Amidst all the baseball cards and Star Wars tie-ins of Topps’ long history lie rarer, one-off oddities, like the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Fun Pak released in 1988. The set came out in the middle of the children’s show’s five-year run from 1986 to 1990 – the biggest era for the Pee-Wee Herman character and the same year that the franchise peaked in both popularity and merchandising value. 

The cards were just one part of a massive pop culture wave at the time, and today, they remain a curious and colorful addition to any collection.

For fans of Topps’ more retro cards, the Fun Pak set will likely evoke a good deal of nostalgia. In addition to the 33 base cards – each with two background art variants – the set included stickers, checklists, lenticular cards, tattoo sheets, and a variety of punch-out cards. That last category featured “secret disguise” cards that could be worn as masks, “puppet” cards with holes arranged for card play, foldables, and even “door” cards with an openable door smack dab in the middle.



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