X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

03/18/2004: New Article: Garbage Pail Kids “Tacky Snappers!”

The Garbage Pail Kids return to X-Entertainment with a review of Imperial’s GPK Tacky Snappers. What were they? I dunno…some kinda slime wands with character-shaped handles. I think. The article features a hands-on look at the beasts, plus a bonus section that rewrites an old blog entry about GPK’s assortment of “Cheap Toys & Crummy Candy.” I’ve been dying to open this stupid Tacky Snapper for like a year now. Now that I have, I’m not sure what to do with myself. Maybe I’ll take up stained glass. When you’re finished with that, feel free to go back and read my review of the unprecedented pile of torment known as Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie.

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 83 comments

First comment. Long time reader, first time achiever.

Chestnuts roasted by Billy T @ 03/18/2004 10:05 AM EST

Cool, a bombardment of new articles! Hopefully the next GI Joe installment is coming tomorrow. Those rock my socks off!

Chestnuts roasted by rizz @ 03/18/2004 10:32 AM EST

Glad I never bothered with these things. I was into Thundercats, Voltron, And of course He-man.

Chestnuts roasted by Rowan Steele @ 03/18/2004 10:32 AM EST

Nasty Nick never got any love from the GPK conglomerate business machine. For that I am sad, who else remembers what GPK cards thier name was on?

Chestnuts roasted by Toxikfoxx @ 03/18/2004 10:41 AM EST

Mad snapps.

Chestnuts roasted by Snappy McSnapper @ 03/18/2004 11:07 AM EST

They still sell these Garbage pail keychains at the dollar store in my neighbourhood, I wonder if I should pick some of them up?

Chestnuts roasted by Ryan @ 03/18/2004 11:32 AM EST

Did anyone else see the pic on the front page and think it was some disgusting fellatio cartoon at first? Please don’t tell me I’m the only one.

Chestnuts roasted by Aberration @ 03/18/2004 11:38 AM EST

Yaay, I have some of those cards… but they belonged to my sister actually.

Chestnuts roasted by Recoil (h4x.us/contradb - Contra database) @ 03/18/2004 12:03 PM EST

I remember these things. I still get splakked upside the head by one from a vending machine when one of my nephews feels the urge. I miss my old can of Slime. Review the Sime Monster board game sometime.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 03/18/2004 12:12 PM EST

I wasn’t allowed to get Garbage Pail Kids cards when I was a kid. My mom said they were disgusting.
Fortunately My cousin had boxes full of GPK cards so I got to partake in the forbidden fruit that was Garbage Pail Kids.

Chestnuts roasted by Meatwad @ 03/18/2004 12:19 PM EST

Also I should add that this is he first time I ever heard Of GPK Tacky Snappers. Never seen one before. Not even my Garbage Pail Kids Obsessed cousin had one.

Chestnuts roasted by Meatwad @ 03/18/2004 12:23 PM EST

i want to make a submarine out of them

Chestnuts roasted by Scourge @ 03/18/2004 1:04 PM EST

I dunno. The people who market GPK are sick, sick bastards.

Chestnuts roasted by Icymatt @ 03/18/2004 1:25 PM EST

I too was not allowed to have GPK. My mom thought they were a horrible thing for a growing girl to partake of. I recall secretly buying some at a yard sale that my grandma took me too, and hiding them. My mom eventually found them and threw them out….sigh.

Chestnuts roasted by B-Dawg @ 03/18/2004 1:31 PM EST

If I knew english better I would quit my job and make my own web site to be like matt.

Chestnuts roasted by fdjfghjf @ 03/18/2004 2:24 PM EST

my mother used to tell my sister and i that we were going to get "cabbage patch kids" but to my dismay she meant garbage pail kids. We’d walk down the the corner pantry and buy a pack. I’d chew the gum in digust, thinking i had been ripped off. good times.

Chestnuts roasted by James Smith @ 03/18/2004 2:44 PM EST

I never got into the whole Garbage Pail Kid thing. There wasn’t one with my name, as far as I know, so maybe that’s why I didn’t really get into them.

Chestnuts roasted by Aubrey @ 03/18/2004 3:05 PM EST

That’s what you think, kid.

