SERIES ONE RELEASE PERIOD : 1996 — PRODUCT NUMBER : 672
SERIES TWO RELEASE PERIOD : 2016—2019

Four years after the parody attempt of the Trash Can Trolls, in 1996, Topps tried once again to re-live the popular format of the Garbage Pail Kids with an original, non-parody spin-off called the Bathroom Buddies with original content. A 44 card test set was followed by a longer 66 (the original 44 + 22 new images) card set with twins were produced and mainly distributed outside of the U.S. to Canada and Australia, but also released regionally within the New York area (similar to the OS1 GPK test run). Several artists, including John Pound, Tom Bunk, Jay Lynch, XnO (aka Chet Darmstaedter) and Den Beauvais were responsible for these gross bathroom humor cards art directed by Ingar Westburg. The trading cards came packaged with either 4 or 5 per plastic or foil pack, depending on the print run.

The final artwork for a Series 2 set was fully completed by the same aforementioned commissioned artists by Topps, including John Cebollero, but it was never released at-that-time. Per Jay Lynch, who submitted most of the gag roughs for both sets, the card backs for the Series 2 were never written, the project was cancelled by Topps before the backs were worked on. All images can be seen within the Art Gallery and Card History sections, which were later released as subsets within the Yearly thematic sets from 2016 Series 1 through 2019 Series 1, within retail bonus boxes.

"I think I drew roughs of maybe 90% of the Bathroom Buddies that were released. I did the roughs--and John Pound, Tom Bunk, Xno and others did the paintings from the roughs. The first 2 cards, Clean Dean and the Mummy one I had to draw pretty detailed, to show to the owners of the company to get the series approved. John Pound then painted them...and the owners okayed that. then I just did quick roughs and John, Xno, Tom Bunk and the other artists figured out the drawings of the rest. Mostly I just do roughs and others do the finished art." — Jay Lynch, per email, circa December 1999

— The Bathroom Buddies 44 card Test Set is slightly different from the 66 card set; the puzzle pieces in both sets are the same and face the same direction when the card is flipped to the backside, but the card backs with the 'Walls of Wizdom' faces left to right in the 44 card test set and the card backs faces right to left in the 66 card set when flipped to the backside. The word 'Wiz' is slang to pee or urinate.



— The Artwork Scale on the box of both print runs is different; The image on the 2nd print run box is slightly decreased where you can see all of the artwork, whereas the image is cropped at the bottom of the 1st print run box—cutting off the lower bathroom characters found on the 'Walls of Wizdom' card backs.

— The set has only one Puzzle; found in both the test set and regular set releases.



— Unlike most sets, card Numbers can be found on the front side and reverse back of each card.

— Besides 'GREENDAY', artist Tom Bunk inserted several Shout-Outs into his bathrom humor artwork by writing on the walls for cards #3. The name 'Ira' can be seen in red at the bottom of the wall for Ira Friedman at Topps, the name Anna can be seen on the right-hand side which is Bunk's daughter and the artist's name can be identified in two different locations, 'TOM' written in large letters off to the right and 'BUNCH OF BUNK' found in the lower left-hand corner. Bunk's son's name, 'BEN', can be found on the artwork Tom painted for card #24.



— The regular set has two cards with the Same Forename; cards 14B Desperate DAN and 31B DAN Lather.

— The Checklists in both sets are quite different; the test set checklist is horizantal with the toilet bowl character and the card stating 'Series 1' and the regular release having the typical Topps checklist that is vertical with no images.



— The Wrappers for both print runs are different; he first test set wrapper does not have the Topps logo on it and the plastic packs contain 5 stickers, whereas the second release wrapper has the Topps logo, Bathroom Buddies is written in metallic because of the foil wrapper and the packs contain only 4 stickers now.

