I struggled as
to where to place the skeletal information there was on this unreleased Australia
set. Technically, this was a licensed product, which involved an exclusive ditribution,
so it could have been placed within the ‘LICENSE’ pages; and this also would have
been sold online, via the company’s website, but not directly from Topps; so I’m
not sure I would have mentioned it within the ‘ONLINE’ releases. Another issue
would have been the potential ‘release period’, although a majority of the final
artwork was completed by summer’s end, it’s unclear as to whether it would have
been released within 2020, or like so many issues surrounding the Coronavirus—limited
material supplies and severe shipping delays—would it have been postponed
to 2021 or later; and are these possible reasons as to why the project was eventually
cancelled (shelved)? Regardless, I figured most collectors would look within the
international section, and it would have been lost within either of the aforementioned
sections.

The
GPK Australian set was planned to be sold and distributed by Banter Toys, as a
physical box release (this may have been a boxed set, considering the word ‘subset’
was tossed around at some point), through their online shop and distribution channels.
A majority of the set would have been completed by local Australian artists, with
only one non-Aussie, Joe Simko, whom contributed artwork to the unpublished set.
Besides Simko, the set would have included artwork by artists Matt Durston (of
GPK Creepy Co. fame!), Andy Hook, Chris Kennett, and potentially others that have
not been listed anywhere or have surfaced. Any card mock-ups contain the Garbage
Pail Kids logo, so it doesn’t appear The Garbage Gang moniker had been planned
to be used for the project, but then again, it’s just a GPK card template for
pre-production. Banter Toys is a division of Croftminster Pty Ltd, Australia’s
leading distributor of trading cards and toy collectibles.

Per
Banter’s website ‘ABOUT’ section, “Banter Toys & Collectibles are a leading
distributor of licensed entertainment toys and collectibles in Australia and New
Zealand. Established in 1988, Banter Toys have been servicing mass market and
specialty retailers in Australia and New Zealand. Our head office is located in
Melbourne Australia. We are the market leader in trading cards, and have a growing
toy business. The company is able to offer it’s supplier partners very broad
distribution beyond mass retailers due to its historical trading card relationship.
The company attends all major trading card and toy industry events around the
world and exhibits every year at the Australian Toy Fair.” Within the ‘Our
Suppliers’ section, “Banter Toys has worked with a diverse range of suppliers
and licensors since 1988! Some of our supplier partners are: …Topps.”

It
is interesting to note that Banter Toys took to social media on October 12, 2021,
to help promote the Garbage Pail Kids ‘Mad MIKE: Fury Load’ video for volume #3.
This was often done by current license holders at the behest of Topps to help
promote the GPK brand. Perhaps the yet-released Australian set was still planned
to be distributed, even a year later, but pandemic issues may have persued. As
U.S. collectors are aware, a GPK set was released in February 2021 and then not
again until July 2022 due to the many Covid complications. I’d imagine the unreleased
Australian set was officically cancelled after the October 2021 timeframe; since
then only a portion of the (sub)set have been shared online.

And
again the following day, on July 29, 2022, to state: “Thanks for all the
interest in the GPK’s yesterday. Here’s a look at some roughs of the ones that
didn’t make the cut. They don’t really fit here, so I’ll post the full pages in
my stories.” The post showed off three additional concepts (and a partial
one), plus one repeat, with two name suggestions, “A. AUSTIN Post” and
“B. BUSTER Open”, poking fun at the Australia Post mail company.
“Outback MAC” is very reminiscent of the
GPK Build-a-Kid during the All-New Series releases.

I first heard of final artwork being completed
for the set in August of 2020, so pre-production on the project must’ve taken
place several months prior to this time period, so perhaps in the spring of 2020
the project may have been greenlit, so by the time Matt posted, it defintely had
been at least two full years of waiting to share the project to the world. It
is unknown if all of the completed artwork would have made it into the eventual
set.

The
artwork could be later found on Durston’s website, as part of his art portfolio—an
edited collection of an artist’s best artwork intended to showcase their style
or method of work”—and seen as mock-up images on digital card with added
nomenclature and an old, warn look and traded-card feel to them. Artist Matt Durston
pays tribute to Australia’s i) great Outback, ii) Cadbury’s Caramello Koala candy,
iii) the children’s television show ‘Bananas in Pyjamas’, where the main two characters
are two anthropomorphic bananas named B1 and B2, and iv) Vegemite, a foods spread
created in Melbourne, Victoria, by Cyril Callester in 1922.

I
reached out the Andy in early June 2023, almost a year after he posted his submissions
to share on social media, just to gain a bit more information if at all possible,
“Yes, I worked on three GPKs at the same time as Matt and Chris Kennett …
It seemed that any of our ideas involving a spoof of an existing product or movie
got canned – the Topps lawyers rejected all of Matt’s excellent images for
this reason, and my Crocodile Dung Dee too. Hopefully they don’t mind us
sharing this unreleased art.”

Artist
Andy Hook pays tribute to Australia with i) the Crocidile Dundee movie
character, a 1986 comedy film set in the Austalian Outback and in NYC, starring
actor Paul Hogan as Mick Dundee; with ii) Bondi Beach, of of Australia’s most
iconic beaches, and the nation’s surfing pasttime; with iii) the hot weather conditions
of Australia, including a ‘WELL DONE’ meat thermometer (and sporting some Australian
flag shorts); and a cricket mascot-like character sporting a hat with the Austalian
national cricket team emblem, with a cricket ball head, paying tribute to the
infamous ball-tampering incident of of 2018, coined Sandpaper-gate… where sandpaper
is an illegal method of ball altering, but using spit and/or sweat is a very common
legal form.

Less than two weeks later, Joe made a second
post, on January 14, 2023, stating, “Another painting for an Australian GPK
set that has been on hold for a couple years now. Figured I share these in case
they never get published.” Joe’s third-and-final post took place on June
04, 2023 to share the third-and-final artwork piece, stating, “Another card
I painted for the Australian GPK set that unfortunately may never see the light
of G’Day.”

Artist
Joe Simko pays tribute to Australia with the infamous i) ADAM Bomb character climbing
up the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and detonating fireworks over the Sydney Opera
House, and ii) with the Boomber Angus character throwing an Aboriginal Australian
boomberang (& sporting a Steve Irwin-like outfit), and with iii) ADAM Bomb
renamed ANGUS Bomb for Angus Young, the co-founder, lead guitarist, and songwriter
of the hard rock band AC/DC (known for his schoolboy-uniform stage outfits), and
the block of T.N.T. paying tribute to the band’s second studio album of the same
name, released only in Australia.