A Custom Nuthman Garbage Pail Kid by Topps Artist

Best Gift Ever

So being in the toy and entertainment business can have its perks. It turns out that this was especially true in my case. My other half, @afturner got Smokin' Joe from Topps to make a custom GPK for my birthday. I have to say, I was more than a little bit excited about it.

I was just the right age in 1985 to start collecting GPKs. I fondly remember running down to the gas station after school with any quarters that I managed to collect in order to buy as many first and second series packs that I could get my hands on. I amassed a pretty epic collection back in those days. Sadly, a girl in my class stole most of my first series cards out of my desk when I went to the bathroom one day. I still hate her to this day. Hahaha! That may be a bit dramatic, but it does certainly bother me. Especially considering that many of those cards are quite valuable today.

I have managed to collect most of the original series over the years, however. I have a very large collection of Garbage Pail kids, old and new series in storage. Sadly, they are nowhere near the original price of $0.25 that they used to be. I guess that's inflation!

So for my birthday, I received 3 large prints that I've been working on trying to frame properly. He made me an A and a B card, "Weird Rick Nuthavic" (because I am a huge Al fan), and Rick Nerdman. The card features a lot of funny details about me that @afturner provided, such as my pet peeve about people who use the word less, when they mean fewer.

I attempted to frame one of the prints, but the frame mat is not the right shape. Amanda has a tool to trim them, so we are going to try to make it a bit larger. Especially since you can't see the artist's signature at the bottom.

I must say, this is most certainly the most original gift that anyone has ever given me. Now I am going to be hard pressed to match it on her next birthday. I guess I'll just be wracking my brain until then!

I think it is really cool that Topps allows its artists to do these kinds of things without any hassle. A lot of companies, in fact most, would absolutely not allow it. As I have mentioned before on here, the vast majority of the time we can't even mention what companies we work for, let alone make our own works of their licenses.

Not a whole lot more to say about it, other than I am super happy to be part of the 'GPK family'! Now if I could just figure out what to do with all of this stuff. I really need a room that can sort of double as a work space and a display area for all of my collection. I'd likely have to rotate things out since there is so much of it. But that is kind of a cool problem to have!