— Topps has released all fourteen images (twenty-eight cards) of Tom Bunk's previously unpublished Bathroom Buddies 2nd Series material, all three images (six cards) of John Pound's pieces, two images (four cards) by Xno [unverified], two images (four cards) by Denis Beauvais, and one image (two cards) by John Cebollero, within value boxes, exclusive to Target, as bonus cards within their Apple Pie (In Your Face!), Prime Slime Trashy TV, ADAM-Geddon, Battle of the Bands, We Hate the 80's, Oh, the Horror-ible, and We Hate the 90's setes from 2016 to early 2019. The toilet paper roll nameplate has been replaced by a black and white GPK nameplate and the ™ (trademark) is missing from the header.



— Within the his artwork, artist Tom Bunk often infuses a few family members and self shout-outs. For cards 3a Classy CLAY and 3b DALE Dump, collector's can make out "TOM IS A(N ASSH)OLE", "IT'S BUNK" and "BEN WAS HERE!" (for his son) & for cards 13a BO-wl and 13b Swirl LEE, on can identify "TRASHER TOM", "TOXIC BUNK", "ANNA BANANA" (for his daughter), and "SPEEDY BEN" (for his son).

CLICK TO VIEW SERIES 1 + SERIES 2 TRADING-CARD
IMAGES & ANNOTATED NOMENCLATURE

CLICK TO VIEW BUNK ARTWORK FOR SALE

— Topps artist Tom Bunk completed thirteen images for the 1st Series Bathroom Buddies set and fourteen paintings for the, at-the-time, unpublished 2nd Series Bathroom Buddies set. In 2003, Tom provided images for all fourteen original artwork paintings he had completed for the Topps Company; the same year that Topps would release the Garbage Pail Kids ANS1 set.


CLICK TO VIEW BUNK ARTWORK FOR SALE

— Topps artist John Pound completed fourteen images for the 1st Series Bathroom Buddies set and three paintings for the unpublished 2nd Series Bathroom Buddies set. In 2005, John Pound provided images for all three original artwork paintings that he finished for the Topps Company. The second piece contains Pound's Woo-woo eyeball character (not Eyewiz). 'JP WAS HERE' can be seen under the paper towel dispenser in the third piece pictured below, John Pound's self- tagged initials.



— The third main contributor to the Bathroom Buddies sets, XnO (aka Chet Darmstaedter), completed five paintings for the 1st Series set and potentially two paitings for the unreleased 2nd Series set; later published as subsets within the thematic sets from 2016—2019. XnO is most notable for his Dinosaurs Attack! artwork that was released in 1988 by the Topps company where he completed a majority of the work for the set. Darmstaedter is known for his 'lowbrow art' or pop surrealism.

— The fourth artist to contribute to the Bathroom Buddies set(s) is Denis "DEN" Beauvais, who completed one painting for the 1st Series set and two paintings for the unreleased 2nd Series set; later published as subsets within the thematic sets from 2016—2019. These two pieces of artwork were located on his website for sale under a 'Misc.' artwork tab that included the 'Bathroom Buddies' title for the image to cards 6A Constipa-TED and 6B Dead FRED. More information directly below.


NOTE: THE ARTIST'S SIGNATURE, 'DEN.' CAN BE FOUND ON HIS ARTWORK AND MORE SUPRISINGLY, ON THE ACTUAL PUBLISHED CARD

Beauvais is known for his monster artwork; but it is unknown if the two additional artwork images below are directly tied to the Bathroom Buddies sets as either 1st Series rejected pieces, 2nd Series unpublished pieces, or not associated with the Bathroom Buddies property, but they would both fit in nicely with the bathroom humor. The dracula image has been printed within the 2018S2 Yearly set and the werewolf within the 2019S1 Yearly set. Many thanks to collector Esteban de Jesús Valencia Castillo for bringing this artist to my attention.


