LICENSE CARD ARTWORK : BRENT ENGSTROM
LICENSE CARD RIBBON ARTWORK : MARK NEWGARDEN
LICENSE CARD IMAGE & TECHNICAL WIZARDRY : MAD MIKE BOYAJIAN
LICENSE CARD CONCEPT & TEXT : BARREN AARON BOOTON



A Licensing Agreement, or license agreement, is a contract between the owner of a patent, brand or trademark and a company that wants to use the patented or trademarked for product and services. The license grants permission to the licensee and includes rules and stipulations. The licensee must honor these guidelines by the licensor and the contract agreement by both parties.
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Topps has offered licenses for their GPK brand since 1986 with the most popular being Imperial Toys, Bright Ideas and Placo Toys in the '80s. A few smaller licenses occurred during the decade after the reintroduction of GPK in starting in 2003 when all-things '80s became nostalgic and popular again. But, the main licenses occurred during the resurgence of GPK during the 30th anniversary of GPK in 2015 and once Topps started to push the license at toys expos in the years to follow. This section will address the major licenses and briefly mention the minor ones, including: Fright Rags, Santa Cruz Skateboards, Steve Jackson Games, etc.
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Fright-Rags is an American company known for releasing apparel based on horror films and other horror-related media. The company was founded in 2003 by Ben Scrivens, and is based in Rochester, New York. — Wikipeida

In 2014, Fright-Rags™ obtained a license from the Topps Company, Inc. with an agreement to produce an apparel line of GPK-related merchandise that has lasted over several years and releases; 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019 with all artwork completed by artist Brent Engstrom. For the first three releases, the artwork was brand-new and could later be found as bonus cards in Topps GPK set hobby releases. The later 2019 release was originally a directors-themed t-shirt set of four characters in an ADAM Bomb-style scenario that was brought to a final artwork stage but was cancelled due to possible lack of rights. Topps and Fright-Rags settled on pulling four images from the 2019 Series 2 'Revenge of Oh, the Horror-ible' release, including a piece the main antagonist, Tall Man, from the Phantasm franchise, but a reprint of the 'It' parody from 2015 showcasing Pennywise the Clown was chosen instead. More information on the previous releases can be found within the 'GPK 2019 Licenses' and/or 'Brent Engstrom : The GPK Angst Years' pages.






Not enough can be said about Engstrom's GPK horror hodgepodge tribute; a screamfest shout-out to all of the great horror flicks including Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, Evil Dead II and Phantasm. The orginal pencil sketch with card mock-up and the final artwork is pictured above. The limited edition GPK shirts come in a variety of selections, pictured further below, and found in the two main Halloween colors with the twin names Fright Rag FREDDY — 'Fright Rag' = Fright Rags website + 'Freddy' Krueger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Cinemaniac MIKE — 'Cinemaniac' = Cinema+maniac + 'Mike' (Michael) Meyers from the Halloween franchise.




The black Fright Rag FREDDY shirt was limited to 500 for $27 each, the black/gray Fright Rag FREDDY baseball tee was limited to 200 for $37 each, and the orange Cinemaniac MIKE shirt was limited to 300 for $27 each; all pictured above, respectively, for a total of 1000 shirts produced for the killer joint effort. The limited edition Fright Rags shirts were on sale for a limited time from May 23rd to May 30th, 2014 and were shipped in July.



The horrorfest images could later be found as bonus cards B13a Frightening FREDDY and B13b Maniac MIKE located within the hobby boxes of the 2014 Series 2 GPK set released, fittingly, in October of 2014. The character comes with new nomenclature and is printed with a black background, similar to the printed T-shirt, instead of the original, solid white background.
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The final artwork images by Brent Engstrom for the T-shirts is pictured below along with a selection of tight pencil and color rough card mock-up artwork. All four characters could later be found as A and B-name cards located in hobby boxes of the 'American As Applie Pie - In Your Face!' Series 1 (2016S1) GPK set within the 'Horror Stickers' subset as cards 1a of 4 Krampin' KEVIN and 1b of 4 KENNY Krampus, 2a of 4 Wretchin' REGAN and 2b of 4 Possessed PAULINE, 3a of 4 Howlin' HOWARD and 3b of 4 Transformin' TRAVIS and 4a of 4 Plungin' PENNY and 4b of 4 Bobbin' BOB.









