Where The Flying Things Are

If you are a fan of confusion, this post is for you!

Over a roughly ten year period from 1966-75, Topps distributed a series of user-assembled styrofoam gliders called Flying Things.  I touched on them briefly back in 2013 but I've been researching them lately, along with the related Fighter Planes and Marvel Flyers sets.

Flying Things saw multiple releases over this span, while  Fighter Planes was issued twice and Marvel Flyers once. I'll leave the latter two for a later post and will probably have a Flying Things followup as well as this post will be all about the wrappers. I'll try to put things in chronological order but as we'll see, it's difficult to do so with precision.

The first Flying Things issue was released in the spring of 1966. The first wrapper, provided here by Friend o'the Archive Terry Gomes, was a doozy:

The Flying Skeleton would have been instantly appealing to a little boy in the mid 60's.  I was one of those boys but for the life of me cannot recall ever seeing a Flying Thing anywhere. I have zero memory of these as a kid.

The back is handy as it has a visual checklist:

Those are the original 12 Flying Things. The indicia is interesting (I always find indicia interesting):

The Things were made in Japan and Topps is listed as distributor, which is something not often encountered.  This may mean they licensed Flying Things from a third party, something I am working on determining.  Given the curved Topps logo and Brooklyn address this can be pinned to an early 1966 to mid 1969 time frame, although as we will see below there is now an anomaly to this theorem.

Sales were robust enough to warrant a second series (and then some) as these scans from Mr. Gomes demonstrate:

A whopping 24 Flying Things were available in series two:

No change to the indicia, although .the assembly instructions have gone to a more graphical look. I suspect the first series came out in 1966 and the second in 1967 but there are no production codes to go by.

Next up, I think, is the 1970 series, courtesy of Wax Pack Dude.  These are bedecked with a contest to create a Flying Thing on the wrapper and give us a September 30, 1970 deadline for entries:

The back is lacking a checklist unfortunately,which indicates  a rehash of subjects but the contest prizes look to be taken from the gift catalog ballplayers and wholesalers and retailers got to choose from with their various certificates and contractual payment clauses:

The indicia has moved us to Duryea but it's still a distribution deal for Topps:

Made in Japan of course! Here's a look at the box and some packs:

A second series of this run of Things was issued in 1971 and we get a few more hints, once again courtesy of Mr. Wax Pack Dude:

That Flying Bathtub just screams classic Topps design to me.  The back is where it's at:

That looks like a mix of old and new designs to me.  The indicia tells the tale, as always:

It's a little hard to make out but there is a product code that reads: 453-55-1, which puts us in 1971. And, if you are really eagle-eyed, you will note the address is back to Brooklyn, two years after they had made the changeover to Duryea.  I'm not sure why this is; it may have to do with which corporate entity was importing these from Japan. But wait, there's more!

A 15 cent pack with the same product code also exists, identical in every way except for price and the massive, missing "New Series" banner:

Part of the product code (the part after the 3 digit product prefix) refers to the packaging configuration I think, either the box or case for these was likely different than with the 10 cent version.  But wait, there's still more:

Things got all purply in 1971 as well:

That;s the same graphic but the Topps logo got moved to the right and a line about the contents was added (CONTENTS: ONE FLYING THING).  Maybe someone thought there was more than one Flying Thing in each pack and complained?

The back is the same as the orange with one very small exception:

Again, it's tiny but the product code has changed to 453-06-1 from 453-55-1 on the orange wrapper.

Now we get to a couple of test packs, also from Terry Gomes.  They are like so:

Right away it's clear this is a different beast.  The manufacturing was done in the U.S.A., there is a test code on the front and no price.  We also have CONTENTS: ONE FLYING THING shown. The back only has six in the checklist, not twelve, which is often hallmark of a test issue (a truncated number of subjects when compared to the retail release): 

You can see it's a Duryea copyright, although it still says "Distributors".  I'll get to potential dating momentarily as there another test wrapper item as well:

Same as the first test wrapper but this is a header card and has a different test suffix. As Terry explains it:

The test pack was a vertically-aligned cello bag and I believe it was intended to be displayed using a J-hook. It has a test code as shown below. I suspect that there is also T-42A out there as well. As you can see, they only started with 6 titles before moving to 12 when the first series was put into production. In addition, the nose clip on the test bag "Thing" was made of METAL and not plastic like all the other series. 

