Another fine offering from the folks at Topps, T-Shirt Factory Iron On’s from 1988. They definitely carry on the tradition of Garbage Pail Kids, another Topps product. These iron-on transfers are maybe about 5×7 inches. I don’t actually have this, it was floating around at a party I went to. I did some due diligence when I spotted it and snapped some cell phone pics once I saw there was a skateboard graphic.

I had more than a handful of these “Stylin’ Skateboards” from Topps. The first time I saw them was in ’91 or ’92. I think it was B-Rad who showed it to me first, and it blew my mind. I asked where he found it, expecting it to be something a friend brought back from a trip to Japan or some kitschy novelty shop in New York. Instead, he nodded his head over his shoulder towards the Wall Mart at his back in a semi rural (at the time) Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This sales sheets shows them packaged in little boxes, but the ones I saw came in sealed plastic bags with heat-pressed seams. Each bag came with some crappy candy sugar wads pressed into the vague shape of a skateboard wheel, though more likely just generic pellet molds. Also in the package, a really crappy plastic fingerboard made out of soft plastic. I believe you had to snap the wheels in place yourself. The second generation fingerboards (more on that later) were fun for a few minutes, but the real reason to keep buying these things was for the paper stickers that came with them, each a slightly mutated…

Garbage Pail Kids. Rad Rod. 1988. Wait, why does he only have 4 toes?