Introduction
     There were many collectors anxiously awaiting the release of another Garbage Pail Kids series.  Nearly 15 years after their last United States Garbage Pail Kids series was produced, Topps released the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1.  Most of the artwork used for the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 was from the United States Garbage Pail Kids 16th Series, which was fully designed back in 1989 but was never released.  The framework of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 (i.e., box design, pack contents, etc.) was modeled after Topps' 2003 Simpsons Gum and Stickers release.  The United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 brings back an entire era of non-sports cards.  There had not been anything else on the market like Garbage Pail Kids in years, so Topps took things very cautiously with the release.  Little did they know how successful it would turn out to be.
 
Menu
Page 1
IntroductionGeneral InformationCard and Wrapper Variations
CreditsCards and StickersPuzzle Backs
Page 2
Packaging and ContentsErrors and Card DetailsReused Ideas
Page 3
PromotionsMedia and PublicationsArtwork
Page 4
The Original United States Garbage Pail Kids 16th Series
IntroductionGeneral InformationCard and Wrapper VariationsProof Sheets
Card FrontsCharacter Name ComparisonComic BacksComic Information
Paired Card Fronts and BacksComparison Summary 
Closing Comments
 
General Information
Date Released August 2003
Number of Printings 4
Card Numbers 1a-40a and 1b-40b
Number of Cards to Make a Numerical Set 80
Number of Variation Cards 8
Number of Cards to Make a Complete Variation Set 88
Bubble Gum Wrap Around Sticker Numbers 1a-30a and 1b-30b
Number of Bubble Gum Wrap Around Stickers to Make a Numerical Set 60
Number of Variation Bubble Gum Wrap Around Stickers 0
Foil Card Numbers 1a-25a and 1b-25b
Number of Foil Cards to Make a Numerical Set 50
Number of Variation Foil Cards 100
Number of Foil Cards to Make a Complete Variation Set 150
Total Number of Different Wrappers 7
 
Card Dimensions (in Inches) 3.5 x 2.5 x 1/32
Card Dimensions (in Millimeters) 88.9 x 63.5 x 0.794
Bubble Gum Wrap Around Sticker Dimensions (in Inches) 2.5 ± 0.25 x 1.25 x 1/128
Bubble Gum Wrap Around Sticker Dimensions (in Millimeters) 63.5 ± 6.35 x 31.75 x 0.198
Foil Card Dimensions (in Inches) 3.5 x 2.5 x 1/32
(first print)
 
3.5 x 2.5 x 1/64
(second, third, and fourth print)
Foil Card Dimensions (in Millimeters) 88.9 x 63.5 x 0.794
(first print)
 
88.9 x 63.5 x 0.397
(second, third, and fourth print)
Number of Packs Per Full Box 24
Number of Cards Per Pack 3 (first and second print)
5 (third and fourth print)
Number of Foil Cards Per Pack 1
Number of Bubble Gum Wrap Around Stickers Per Pack 4 (first and second print)
0 (third and fourth print)
Box Dimensions (in Inches) 5.25 x 5-7/16 x 4.25
(first and second print)
 
5.375 x 4-11/16 x 1.25
(third and fourth print)
Box Dimensions (in Millimeters) 133.35 x 138.1125 x 107.95
(first and second print)
 
136.525 x 119.0625 x 31.75
(third and fourth print)
 
Section Last Updated January 1, 2015
 
Card and Wrapper Variations
Card Variations
Wrapper Variations
Printable Card and Wrapper Variation Checklist
     You can either click the following link to open the variation checklist in a new window and print it out, or you can right-click the following link and save the variation checklist to your computer.  United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Card and Wrapper Variation Checklist
 
Credits

Arthur T. Shorin - President of Topps
 
Ira Friedman - Vice President of Topps and Series Development
 
John Williams - Supervising Editor
 
Jeff Zapata - Series Editor
 

 
Tom Bunk - Concept Artist, Writer, and Artist (Card Fronts)

 

 
Pat Glover - Artist (Foil Cards and Bubble Gum Wrap Around Stickers)
 

 
Sean Glover - Artist (Foil Cards and Bubble Gum Wrap Around Stickers)
 

 
Jay Lynch - Concept Artist and Writer
 

 
John Pound - Concept Artist, Writer, and Artist (Card Fronts)

 
 
