RELEASE PERIOD : SUMMER 1992

In 1992, four years after the fad of the Garbage Pail Kids, Topps tried their luck again with the parody of a new craze, the Norfin Trolls.  Unfortunately, the cards were not released until the very end of the troll hype resulting in a lack of sales and no 2nd Series ever spawned.  The Trash Can Trolls are a direct parody of the troll doll (or Dam doll) created by Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam, a type of hard plastic doll with rough, pliable hair depicting a troll figure. The troll dolls became a large toy craze in the early 1960s in the States, and were popular between the 1970s and early 1990s where the dolls were marketed under the trade name Norfin Trolls.



The art director and editor of the set was Mark Newgarden; the artists included John Pound, Tomas Bunk, Drew Friedman, Richard Mcquire, Irene Rofheart (pka Pigott) and Patrick Pigott. The writers and concept artists included Mark Newgarden, John Pound, Drew Friedman, Frank Santopadre, Jordan Bochanis, Jim Giordano, Sam Henderson, John Mariano, Paul Parducci and Russ Reiley. The cards come 6 to a wax pack measuring 2 ½ X 3 ½ and are non-die cut. By this time, Topps had stopped placing gum in the packs due to the damage to the cards or price cuts. Although a 2nd Series Trash Can Trolls set was never released a few idea sketches were completed by John Pound but no final artwork was ever assigned.

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TCT — U.K. EDITION

— The Iconic Garbage Pail Kids Character, showcased on OS1 cards 8a ADAM Bomb and 8b Blasted BILLY, can be located on the Trash Can Trolls cards 1a JOEL Troll and 1b Fall-Out PAUL, kicking away last decades card craze and potentially and hopefully creating a new one, but Topps seemingly jumped on the bandwagon too late.



— The Puzzles contain only twelve pieces for the characters of cards 29a Pyrotech NICK & 29b Independence DAISY and cards 42a DEE Composing & 42b PHIL D. Grave; a nine-piece puzzle would've been perfect for nine-pocket card sheets. There are no Puzzle Preview cards within the set.

— There are three Unpublished OS16 GPK concepts from 1988 that were worked into the TCT set, images for cards #2, #4 and #15; that can be seen within the 16th Series Fun Facts & Tidbits section. These GPK characters were later published in the ANS1 GPK set. Similar concepts by different artists can also be located, i.e. cards 3a AL A.Carte & 3b FREDDY Sphagetti, very reminiscent of the later ANS3 GPK cards 3a Saucy SARAH and 3b MARY Nara.



— The only Nameplate in the set, or any Topps parody series that I'm aware of, that has artwork over the nameplate; for cards 33a Bumbling BEA & 33b LOUISE Bees; usually only the logo header is affected.

— A very normal looking Norfin Troll-like TCT Sticker, pictured below, and enlarged, could be found stuck to the celophane for the Trash Can Trolls boxes with fluff-able hair that came in either blue, green, orange or pink colors. The artist for the sticker is unknown.



— The Trash Can Trolls Mascot, located as artwork on the box packaging and as rendered artwork on the wrapper or pack can be be found on cards 29a Pyrotech Nick & 29b Independence DAISY, as card artwork for checklist cards 44a & 44b and also one of the 12-piece completed puzzle reverse card backs within the set.



— The set has two cards with the Same Forename, cards 17b Siamese LOUISE & 33b LOUISE Bees, cards 19b Repeating PETE & 25a Prickly PETE, cards 20b HY N. Dry & 32a HY Voltage, cards 25b Thorny BARB & 40b Barfin’ BARB, and cards 26b Overgrown JOAN & 43b JOAN Throne.

— Card Sample:  twin cards 28a Generic ERIC & 28b No Frills FRANK, a fantastic parody of mass-produced product.



— Card 35b MAX Snacks can be found with the 'b' with partially missing Black Ink due to a production error, somewhat like the infamous GPK card 355b Semi COLIN, which can be found with a missing number or partially missing number & letter, but in this case it is rather common.



— There is an incorrect Checklist listing where character name 14b Growin' OWEN is labeled as 14b Shocked SHERRY and the name 15b Shocked SHERRY is listed as 15b Growin' OWEN; the two were accidentally reversed.

