Garbage Pail Kids vs. Madballs Illustration | Source: Cloudco/Topps

It’s the battle of the (gross) brands, as Cloudco Entertainment and The Topps Company join forces for collaboration that playfully pits Madballs against Garbage Pail Kids — two classic ’80s brands that embrace all things disgusting.

Garbage Pail Kids debuted as a series of trading cards in 1985, featuring gross characters with outrageous names to match. Over the next three years, the brand expanded to include an animated series and a slate of consumer products, which is still active today. Madballs — a collection of grotesque characters designed as irregularly-shaped toy foam balls — launched in 1985. This oddball brand went on to inspire a series of animated specials and its own line of consumer products.

Topps and Cloudco have tapped veteran Garbage Pail Kids and Madballs illustrators to create ’80s-inspired artwork featuring individual characters (or groups of characters) from each brand facing off.

Related: The Op, Topps Team Up for Monopoly: Garbage Pail Kids Edition

This artwork will be featured on and/or inspire a variety of consumer products, such as Topps trading cards, action figure two-packs from Megalopolis, apparel and accessories from Mad Engine, jackets from Chalk Line, a collection from Mishka NYC, augmented-reality pins from Pinfinity, and collectibles from Super Impulse.

There are also plans for a mobile app, publishing components, and additional retail partnerships for this collaboration. Additional details will be announced soon.

“Shared nostalgic roots and over-the-top zaniness make this collab a no-brainer,” says Ira Friedman, Topps’ vice president of global licensing. “Our respective fan bases as well as pop-culture aficionados everywhere are going to have fun with this outrageous mash-up.”

About the author

Madeleine Buckley

Madeleine Buckley

Madeleine Buckley was a Senior Editor at The Pop Insider, The Toy Insider, and The Toy Book. She covered all things toys and fandom, and has appeared on Cheddar and a variety of regional news networks to talk about the latest trends in both. She is a movie score enthusiast, mediocre knitter, proud Syracuse alumna, and Marvel lover. You can usually find her at the movies or hanging out at home with her super-pup, Parker.

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