Cards and Stickers
First card and last card of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of cards 1a to 8b of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of cards 9a to 16b of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of cards 17a to 24b of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of cards 25a to 32b of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of cards 33a to 40b of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1
Card checklist (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 First bubble gum wrap around sticker and last bubble gum wrap around sticker (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of bubble gum wrap around stickers 1a to 15b (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of bubble gum wrap around stickers 16a to 30b (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Bubble gum wrap around sticker checklist (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 First silver foil card and last silver foil card (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of silver foil cards 1a to 6b (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1
Image overview of silver foil cards 7a to 12b (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of silver foil cards 13a to 18b (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Image overview of silver foil cards 19a to 25b (1st and 2nd print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Foil card game piece (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Card checklist (3rd and 4th print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 First gold foil card and last gold foil card (3rd and 4th print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Gold foil card checklist (3rd and 4th print) of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1
     There were three different items found in the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 packs.  Topps titled the items for the series differently than what I will refer to them as.  The Big Stickers or Stickers will be referred to as Cards, the Small Stickers (some collectors refer to them as mini stickers or white stickers) will be referred to as Bubble Gum Wrap Around Stickers, and the Foil Stickers or Gold Stickers will be referred to as Foil Cards.  I used these titles to help clarify which items I am discussing.  The cards and foil cards are actually stickers on card backing, so I decided to continue on with the same format I had been using on the website and refer to them as cards.  The cards are no larger than any other trading cards, so I did not use "big" in the naming convention.  The title for the bubble gum wrap around stickers is based on references to similar products sold in the United Kingdom and other countries around the world.  The bubble gum wrap around sticker title describes exactly what the product is (i.e., a sticker wrapped around a piece of bubble gum), unlike using the title Small Stickers, which can be confused with the other Garbage Pail Kids items (e.g. the United Kingdom Garbage Pail Kids).
 
     I provided samples of what the cards and items of the series look like.  The first and last cards, bubble gum wrap around stickers, silver foil cards, and gold foil cards are shown above.  There also are image overviews of all of the cards, bubble gum wrap around stickers, and silver foil cards.  The gold foil cards have the same characters printed on them as the silver foil cards, which is why there are not image overviews of the gold foil cards.  The purpose of the samples and image overviews is to give you a preview of the series.  Higher quality images of these items will not be provided on this website or by request.
 
     There were four printings of the All-New Series 1, and you would need items from the first two printings and the third or fourth printing in order to make a complete variation set.  The checklists were modified for the third printing because Topps decided to exclude the bubble gum in the packs and include more cards.  I discuss more details about the packs under the Packaging and Contents section.
 
     There are a total of 80 different characters (40 different paintings) in the All-New Series 1.  There were 28 paintings from the unpublished United States Garbage Pail Kids 16th Series that were used in the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1.  Tom Bunk and John Pound each created 6 new paintings for the All-New Series 1.
 
     The card thickness and finish remained consistent throughout the four printings.  The checklists were modified for the third printing.  The card checklist was changed from "Big Stickers" to just "Stickers" for the third print.  The bubble gum wrap around sticker checklist was changed from "Small Stickers" to the gold foil checklist or "Gold Sticker" checklist for the third print.  Each checklist for the series was used for 4 of the card backs.  The card checklist numbering is left-justified and has lower-case a's and b's.  The bubble gum wrap around sticker checklist numbering and the gold foil checklist numbering is right-justified and has upper-case A's and B's.  The die-cuts on the cards were all the same shape.  The cards were not printed with asterisks on them like the original Garbage Pail Kids series.  The cards had a very glossy coating on them, which helps protect them from damage.  The coloring of the cards appeared to be a little darker than the cards from the original Garbage Pail Kids series.  The cards had a slightly different look and feel to them compared to the original Garbage Pail Kids series, but it did not really detract anything from them.
 
     The bubble gum wrap around stickers were printed on thin plastic much like the material used for trash bags.  The bubble gum wrap around stickers had new renditions of some of the characters from the previous Garbage Pail Kids series.  The artwork for the bubble gum wrap around stickers was done by Pat Glover and Sean Glover not Tom Bunk and John Pound.  The old characters were used so that people unfamiliar with Garbage Pail Kids could get acquainted with them.  The style of the artwork for the bubble gum wrap around stickers was very different than what was on the original cards.  Many collectors did not like this new style because it was too simplistic and lacked the texture, vibrancy, and depth that the original paintings had.  Instead of using the bubble gum wrap around stickers, it might have been better if Topps had created new Garbage Pail Kids comics and wrapped them around the bubble gum just like each piece of of Bazooka Bubble Gum has a the Bazooka Joe Comic wrapped around it.
 
     The same artwork used on the bubble gum wrap around stickers was used for the foil cards, but there were some exclusions.  The bubble gum wrap around stickers 13a Joe Blow / 13b Rod Wad, 17a Over Flo / 17b Moist Joyce, 21a Sally Suction / 21b Teethin' Trina, 23a Split Kit / 23b Mixed-Up Mitch, and 25a Sy Clops / 25b One-Eyed Jack were not used in for the foil cards, and because of that exclusion the numbering was shifted for the foil cards (e.g., 14a Leaky Lindsay / 14b Messy Tessie for the bubble gum wrap around stickers became 13a Leaky Lindsay / 13b Messy Tessie for the foil cards).
 