I grew up in Toronto and did buy some of these around 1970-71 but they were not manufactured by O-Pee-Chee. I believe the ones distributed in Canada simply reused the Topps packaging.

The timing of the test is odd, since the series had obviously sold well previously but a metal nose clip in the early 70's is about five years after they went with plastic for the retail releases. It's a bit of a mystery. And as we see above, there is indeed a T42A out there. Still, the graphics match up with the 1970 Flying Hot Dog Wrapper above so it likely was a test before they released Flying Things again.

We're not quite done though.  The cello bag test of 42B may have led to the 1975 issue which was all cello, as per Wax Pack Dude::

Notice there is no price?  The back is like this:

Most of the names have been truncated from the earlier releases but at least we are back in Duryea (and made in the U.S.A.) but still Topps is the distributor. Curiouser and curiouser.

More to come on these.....

Pee Wee's Madhouse

As many of you know, I like to keep most matters on the blog to 1980 and before.  However, there are times when something is interesting enough that I will break through this cardboard ceiling and "go recent".  This is one of those times.

In 1988 Topps came up with one of the most innovative sets they ever produced, right up there with Pak O'Fun and Laugh-In. Pee Wee's Playhouse must have been a risk as the show was mid-run in 1988 but that did not stop the creative team from going bonkers. The full checklist is a doozy and takes a bit of concentration to determine; certainly many eBay sellers have no idea how full "full" really is but no matter.

There are 33 "regular" standard-sized cards, all numbered on the front, with full bleed borders; this is just the start of a condition sensitivity nightmare, compounded with a variations hangover:

According to Jeff Allender's House of Checklists (an invaluable site) there are two backs to these cards but that's not where the variations come in (hang tight, we'll get to them). They all have illustrated backs, which can best be described as either "non-puzzle" or "puzzle". Here is a "non" that also pokes fun and pays homage to Bazooka Joe. The colors on the other backs are in alignment, so I think this mish-mosh was done on purpose to skewer the propensity of the actual comics to be out of registration (look at the blues as they are "off left" in panel one, then "off right" in panel two, a sign of intent I think):

There are 15 "nons" and 18 "puzzle" backs. Here is one of the latter:

There are some crazy designs on this set, which mirror those of the show.  I am not sure if he was in charge but an artist, puppet master and set designer named Wayne White had something to do with the quirky look of the show and presumably the design of the cards.

OK, now the variations (part 1)-from what I can find, these involve the borders on the front of the card, specifically the backgrounds thereon.  I only have a run of 33 so I don't know what each variant is; even if I did, how would I describe it?!

Next up are the stickers, printed on card stock, also standard-sized....and confusing.  While there are 44 stickers, there are only 22 subjects as each front repeats exactly (and exactly) once...and then it gets weird (more in a sec on that). Dig those copyright disclaimers!

The lovely Miss Yvonne, the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppet Land is not actually #3, that is merely her sub-series number; a total of six represent various characters . Another sub-series is the multi-sticker, of which there are eight:

And my favorite, a partial reissue (there are eight) of 1967 Nutty Initials! Is this set nuts or what?!

Her overall number in the sticker set in this instance is #10.  She is also #9 but no matter what number is on the back, she is always #3 on the front; I suspect because there were two flip movies on each sticker back that Topps felt justified handing out the repeats.  It's a little hard to tell because none of the subset numbering is in order.  It's also hard to tell because  the final four stickers contain one of four checklists, each of which has checklist sub-series numbering on the back (but no overall numbering).

So 20 repeated subjects plus four non-repeaters on the checklists. Have you ever seen so many different ways to destroy bubble gum cards?  And we're not even getting halfway through all the subsets yet.

I'll give you all a breather here as we look at the Wiggle Toys, which are just small (1 3/4" x 2") lenticular cards, twelve in number.  I guess since the images moved, there was no need for further variation!