Chestnuts roasted by Awful Aubrey @ 03/18/2004 3:06 PM EST

Matt’s decorating the place with decals, it looks like.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash on a puffy sticker @ 03/18/2004 3:12 PM EST

um, we go to walmart some boring weekends, buy these things out of the 50cent machine, and go around whacking the shit out of everything with them… when we are finished, we launch them on a wall, as high up as we can, so they stick there, NEVER to come down. We call this "wanger-floppering" becuase we aren’t very good at coming up with names.

Chestnuts roasted by chad @ 03/18/2004 3:39 PM EST

The most disgusting one has to be Corroded Carl. He looks all happy to be covered with open sores.
Seeing those little Garbage Pail Kids running around in a real time movie is f-ing scary. Thanks for the nightmares, Matt.
Does anyone else remember a Phil Collins music video (forget the name of the song) where there were puppets of world leaders and famous people. That used to scare the bejesus outta me when I was younger. I get the same creepy vibe off of these GBKs.

Chestnuts roasted by Never Eat Shredded Wheat @ 03/18/2004 4:07 PM EST

never had any gpk stuff not that i would remember exactly knowing my mom she wouldnt have baought them anyway:(

Chestnuts roasted by Mr.Fun @ 03/18/2004 4:11 PM EST

"Land of Confusion" by Genesis starring the Spitting Image puppets. They looked like George Woodbridge or political cartoons come to life. Creeped a lot of people out, I understand.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 03/18/2004 4:15 PM EST

Thanks KK,
I’ll be happy never to see that video again. I was only 4 or 5 when it came out, but I still remember it vividly. Damn you, Phil Collins.

Chestnuts roasted by Never Eat Shredded Wheat @ 03/18/2004 4:27 PM EST

I loved that video its one of my faves.

And I too was banned from GPK as a kid, although recently I discovered that they not only had one but two different kids with my name (Ball N Shane and Chained Shane) I made some T-shirts out of them.

Chestnuts roasted by Spiffy McKracken @ 03/18/2004 4:29 PM EST

WARNING:
Scary puppets that will haunt your nightmares for years to come (at least if you are 5 years old they will) are but a few clicks away. Click the little cube on the left to see part of the video.

http://www.genesis-web.co.uk/t...ehits/landofconfusion.html#vid

Chestnuts roasted by Never Eat Shredded Wheat @ 03/18/2004 4:33 PM EST

Don’t forget the big gay elephant from "Great Space Coaster." Not really scary, but he was wearing something from the Mrs Roper collection.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 03/18/2004 5:27 PM EST

I had bought a fry’n Brian keychain last year, but I had to get rid of it because people seemed to think a keychain with a kid being fried in an electric chair was too offensive. Sad days… IT HAD FLASHING LIGHTS FOR POOHS SAKE!

Chestnuts roasted by BettieBoo @ 03/18/2004 5:35 PM EST

I got some of the GPK keychains from Spencer Gifts one time. I just love how Adam Bomb makes that bomb dropping noise weapon-noise-making things make when you push the button.

Chestnuts roasted by Overlord @ 03/18/2004 6:32 PM EST

Was it just me or did the picture of the bug on the instruction page seem on helluva lot like Buggy Betty? Oh yeah, the GPK movie review was quite….enlightening. Do an article on C.O.P.S….please?

Adios

Chestnuts roasted by Chief Runamuk @ 03/18/2004 6:38 PM EST

Very entertaining, Matt! Now that you have no idea what you’re going to do with it, can I have it? My best friend and I invented a way to duel with sticky hands and sticky-hand-like objects, but sadly our collection is rather small at the moment. I have the rulingest sticky scorpion, though. It never gets any gunk on anything, but trust me, if it gets plastered to a wall, you are going to have a heckuva time trying to pry it off.

Chestnuts roasted by Freezair @ 03/18/2004 6:45 PM EST

Shows from "The Third Eye" on early Nickelodeon are for sale on DVD from a collector on Ebay. The shows are "Into the Labyrinth," "Children of the Stones," "The Haunting of Cassie Palmer," and "Under The Mountain."

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayIS...ce=-1&sort=3&rows=50
http://www.johnsrealmonline.co...classicnick/thirdeye/main.html

There is an offical Region 2 DVD release of "Children of the Stones" for those in the UK or with PAL/all region DVD players.

