These cards crossed a line. But which line? Who knows, but they’re bound to offend at least 50% of people in some way.
The trading card industry has been around for a long time. In the early years, it was mostly about sports cards and other themed collectable cards. But over the years, the industry has expanded to include all sorts of different types of cards in different areas of popular culture, TV, movies, music, politics and world events, and more.
Of course, with the wide variety of subjects depicted on trading cards, we’re bound to come across some that are completely outrageous, offensive, shocking, or just plain weird. And not in a mainstream, Mars Attacks kind of way.
1987 Terrorist Attack, by Piedmont Candy Company
This set is just bizarre and disturbing. An entire set made up of real AND fictionalized terrorists and terrorist events. FOR EDUCATION. Depicting real events…ok, but fictional? Like, these guys just decided they had to fill in some holes by dreaming up the worst types of events they could imagine and mixing them in with the actual atrocities? There’s even a card showing a woman getting gunned down with the caption “Run, Children, Run!” Wow.
Trash Can Tots
While you’d think Garbage Pail Kids would be in this list, we think they’re a little too mainstream. Shocking, yes, but in a good way, and have been part of the mainstream hobby for almost 30 years. Their popularity has produced so many bootlegs and knockoffs, but the one that makes our list has to be Trash Can Tots. And not because they’re particularly good or interesting or outrageous. Just that, with all the knockoffs already made, someone decided super crappy, cheap, knockoff stickers were the way to go. The illustrations are crap and the material and production quality is crap, but that just makes us want them. They’re so bad, they’re good.
1938 Horrors of War – Gum Inc.
Trading cards, particularly Topps (originally, Gum Inc.) have a long history of memorializing and glorifying war. But that’s the case in popular culture in general, so that by itself isn’t all that surprising. But what makes this set so interesting is it’s shock factor, especially considering it’s from PRE-WWII. Featuring detailed and colorful illustrations of intimate battle scenes, fighter planes gunning people down, tribesmen spearing Italian invaders, and more. The backs state “To know the HORRORS OF WAR is to want PEACE”, so clearly their aim was to show and warn of the brutalities of war, but with their colorful picturesque illustrations and intimate detail, they present very much like a demented glorification of human political suffering. They are interesting, nevertheless.
1995 Playboy Chromium Cover Card #85
Playboy cards by themselves we wouldn’t consider all that outrageous. It’s a mainstream brand and publication, so having trading cards makes sense. But card #85 of the 1995 Chromium Cover set is…well, we’d say infamous, if not outrageous. Featuring THE rookie card of real estate mogul, billionaire, TV personality and 45th President of the United States of America…Donald Trump. On a Playboy cover, with a Playboy model, on a chromed out trading card. Only in ‘merica.
2003 Psychedelic Republicans, by Chickenhead Productions
Utterly bizarre, but totally hilarious, is the 2003 Psychedelic Republicans set by Chickenhead Productions. Featuring the very early 00s photoshop stylings of Chuck Graef. A few thousand cases were printed and almost all of them sold. They can still be found on eBay and the deep recesses of the internet, and not always for cheap.
2001 Topps Enduring Freedom
These cards were released in October of 2001. That’s right, literally only a month after September 11th. Featuring, of course…wait for it… THE Osama Bin Laden rookie card! But that’s not all! How about the Vladimir Putin rookie card! WTF Topps? This set is so ridiculously propagandized, but not only that, CLEARLY it was rushed to the line to capitalize on one of the most horrific moments in American history. I wonder how this went down in a meeting?
Employee: “‘kay boss, ’bout to get our 2001 Topps Update baseball series out to production…”
Exec: “STOP THE PRESSES! We’re at WAR, dammit! We need a commemorative set, pronto! Oh, and make sure you highlight the BAD GUY!”
Employee: …
Exec: …
Employee: “Are you ser..”
Exec: “ON RETAIL SHELVES IN 30 DAYS!”
09-11-01 Heroes of the World Trade Center
An independent producer (now defunct) created these cards as memorial cards for the heroes and victims of 9-11. Hey that’s not outrageous, that’s nice! They deserve to be memorialized! And they donated a portion of each sale to the included families. But how much did they donate? 8%. Eight percent? EIGHT percent. This set included photos of people who perished in the 9-11 attacks, and they profited off of these cards. If you’re going to make a set to memorialize the heroes and victims, great, but at least be a non-profit. Donate all that you can after costs. We have no problem, in theory, in profiting off of outrageous and offensive subjects, but there is a line, and profiting by using the likenesses of the victims of 9-11 is way over that line, in our humble opinion.
1992 True Crime Serial Killers
True crime is another long time fascination in popular culture, but creating the art and depicting 110 different serial killers and mass murderers on trading cards takes it to another level. And that’s just series 1! The artwork is incredible, capturing the freakish nature of these killers in dramatic fashion. Just holding these cards and looking through them brings on a very unsettling feeling.
Other Notable Outrageous Trading Cards…
Just Google these and you’ll understand.
- 1975 Topps Comic Book Heroes Stickers – MAN-THING
- 1992 The Rise & Fall of the Soviet Union set
- 1990 Rigomor Press Incredible True Life Murderers
- 1950 T.C.G. Bring Em Back Alive – Man Against Beast
Have we missed anything? What are the most outrageous, offensive, shocking, or just plain strange trading cards you’ve seen (or secretly collected)?
Awesome write up and thanks for a few laughs!!
This reminds me of the Pro Set Desert storm release and I bet it had the same effect as these sets.
The chase in that set was the Saddam Hussein.
Just cracked a box with my brother and was actually enjoyable.
Bet breaking any of the sets listed above would be entertaining to say the least!