The tattoo sheets are even more placid.  There are twelve, each with similar arrays and they measure 3 3/16" x 5 1/4":

OK break's over!  Rounding out the set and staying large at 3 3/16" x 5 1/4" are a number of Activity Cards.  There are five sub-series of these. Five Puppet Cards, for fingers (mostly) and nose:

Sub-series number and indicia on the front, only more yuks on the back:

Then there are five Opening Doors cards, which borrowed from 1970 Topps Funny Doors, although they are not an exact limn. Same as the last sub-series in respect of numbering:

Next up are four "flying things" although they are not at all like their namesakes. Sub-series numbering only once again...whose idea was it to mar the fronts with all that tiny print?

You want Playhouse Foldies?  You got 'em, five of 'em, hearkening back to almost the very beginning of Topps:

And last but certainly not least, there are three Disguise cards...except there are actually six.  Three different front designs:

Quite the homage to the 1967 and '70 Disgusting Disguises, the Get Smart Secret Agent kits and the like, no? There are said to be mirror images of each Disguise but I can't find any scans to show this (I am still putting my own set together and have gaps).

As you can imagine, the packs were elongated to allow for the larger objects:

 Pretty good haul for one pack. I guess one final homage to Fun Packs was in order!

What then is our final tally? Lessee...

33 regular cards plus 33 variations
44 stickers
12 wigglers
12 tattoos
 5 puppets
 5 doors
 4 flying things
 5 foldies
 3 disguises plus 3 variations

Some folks just collect the 12 sticker fronts but that's Nowheresville man so I make it 123 for something akin to a complete set, plus another 36 if you count variations, or 159 in a master set.

Whew!

Field Guide To Dating Topps Wrappers

One of the things that drives me batty about eBay is the fact so many items are incorrectly described and dated. Sometimes this is intentional but often it is not and merely results from a lack of understanding on the part of the seller.  Misdating happens with third party graders and in catalog auctions as well but it's especially prevalent on eBay and sometimes there is not enough in the descriptions or scans to figure out what you are looking at.  So I thought a little guide to various identifiers on many Topps wrappers might be helpful. This post mostly covers wax wrappers post 1956 but some of the graphic elements discussed below can be found on Cello and Rak Paks in many instances.

GIANT SIZE ERA AND EARLIER 

Some very early Topps wrappers (and a number of retail box bottoms) carry a date and some do not; generally the earliest gum tab packs and five cent packs that held panelized issues such as Magic Photo and Fightin' Marines from 1950-52 carry a copyright date.  Here is a five cent Magic Photo pack back with a 1948 copyright in the lower right corner, courtesy of Friend o'the Archive Al Richter:

Given that there are not many wrappers from this era that can't be identified by date just from their look (and general hobby references) and the small amount of reissued sets, there's not much I can say that is helpful.  I know that sounds like a copout but it's the truth!  Still, there are some things worth knowing.

Differences in the three earliest Tatoo issues (1948, 1949, 1953) can be seen in detail here. The 1948 and 1949 series of Magic Photo each have dated penny wrappers and the 1955 penny (small) Hocus Focus cards come in a similar wrapper but carry a 1955 date. Some more on that can be found here. 1949 and 1955 Funny Foldees could have different packaging but nobody knows which is which or even if there is a difference.

The one issue that most collectors don't realize as misdated is the Doubles reissue of the 1951 Red Backs and Blue Backs, which came out in 1952.  The Doubles packs had two cards and no candy, while the original issues came in in 1951 under the Baseball Candy rubric.  No change in the cards was made but the packaging was different. Here, take a look at this Doubles box bottom showing a 1952 copyright:

There possibly was a Golden Coin reissue in 1952 (originally a 1948-49 release) that may be worth knowing about as the different Golden Coins between the two sets could exhibit some slight differences. The problem is no 1952 issue of the set has been confirmed, although it is highly likely it occurred. More information is here as to why.

World on Wheels has wrappers that reference either 1954 or 1955, the latter containing the higher (and more valuable) numbers. Have a look here.

STANDARD SIZE ERA

Topps went to a standard size of 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" for most of their releases starting with Elvis Presley in late 1956.  Dating some issues by the wrapper can be tough but for most it's not a problem as the year and cards are well known. Wrappers from 1957 to mid 1958 can be identified by two different methods.