A plethora of more horror and gore images on T-shirts; a screamfest shout-out to iconic killer characters from various horror flicks and folklore including An American Werewolf In London-esque generic werewolf, Krampus, Regan MacNeil of The Exorcist and Pennywise the clown from Stephen King's IT. The limited edition GPK shirts come in a variety of characters on a specific colored T-shirt: Howlin' HOWARD — the Scott Howard character name from Teen Wolf, Wretchin' REGAN — the possessed Regan Theresa MacNeil character from The Exorcist, Krampin' KEVIN — the German 'Krampus' folklore character, and Plungin' PENNY — the Pennywise clown character from Stephen King's IT novel. Several images that Engstrom completed for the project remain unpublished including an Alien movie concept, the main antagonist from The Shining, and a multi-headed monster mash character; images published in later Topps releases.









As listed on the Fright Rags website in May of 2015, the T-shirts are a limited edition run and once sold out are gone — unless voted back. Orders began on May 27th for the four different T-shirt designs and product started shipping in the month of June. The Plungin' PENNY character t-shirt was reprinted in 2019, four years later.
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Pictured below are Engstrom's final and tight pencil artwork images for the 2018 Fright-Rags GPK apparel line. All four characters were approved and created for the 2018S2 GPK Horror-ible Kids 'Yearly' set and pulled from production to be placed within the Fright-Rags licensed clothing line. A similar agreement occured between the Topps Company and Fright-Rags in 2014 and 2015 where all images could later be found on card as hobby bonus trading cards. The limited edition T-shirts went on sale on July 18th online and once sold out were no longer available — unless voted back at a later date.



The Jabbed JASON T-shirt was available in a dark heather gray color that ran sizes S-3X with a $27 pricetag; raised to $28. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the iconic mask of killer Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise. The GPK character face shows off the dull white hockey mask with three red triangles that first made its appearance in Friday the 13th III: 3D in 1982. The facial mask also shows off the famous blood-stained axe mark first caused at the end of Friday the 13th III and appearing in subsequent movies in the franchise. Engstrom had suggested the names 'Slayed SLADE' and 'Jacked-Up JASON' for the 2018S2 card release. The Crystal Lake blue eye really stands out within the bloodbath.



The Lost ROY T-shirt was available in a heather royal blue color that ran sizes S-3X with a $27 pricetag; raised to $28. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the iconic killer mullet of the vampire character David (actor Kiefer Sutherland) from the Lost Boys movie; as well as paying tribute to the enironment of the iconic OS1 vampire image of card #1 with the GPK-bat and crescent moon. The earring from the tight pencil was switched for the final artwork to match the earring worn by the character in the movie. Brent had suggested the names 'Killer KEIFER' and 'Lost ROY' for the 2018S2 set release. The splayed mullet hairstyle mimics the spreading out of bat wings.



The Hallow JEAN T-shirt was available in a dark heather gray color that ran sizes S-3X with a $27 pricetag; raised to $28. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the three kill-by-melting rubber trick-or-treat masks from the Halloween III: Season of the Witch cult movie; the only Halloween movie missing the series antagonist, Michael Mysers. Only the lower half of the masks are melting in the final artwork, a hoodie replaced the flannel shirt, and spiders, snakes and a green eyeball were added. Engstrom had suggested the names 'Season of the MITCH', 'Worst JUAN' and 'Hallow JEAN' for the 2018S2 card release. NOTE: CPK-esque shoes with green stripes.



