I was hoping that Funko would continue with their Garbage Pail kids line, but then I saw how the original wave ended up getting drastically discounted here and there, so I kind of gave up hope, thinking they might have been a gamble that didn’t quite pay off. Then the solicitation for the second wave showed up rather unceremoniously, and I jumped on a preorder immediately, eager for another round of these gross-out little dudes and dudettes.
If you were a child of the ’80s, you either collected Garbage Pail Kids cards or you knew someone who did. For a while they were inescapable. The lurked at the checkout counter and they demanded your 25 cents for a pack. They smelled like sweet pink gum and they were cool because they were gross. They felt rebellious. Adults didn’t like them, which made them even more enticing. The characters created for those slim pieces of cardboard had no personalities but they’ve somehow endured throughout the years. We know these faces.
As with the initial wave, these are offered as blind-box singles, which means you won’t know who you’re going to get when you buy a single. While that’s a bit like buying a pack of cards and not knowing who you’ll get, I am not a fan of the blind-box format for toys, so I bought a case, which means I was guaranteed one of each.
Wave 1 hit a bunch of the more memorable highlights, but they were missing one very important Garbage Pail Kid: Luke Puke. Luke Puke was probably the poster child for just how gross these cards could get. Well, we get the alt-named Richie Retch here — a lot of cards featured alternate names for their characters, but we all know this is Luke Puke. Not that I’m taking away from the name “Richie Retch,” which is clever on its own, but he’ll always be Luke Puke to me.
Fryin’ Ryan is a flame-breathing dragon that looks like he should be facing off against Godzilla. He’s got a nice scale texture over his body.
Eerie Eric is a werewolf in underwear, because nude werewolves are just wrong. He comes with a bone. Giggle.
Mean Gene comes with a knife permanently sculpted into his mouth and an orange mohawk. Some box art showed him coming with more weapons, but they must have been scrapped.
Buggy Betty features an intricately sculpted head and some nice-looking clear wings on her back.
Cy Clops continues the trend of kids in underwear. He’s only got one eye, old Cy. Don’t ask why.
Kim Kong is a monkey. She comes with a banana. She could use a wax.
Beasty Boyd is one of two kids in this wave to feature half and half designs. He’s a cute little guy, and has rhymes like Abe Vigoda.
Brainy Brian looks like he was supposed to come with a half-open head and a brain accessory, but both seem to have been altered in the final product.
Edit: Ok, mine was stuck, but his head does come open at the seam, and he does have a removable brain inside his head, so now you know. Thanks to Beast for letting me know!
Corroded Carl comes with a tube of zit cream. From the looks of him, it doesn’t look like it’s working very well. The pimples are eerily realistic.
Split Kit is the other kid with a dual personality. One side suburban, one side punk rock. His music collection must be weird.
Brainy Janie‘s got a strange noggin and comes with a test tube. She and Brainy Brian seem like they were made for each other.
With two waves done and 24 character total, I’m kind of eager to see how far this can go. There are still a ton of recognizable Kids than can be done, some of whom I’d be very interested in seeing how they pull them off.
