Topps Sports Card Lockers

[scotgreb]

Card Locker1.jpg Card Locker2.jpg Card Locker3.jpg

[JustinD]

Here’s my childhood Tara toy version. I can back up they were from the early 80s. I can also say these Tara toy versions had nothing to do with Topps, they were sold at Supermarkets and toy stores. I remember getting mine new.

As you can see the guts started to crack at some point and I gutted it for storage. I had to dig in the vaults for this one, thanks for the memories.

[JustinD]

Our buddy Dave Hornish has an article on these-

http://www.thetoppsarchives.com/2014...t-lockers.html

All the lockers from Topps in the 80s I remember my friends having looked like the red example he shows with the brass clasp

[deweyinthehall]

Outstanding - I had not noticed the style of wrapper illustration yet.

The earliest wrapper I can find with a locker ad is 1973 Football (looks like the cardboard type). As shown here the 1974 wrappers indicate the cardboard looking locker also, but beginning in 1975, they appear to show the standard vinyl, maroon variety, right up through the last evidence I can find of a wrapper offer, 1982.

I propose that Topps "tested" the cardboard lockers with 1973 football. They were popular enough that Topps made them available across football and baseball (haven't looked for hockey or basketball wrappers) for 1974, and in 1975 debuted the standard vinyl, maroon, players on it variety.

They then kept this right up to they stopped offering them in 1982.

What do folks think about that scenario?