1986) which I found digging through some old photographs the other day. I couldn't help it, I had to give them a quick scan. Hopefully they will strike a chord with other kids of the 80's out there and provide a laugh down memory lane.
Peace man!

(Garbage Pail Kids are the creation of the Topps Company Inc. Protected under copyright, All Rights Reserved)