For children of the 1980s, Return to Oz took a beloved classic world and made it horrific. Not even the set of 1985 Topps Return to Oz trading cards could keep the nightmares away.
It’s a simple product, even by 1980s standards. Just 44 cards make up the checklist. All are stickers. That makes building a full set a relatively painless undertaking.
All the nightmare fuel is present, from the Wheelers to Jack Pumpkinhead to the head-switching Princess Mombi to the drowsy stare of the Cowardly Lion.
Fronts are Topps-standard die-cut stickers. The red borders don’t do much as far as designs go. Backs retell the story in an almost comic-like format using a combination of movie stills, speech bubbles and captions.
Seeing as how the film has more of a cult status that widespread fandom, 1985 Topps Return to Oz trading cards are relatively overlooked and forgotten today. Well, those who went to sleep at night with one eye on their stack of cards their mom brought home from the story might remember them well. But there isn’t a lot of secondary market demand for them.
1985 Topps Return to Oz Checklist
Cards per pack: 6
Packs per box: 36
Shop for 1985 Topps Return to Oz boxes on eBay.
Base Set
44 cards.
1 Title Card
2 Follow the Yellow Brick Road…
3 The Tin Woodsman
4 Dorothy and Aunt Em
5 Wheelers
6 Head Nurse
7 Dorothy and Billina
8 Cowardly Lion
9 Billina
10 Tik Tok
11 Jack Pumpkinhead
12 Jack and Dorothy
13 Chickens
14 Jack, Dorothy, Tik Tok, Gump
15 Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!
16 The Scarecrow
17 This is NO WAY to treat royalty!
18 Mombi Held!
19 Lion, Scarecrow, Dorothy, Jack, Tik Tok
20 Dorothy and Mombi
21 Scarecrow
22 All’s Not Lost, Little Dorothy…
23 Jack and Dorothy
24 Tin Man
25 Lion and Dorothy
26 Statue’d victim
27 Home — There’s No Place Like It!
28 Jack and Dorothy
29 Nome King
30 Scarecrow
31 Nome King
32 Gump, Scarecrow, Dorothy, Jack
33 Gump
34 Tik Tok and Dorothy
35 Ozma
36 Imagination is the key!
37 I Am Not Alive…
38 Toto
39 Through the Looking Glass
40 Princess Mombi
41 I love Tik Tok
42 Jack Pumpkinhead
43 The Gump
44 Dorothy
