GPK 1991 Norwegian GARBAGE GANG 3rd SERIES - Pail Kids Meltin’ Matilda Rare

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GPK 1991 Norwegian GARBAGE GANG 3rd SERIES - Pail Kids Meltin’ Matilda Rare:
$495.00

This is a very rare Norwegian Garbage Gang 3rd series Meltin Matilda card graded by ISA as Very Good / 3. Do not confuse these with the Australian / NZ 3rd series. These were recently discovered within the past 3 years. They have different copyright markings from the Aus/NZ release and are on a matte type paper. This is the one and only name change from Baskin Robin to Meltin Matilda. They were also printed by Topps in Ballincollig, Ireland vice Regina LTD in AUS/NZ for the Australian 3rd Series.

Here is some additional information from the best GPK website on the internet - Barren Aaron's GPK World:

Although The Garbage Gang title brings to mind the New Zealand and Australian sets released throughout some of the Commonwealth realms within the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, and Finland in 1989 by Regina LTD — where international releases by the Topps Company could no longer bear the Garbage Pail Kids moniker after the 1987 lawsuit. The cards have a closer relationship to the UK releases that were manufactored and distributed by Topps Ireland LTD as far as packaging goes, but the cards definitely have a AU/NZ feel; the UK cards were developed from the U.S. release and the AU/NZ sets were further rendered from these UK releases, so the Norway cards contain a combination of both. Similar card sets are also rumored to be released in South Africa, close to the Australian continent, both with a large British colonization.

The card layouts were most likely produced at The Topps Company and the template sent to Regina LTD and Topps Ireland LTD back in the day for production, manufacturing and distributing with subtle changes including, but not limited to, name changes, checklist manipulation, et cetera. The 2nd and 3rd Series sets were released in 1990 and 1991, after The Garbage Gang '91 UK test set and Cheap Toys release, within the Kingdom of Norway (a unitary sovereign state), with only a few minor changes from their UK counterparts released in 1986. At this time, it is unknown if Norway had ever seen an earlier 1st Series release or a later 4th Series release. The bottom of the packaging, much like the wrapper, has text in Finnish and Swedish, covering several national languages in the area, so isn't necessarily a Scandinavian release, which only covers Norway, Sweden and Denmark (Denmark had a test set in 1986), but also covered Finland.

The condition is fair to excellent with most of the cards being very good. I took a close up picture of the worst card which has some creases. All the backs are clean except for one of the checklists.

This set is exceptionally rare. I can count the number of complete sets I have seen on one hand. It's impossible to find singles much less a complete set. Get it while you can.