FUN FACTS & TIDBITS

1. The Feb/Mar 2011 (Vol 22, No. 1) issue of Non-Sport Update showcases a "New & Noteworthy" article about the GPK FB2 set and portrays a base mock-up card of "MASON Mace" that is Incorrectly Spelled as "MAYSON Mace" (not listed on preliminary checklist -- does NOT show up in published set); the "Departments" section at the beginning of the publication shows a base mock-up Where Are They Now? card of "Jolly ROGER" that is misspelled as "Jolly RODGER" -- this has been fixed for the release.

2. The first 3-D Trading Cards for the GPK set are a step above the previous hologram motion cards. A total of five 3-D cards can be found for the set; the cards can be found 1 out of every 12 packs at random, but the ADAM Bomb 3-D card can only be found 1 out of every 85 packs.

3. The set also features Four Levels Of Parallels to collect that mirrors the yellow 8-bit borders of the 160 base card set. These chase card parallel sets can be found in either a 'green gross' border card inserted 1 out of every 2 packs, a 'punk pink' border inserted 1:3 packs, a silver border card inserted 1 out of every 6 packs or a gold border set inserted 1:62 packs. The ADAM Mania Level Of Parallels is a bit rarer as follows: green 1:24 packs, pink 1:48 packs, silver 1:96 packs, and gold 1:993 packs. For each different parallel, the color of the border, logo background and name bar are always the same.

4. The set contains several Missing grammatical Marks from the previous editions; card 28b "No Way JOSE" is missing the accent mark, cards 78a "Barfin BARBRA" and B2 "Vermin HERMAN" are missing their apostrophes, and 80a "Half NELSON" is missing it's hyphen.

5. This same-color 8-bit border phenomenon can also be found for the White-Bordered Bonus Cards; although the first Flashback series also contained four bonus cards with original 10th series characters, the cards came in the same yellow-checkerboard as the base cards -- so this is a first for the Flashback sets, a white header with a white nameplate. Another 80 white-bordered, 8-bit border cards can be located; all 80 "a" base cards produced for the specialty market (Dollar Store) were erroneously manufactured with the same white borders instead of the yellow border. These cards can be found within the 4-card packs.


6. The Poor QA Award goes to cards 14a and 14b which have the correct name bars of "Sewer SUE" and "MICHELLE Muck" (OS2 cards 79a and 79b), corresponding with the preliminary checklist, but unfortunately portray the OS2 characters for "Off-The-Wall PAUL" and "ZACH Plaque" (cards 75a and 75b); which numerically the cards would have fallen next to each other within the Flashback series if it was kept within the set.

7. The Prestigious GPK Flashback Award goes to character cards "Dangling DOLLY" and "Surreal NEAL" which can both be found as base card twins in the original Flashback set (numbers 38a and 38b) as well as in the Flashback 2 set (numbers 33a and 33b).


8. Due to the Where Are They Now? subset and various series sets there are several cards with the Exact Same Names or same first names; Cards 9a "Smelly KELLY" and 20b "Jelly KELLY"; 18b "Picky MICKEY", 27a "Yicchy MICKEY" and 43a "MICKEY Mouths"; cards 1a "Junkfood JOHN" and 40a "JOHN John"; 7b "TOMMY Tomb" and 55b "TOMMY Ache"; cards 7a "Wrappin' RUTH" and 56b "RUTH Canal"; cards 3a "Weird WENDY" and 57b "Waxy WENDY"; 29a "DEE Faced" and 63a "3-DEE"; cards 60b "AL Catraz" and 64a "Dent AL"; 13b and 73b "Pegleg PETER" and 68b "PETER Meter"; and cards 13a and 73a "Jolly ROGER".

9. The newly introduced Shaped Sketch Cards, a rare and exclusive sketch card for the hobby release, is the head and cloud outline of the main GPK mascot ADAM Bomb character. Original series artwork by John Pound is found on the backside along with the signature spot (see below); and the frontside is blank for the sketch area. Artwork for these cards was exclusivly done by non-GPK artists who work out of the 1988 Gallery in California and who had thrown a throwback 80's art exhibit and were chosen by Topps to complete additional sketch cards for the release. Perhaps to help meet the supply and demand for sketch cards since the Flashback 1 series came up shy. Five artists from Gallery 1988 worked on the hobby shaped Sketch cards which includes: Tom Haubrick, Ken Garduno, Misha, Irma Rivera and Keith Noordzy.


10. The Where Are They Now? subset puts several original GPK characters into nowaday scenarios, twenty-five years later as young adults. This is the only all-new artwork created for the Flashback, throwback set; artwork created by Tom Bunk, Brent Engstrom, Mark Pingitore and Joe Simko. The card set has the original character card images on the backside (although both card backs only have the "A" names, no "B" names).

