This week's Wax Paper Pop Art is all about big hairy apemen.  Whether it's the hilarious misadventures of an unruly adopted sasquatch with the 1987 Topps Harry and the Henderson's card and sticker set (which I talked about here)…

…the weird romance and ennui of the master of the apes, from the 1976 Topps King Kong card and sticker set…

…or these next two wrappers from 1967 and 1969 (respectively) featuring the Topps Planet of the Apes card sets.

Which reminds me, I need to break out my Planet of the Apes cartoon DVD and watch it again…

Well, it's Friday and I’m really looking forward to the weekend and catching the Avengers sometime tomorrow morning.  Seems like a good opportunity to share my two main Marvel comics wax wrappers.  First up is the wrapper for the Topps Marvel Comic Book Heroes Stickers from 1974…

I didn't have any wrappers that were more in line with the Avengers, so I figured it'd be fun to pair the above with my favorite wax wrapper of all time from the 1979 Topps Incredible Hulk card set!

Here's to hoping the Hulk gets to smash a bunch of stuff tomorrow…

Wow, I can’t believe it's been almost a year since I slapped together a Wax Paper Pop Art post.  I've got to get on the ball and finish scanning my collection so I can start these up again.  In the meantime, and in honor of my BFF Wicket W. Warrick stuffed toy, here are a couple of wrappers from Topps Return of the Jedi card series circa 1983…

I find it fascinating that the designers decided that out of all the Ewoks they could have featured on one of these wax packs they decided to include a baby.  Granted, they were cute as hell, but aesthetically speaking wouldn't Logray or Chief Chirpa have been a better choice?

Today is Friday the 13th which seems like the perfect opportunity to share some cool Jason Vorhees themed bits of Wax Paper Pop Art, but alas none exist.  This reminds me of one of my favorite blogs that is sadly defunct, the Bubblegum Fink.  BF was a huge influence on Branded, and one of the really cool things he did was to create sets of digital trading cards that aped the style of Topps sets back in the 70s and 80s.  One of my favorite would-be sets was for Friday the 13th, and it would have been awesome had it actually existed.  I never saved any of the images sadly, but here's a post of someone else who took notice of these awesome pieces of should-be-nostalgia…

Anyway, in lieu of simplistic Hockey Mask art I thought I'd share a set of some of my favorite Topps card wrappers from the Masters of the Universe series circa 1984…

These images, in particular of He-Man and Skeletor were very prevalent on MOTU merchandising back in the day.  Actually both of them also grace the two Lazer Blazer sticker sets as well.  It's kind of cool to get a chance to see the same image in so many iterations over the years…

I talked about the sticker cards from this set, as well as a bunch of other MOTU stickers in an older Peel Here column.

For today's WWPA I thought I'd share a wrapper for a set of cards and stickers that I haven't been able to get my hands on just yet.  The 1983 Fleer Dragon's Lair game cards and stickers…

The few times I've played the original arcade game it totally kicked my butt.  It was beautiful though, as Don Bluth's animation tends to be.  To hear all about it check out episode 81 of the Retroist Podcast!

Since I ended up talking about the Rambo cartoon yesterday it only seems fitting to end the week with a bit of Rambo Wax Paper Pop Art.  This wrapper is from the 1985 Topps card set (I've posted about the stickers in the past…)

So, I thought I was going to be able to get to scanning the Baseballs' Greatest Grossouts stickers earlier in the week, but that fell through so I thought I'd bump up this week’s Wax Paper Pop Art.  Hopefully I'll be able to tackle those stickers tonight.

Anyway, in keeping with the slight theme of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I thought I'd share my collection of TMNT wax wrappers.  Before I get to that though, I wanted to give an update for the postcard project I started on Tuesday.  22 of the 24 postcards have been claimed, and so far they're being mailed out to twelve different states and provinces in the US, as well as four other countries spanning three continents.  There are two left, an April O’Neil and a Splinter, waiting for homes to be mailed to, so check out the post below for details.  I'm super excited at the response to this idea and I think I might do some additional postcard runs in the coming year (I already have an idea for this coming October…)

Now, on to the WPPA.  First up we have the four wrappers from the 1989 Topps cartoon stickers and cards set…

Next up is the wrapper for the 1990 Topps movie cards and stickers…

I must have seen this movie at least a hundred times over the years.  It's been one of my go-to comfort classics and it reminds of a lot of when I first left Florida as a preteen.  In 1990 my family pulled up roots and moved to New England for a year, and coming from the sunny beach minded southern peninsula it was a shock to my system.  Not only was the weather and landscape different, but the general vibe I got from the kids up there was a whole heck of a lot different as well.  That summer when the TMNT movie came out in theaters, it felt like a link back to my childhood in Florida.  My introduction to the toys and cartoon series was one of my last memories with my longtime friends down there and collecting the movie cards when they came out brought me out of an isolating funk…

This next set of wrappers jumps back to the cartoon series.  The first one is for the 2nd series Topps cards that came out in 1990…

…and these next three are also from that series of cards, though they're a bit different.

