1995 Welch Eskimo Pie Spider-Man Promo

This set of 24 cards were part of a promotion for specially-marked packs of Welch Eskimo Pie in 1995. An "Eskimo Pie" was a chocolate-coated ice-cream block on a wooden stick. The product is now sold as "Edy's Pie".

The hard way to get the cards was to physically cut them out of the back of the boxes. There were two cards on each pack, so you needed to buy 12 packs. You needed to make sure they weren't scuffed, and had not gotten water/ice damaged from sitting in the freezer.

Then you needed to cut along the dotted line. Even if you did this successfully, your "trading card" was only one-sided, the reverse side was simply the brown cardboard of the box. These "cut-out" cards are very rare indeed. I own a couple. I have never seen a full set.

However, you could send away by mail-order for a full set of professionally manufactured double-sided cards, as shown below. You could also send away for a poster for mounting the cards.

The artwork is from a mix of sources. Some are signed "AVON", "Red", etc. and appear to be original and slightly scruffy and/or amateurish. One is signed "Frenz & AW". Others appear to be re-colored and perhaps re-traced versions of the classic scenes or covers, but are not credited to either the original artist or the artist performing the rework.

The cards themselves feature some rather dubious choices for the Timeline. The "Return of Peter Parker's Parents" is, in hindsight, not one of his greatest moments. I would also point out that Amazing Spider-Man #300 was not in fact the issue when Eddie Brock became Venom.