The Sick SID T-shirt was available in a dark heather Caribbean blue color that ran sizes S-3X with a $27 pricetag. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the character Captain Spaulding (played by actor Sid Haig) from the House of 1000 Corpses horror film; owner of a gas station and museum of curiosities. The movie was written, co-scored and directed by Rob Zombie (previously of White Zombie) in his directorial debut. Engstrom had suggested the names 'Fried FRED' and 'Sick SID' for the 2018S2 card release. Although the bucket of fried human is reminiscent of artist Fred Harper's ANS7 GPK artwork (concept by Fred Wheaton), it's actually an 8th Series Wacky Packages card image from 1974, a spoof of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The popular Fright-Rag FREDDY character was resurrected and available as a black color T-shirt that ran sizes S-5X for men and XS-2X for woman with a $27 pricetag; packaged in the limited edition 'Wax Pack'. A periwinkle blue, red-ringer tee was also available again in the same sizes as the T-shirt with a $29 pricetag (seen within the banner above) along with a pair of limited edition custom knit crew socks (only 190 produced) with a $12 pricetag. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to a mash-up of horror films (listed within the 2014 section) that was originally seen on a white background for the final artwork and placed on a black and orange background for the previous T-shirts and on a black background for the hobby bonus cards.

The Fright-Rag FREDDY character could also be purchased as a limited edition 'T-Shirt Wax Pack' that included a ringer tee, an enamel pin and a 5x7 trading card with a $40 pricetag; only 200 produced. Website: LIMITED TO 200 ONLY! Our very own official GPK mascot - FRIGHT-RAG FREDDY is back in this limited edition wax pack t-shirt set! Artwork by Brent Engstrom. Officially Licensed. Each pack comes with: Exclusive Fright-Rag Freddy T-Shirt printed on our super soft 4.5oz, 100% pre-shrunk ringspun cotton, Fright-Rag Freddy Enamel Pin , 5x7 Fright-Rag Freddy GPK card, Everything comes wrapped in an oversized wax wrapper.





Instagram Post (07/16/2018) : COMING THIS WEDNESDAY at 10am (EST)! Our very own Officially Licensed FRIGHT RAG FREDDY design will be available as part of a Limited Edition T-SHIRT WAX PACK! Bundled inside an oversized Wax Pack (just like the original Garbage Pail Kids cards were, only HUGE!) will be a black Fright Rag Freddy tee (Mens and Womens styles available), a First Pressing Enamel Pin and a Collectible 5x7 Trading Card! All for only $40! They are limited to only 200 packages, so make sure to grab yours at 10am (EST) this Wednesday 7/18! Art by Brent Engstrom. Note: This is a pre-order.
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The Santa Cruz Skateboards brand, distributed by NHS, is the oldest continuous skateboard company in the world. NHS, Inc. is a skateboard distribution company based in Santa Cruz, California. The company manufactures and distributes several brands including: Santa Cruz Skateboards, Creature Skateboards, Independent Truck Co., Bronson Speed Co., Krux Trucks, Ricta Wheels, Mob Grip, OJ Wheels, Road Rider, Slimeballs, Bullet, Nor Cal Clothing Co, etc. The company's products are skateboard-related, but they also manufacture snowboarding and surfing equipment. The "Screaming Hand" emblem, designed by Jim Phillips Sr. in 1985, is the main logo of the Santa Cruz brand name.The logo has become a skateboarding icon and is recognized widely throughout the skateboarding community. —info gleaned from Wiki


On September 18th, 2017, Santa Cruz Skateboards took to social media to make known their partnership with the Topps company stating: We are excited to announce our new collaboration with Garbage Pail Kids to present to you the first ever blind bag variant skateboard! Each bag contains one randomly assorted variant skateboard featuring Adam Bomb from the classic Topps trading card series. All boards come in 8.25 x 31.8 on a medium concave. To see more about the collab as well as all the one of a kind background and artist boards, click [the Hand]! Sneak peeks at the boards surfaced online during May 2017 and the worldwide released happened on October 9th, the day after the New York Comic Con extended weekend that occurred from October 5th through the 8th, 2017.
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A VARIANT IN EVERY BAG!
Each sealed blind bag contains one, 8.25" x 31.8" randomly assorted variant skateboard featuring Adam Bomb from the classic Topps Trading Card series, Garbage Pail Kids.

