Halloween Revisited -- Wacky Memories

It's the weekend and you know what that means? That's right! Repeats!  It's time for another Halloween Revisited post.  This one is from 2017.

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These days for Halloween treats, people favor handing out pre-packaged candies; the treat you receive from one house indistinguishable from the next.  When I Trick or Treated as a kid, I might receive a candy bar at one house, a comic book at another, and wax Wowe-e Whistles, money, popcorn balls or apples at others. One of my earliest Trick or Treating memories when I was around 7 involved what I thought was an odd treat at the time, but in hindsight was pretty cool and appropriate. I received this Wacky Packages sticker.

Wacky Packages were initially released by the Topps Trading Card Group in 1967.  Art Spiegelman, who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for his graphic novel "Maus", was a creative consultant.  After a 2 year run, they were retired until being re-released from 1973 to 1976, the period when I would have received the above card.  Below are some of the more Halloween-centric cards that were released during the Golden Age of Wacky Packages.  Some I have from finds over the years, others I've gleaned from the internet. Enjoy!

The above sticker brings back another memory.  Inspired by Wacky Packages, my sister and I created some of our own.  I recall creating a "Hard Rocks" version of Hydrox cookies.

It's unlikely the two above stickers (in addition to a number of others) would be released today.

You would never see products aimed at kids even hinting at alcohol and tobacco these days.

The next two, although not monster-related, always struck me as particularly disturbing as a child.

Not above poking fun at themselves, Wacky Packages produced this "Ticks Wormy Packages" parody sticker.

And this "Torture Kong Fu Brutal Bubble Gum" sticker.

In 2010, Topps released "Wacky Packages Old School" which parodied products from the 1970's they hadn't in the previous series.  While a noble effort, for me, they lacked the charm of the original series. Or maybe you just can't recapture the magic of a Halloween night as seen through a 7-year-old's eyes.