These are from what I believe is the Canadian variation of the 2nd series cards.  Though they're not labeled as O-Pee-Chee (the Canadian version of Topps), I'm taking clues from the title change (these are Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles), and the ingredients for the included gum which have the classic Canadian/UK spellings of flavour and colour with the added "u".  The Michelangelo wrapper above also has an alternate illustration, whereas the rest of the wrappers feature the same imagery from the 1st series packaging.

Last up today is the Topps wrapper for the 1992 live action sequel to the TMNT movie, Secret of the Ooze…

This flick also marks a strange place in my nostalgia as the end of my toy collecting for the most part.  By '92 I was more into comic books and roleplaying (not straying very far from the Turtles though as I was a Palladium TMNT and Other Strangeness junky throughout high school), and toys were taking a backseat.  Add to this the weird toyline from this flick with all the freckles and the goofy vibe of Vanilla Ice, and I pretty much lost interest in the film series and collecting the action figures.  I have a soft spot in my heart for the flick now, though it was a long time in coming…

So for this week's Wax Paper Pop Art I thought I'd provide a teaser for a set of stickers that I'm going to share on next week's Peel Here column.  1989's Baseballs' Greatest Grossouts sticker cards were the follow-up set to Donruss/Leaf's 1988 sticker set Awesome All*Stars…

The illustrations on these wax packs were done by (I'm 99% sure) B.K. Taylor, an artist I'm becoming increasingly familiar with due to my explorations into the Scholastic newsletters and their publications like Maniac, Dynamite and Hot Dog.  Taylor did all sorts of artwork for Scholastic, from sticker sheets to comic strips, as well as illustrations for some of their books.  I believe he also did the artwork for the Zero Heroes sticker cards (based on his art style and relationship with Donruss doing their Odd Rods stickers in the late 60s and 70s.)

So check back next week for some of Baseballs' Greatest Grossouts…

So even though I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's day, it is just around the corner and I thought it would be a great opportunity to share a couple pieces of truly awesome Wax Paper Pop Art that I recently acquired.  They're pink, girly, and just plain rad.  It doesn't hurt that I had the biggest crushes on both Helen Slater and Cyndi Lauper growing up.  Between Supergirl, Secret of My Success, and the Legend of Billie Jean, Mrs. Slater just knocked me out, and who doesn't love Cyndi Lauper?

First up is the wrapper for the 1984 Topps Supergirl sticker card set (which I've talked about here.)

Seeing this wrapper, and juxtaposing it against the extremely yellow borders of the sticker cards, it makes me wonder why the designers at Topps didn't just go with a pink bordered theme…

Our second wrapper comes from the 1985 Topps Cyndi Lauper cards and stickers…

This is actually only one of two designs that were available for this set, but it's the only one I've come across that was included in an affordable lot.  I've posted about the sticker portion of this set here…

A little while ago I agreed to take part in a fun project for Charles over at Eclectorama called Spockcation 2009.   The whole idea is that Charles would mail out one of his Spock Mego figures to various people in different states who would then take Spock around their area to get some fun photos as he traveled around the country.  Well, Spock has been on vacation for a couple years now and he's finally beamed into Branded HQ.  Since the wife and I have been taking him around town, I thought it would be apropos to share some Spock-centric Wax Paper Pop Art this week…

This first wax wrapper is from the Topps Star Trek Series, circa 1976.

This second wrapper hails from the Topps Star Trek: The Motion Picture set, 1979.

Click on the banner below to visit Eclectorama and see all the places Spock has stopped so far…

Been doing a bunch of collection culling, house cleaning and framing these past couple of weeks (trying to get a jump on Spring cleaning I guess), and in the process I've been digging back into my collection of Garbage Pail Kids.  I’ve always wanted to find a fun way to display some of the GPK card art on the walls of the Branded abode, but I didn't want to go with an uncut sheet or one of the checklist style posters that was released back in the day.  The cards themselves are a bit too small to really pop on the wall too, so aside from trying to procure some of the original artwork (way too pricey) my thought has always been to pick up some of the 5"x7" Giant 1st series cards.   Up until recently though I've resisted this urge since I wasn't as familiar with that set (having missed in while collecting as a kid), and I felt a little weird framing some of those pieces.  After stumbling onto the majority of the 1st series by chance this past year though, I decided 'what the hell' and picked up some of my favorites from the set to frame.  I haven't hung them yet, but they look freaking spectacular in the frames so I can't wait until they're on the walls peppered throughout the rooms...

