I have a ton of these, from the early 70s to the late 80s. This set is what started my collection though. This one in from the early 80s and was the first set I ever got. It was also the first to have an official sticker album (although the stickers were much smaller than previous years).
In a way they are time capsules. They show what the original products looked like at the time, even if the cards were changed a little to be humorous. They also include many products that have been long since discontinued. The Whale-Os in the corner of this photo demonstrate that fact. They are a play on Waffelos, which was a cereal from the time these cards came out. Now worries, I am going to submit the original box of Waffelos too so you know what I’m talking about.
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Allee Willis
I know these were not only huge in their day but helped to goose the sticker phenomenon to its current iconic status. I never collected these myself although I remember loving this kind of thing when I saw it in Mad magazine in the early 60’s. I viewed myself as a little more sophisticated, obsessed with trends in pop advertising. Later, as an advertising major at the University of Wisconsin I wanted to bend reality using the real products so had no patience for parody with himstickers. Now that I’m an adult who loves Kitsch and understands that my childlike qualities have saved me from a life of ho-hum these Wacky Packages look much more appealing to me.