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 03/18/2004 7:10 PM EST

I had read somewhere that the first re-release set of GPK’s went through 4 printings which is unheard of now a days. I also read that comic shops would get one weeks head start to sell series 2 before places like Wal-mart got theirs in.

Chestnuts roasted by Kennef @ 03/18/2004 7:20 PM EST

valerie vomit

Chestnuts roasted by valarie @ 03/18/2004 8:06 PM EST

I collected GPK.
They were like Wacky Cards, I still have an entire collection of Wacky Cares at my moms house.

They were stickers though and it was making fum of actual products instead of kids.

http://www.sajha.com/sajha/htm...fm?forum=52&ThreadID=6022

The gum was better too if I recal
Mmm.. now I have to go down to the store and buy some Bazooka Joe!
Thanks alot Matt

Chestnuts roasted by Cyanyde @ 03/18/2004 8:11 PM EST

you bastard! i was going to review a related subject…same thing, sticky ruber but not garbage pail kids. great review mista!

Chestnuts roasted by nelson @ 03/18/2004 9:14 PM EST

You have the panda bear from Shirt Tails in the pciture with the Garbage Pail Kid and the other toys- at least, I think that’s what the show was called. Does anyone else remember it?

Chestnuts roasted by Cait @ 03/18/2004 11:06 PM EST

What are Smarties like in the USA? Same as here in Canada? To me, Smarties means chocolate…

Chestnuts roasted by jjgoreha @ 03/18/2004 11:14 PM EST

Aberration, yeah, you’re so not the only one who thought that picture was dirty at first. I did a total double take. Then I thought the kid was eating a worm until I read the review.

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 03/19/2004 1:25 AM EST

The "Join Us" scene has convinced me that cheap plastic toys rule.

Chestnuts roasted by Hope @ 03/19/2004 6:08 AM EST

Actually, the toys are nothing without the genius that is Matt. It is he who ruleth.

Chestnuts roasted by Hope @ 03/19/2004 6:09 AM EST

My favorite Wacky Packages sticker was Bear Aspirin- For Grizzly Headaches. Second was Rabid Shave.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 03/19/2004 11:37 AM EST

Damn, Now I’ll have to get my Wacky Cards sent up here to Ontario so I can review them.. Or better yet, I’ll send them to Matt and let the master do it.

Chestnuts roasted by Cyanyde @ 03/19/2004 12:29 PM EST

nah, over here smarties are more like spree or bottlecaps, if i remember.

Chestnuts roasted by ArmageddonMan @ 03/19/2004 12:37 PM EST

OT - was there ever an explanation for the creepy drawing from blog entry "SCRJS"?

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 03/19/2004 1:04 PM EST

Are the "Wacky Cards" people are referring to from old issues of Mad Magazine? With parodies of Morton’s Salt and whatnot? I heard somewhere that in good condition those are worth a ton of money (because of copyright stuff), but I just checked ebay and they don’t really seem to be big ticket items, so maybe you need to have the really old ones.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 03/19/2004 2:55 PM EST

somewhat related: remember pogs? I had some that were a "roadkill cafe" series with splattered animals with cheesy names. very similar to GPK but with animals on pogs instead of kids on cards.

Atkins update: 35 pounds lost since jan 1 2004.

In less than 24 hours i will be taking my driving test. I better pass. I want my license before i turn 20 at the end of the month! XD

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 03/19/2004 3:28 PM EST

I liked GPK, but I think my brother, sister and I all liked Grossville High cards even better. Kinda like GPK, but with the added bonus of having the school’s roach mascot hidden on every card, kinda like "Where’s Waldo" but more disgusting. And the characters on the cards were high school age instead of young ‘ens.

Chestnuts roasted by I like the tin man @ 03/19/2004 3:43 PM EST

I can’t remember the name of these, can anyone help?

It was a small "book" of tear-out trading cards, some kind of gross football players or something. I used to pick ‘em up at book fairs in grade school.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 03/19/2004 3:47 PM EST

In the picture of the targets, why has the name of the ‘caveman’ character (first row, third column) been edited out? Is his name "Mesozoic Matt" or something?