11. Although there is no hobby box poster for this release, there are 5 Collectable Posters that come folded and packaged within the new GPK Value Packs ($4.99 / 24 Cards + Poster); these packs are very reminiscent of the original series 2nd, 3rd and 4th series Rack Packs (minus the poster). The posters measure 12in X 14in and can be found with the following characters with nameplates: ADAM Bomb, Leaky LINDSAY, Bony TONY, MICHAEL Mutant, and Explorin' NORMAN. It seems more practical to remove the nameplates and have the GPK header instead.


12. The Where Are They Now? naming Errors; the front and back names for cards 78a "Barfin BARBRA" and 78b "VALARIE Vomit" should be spelled "Barfin' BARBARA" and "VALERIE Vomit".

13. The set contains Two Separate Checklists, one specifically for the 'A' cards, and another for the 'B' cards. As with ANS6, ANS7, and the first Flashback series, this is the fourth release that has a checklist outlined by the color blue. The other blue phenomenon, the GPK logo is always blue in the set, there is no red GPK card logo on ANY card fronts. The ADAM Mania subset are the only cards with the GPK banner logo of yesteryears.

GPK HISTORY SECTION

1. Preliminary Mock-Up Wrapper Images were created for the GPK Flashback 2 release, as they are for all Topps releases; these two images were not chosen for the final product release, but are an extremely cool concept. A similar idea can be seen in several split sketch card examples from the first Flashback series release (see FB1 Sketch Card page: Fred Wheaton).


2. GPK veteran Tom Bunk contributed three Final Artwork pieces for the GPK Flashback 2 set (the "Half-NELSON" being a concept by Colin Walton). Below are the pencil/pen and color rough sketches for cards 77a/b through 80a/b from the Where Are They Now? base card subset created by Tomas Bunk before starting on the final artwork. Notice that two of the final artwork pieces have the Kids with five fingers (seen within Artwork Images page).

3. Several product ideas are developed for the Topps releases; one being a GPK cereal box concept very similar to the recent Wacky Packages ANS7 release that contained base cards and an exclusive bonus card. Unfortunately, this GPK concept was shelved and only an image survives. The cereal box portrays an image of the first series character 1a Nasty NICK and 1b Evil EDDIE in on of General Mills' monster-themed breakfast cereals "Count Chocula".


4. GPK artist Joe Simko contributed 1 Final Artwork piece for the GPK Flashback 2 set which can be seen on the Artwork Images page (link above). Below is Joe's original pencil sketch and color rough for cards 74a and 74b from the Where Are They Now? base card subset. Greaser GREG and CHRIS Hiss' wrench skull-and-crossbones t-shirt design can be found on the backside of his leather biker jacket; added to the color rough stage -- as well as the "The Gross Father" picture to go along with the mob boss parody. Although I'm surprised blood was added and kept for the final artwork, the broken glass bottle and cut-off finger are missing from the final artwork. Joe and his wife June also replaced Jay Lynch for this release and completed all the parody writing for the card backs.


5. ANS GPK artist Brent Engstrom contributed 1 Final Artwork piece for the GPK Flashback 2 set which can be seen on the Artwork Images page (link above). Below is the original pencil sketch and color rough for cards 77a and 77b from the Where Are They Now? base card subset; it's nice to see these older GPK characters with five fingers. The flowing blood (from popped blisters?) was removed for the final piece; and flying anxiety sweat was added to complete the comedic joke. Brent also worked on all 10 themes and imagery for the 10 ADAM Mania cards for this release.

6. Within Brent Engstrom's digital ADAM Mania artwork pieces, the "Zombies" Card (numbering 8 of 10), have the following artists and Topps names can be found on the tombstones: John Pound, Tom Bunk, Jay Lynch, Jeff Zapata, Brent Engstrom, Mark Pingitore, and John Williams. There are also four collectors' names harder to see, if not unseen, on several tombstones: (Aaron J) Booton, (Gabriel) Phillips, (James H)oux, and (Steve) Potter. Thanks Brent!

7. ANS GPK artist Mark Pingitore came in the lead with 5 completed digital artwork pieces for the Where Are They Now? base card subset, basically completing half of the new artwork for the series. Mark sketched out several concept pieces that did not make it into the series, including a OS 6th series "RUSTY Heap" piece (pimped out and restored), a OS 3rd series "Galloping GLEN" piece (winning a horse race), and a OS 9th series "Skin LES" piece (leaning against a wall with skin over shoulder like a jacket). Also not considered for the set are the following images showcasing OS 2nd series "Live MIKE" (playing "Guitar Hero" on a next generation gaming console), later released in the Flashback Series 3 set; and OS 3rd series "ALI Gator" (made into a nice set of gator skin luggage).

8. The previously unpublished artwork for the Lost GPK cards 66a/b through 70a/b were pulled from the original 1989 unreleased 16th series GPK set and not found within the published 2003 All-New Series 1 card set (more information and images within the OS16 series and ANS1 series sections).