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Wacky Packages Etc

MAY 16, 2006
Some selections from our stacks.
The esteemed Mr McCauley's post about Wacky Plaques and their brethren Wacky Packages had me scrambling to dust off and shutterbug some of the prizes here in the House O' Wax Museum of Space-Hogging and Ultimately Worthless Collectibles (henceforth referred to as the HOWMOSHAUWC). As a tot I was cursed with an overactive collectors gland and Wacky Packages were one of the foremost objects of desire. I horded my collection and have retained it to this day in an archival box in the "Trading Card" wing of the HOWMOSHAUWC.
In the late nineties I came across a rare opportunity to purchase uncut "one sheets" of Wacky Packages from 1975. These were of dubious origins and I asked only one question- "How much?" I procured 3 of them in near mint condition.
We're currently housing over 300 of these cards, yet we know next to nothing about them.
Another popular exhibit in the Trading Card wing are these "Wolvertoons-style" baseball card parodies. I know almost nothing about them except that they were issued by the Leaf Gum Co. I remember buying them at Obert's Drug in Cincinnati after family meals at Ponderosa Steakhouse. I was besotted with them despite my unshakable indifference to the sport of baseball. Monsters were and remain my one true love. Excepting, of course, the delightful Mrs Wacksman for whom there is no equal.
Here's what happens when you tangle with dinosaurs. Don't say the people at Topps didn't try to warn you.
I remember in the early nineties Topps began a new series of Wacky Packages. Legend had it that the nation's intolerant and litigious nature made it unprofitable and they were soon after discontinued. I see that a new series, Series 3, is on the shelves currently ( according to the Topps website) but I haven't seen them for sale at my local newsstand.
Another series that I found irresistable was the "Dinosaurs Attack" set from 1988. It told the tale of a time travel experiment gone wrong- a portal was opened and bloodthirsty dinosaurs were loosed to prey on  the inhabitants of the modern world. It was as gratuitous in it's depictions of violent death and dismemberment as anything I'd come across in the bubblegum aisle. Apparently parents and legal guardians were unamused.
Topical: Rantin' And Ravin'  
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