I figured this would be a good time to share some more of the GPK wax wrappers in my collection, so beginning where I left off with the 1st WPPA, here is the 6th series pack released in 1986…

It never occurred to me that it was a little weird that Topps switched from using the Adam Bomb imagery for the wrappers with this set, but now that I think about it, it is a little weird that they switched to an image of Potty Scotty.  In the sets following the wrapper designers started highlighting a new sticker from each set as the wrapper image, so I wonder why they chose to dip back into the 1st series for this 6th wax pack?  Especially when you consider that this set featured an updated variation on the kid-in-a-toilet concept with JOHN John & Flushing Floyd.  Actually, there was also an updated on the Adam Bomb concept with Dyna Mike & Newlydead Ed that would have been pretty damn cool for the wrapper.  Guess it can just be chalked up to a missed opportunity…

The 7th series was released in 1987 and was one of the last series that I heavily collected back in the 80s…

Next up is the wrapper for the 8th series also released in 1987…

The 9th series is pretty much where I stopped buying.  It's also the last "classic" series that featured the original GPK arched logo, Cabbage Patch Kid inspired eye design, and the softer imagery of plush dolls for the kids.  It was around this time that Topps settled a lawsuit with the makers of the CPKs, part of which was to augment the artwork to feature harder looking dolls with larger, rounder eyes and cracked skin.   Though I wasn't aware of the impending changes at the time, I'm sure I would have scoffed at the coming 10th series as too much of a change.  25 or so years later though I find that I have a soft spot in my heart for the last six original sets and have been able to get over the imposed changes to the series adding a bunch of them to my collection.  I guess being a completist is a stronger urge than a traditionalist...

Last up today we have the 10th series wrapper, which was the second to last one released in 1987…

As a slightly anticlimactic close to this mini Tron nostalgia week, I decided to close out with the wrapper to the 1982 Donruss Tron card set (as a bookend to the stickers I posted on Wednesday.)  It's not the most engaging wax wrapper design.  In fact I believe other than the neatness of the logo, this is probably one of the more boring card pack wrappers out there.

I think this is a bit indicative of the marketing issues I've noticed with the original film.  Most of the merchandise I've seen used the same hands-on-hips static pose of the Tron character blankly starring, or it uses that image as the center piece surrounded by a barrage of small screencaps that don't really capture the excitement of the lightcycle race, or the emotional resonance of watching a program get de-rezzed.

I know Disney wanted a big push with the merchandising of the flick, but I'm wondering if people just didn't know how to market a movie like Tron?

Well, the new flick opens tonight and the wife and I are going to try and catch the 1st screening in the morning.  Here's to hoping it does the original some justice…

In honor of the impending spooktacular festivities coming in just one short week I thought it would be fun to make today's Wax Paper Pop Art a super-sized, all-horror edition.  First up we have the complete set of wrappers from the 1988 Topps Fright Flicks card set (you can see the Stickers here)…

Next up we have the wrapper from the 1986 Topps Little Shop of Horrors Sticker Card set…

Straying a bit into some more classical monster territory we have the wrappers for the 1980 Topps Creature Feature sequel set (the stickers for which I talked about here), as well as the wrapper for the original 1973 set…

You can't talk about 80s horror without mentioning the Gremlins.  Well, at least I can't.  This is the wrapper from the 1984 Topps trading card set, the stickers are mentioned here…

For this last wrapper we'll need to hop in the DeLorean and travel back all the way to 1964, ending up on 1313 Mockingbird Lane for a visit with the Leaf Munsters trading cards…

Felling like a bloated, overblown spy adventure in space today.

Moonraker Bubblegum cards from Topps, 1979.  I talked about the stickers here.

To cap off the E.T. theme this week, here’s a better look at the wax wrapper from that Buster Browns shoe ad I shared on Tuesday.

E.T Topps bubblegum cards, circa 1982.

To sort of keep this week's McDonalds posts going I thought I'd take a minute to share some awesome trading cards from the impressive collection of the one and only Brandon of the Waffle Whiffer Zone.  Brandon's site and Flickr feed have been a constant source of inspiration on Branded for the last four years and change.

Since I haven't been able to find a physical example of any McDonald's branded wax packages, I figured the next best thing would be to take a look at some trading cards the company produced in Cleveland, Ohio back in 1974.  These promo cards are all themed with specific iconography of the area including the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (behind Grimace), Hale Farm & Western Reserve Village in Bath, Ohio in Summit County (behind Mayor McCheese), the Cleveland Health Museum and Education Center (behind Officer Big Mac), the Great Lakes Historical Society Museum in Vermilion (behind Captain Crook), the Cleveland Zoo in Brookside Park (behind Ronald McDonald), and the Blossom Music Center, located between Cleveland and Akron (behind a very laid back Hamburglar.)