The nine different boards, blind-bag sealed, came assorted on a varying rarity scale. The boards from left-to-right, as pictured below, were titled: HAZARDOUS HAND — SORTA RARE, RADIOACTIVE ROB — KINDA RARE, NUCLEAR GLOW — RARISH, FILTHY RICH FOIL — EXTRA RARE, HOLOGRAPH BLAST — SUPER RARE, PRISMATIC PUKE — SUPER DUPER RARE, NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD — CRAZY RARE, 1-OF-A-KIND CUSTOM COLORWAYS (with messed up, crazy, hand done backgrounds.) — BRAIN MELTINGLY RARE, 1-OF-A-KIND CUSTOM ART (hand done by actual "Human" artists!) — EARTH IMPLODINGLY RARE.

There were a total of forty-four 'Custom Colorways' boards created with four being given away as prizes at NYCC 2017 and forty of them as part of the sealed board odds. There were a total of twenty-four 'Custom Art' boards created wtih one being given away as a prize at NYCC 2017 and twenty-three of them sealed within the board packs. The 'Custom Art' boards featured artwork by: Jimbo Phillips, Tallboy, Pitchgrim, Horsebites, Suzanne Fiore, Keith Haupt, Aye Jay, Esayde, Pseudo5, Bart Saric, Tyler Emanuel, Lucas Musgrave, Ted Cocuzza, Ben Raney and Funeral French.
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The artwork for the Hazardous HAND, Radioactive ROB and Heaving HAND were all created by artist PitchGrim who works as a graphic designer for Santa Cruz Skateboards and also takes on freelance work, finishing quite a line-up of work for many bands and brands. Both Hazardous HAND and Radioactive ROB are tributes to the popular ADAM Bomb GPK character, while Heaving HAND is a parody of the Santa Cruz masoct Screaming Hand.



A line of apparel for the holiday season also debuted in October at the NYCC, featuring either the GPK ADAM Bomb, the Radioactive ROB character, or the Screaming Hand mascot titled Heaving HAND. And, like the boards, had a worldwide release after the convention on October 9th. A jumbo card of Hazardous HAND was available at the NYCC along with a Heaving HAND enamel pin; limited and numberd to #400.
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A line of GPK and Santa Cruze appare,l for the holiday season, also debuted in October at the NYCC, featuring either the GPK ADAM Bomb character in white, blue, or black t-shirts, and a long sleeve 'neon pink' long sleeve t-shirt, the Radioactive BOB character in white, green, or black t-shirts, and the Screaming Hand mascot titled Heaving HAND in white, blue, or black t-shirts. And, like the boards, had a worldwide release after the convention on October 9th. A jumbo card of Hazardous HAND was available at the NYCC along with a Heaving HAND enamel pin. The sealed board 'packs' also included an exclusive trading card for Hazardous HAND, and a Santa Cruz Skateboards die-cut and a Heaving HAND die-cut stickers as seen in the image above.
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Over the next year, the Santa Cruz Skateboard company would also distribute GPK grip tape under their Mob Grip line. Each of the three releases were sold individually (for the SRP of $12.95ea) or within a whole pack of all five, and measured 9" in width and 33" in length. The first release had the GPKid and sticker backgrounds for the following characters: ADAM Bomb, Tee-Vee STEVIE, Electric BILL, Dead TED and Boozin' BRUCE. The second released containted the GPKid, on a mushc smaller size scale, on a grey background for the following characters: Fryin' BRIAN, Boozin' BRUCE, Ailin' AL, Corroded CARL and Potty SCOTTY. A third release contained the GPKid on a tan background with the 'MOB GRIP' logo for the following characters: ADAM Bomb, Tee-Vee STEVIE, Mad MIKE, Wacky JACKIE and Bony JOANIE.