Chestnuts roasted by G'Tron @ 03/19/2004 4:59 PM EST

Scroll to the bottom for Lego Thriller:
http://www.legogoestohollywood.de/filme/thriller/mjt.html

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 03/19/2004 5:02 PM EST

The only thing creepy about Phil Collins was his whole ‘Testify’ album… and the cover to his 1985 classic ‘No Jacket Required’. NJR’s cover art makes Phil look like some kind of holiday lightbulb.

Anyway, I hated these tacky snappers as a kid. Other children would have them and the snappers looked so revolting that they’d literally make me vomit

Chestnuts roasted by AngeFaitore @ 03/19/2004 8:00 PM EST

Hey, the "Land of Confusion" video kicked ass! How can one forget Ronald Regan as Superman? I also remember a "Spitting Image" special called "The Ronnie and Nancy Show" way back when…sort of along the lines of "That’s my Bush" but much better. Speaking of GPK, does anyone remember the GPK-like cards with dinosaurs? They were basically cartoon cards of dinosaurs mutilating humans….most of ‘em made the GPKs look tame.

Chestnuts roasted by The Dragon @ 03/19/2004 10:13 PM EST

this is sort of off topic but today I saw a boy in my class with a rock pencil! And he had taken good care of it too because the rocks were still inside and the pencil was sharpened almost up to the rock part. I was going to ask him where he got it but he usually fallls asleep during class anyway.

Chestnuts roasted by pikachulover @ 03/19/2004 10:46 PM EST

To Awful Aubrey: You got a picture of the Aubrey card? I can’t find anything on the Internet.

Chestnuts roasted by Aubrey @ 03/20/2004 1:02 AM EST

Land of Confusion=Teh awesome. It IS creepy, yet very funny and stylish at the same time.

Chestnuts roasted by Behonkiss @ 03/20/2004 8:49 AM EST

ALF POGS are real!!!

Chestnuts roasted by hwthwt @ 03/20/2004 12:54 PM EST

Phil is what Charlie Brown looks like all grown up.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 03/20/2004 2:20 PM EST

Hey, Matt. Tech question. What do you use to get images off of video? Snappy?

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 03/20/2004 5:17 PM EST

Squee - there was an original release of Wacky Pack stickers back in the 70’s, and then they were re-done as Wacky Packages in the mid 80’s. The ones from the 80’s are practically worthless, but there are a few from the 70’s collection that can fetch a decent price, for a cheap little sticker.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...m=3281497918&category=219

Chestnuts roasted by beSharp @ 03/20/2004 9:34 PM EST

Oh, and I was a *huge* fan of Spitting Image when I was younger. The Ron & Nancy show was great! Though there was probably some more subtle humor and political satire that was going on in it that I was too young to understand.

The 80’s had it going on with creative puppetry. One complaint I have of the take-over of digital animation is the loss of really good puppetry.

Chestnuts roasted by beSharp @ 03/20/2004 9:40 PM EST

Woohoo! So I think it has been previously mentioned, but whatever I’m excited. Seasons 1 and 2 of Jem are being released on DVD! Yay! They come out on March 30th. AND Freaks and Geeks (not 80s, but still a great show) somes out on DVD on April 6th. I’m not leaving my TV for awhile…

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 03/21/2004 2:09 PM EST

Creepy Robot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3521852.stm

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 03/21/2004 3:01 PM EST

The Happy Meal turned 25 on Friday:
http://www.ncbuy.com/news/2004-03-19/1009177.html

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 03/21/2004 3:05 PM EST

Hello all,

This is my first post ever and wouldn’t you know it, it is completely and utterly off-topic.
Up here in Canada, we have a channel called Drive-In Classics and right now, they’re showing "The Devil’s Rain" starring William Shatner (a good Canadian boy) and Ernest Borgnine.
I agree that it sucks so bad it could suffocate everyone in the room. Just thought I’d get that off my chest.
X-E is one of my favourite (Canadian spelling) sites.
Talk to you later,
XP

Chestnuts roasted by Smeged @ 03/21/2004 5:30 PM EST

I was obsessed with GPK when I was a kid, amassing several shoeboxes worth of GPK cards. But I never saw the GPK Slime things. I want one.

