Chips Off The Ol' Blockheads or, Here Be Monsters

Hey gang, today we take a look at the very oddball Blockheads issue that makes last week's subject, Wise Ties - a product Topps appears to have pulled or curtailed due to a perceived choking hazard - look like a national safety award winner. I've taken only the briefest of glances here at the set, which is also related to 3D Monster Posters, and therein hangs a tale (of terror).

As with the Wise Ties, Blockheads is thought to have been quicky withdrawn from the marketplace as they were intended to be opened up and used as Hallowe'en masks, like so:

While undeniably cool, you can plainly see that a safety hazard was presented by Blockheads miniscule eye slits. But here's the thing, thanks to some serious detective work by Fiend o'the Archive Lonnie Cummins, it very much seems like 3D Monster Posters, long thought to have been a reissued or reconfigured re-release of Blockheads, came first in a test format, then was changed over to a mask.

I get the distinct feeling that any safety concerns were back-burnered at Topps in favor of a set's "cool factor," which to my mind could have been somewhat related to the way they lab tested things with kids.  It's not hard to envision some young tyke holding the original test issue poster to his face and saying how neat it would be if instead it was a mask. 

Lonnie's theory is based upon disappeared or changed indicia from 3-D Monster Posters compared to Blockheads, and while I love showing that stuff, I'm limited due to some low-res images but it sure seems like a solid hypothesis. Poster first, the mask:

 

You can see how the left side of the white box is blank on the mask example, as two lines of information were apparently excised from the poster, as seen at left.  Lonnie has also found some subjects where there is just a blank area on certain Blockheads that matches were indicia would or should have been. And that fuzzy word next to the "12 " on the poster example sure looks long enough to say "poster." All of this points to 3D Monster Posters being the first issue, closely followed by Blockheads.

Here now, the boxes:

3D plus three uses suggested, nice reinforcement!  The redesign added five cents to the price and added some wonderfully gruesome artwork.  What's abundantly clear is that Topps explicitly gave instructions right on the retail box for wearing the Blockheads:

This means they changed the product from being somewhat hazardous to fully hazardous ON PURPOSE! 

That top box was courtesy of Lonnie by the way, the bottom two from another Fiend o'the Archive, Terry Gomes. The box front displayed a helpful visual checklist of all twelve subjects (more on that in a sec) while the bottom indicia rocked a 1967 commodity code.

I do not have a 3D Monster Posters box bottom to show unfortunately. On a related note, longtime Topps consultant Mark Newgarden recalls finding these at what turned out to this Brooklyn test store:

He found them well after 1967, so they languished a bit until he came along.  Now, did Mark find a Blockhead or a 3D Monster Poster?  I'm guessing both were possible (Update:5/9/25: It was masks only. Full poster indicia has yet to be sighted based upon messages I've received since this was posted). He advised there were no wrappers either, they were just loose in the box.

I originally intended for this to just be a visual checklist covering both sets (the artwork itself was never altered) but realizing I had never really addressed either in full, things kind of ballooned on me.  Yet another Friend o'the Archive, Jeff Pace, sent along this shot of all twelve images.  It's got some glare, so let's regroup below:

OK, so the artwork is all stunning, and that's even before you relaize these were designed to sell for a kid's pocket change! This was where Topps was at the time though, as they knocked out one large format set after another, particularly in the 1967-69 timeframe, all of which featured amazing illustration work.

The checklist is as follows, going left-to-right, then top-to bottom:

The Hippie

The Ape

The Giant Fly

The Pirate

The Mad Scientist

The Witch Doctor

The Martian

The Three Eyed Monster

The Bleech

The Skull

The Moon Creature

The Green Monster

Some of those names may be from old checklists and might contain too many "the's"; these are tough finds and I do not have any scans of the subject names beyond The Bleech to go with indicia-wise. Here's non-glare views of  The Mad Scientist, The Three Eyed Monster, The Bleech and The Green Monster:

He seems to be the toughest one to find, at least from what I have been able to determine but it's all relative given the scarcity of these suckers.