     For bubble gum wrap around sticker and foil card 7b, the name Schizo Fran was used instead of Fran Fran.  The character's name was originally changed from Schizo Fran to Fran Fran for the United States Garbage Pail Kids 2nd Series, so it was unusual that Topps did not use the changed name in the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1.
 
     For bubble gum wrap around sticker and foil card 2b, the name Thin Lynne was used by mistake.  In the original United States Garbage Pail Kids 1st Series, the name was spelled as Thin Lynn (without the "e" at the end of the name), which is how the character's name should have been spelled in the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1.
 
     For bubble gum wrap around sticker and foil card 4a, the name Brainy Janey was used by mistake.  In the original United States Garbage Pail Kids 1st Series, the name was spelled as Brainy Janie (with "ie" at the end of the name instead of "ey"), which is how the character's name should have been spelled in the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1.
 
     The foil cards were different in the first, second, and third printing.  The first printing had silver foil cards printed on regular card stock, and the foil card backs had a glossy finish.  The second printing had silver foil cards printed on thin card stock, and the foil card backs had a matte finish.  The third and fourth printings had gold foil cards printed on thin card stock, and the foil card backs had a matte finish.  A card with glossy finish is reflective, shiny, and has a smooth surface, and a card with matte finish is dull, flat-looking, and has a rough surface.  The foil cards printed on the thin card stock are much more prone to getting bent corners and damaged.  The thin card stock was used because the demand for the product was so high that there was not enough time to wait for another shipment of the thicker card stock to arrive.  The backs of the foil cards were changed to matte finish to make it easier to write on the contest entry form.  Unfortunately, the silver foil cards and gold foil cards are somewhat dark and do not contrast with the characters enough in order to show them off well.
 
     The Garbage Pail Kids contest was an interesting promotional idea, which allowed collectors to win a variety of prizes (i.e., original artwork, full uncut sheets, uncut puzzle sheets, and sealed boxes from the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1).  Every foil card had an entry form on the back of it.  Anyone from Canada (excluding those who lived in Quebec) that wanted to enter the contest had to correctly answer the math problem on the contest form (United States residents did not have to answer the problem).  The main problem with the contest was that you would have to send away a foil card in order to enter it, and the foil cards only came one per pack.  Most collectors would rather hang on to their foil cards than send any of them away to enter the contest.  If you had damaged foil cards, they would be the ideal candidates to send away for the contest.  You could also write Topps to get a free foil card, but it still would be more tempting to save it instead of sending it away for the contest.  In order to receive a free foil card, you would need to send Topps a self-addressed stamped envelope, which cost $0.74 ($0.37 per stamp at the time) for the postage opposed to buying a United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 pack for around $0.99 and getting 1 foil card, 3 cards, 4 pieces of bubble gum, and 4 bubble gum wrap around stickers (a first or second print pack) or 1 foil card and 5 cards (a third or fourth print pack).
 
Puzzle Backs
Blue border puzzle of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Green border puzzle of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Orange border puzzle of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Purple border puzzle of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Red border puzzle of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1 Yellow border puzzle of the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
     There were 6 different puzzles for the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1.  Most of the original United States Garbage Pail Kids series only had 2 different puzzles.  The increase in the number of puzzles was due to the lack of additional content for the backs of the cards.  Content similar to what was used for the original United States Garbage Pail Kids series card backs (e.g. awards, licenses, "wanted for", activities, horoscopes, etc.) was excluded from the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1.  Most of the comic backs originally created for the 1989 United States Garbage Pail Kids 16th Series were too dated and were not appropriate to use for the 2003 United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 1.
 
     Instead of alphabetically numbering the puzzles (e.g. Puzzle A, Puzzle B, Puzzle C, etc.), colors were used.  The blue border puzzle was of 21b Rad Brad, the green border puzzle was of 3a Bustin' Justin, the orange border puzzle was of 12a Kyle Tile, the purple border puzzle was of 7a Forged George, the red border puzzle was of 18a Rodent Rob, and the yellow border puzzle was of 24a Gutsy Gabriel.  Each puzzle, as shown above, was comprised of 9 puzzle pieces turned on the vertical (3 pieces across and 3 pieces down) unlike the original United States Garbage Pail Kids series, which typically had 21 puzzle pieces turned on the horizontal (3 pieces across and 7 pieces down) per puzzle.
 
     Each completed puzzle picture (one for each color) was used for 3 of the card backs.  The completed puzzle pictures are shown above.  I also created a diagram showing where each of the 9 puzzle pieces should go, and I made a list that shows the card numbers that go with each of the puzzles.
 
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