If there is a Bazooka ad and penny piece graphic on the wrapper,the upper left red triangle of the Bazooka pack will state "The Atom" on these packs.  "The Atom" phrasing was part of the Bazooka launch in 1947 so it had a long life! From mid-1958 on Bazooka graphics will state "Topps" in the upper left triangle. Here is a Space Cards wrapper from '57 followed by a Target: Moon wrapper proof from what I now believe to be 1958 showing the different Bazooka packaging:

Here are the two Bazooka graphics, isolated:

If it's a Blony ad (a brand Topps acquired with the Bowman purchase in February 1956 and which dates back to 1930), graphics from sometime in 1957 onward have a rainbow look to them:

.

Blony would go dormant (or very, very quiet for a time) until being revived as a twist wrap product around 1968 but it was not the well-marketed product that Bazooka was.  Bowman had also marketed Blony as a twist but in more of an elongated shape (Topps' had a rounder look to theirs).

For Baseball from 1952-55 Topps did a slight modification of the font for their brand name and briefly had a premium offer on the wrapper in '52:

But by the time Baseball and All American Football arrived in '55, the logo was a blast from the past, mimicing the designs of the 30's and 40's:

Yes, that's a Canadian All-American Football wrapper!

1957 brought changes to Baseball yet again as this scan from www.sportscardradio.com shows the font losing some of it's earlier pizazz:
:

This Topps logo will appear on some but not all pack fronts from 1957 on but it morphed into something less appealing in 1958.  This 1958 and forward logo is very plain looking and is just the word "Topps" in all capital letters. Baseball and Football display this bland "Post-Sputnik" logo almost without fail but Non Sports wrappers often do not, either because licensing information appears or a controversial set might have used the Bubbles, Inc. name instead. And sometimes Topps wanted to advertise Bazooka or Blony and did not use a Topps logo (no idea why as this seems backwards). So some wrappers have no pertinent graphics on the front and the side panel must be examined for clues. Here is the "bland" logo on a 1960 Football pack:

Side panels will have the Topps (or Bubbles Inc.) address displayed in almost all instances and prior to mid-1963 ZIP codes were not used (they were introduced on July 1 of that year).  Some address lines might display the old "Brooklyn 32" style (almost all do not but I haven't seen all of them) but if there is a premium offer you will see it in the relevant text.

The 1957 and 1958 styles would be mixed and matched through the early and mid 60's Here is a 1963 Baseball wrapper that goes back to the '57 design (tight loops on the p's are the giveaway):

In this detail of the indicia, you will see there is no postal or ZIP code:

It;s a little harder to see but the premium offer on the opposite flap has a "B'klyn 32" address:

It is worth noting many (but not all) retail box bottoms from this era are dated and have similar designations as well.  The '63 Baseball box clearly shows "Brooklyn 32":

However, the use of "32" on some premium offers went well into 1965 so while a ZIP code is definitely post-1963, a two digit code is not always pre-1963! Still, as there are not too many reissues or anomalies prior to 1966, looking for the plain Topps logos will usually be enough to see what's what.

Penny packs of 1965 Baseball were produced but by the time Football came out, the practice had ended, so you can't have a one cent pack any later than 1965, except for penny tattoo issues, which were much smaller in size at this time anyway than the standard sized issues..

In 1966, roughly coincident with their move of confectionery production, packaging and warehousing facilities from Brooklyn to Duryea, Pennsylvania, Topps created a new, lower case curved "Topps" logo that was the most well known version.  1966 Baseball, the first card/gum set produced in Duryea had this new logo, although the Topps manufacturing address on the packaging would remain as Brooklyn until about the middle of 1969.