Topps seemed to love three-eyed monsters as several have appeared in sets over the years. Pee Wee's Playhouse had an example, two in fact, twenty-two years later:

Yecch...the Bleech!

Sorry (not sorry).  Here's the real Green Monster:

I'll conclude with something I've shown before, namely the full artwork for The Witch Doctor.  It might be the best single example of artwork I've ever seen from Topps, quite close if it isn't, as it's hard to rank the really, really top ones:

These were all created for kids to essentially destroy then toss.  How monstrously crazy!

Catchup Mashup

I haven't done a catch up post in quite some time, so if you missed short updates on prior posts, this is your day! I'll proceed chronologically...

1949 Topps Play Coins of the World

Friend o'the Archive Bill Christensen has passed along some color variations via scan:

Yellow, blue and green all seem to have lighter toned variants.  Whether this was planned or the result of die running low at the end of a "minting" is hard to day but I lean toward the latter.  I particualarly like the light blue.  Anyone else out there have some color variations they can share?

1962 Topps Hockey

I've shown this before but given recent revelations about the 1962 era aluminum plates, here is one of the color process plates in aluminum for the 1962 Football set, compared to the regular issue card:

The 1962 aluminum hockey proofs have a little bit more of an intriguing story now, thanks to Friend o'the Archive Keith Olbermann, I'll let him explain regarding these:

...[they] include the answer to one of the great riddles of Topps editorial choices. That set has 66 cards of just three NHL teams. There's a coach and at least one goalie depicted for the Bruins and the Black Hawks, but the Rangers have a card of one goalie, no coach -- and a trainer.

The trainer card, Frank Paice, always bothered me. A trainer? Instead of a coach? Well sure enough, on the aluminum and paper proofs, the explanation is presented. Paice had nothing to do with the absence of a coach card. His photo is identified as "MARCEL PAILLE - GOALIE." An understandable photo ID mistake, apparently discovered too late to do anything more about than make the card into one of Paice!"

Here is Paice the Trainer:

The 1962 backs must have been pasted up first then, I'm not sure how many guys have been called a stickboy on a hockey card but it must be in the low single digits:

1962 Topps Hockey Bucks

I find the early Topps Hockey issues fascinating as there were so many little twists and turns, a boatload of inserts and packaging oddities, all for some very short sets.  Recently an uncut strip of twelve 1962 Hockey Bucks was rung up on eBay:

If you want to know why there are so many miscut vintage Topps inserts, this is a good indicator. When I was editing the above shot, I realized the top edge was perfectly aligned horizontally.  You can see the right-tilting curl very easily in this scan.

1967 Topps Blockheads/1988 Topps Pee Wee's Playhouse

I recently linked some of the activity cards in Pee Wee's Playhouse to some earlier Topps issues and while I didn't include this in the post, I think there is a basis for comparison.  Here is one of the most gorgeous artworks from the Blockheads issue, which I have also shown before:

First of all, the idea that such an intricate painting was used to create very short run Hallowe'en issue in 1967 is mind-boggling! Really, look at this thing, it's insane! Now here is a clear derivation, although in rough form, from Pee Wee's Playhouse.  Not an exact copy but I suspect the Pee Wee's Playhouse artists were looking at some older Topps archival material, possibly unearthed as the iconic 1989 Guernsey's auction of Topps production material around the same time:

Blockheads, by the way, featured artwork from Wally Wood and Basil Wolverton of EC Comics and Mad Magazine fame, with Norm Saunders doing the finished paintings. Crazy!

You Drive Me Ape, You Big Gorilla

While I never really have my scans and notes together at the right time to do too many topical posts, today I am breaking with that scattershot approach to take another look at the fairly amazing 1967 Topps Blockheads.

