Topps issued an esoteric set of little plastic animals boxed up with what I assume was their Block Busters Bubble Gum, a repeat tactic from 1956 when they deployed leftover Block Busters in their Baseball Buttons packs (really a small box, just like these packs). You will recall, of course, that this bubble gum resembled little Chiclets and remained something Topps futzed around with at least into the 1970's. I have always presumed the gum was cello bagged and the pin (or animal in this case) would have been loose within the pack as I have never seen an interior with any kind of staining on the Baseball Buttons.
I'd previously show the retail pack (box) for these but here is the display box in all it's colorful glory:
We already know the set is from 1968 thanks to a commodity code on the pack flap and now we can see the checklist. I can't find anything on the look of the actual product but they would likely be a single color and knowing Topps each could be found with all colors used for this run (likely four). It's virtually certain the animals had been used previously in another application by another firm or represent an aborted product accordingly. Surviving animals would be hard to identify today and they appear to have been made in the USA. Other oddball, short checklist sets of the era issued by Topps would often be packed so a full set could be found in each retail box. I suspect that would be the pattern here as well.
The packs have Wally Wood artwork and while I have shown these scans before, they are worth showing again:
Drifting back a year, we have 1967's Phoney Record Stickers:
Dating is confirmed by the box bottom:
I'll have to delve into the set (and the inserted Stupid Hit Songs cards) in another post as there is a lot to look at but REA had a nice pack a while back I want to show now:
Fun!
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