Crazy Cut

Today we take a look at an extremely obscure issue from 1979, which is pretty late in the vintage era but if there's one thing we know after almost nine (!) years of exploration and deep dives, it's that Topps excelled at obscure.

In the midst of what was a sugarless gum reformulation explosion following the FDA's banning of the common artificial sweetener Sodium Cyclamate in 1972 , Bazooka Sugar-Free was itself reformulated as the pack below illustrates:

Yes, I was not after the gum (which was still pink and smelled like, well, Bazooka after all these years) but rather the prize inside.  After gently prying apart an end, I slid the sticker out, only to find perhaps the worst "electric-eye" cut of all time!

The cut should be just under the black bar at top, bisecting the red, arrow-like graphic in the middle (which would be the left and right borders of the sticker if executed properly), but clearly my example want to opposite-land instead.  I guess you could call them Topps stickers, despite being inserted into Bazooka. The back is plain:

These measure 1 1/8" x 3 3/8" and I have to say they are tough to find. There are 48 to the set, with 2 smaller subjects and 1 larger one per sticker (if cut correctly).  I would have to check more examples but suspect Topps recycled artwork, especially for the small subjects, from other "goofy" stickers sets from their past, such as 1970's Stacks Of Stickers, which had 704 of the little suckers in all.

I would be impressed if anyone has a full set of these, for sure.