Santa Cruz Skateboard had a special announcement in 2018 for another line of boards for another Topps brand, Mars Attacks stating: THE INVASION HAS BEGUN AND THE #MARSATTACKSSANTACRUZ BLIND BAG VARIANT BOARDS WILL BE INFILILTRATING SHOPS NEAR YOU ON MAY 25TH! WITH GREAT TERROR AND EXCITEMENT WE ARE PLEASED TO RELEASE OUR NEWEST COLLAB! EACH BLIND BAG CONTAINS ONE RANDOMLY ASSORTED VARIANT SKATEBOARD FEATURING MASH UPS OF CLASSIC SANTA CRUZ GRAPHICS WITH MARTIANS FROM THE CLASSIC TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES. ALL BOARDS COME IN 8.25 X 31.8 ON A MEDIUM CONCAVE. CHECK THE VIDEO TO SEE THE FULL COLLECTION OF DECKS AND APPAREL!
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Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, dice, and card games. — Wikipeida

In early January, 2015, the Topps Company announced a 30th Anniversary licensing program for Garbage Pail Kids, which included licensees Funko, IDW Publishing, Steve Jackson Games, Mighty Fine, and Trick or Treat Studios. Introduced in 1985 as a sticker card set, the property will celebrate its 30th birthday in 2015, and Topps will release the 30th Anniversary card set in July. The irreverent gross-out brand Garbage Pail Kids is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with the launch of a comprehensive licensing program.

“We're so happy to be joined by Mighty Fine, Funko, IDW and others to commemorate GPK's 30th birthday,” says Adam Levine, head of outbound licensing, Topps. “These best-in-class licensees have expressed a fan-level of excitement at producing new, groundbreaking GPK products. This speaks to the brand's enduring legacy and the continued obsession among fans of a beloved '80s brand that they grew up with."

Steve Jackson Games’ limited edition Super Snot Shots game is the first product to hit retail, introduced at New York Comic Con in 2014, and is followed this spring by the Garbage Pail Kids Disgusting Dice game; while IDW recently launched its first-ever Garbage Pail Kids comic, announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2014, and first GPK Puketacular #1 issue released in December (more are planned for 2015), Funko will launch toys and figurines and Mighty Fine is collaborating for anniversary apparel in Q2.

Topps will further support the anniversary and product range with a comprehensive PR campaign that includes social media outreach, media coverage, publicity relations and promotional activities that will be on-going throughout the year.






GPK SUPER SNOT SHOTS

A snot-flicking dexterity game!
Game Design by Philip Reed and Sam Mitschke
Price $9.95 * Stock number 1522

Let's get snotty!
Fling your snot (dice!) at the Garbage Pail Kids! The more of them you hit with your boogers, the more points you score. But watch out! The other players are also Super Snot Shots and only the grossest player will win the game.
Contents: 15 cards (including four player markers), four six-sided dice, and a rulesheet in a ziplock bag.

Garbage Pail Kids is © The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Garbage Pail Kids and Topps are registered trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. Garbage Pail Kids and Topps related logos, characters, names are the intellectual property of The Topps Company Inc. and used herein under license with Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Garbage Pail Kids: Super Snot Shots is copyright © 2014 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Garbage Pail Kids: Super Snot Shots, Warehouse 23, the all-seeing pyramid, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are trademarks or registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license. All rights reserved.








GPK DISGUSTING DICE
CANCELLED

Garbage Pail Kids is © The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Garbage Pail Kids and Topps are registered trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. Garbage Pail Kids and Topps related logos, characters, names are the intellectual property of The Topps Company Inc. and used herein under license with Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Garbage Pail Kids: Disgusting Dice is copyright © 2015 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Garbage Pail Kids: Super Snot Shots, Warehouse 23, the all-seeing pyramid, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are trademarks or registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license. All rights reserved.