As noted previously, these were a series of a dozen Hallowe'en masks that were more like hats, with a couple of slits to allow the wearer to see the outside world.  The story is that the slits were too small to be safe and the issue was pulled.  I have never been able to verify that but it does make some sense.  There could also have been a public outcry against some of the designs, which in the typical Topps fashion of the time, celebrated certain vices a bit too boisterously for some folks.

Five of the masks popped up on Ebay recently and are worth a second look. There were at least three of one of them, #11 The Ape, all of which were missing one eye-slit punchout and were described as prone to such Cyclopean behavior.  The Ape is actually too big ( 14 7/16" x 8 3/4") to fit my scanner but I have nailed the Ebay scan to show what it looks like:

These are scarce but it turns out I overpaid as a group of four popped up afterwards from a different seller and went for a song (note to self, do not cancel eBay search after winning bid):

Clockwise from top left, those are:

#2 The Pirate
#3 Mad Scientist
#7 The Hippie
#12 The Skull

Between the knife clenched in the Pirate's teeth and the cigarette dangling from the Hippie's lips, there was enough to make a lot of parents peeved. Did this kill the set?

The backs are really great and show the level of detail that Woody Gelman was driving for:

The bandaids are a nice touch! I suspect those four examples were all from a single box, which would have held eight loose Blockheads, unwrapped and without gum for 15 cents apiece.  Chris Benjamin's Price Guide to the Non-Sports Cards No. 4, has a picture of the retail box:





The set, as I have written before, was repurposed into an issue called 3D Monster Posters. Benjamin also shows that retail box in his guide:

As very little is known about that set, I have to think they were just the same ol' Blockheads, renamed, based upon the box cover artwork and lower price point.  1968 would be the logical date of issue for the "posters". The fact all 12 poses were reiussed and no variations are known, would seem to support more of a poor sales scenario than a parents protest being responsible for the scarcity of these today.

Topps issued Hallowe'en and Monster themed sets from 1959 through about 1971 on an annual basis, although some sets were reissued from year to year, probably to sell off overstock. A similar run of Valentine's Day products coincided with these dates as well.  A lot of things changed at Topps after 1971 and they may not have issued similarly-themed Hallowe'en sets again until the reintroduction of Monster Initials in 1974.

Blocked Out

I was going to do some super-snazzy stuff to celebrate my 100th post but it seemed trite after some contemplation and besides, it's way too hot today to do anything constructive. So I figured I would feature an obscure set of Hallowe'en masks produced by Topps in 1967 called Blockheads.

Being lazy and unfortunate (I don't own any examples) clearly gives me the massive justification I need to completely use scans and photos from other sources for this post.

Here is the subject entitled The Bleech, front and back from an Ebay auction a few months ago:





If you are a fan of the old EC comics, you will note the hand of Basil Wolverton. The whole set is really designed by Wolverton and Wally Wood and was primarily drawn and painted by Topps mainstay, the ridiculously talented Norm Saunders.

Here is some back detail from the same auction:





Here's how they were supposed to look when donned:



Crazy!

Chris Benjamin's Sport Americana Price Guide to the Non Sport Cards No. 4, an indispensable tome, lists the size of these as 7 1/4" x 8 5/8" but that is too small by half and must have been the folded size. Measurements from the Ebay auction indicate a width of about 14 1/2".

There is a nice Flickr page with more details here including a picture of the box and it links to the Saunders site which tells the story of how these morphed from monster masks to posters (the masks were considered too dangerous by Topps to fully release). These are rare and beautiful.

I don't want to lift too much from the Saunders site but the artwork for No. 4 Witch Doctor (by Wolverton) is too fabulous to pass up:



That is really something else!

The masks originally sold for fifteen cents. It would cost at least 1000 times that to get one now.

The Saunders site indicates these were recast as 3D Monster Posters but I can't find any information on that set at the moment, or maybe it was retitled and I'm just not picking up on it. The posters would be really tough as well.