Wacky Packages Vintage Puzzles

Wacky Packages Vintage Puzzles
1973 - 1976

There are 29 Vintage Puzzles
In vintage puzzles, the other side of the checklists formed a 9-card puzzle of one of the series titles.
- Thus there are always nine different checklists.
- Each pack would contain one checklist, so they are somewhat more common than the stickers.
  - But three pieces are short-printed, and even though they are only slightly short-printed, over time can cause them to be much harder to find.
  - This is counter-intuitive, but it can be explained.
- In later series the checklists were printed on the backs of the stickers themselves.
In every series there was always one Topps product being parodied. The puzzle always depicts the Topps product.
- Perhaps this was because it was one title they never had to worry about being C&D'd on.

Series	Date	Variation	Full Puzzle	Checklist	Notes
Topps
Cloth Series	1973				The first ever Wacky Pack checklist. Be on the lookout, many of these are lost in lots of 1st series checklists. Jail-O Dessert is misspelled "Desert" and Mrs. Klean is misspelled "Mrs. Kleen".
1st Series	1973				The main difference with the Cloth Series checklist is the tagline at the bottom. "COMPLETE THE PUZZLE ON THE BACK OF CHECKLIST CARDS!" has been added. The misspelling "Mrs. Kleen" was fixed, but the misspelling "Jail-O Desert" was not fixed.
2nd Series	1973				For a while Run Tony had been pulled and could not be found in packs, but it was never removed from the checklist. This is one of only three Vintage series that maintained the black border on the puzzle (the others being 5th and 6th).
3rd Series	1973				This is the only checklist where they changed the front when released in Canada, changing the white border to black. They changed the spelling of four titles: Bustedfinger, Sweathard and 1.A. are spelled with hyphens; and Rice A Phoni is spelled Rice A Phony
4th Series	1973	Bum Chex / Choke Wagon			This is the first checklist that was reprinted due to pulled titles and/or errors. Bum Chex and Choke Wagon were pulled early on. For a short while there were simply 28 different titles in the packs. Before long they replaced Bum and Choke with Windhex and Mess Clairoil and they reprinted the checklists.
4th Series	1973	Mess Clairoil / Windhex			This is the replacement checklist with Bum Chex and Choke Wagon replaced by Windhex and Mess Clairoil. In spite of how rare Bum and Choke are, neither this version, nor the Bum/Choke version, are tougher to find.
5th Series	1974				The blank space in the middle of the checklist was supposed to be Nastee Crush but it was pulled before production. Since it was replaced on the sheet with a duplicate of another title, it was not replaced on the checklist. They probably did not move the blank to the end of the checklist because typesetting was done by hand back then and so nothing was easy. This is one of only three vintage series that maintained the black border on the puzzle and also one of three that had a colored background - it's the only one that had both.
6th Series	1974	Goodman's			This is the first checklist that was reprinted due to typos. "Goonman's" was misspelled "Goodman's" and "Spills Bros." was misspelled "Spills Bad." Those typos were fixed, but a third one "Super Cigar Crisp" is misspelled "Sugar Cigar Crisp," was not fixed. These 6ths are the last of only three Vintage series that maintained the black border on the puzzle.
6th Series	1974	Goonman's			This is the replacement that has two of the three typos fixed. Super Cigar Crisp is still misspelled. Neither version is particularly harder to find. These 6ths are the last of only three Vintage series that maintained the black border on the puzzle.
7th Series	1974				Once again "Dessert" is misspelled "Desert". This mistake also appeared on the 1st series checklist. This is one of only three vintage series that had a colored background.
8th Series	1974	Dark			This is the so-called "dark" version of the checklist. This is the only series where they used both the dark and light versions of the checklist side. The only other series that used the light version is the 12th, but in the 12th they only used the light version.
8th Series	1974	Light			This is the "light" version. Nobody knows why they printed both dark and light versions in this series. The light version may be a bit tougher to find, but all in all the population is not that different between the two.
9th Series	1974				There's a typo on this checklist, "Spinach" is misspelled "Spinich". Also Easy Cough is hyphenated on the sticker, but not on the checklist.
10th Series	1974	With Pupsi			This is the first version of the checklist. It was reprinted after they pulled Pupsi. This is one of only three vintage series that had a colored background. Tic Toc is hyphenated on the checklist, but not on the sticker.
10th Series	1974	Without Pupsi			This is the second version with Pupsi removed. This version seems to be a bit tougher to find. This is one of only three vintage series that had a colored background.
11th Series	1974				In this checklist they segmented off the magazine titles to the left.
12th Series	1975				This checklist is the only other one, besides the 8th, that used the bright glossy format. But unlike the 8th, which used both, the 12th only used this format. Piece's is misspelled without the apostrophe.
13th Series	1975				As with the 11th, they segregated the magazine wackys together, but this time to the right column. Except for some reason Bum's Life is by itself in the 2nd column. Bums' Life is spelled Bum's Life on the checklist (different apostrophe position). Shrunken' Donuts is spelled without the apostrophe on the checklist.
14th Series	1975				There's not much to say about this checklist, except that it's one of the hardest to find without wax stains on the checklist side.
15th Series	1975				Famous Mobsters is written with an apostrophe for some reason. Hacks Cough Drops is spelled Hack's Cough Drops on the checklist.
16th Series	1976				This is by far the rarest and most valuable of the regular 1-16 puzzles (not including the Cloth). And they are particularly hard to find without wax stains on the checklist side.
UK
1st UK	1974				This checklist bears little resemblence to the 1st series Topps release. In fact only six 1st series titles are on this checklist. They fixed the "Jail-O Desert" typo by removing "Desert" altogether. There's a new typo however: "Head & Bolders". It's a bit strange how they laid out this checklist. It has a full 29 titles, but instead of organizing them as 10-10-9 they organized them as 11-11-7. Fibby's is on the checklist without the apostrophe (it has one on the sticker). Head & Boulders is misspelled Head & Bolders.
2nd UK	1974				This is the only vintage checklist that's alphabetized (except Skip is out of place). Choke-Up is not hyphenated on the checklist (but it is on the sticker). Hiccups has apostrophe on the sticker, but not on the checklist. It says CHECK LIST on it (two words), all other series say "CHECKLIST" (one word). This is quite a difficult puzzle to find, and almost impossible to find without wax stains.
OPC
1st OPC	1974	Dark			The OPC puzzles are somewhat flimsy, and come with darker and lighter checklist side. This 1st series comes both ways, this is the dark version. This is a tough puzzle to find.
1st OPC	1974	Light			This is the light version. Also very hard to find.
2nd OPC	1974				The 2nd OPC puzzle only comes in the light version. Like most of the OPC puzzles, this is a very tough puzzle to find.
3rd OPC	1974	Dark			This is a very unusual puzzle in that it has a black border. Like the 1st OPC series, the 3rd Series checklist also comes with both light and dark backs. This is a very difficult puzzle to find, particularly in high grade.
3rd OPC	1974	Light			This is the light version. Also very difficult to find.
4th OPC	1974				The 4th OPC puzzle only comes in the light version. This is the shortest of all checklists with only 19 titles. This is the the only vintage OPC puzzle that's not impossible to find.