One of the things that I love about these cards is that the art is so simplified and interesting.  It's the same aesthetic that draws me to bubblegum card wax package art. It’s much better than the art in that 1980 Calendar I shared on Monday too.

Heartfelt thanks go out to Brandon for letting me use the images from his Flickr feed.  You should definitely take a moment and visit him at his site, Waffle Whiffer Zone for some amazing nostalgic ephemera…

Today on Wax Paper Pop Art, Indiana Jones.  The first wrapper is a little boring, if only because Topps/O-Pee-Chee used a glorified photocop in the artwork instead of loosely re-drawing the image.  I'm much more interested in the crude, simplistic renderings with these wrappers, or at least re-drawn images.  Photo quality is just sort of lifeless…

Raiders of the Lost Ark from Topps (O-Pee-Chee in Canada), 1981.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom from Topps, 1984.  I talked about the stickers here.

This wrapper reminds me that there are still a few sets of sticker cards I still need.  Also, this is an example of a Canadian Topps wrapper which is distributed under the name O-Pee-Chee.

Jaws 2 from Topps (O-Pee-Chee in Canada), 1978.

I've been falling in love with the USA network show Burn notice recently, and it's got me thinking about all the tropes that make for a great one-and-done hour-long action shows.  And this got me thinking about Tom Selleck and his sweet ride.  So here you go…

Magnum P.I. Bubblegum Cards from Donruss, 1983.

Can you hear the theme music?  I can.  And now I'm going to try and stop an out-of-control Winnebago that has an illegal poker game inside.  Or do I tackle that out-of-control go-cart with the wind-surfing sail attached?  Damnit, there's also some unruly skateboarders tearing up the local sidewalks!  Of course Elvira is also in town, so there's that too.  A CHiPie's job is never done…

CHiPs Sticker Cards from Donruss, 1979 (which you can see here.)

Today's waxy pop art comes from the 1985 Topps Pro Wrestling card set (which I've yet to procure any stickers for sadly.)

I wonder why the person in charge of picking the colors for this 1982 Donruss Knight Rider wax pack didn't think to switch out the red and blue of Michael's shirt and jacket to get it a bit more accurate to the show?  Anyway, I wish these cards had a sticker card subset, but alas, they didn't…

Speaking of the Orange, Blue, Yellow combo, here's a couple of other wax wrappers that hit this in a slightly different way…

Dukes of Hazzard (Donruss, 1980)

Dukes of Hazzard, Design #2 (Donruss, 1980)

In a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Goonies, today's Wax Paper Pop Art features two wrappers from the 1985 Topps bubblegum card set.

I talked about the stickers from this set here.

This week brings a slight theme, orange-yellow-blue.  Most of the bubblegum card wax wrappers I've seen have limited color palettes, between two and four colors, and a good chunk of them feature yellow and blue.  So these three really jumped out at me…  

Space: 1999 (Donruss, 1976)

Elvis (Donruss, 1978)

Three’s Company (Topps, 1978).  I talked about the stickers here.

This week's WPPA brings an anniversary of an unlikely duo, Kiss and Howard the Duck.  33 years ago this month Kiss made their very first comic book appearance in issue number 12 of Howard the Duck (published by Marvel in 1977.)  I believe the Empire Strikes Back was also released on this day 30 years ago, but c'mon, Kiss in comics people! 

Kiss (Donruss, 1978)

Howard the Duck (Topps, 1986).  I talked about the stickers here.

This week brings my favorite wax pack wrapper, the Incredible Hulk, 1979.  I love the colos, and the melting Hulk blob.  Talked about the sticker cards here...

This week, Rocky IV wrappers from 1985.  Talked about the stickers from this set here.

Love the fighting wax pack theme on these Rocky cards…

Today’s Wax Paper Pop Art is a wrapper from the 1980 Topps Weird Wheels sticker card set (discussed here.)

I’ve been thinking it might be fun to block out Fridays at Branded in the 80s for posting some of my favorite pop art, the super colorful simplified imagery of non-sport bubblegum card wax wrappers.  So for this first in a series I present the 1st five series of Garbage Pail Kids wrappers…

Series 1 1985 - (Which I've sort of talked about before here.)

All of these first five series featured Adam Bomb/Blasted Billy re-drawn by Tom Bunk…

Series 2 1985 - (Which I've talked about before here.)

Series 3 1986 - (Which I've talked about before here.)

Series 4 1986 - (Which I've talked about before here.)

Series 5 1986 - (Which I've talked about before here.)