The Baseball wrapper in '66 has a weird perspective, so here's a Football that shows off the new design:

This closeup gives a really good look at the logo:

The Duryea move also brought about production codes,which helped the Topps brass back in Brooklyn keep track of each set or product being manufactured.  The majority of these codes will have the last digit representing the year of production (it is a single digit, not a double so one ending in 7 would mean 1967 on a  five cent pack).  These were not applied to all materials originally but by 1968 virtually all packs and retail boxes, not to mention other packaging, had a code.  Most times these were nine digits, with four dashes separating various groupings of numbers, all of which had meaning to Topps.  Even this scarce Baseball Plaks wrapper form 1967 (not 1968, check the last digit) has the code in the lower right corner which reads 0-490-94-01-7. Most card packaging from this time has a code starting with a zero while some non-confectionery products such as Flying Things or other more toy-like issues would use a different style of production code.

The box bottom for the packs has a little different code but the link is the 490 product code.  It starts with 1, meaning wax box I believe.  I am still trying to determine if the toys produced in Japan such as Pop Guns had their own system, so stay tuned.The full box code below for Baseball Plaks is 1-490-35-01-7:

The original curved Topps logo started out with no Trademark Registration symbol but it would show up by 1967, below and to the right of the logo normally but it was still a nickel per pack:

It's hard to make out but the registered trademark sign is below and to the right of the Topps logo.

It would move sometimes to above and to the right of the logo as on this 1970 Super Football wrapper: 

Topps filed for their new trademark on March 17, 1966 and it was "published for opposition" on March 7, 1967 with an official registration date of May 23, 1967. Topps probably banked on there being no opposition and started using it immediately on their best selling product.  Some 1967 issues have the symbol and some don't so it was a transition year.  

Five cent wax continued to be produced until late 1969 when ten cent pricing became the norm. (EDIT 7/2/16-I should have stated that certain card and sticker and sets, such as Wacky Packages and Ugly Stickers, would still be sold in 5 cent wax through at least 1976; these would often only have two stickers per pack. Some other offbeat items may also have been sold in five cent packs into the 1970's but for the most part ten cent wax was the norm from 1970 until prices went up again.). Many packs of the period have no pricing on them though, as it was shown on the retail box. Also, in mid 1969 (first on an experimental ten cent cello Baseball pack that mimicked the five cent wax) the manufacturing address finally flipped to Duryea but the changeover was sporadic during this year. By the time Football appeared in the fall, 10 cents and Duryea were the norm:

Then around 1978 Topps would occasionally add a little box around the logo, sometimes with color added, sometimes not:

The curved logo would survive until 1980-81 before it was replaced with this:

1981 Topps Baseball was the first packaging to use this new logo I believe but some products in '81 still had the curved one.

Another handy thing to know was where the premium fulfillment warehouses were located. Exterior premium offers began reappearing sporadically in 1959 after a hiatus, prior to that they had been mostly printed on pack inserts.  On '59 Baseball pack and for a few years hence on many products, the address is one of a number of PO Boxes in Brooklyn:

Depending upon what was being ordered, some differing addresses can appear but most premiums of the era were ordered from Brooklyn. Not all offers had expiration dates though. Then in 1965 St. Paul, Minn. started appearing in the premium offers, as this Beatles Color Photos wrapper shows:

But you could still get premiums from Brooklyn at this time; it seemed to depend upon the age of the premium. Older ones came out of Brooklyn while newer ones, such as the famous Exploding Battleship, came from Minnesota. Once Topps got production up and running in Duryea though and shed a lot of their Brooklyn warehouse space, St. Paul became the norm around 1967. By this time the premium fulfillment was likely exclusively contracted to third parties.

Occasionally some special offer would be struck by Topps and a random city would pop up but St. Paul would last until about 1973-74, when Westbury, NY began appearing as the mailing address (and which operation was, unbeknownst to me at the time, housed in an industrial area mere blocks from my childhood home).  You can see it on this 1974 Wacky Packages wrapper:

Westbury would remain through the end of the decade and beyond. I'll stop here as post-1981 packaging is well-documented elsewhere and my focus also ends at the end of the 70's.

As always with Topps, there are exceptions to the rule but what I have outlined above is a handy, quick guide to identifying issues where you can't fully inspect the packaging up close or only a part is visible.  At some point I will delve into the intricacies of the Production Codes but that is a truly epic project. Meanwhile, know that you can use the code (geez, I sound like Dexter Morgan) for dating --as long as it's visible-- to easily decipher Topps dates in addition to the less obvious clues on the wrappers.