Chestnuts roasted by Jeremiah @ 03/21/2004 5:54 PM EST

Smeged Have you ever read Matt’s review of "The Devil’s Rain"? It’s here, somewhere. Also, did you know that the mask William Shatner wore at the end was the mask Michael Myers wore in the "Halloween" movies? I learned that here, too. See, X-E increases your intelligence.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 03/21/2004 6:45 PM EST

You know what woulda ruled? A GPK NES game. It’d be so rad if you had a wide selection of GPKs to play as too, each with their own special abilities (of course, the NES DID have its limitations). I don’t know what you’d do as far as villains go. I guess the enemies could be cleaning products, medication, or surgical tools, all of which are out to make the GPKs normal again. Hmmm…if only I knew how to do ROM hacking.

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 03/21/2004 8:04 PM EST

I still have a whole box of GPK stuff, including a few of the candy included figures and most of the GIANT GPK cards.

Chestnuts roasted by FuguDeth @ 03/22/2004 7:35 AM EST

I still have a whole box of GPK stuff, including a few of the candy included figures and most of the GIANT GPK cards.

Chestnuts roasted by FuguDeth @ 03/22/2004 7:37 AM EST

I had a couple of these when I was a kid. They always ended up breaking right next to the handle though. Finally my mom said no more, and would only buy me the cheap hands from the vending machines. Then she wouldn’t get those for me anymore because I would constantly smack my little sister in the face with them. Heh, heh, heh, that was hilarious.

Chestnuts roasted by Beerstalker @ 03/23/2004 10:03 AM EST

Im a LTRFTP (thats a long time reader first time poster for those who arent good with acronyms). But um…yeah..in the mini figures pic i believe that was a Fruity Pebbles Fred Flinstone eraser…..i had like a bajillion of those. Sweet memories..im gonna go cry now.

Chestnuts roasted by Chris @ 03/24/2004 2:41 PM EST

I’m still kicking myself… I went to Italy when I was eight years old, and I found ITALIAN Garbage Pail Kids, and lost them. The only one I remember is Romeo Video. It was a kid playing a video game on a face that was a tv screen. This goes right along with my finding "Stooge" one of the McDonald’s Dick Tracy sweepstakes (where you peel a little sticker off of french fries, it was worth over $1000. Oh well…

Chestnuts roasted by Joe @ 03/25/2004 5:55 AM EST

smarties are basically the same as m & m’s. that first pic (as Aberration noted), looks like oral sex…

Chestnuts roasted by Rachel Cakes @ 03/27/2004 2:37 AM EST

I loved Garbage Pail Kids… acutally I still do.. I have a few complete series.

And I also remember the cards with dinosaurs mutilalting humans. Thoes were classic. I didn’t even remember them until someone brought them up. My brother and I collected them. My mom was the coolest, she didn’t care about cards.

Chestnuts roasted by Kristina @ 04/03/2004 2:52 PM EST

ok most of the time im all up 4 gross and nastie but this i mean what the freack is this i dissagree

Chestnuts roasted by madison @ 04/08/2004 8:50 PM EDT

Ilove collecting garbagepailkids card there cool

Chestnuts roasted by katence @ 04/08/2004 10:51 PM EDT

Ilove collecting garbagepailkids card there cool

Chestnuts roasted by katence @ 04/08/2004 10:51 PM EDT

Ilove collecting garbagepailkids card there cool

Chestnuts roasted by katence @ 04/08/2004 10:51 PM EDT

THANK GOD someone had the brains to bring these back….. everyone missed them so much and were the topic of reminicing conversations….WHOEVER did not like them were proberly just dorks to begin with who had no style!!! Thank you 4 bring then BACK!!!

Chestnuts roasted by Mel @ 04/09/2004 1:45 PM EDT

Yo, I had those garbage bags of GPK candy; we have two figures, and my parents took them and put them in on this frame of collectables on our wall.

We had every product. The cards, we had cards from every series, never a whole collection. We had the large prints, the puffy stickers, and the candy.

Chestnuts roasted by JoshJ @ 04/09/2004 6:34 PM EDT

Dude check this shit.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...#038;rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Chestnuts roasted by Handy Randy @ 09/30/2004 3:31 PM EDT

would love to Find and make LOVE to Debbie that went to Issaquah high school let people know that Patty has
A Hot Butt. would enjoy getting E–mail from Anyone who
just wants to chat
watchingtrains@yahoo.com

Chestnuts roasted by The one who loves Pam Anderson @ 10/31/2004 2:33 PM EST

Add A New Comment!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2004 at 10:04 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.