— During the concept phase for the reverse card back of the Trash Can Trolls, the Flowchart for coupon ideas was called 'Troll Products - From the House of Trolls, a title parody of the 1955 novella House of Dolls. Tom Bunk completed the final artwork for the back of cards #14, a Swiss Army Troll, that is similar to the Edwards Scissorhands parody of cards 12a EDWARD Scissorhair & 12b LANCE Scape painted by John Pound.



— Possibly Tom Bunk's first GPK Concept piece, as mentioned by the artist, that was rejected by Topps. The piece was later reworked and became cards 25a Prickly PETE & 25b Thorny BARB of the Trash Can Trolls set released in 1992 painted by Pat Pigott. The original GPK artwork was finally published in late 2011 for the GPK Flashback 3 set as LOST GPK cards with the same names and in the summer of 2013 within the Chrome OS1 set as cards L3a and L3b.



— Much like the GPK model sheets created by Tom Bunk in 1987 for the OS10 through OS16 GPK sets for artists to follow, Bunk created some simple TCT Model Sheets five years later in 1992 modeled after the popular Norfin Troll dolls.



— Several Color Rough images and tight color roughs were changed prior to the final artwork stage, with either subtle or drastic changes. Tom Bunk's 2a Retchin' GRETCHEN & 2b DREW Spew had troll hair changed from green to purple and arm positions re-positioned; the tracksuit stripe was changed to red for the final artwork with blue intestines added. Tom Bunk's 4a New Wave DAVE & 4b Flush GORDON feet positions are re-positioned and shorts changed to the color purple; the surfboard, having already gone through two iterations, finally ends up being blue; the walls end up being pink, the troll hair changed to a dirty blonde yellow and the fish skeleton moved.




— Several original TCT Concept Sketches by Tom Bunk which were reviewed by Mark Newgarden with red mark-ups as pictured below. For cards #8, Newgarden made notes to reduce the size of the character and a pattern was added to the boxer undergarments; the arm and eye positions eventually changed and a crossbones added to the deodorant can. A large drip was added to cards #13 with the hand positions changed. Newgarden made notes for cards #18 for peels to be added to the ground, the coconut on the monkey's head removed, extra hair added to the peeled head sections, for the bellybutton to be reduced and add a stalk of bananas to the tree. For cards #22, Newgarden made a notation that the tongue be licking away the face of the ice cream troll for the first concept, and added red to the eyeball for the second concept for the piece. The scared and 'sweating' character was changed to 'melting' for the final artwork.




— Two additional Color Roughs by Tom Bunk are pictured below, where the hair color is changed from green to red and a tongue sticking out added to cards #20. A rope and clothes were added to the piñata concept, the broken arm 'intact' but now broken off, and the kids positions have changed. A similar concept can be seen within the 2006 ANS5 Garbage Pail Kids set for bonus card B12 PATRICK Piñata, also painted by Tom Bunk.



— Although the 2nd Series Trash Can Trolls set never materialized, the concepts titles for coupon offers for the reverse card backs had been fleshed out. The 42 ideas are as follows with the concept artist's initials in paranthesis—full names can be found with in the Comprehensive Checklist below: Troll Performance Art (DF), Toe Nail Clipper (DF), Trolls Traps (DF), Microwave Trolls (JG), Instant Lawn Trolls (JG), Troll WindChimes (JG), VCR Troll (RR), Dashboard Buddy (RR), Troll Shoes (PP), Trolls End Catalog (PP), Troll Head Warmers (PP), Shroud of Troll (SH), Desert Troll Figurines (SH), Stop Troll Vivisection (SH), Troll Massacres (JG), Trolly-o's Cereal (JG), Troll Chips (JG), Dental Scrub Team (RR), Troll of the Month (RR), Garbage Disposal (PP), Covered with Honey (PP), Profound Thoughts (PP), McTrolls (PP), Lab Experimentation Trolls (PP), Psychic Troll Line (PP), Pin the Hair on the Troll (JG), Trolls in Trouble (JG), Troll Trivia (JG), Mr. Troll Head (RR), Skittle Troll (RR), Silent Troll Whistle (RR), Escort Service (FS), Eau De La Troll (FS), Troll Thermometer (JG), Trolls Glasses (JG), Troll Mysteries Book (PP), Know it All Trolls (PP), Linoleum Destroying Trolls (PP), Rock'em Sock'em Troll Bots (RR), Visable Troll (RR), Barrel of Trolls (RR), Air Freshener (RR).