NOTE: THE 'AB'+ BLOOD TYPE (UNIVERSAL RECIPIENT) ON THE TUB HANDLE AND THE 'DEN.' SIGNATURE ON BOTH PAINTINGS

— Artist and writer Jay Lynch completed the concept artwork for the set and wrote the 'Walls of Wizdom' (= words of wisdom) reverse card backs. Several images were slightly changed by the artists for the final artwork; below is the artwork for card images #1 and #17 and two concepts that did not reach fruition for the 1st Series, although the gelatin mold concept did make it to the 2nd Series. Per Jay Lynch, "Topps had me compose a letter to the Boston Board of Education, suggesting that they use the series as a teaching tool in classrooms; this was done to get the [cards] banned in Boston as a publicity stunt for that release."




— An early tight-ink submission sketch, for the eventual cards of 19a Undersea LEE and 19b Scuba SAM, shows the evolution of the Bathroom Buddies Character Design... artist Jay Lynch states that, "This is the old style character. Should be replaced with Idiot-Boy", where "Eyes go above mask". This is important since all artwork would later contain the 'Idiot-Boy [& Girl]'-styled eyes as a rule. Lynch also suggested that, "Could he spear a turd instead of a fish?"; the header actually covers this area on card, but I'm assuming it's still a fish. The art director suggested, "Fish border on T.P. [roll]", which did not occur on card, and to "Reveal he comes out of bowl" with a thumbnail sketch, which did come to fruition.



— The Topps company had artist John Cebollero try his hand at painting a Bathroom Buddies image based off of a Jay Lynch concept but it was never printed; Cebollero posted the image to social media in October of 2017. Cebollero went on to paint at least one piece for the unpublished second-series set, that were later published within the GPK thematic subsets in 2018; Cebollero posted a picture of card S2 16a Flushed FELIPE and stated, "Something I painted for Topps years ago. Unfortunately, the Bathroom Buddies card set was pretty much a DOA experiment." and "[Yes.] I think I did about 4 or 5 for the set." Including this unpublished image, only one made it into the 2nd Series set.



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BATHROOM BUDDIES — BOWL OF BUBBLE GUM

Bathroom Buddies Toilet Bowl Candy & Gum Dispensers were released in Canada in 1996 with gum filled toilet bowls and a tank holding a sticker with bathroom humor on it, but no images from the set were used on the stickers, only on the display box. Bathroom Buddies toilet bowl candy dispensers were also released in the United Kingdom, but the stickers within the tank portion of the toilet bowl had miniature images from the Bathroom Buddies set. The total number of stickers within the set is unkown since the stickers are unnumbered. Tank pictures provided by collector Robert Griffin.



PRODUCT #785 — UPC: 0-41116-10785-6
TOILET UPC: 0-41116-00785-9
NOTE: STICKER IMAGES FOR CARDS #16 AND #19

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BABES IN TOILETLAND --> BATHROOM BUDDIES

The 1996 Bathroom Buddies release was actually a revamped and approved concept from December 1995 that originated from a submission pitch by Jay Lynch from September 1994 titled Babes in Toiletland, a title parody of the popular 1986 film, Babes in Toyland, starring actors Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves. This important piece of history was brought to my attention on May 04, 2024, by humour card collector & toy enthusiast, Casey Roberson, whom had recently visited the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library at Ohio State University (in Columbus, OH) for research on a future publication. Amongst several Bathroom Buddies tight ink roughs were the Babes in Toiletland images and letters of submission to Len Brown. We unfortunately lost Lynch in 2017, and with the assistance of Roxanne Toser (of Non-Sport Update & Philly Non-Sport Card Show fame), a generous sample of his large collection of art was donated to the library.



JAY LYNCH 'BIT' PITCH DATED 09/22/94 & LYNCH 'BB' CONCEPTS PAGE DATED 12/12/95 — HEAVILY EDITED FOR SITE
NOTE: '150,000 VOLT FLUSH' SKETCH BY ALEX WALD CAN BE VIEWED FURTHER BELOW



