1988 Topps Growing Pains

 

"As long as we got each other..." Today, we're opening a pack of 1988 Topps Growing Pains. The pack itself is your classic 80's Topps wax pack. There are 9 cards, 1 sticker, and yes, 1 stick of gum in the pack. The set contains 66 cards and 11 stickers. 

The front of each card features a still from the series or a character closeup. The cards are yellow and feature the main subject of the card in a house-shaped cutout. The house even has an old-school aerial antenna for good measure. At the bottom of each one, red text provides a caption.

The first two cards out of the pack show what happens when you use 80's-quality TV screen caps and print them on 80s-quality Topps cardboard:

I present the stick of gum, surprisingly still in tact. We also have another screencap card, though this one is horizontal:

As mentioned, there are 11 stickers in the set. We pulled the "Whatta Hunk" Kirk Cameron card, complete with Hawai'ian lei:

Not sure why the caption got cut off the scan of the second card in this pair. Blame it on the scanner. Or the operator...

And, of course, what is an 80s card set based on a family TV show with out puns?

An interesting feature of this set is the card backs. They each have their own "title" which refers to the image on the front, and sometimes the caption, but not always. The backs include a large (1/3) blue top section with the "Growing Pains" insignia in yellow. The card number appears in white off to the left side. Below the blue area, a yellow background provides the setting for a washed-out red imprint of the family standing around the dinner table. It's the photo that was used as the basis for the wrapper image. At the bottom of the back, we have copyright info:

The choice of scenes to include in the set is weird:

Here's a checklist for the set:

http://nslists.com/growpain.htm