Topps has been issuing an online exclusive series of Wacky Packages "Old School" stickers for the last few years. The fifth set is out today and available at their website.

These are brand new creations, all-new parodies but only of products that were on sale back in the 1970's when the original Wacky Packages were issued, hence the "Old School" of the title. That does sort of make it a niche product since these stickers were always at their funniest when you knew exactly what item they were making fun of. At least some of the products parodied in these sets are long gone (or at altered over the years to be unrecognizable in their current incarnation), so it's pretty hard to imagine anyone less than 40 years old knowing all of the products being parodied. That might be why these have never had a regular retail release, even though the "regular" Wacky line has been a good seller at retail for the past 10 years or so. I've heard they might move to parodying 1980's products with these soon. Those, and 1990's products, certainly, could probably bear a normal retail release.

The new issue, Series 5, comes in 24 pack boxes with various "easy" inserts and one sketch card per box, just like the previous 4 series. Boxes and wrappers have retro graphics and some sets have had a poster in the box. The first two series had oversize versions of the stickers, 3 per box from a set of 9. Printing plates as insert cards are a possibility this time, too, a first for this line. The sketches used to come in an envelope on top of the packs, but this time, they are inside the packs themselves.

These are high quality items, actual sticker cards from a true limited edition, throwbacks to a simpler time that are at least partially a labor of love. Topps can only be making so much money on cards with such low production. I haven't missed a set yet and ordered 3 boxes of this just today. There are some neat variations of the base cards, tan backs, white backs, and Ludlow backs, as seen on the original 1970's Wacky's, plus a puzzle checklist as in the vintage releases, and, all new for 2014, Wacky Packages tattoos. A binder is coming soon.

Check em' out, if you're so inclined. All previous sets have sold out from Topps, in varying amounts of time, but these should be available for a while at least.

Thanks Chesspieceface for the info and update. A few weeks back I was wondering if Topps was releasing any more sets in this series. I used to be on the email update list but haven't received any updates in quite a while.

I'll check it out after work tonight.

I've never collected sticker sets. How do these hold up over time? Problems with curling, do you have to keep them in cool areas?

These are on thicker stock than the original Wacky stickers if you remember those. I have the Wacky set from 1991 (the last set made before the modern Wackys began being issued in the early 2000's) and those have held up well after 20 years down the line, so I suspect these more recent ones are made with long lasting adhesive as well.

In the 1970's Topps expected these sticker to be used as stickers, and I'm sure a huge percentage of them were. They have to know a great many of these new ones will never be used as intended, and instead kept as collectibles.

Funny, now that you mention it I use to stick them all over my school book covers. I forgot all about it untill now. Never thought of them as cards or collectables. Thanks for the memories.....

Haha, yes, there are a great many 1970's era bed headboards, storage trunks, and refrigerators that probably still have some of the original Wackys, or remnants thereof, stuck to them.

Wacky Packages, if I'm not mistaken, are also the source of another hugely popular collectible. The first Garbage Pail Kid came into being as a Wacky Package concept drawing, and they saw they had something much more than a one-off joke, expanding them to their own series. They were right, not only did Garbage Pail Kids explode from the very start when first issued in the mid 1980's, but the line, like Wacky's, was also restarted in the early 2000's and has had pretty much constant new series issued ever since.