Mixed in the Babes in Toiletland tight ink roughs were artwork by Chicago-based artist Alex Wald. On May 14, 2024, I reached out to Alex, enquiring, "Hopefully this email address from Blogspot is still in use... An acquaintance of mine had visited the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library (at Ohio State University), where quite a bit of Jay Lynch's artwork was donated, and he had taken some pictures of artwork titled 'Babes in Toiletland' dated October '94 by both Lynch and yourself. The concept was sent to Topps in September of that year, but at some point must've been reworked in '95 for their '96 Bathroom Buddies release. I'm reaching out because although I run a Garbage Pail Kids website, I also have a Bathroom Buddies page and became very curious about this precursor. Do you recall how many concepts you sketched up for Jay, by chance, and did he reach out to you for any involvement with the Bathroom Buddies?" [Rapper Crapper image]


WALD TIGHT SKETCH DATED 10/03/94 & LYNCH COLORED SKETCH DATED 10/07/94 — HEAVILY EDITED FOR SITE
NOTE: "ICE-P[EE]' ON VANITY PLATES = NAME PARODY OF RAPPER ICE-T

Alex quickly and kindly responded with:
"Thanks for reaching out. Without digging through the boxes that store all the copies and roughs of old work, it’s hard to remember precisely how many pieces I did for each of Jay’s series. Typically he’d FAX me a handwritten list of descriptive character names and I’d discuss the names over the phone with Jay before starting to draw. During those years, Jay did not draw anything as he was experiencing some kind of neurological issue which made it difficult to draw. I’m not sure when he began drawing again…possibly after 2000.
There might be five to ten characters for each series, perhaps more. Did he reach out? Well, yes—we discussed every detail; I often did full revisions of the presentation art based on any additional detail he requested. Oh, by “involvement” I suppose the names should be noted: I named many of these though I didn’t record which names I generated. Jay sent all his orders by FAX, as previously mentioned, and very little of the FAX paper material survived. It all tended to fade in less than a year.
I just found the folder that has Babes in Toiletland and Wacky Badges. It looks like I may have them all…that is, the ones I drew. I don’t have any of the printed color pieces (Tom Bunk or John Pound, usually) or anything by Chris Ware, Dan Clowes or the other Chicago guys who pitched in to work with Jay. I have 12 original presentation art pieces from Toiletland/Buddies. All are on letter paper, drawn with a combination of ballpoint pen and marker, some have pasteups and white-out.
In addition to Rapper Crapper, I have the following: Forest Dumper, Hot Seat (electric chair toilet), Pooper Scooter (motorcycle biker gag), Mod Rod (drummer)……………title changes to Bathroom Buddies here, Roast Anne (hair dryer), Brandon Briefs (laundry hamper), Bobbin’ Robin (hallowe’en theme: bobbing for apples), Oozing’ Uma (popping pimples), Shavin’ Grace , Lisa Lift-off (Fart rips through space suit), Lenny Laptop.
Thanks again for your interest. aleX wald"



JAY LUNCH 'DOREST DUMPER' SKETCHES + ALEX WALD 'HOT SEAT' SKETCHES — HEAVILY EDITED FOR SITE
NOTE: "NEEDS WHEELS, I KNOW..." COMMENT BY ALEX WALD




Per Alex's list, although 'Forest Dumper' is more akin to Elmer Fudd in appearance, the character may have been reworked for Bathroom Buddies cards 15a FORREST Dump and 15b Whittlin' WILL, along with 'Mod Rod', that may have been reworked for cards 22a Metallic ALEC and 22b HARVEY Metal, both within the first print-run release. The 'Oozing UMA' may have been reworked for the second series character Zit ZACK/Pimple PAUL (unpublished in 1996 and printed for the 2016S2 Prime Slime Trashy TV subset), the LISA Lift-Off most likely became the character for cards 9a Astro NAT and 9b Blast-Off BRIAN, and LENNY Laptop was most likely renamed for cards 20a LARRY Laptop and 20b Internet BRET.

The 1st Series second print-run character, for cards 28a Hot RODNEY and 28b Racin' MASON, is the only toilet on wheels, and the only conceptualization from the Babes in Toiletland submission pitch that made it into the later Bathroom Buddies set. Perhaps the the private act of relieving oneself wasn't relatable on wheels.