Vintage 1980s Cat Bat Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Green Fanged Vampire Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible

Size: 1.5 inches

🦇 Cat Bat — a Green Grin Full of Fangs

Here is a monster who is having a wonderful time being terrible. Cat Bat is a vintage 1980s gross-out pin-back button starring a green-skinned, sharp-eyed creature with a mouthful of fangs and the widest, most gleeful grin in the collection. He is pure mid-1980s monster energy — a little bit vampire, a little bit goblin, all attitude — and he makes a fantastic addition to any lineup of the decade's gross-out oddities.

Everything described here comes straight from the photographs, so what you see is precisely what will arrive. There is no invented backstory, no made-up maker, and no claim this pin cannot back up — just an honest, funny, characterful little collectible.

👀 What You Are Actually Looking At

The art is a bold close-up of a green-skinned monster face, painted in that punchy comic style the era loved. A shock of dark, widow's-peak hair sits on top; heavy black eyebrows scowl above a pair of striking yellow-orange eyes with vertical, cat-slit pupils. His nose is a broad green snub, and his grin — this is the star of the show — is enormous: a wide, curling smile packed with pointed white fangs top and bottom, a red tongue showing between them, the whole thing framed in a red-lipped leer. Printed along the rim is the character's name: CAT BAT.

He is genuinely great gross-out art — vivid, confident and just theatrical enough to be funny rather than frightening. This is a monster who wants you to laugh with him, and you will.

🎨 A Closer Look at the Art

It is worth slowing down on the artwork, because there is real craft in it. This is bold, confident, comic-book painting — flat green skin modelled with soft shadow, a shock of dark widow's-peak hair, and heavy black eyebrows that give the whole face a wicked, mischievous set. The eyes are the first hook: yellow-orange, with tall vertical cat-slit pupils that make him look feline and predatory at once. But the mouth is the star. That enormous curling grin runs almost ear to ear, packed with pointed white fangs top and bottom, a red tongue showing between them, the whole leer framed in red lips. It is theatrical, gleeful and just cartoonish enough to be funny rather than frightening — a monster who is thoroughly enjoying being a monster.

🧷 Made to Be Worn

The pin-back button is one of the great democratic objects of pop culture — cheap to make, endlessly wearable, and for a century the way fans have flown their flags. In the 1980s a button on a denim jacket or a backpack strap was a genuine playground signal, and few designs make a bolder one than Cat Bat's huge fanged grin. That face reads instantly from across a room; it grabs an eye, earns a grin, and finds the other people who like their monsters loud and gleeful. Worn today — on a jacket, a bag, a hat or a lanyard — it does exactly the same job, an unmissable little burst of retro monster attitude.

😱 A Small Survivor

Objects like this were never built to last. They were made cheap, sold for pocket money, and treated as throwaway fun, which is exactly why a bright, unworn Cat Bat turning up decades later is such a small pleasure. Most were pinned on, worn to pieces and lost; the survivors tend to be the ones tucked away and forgotten, like this one — green still vivid, fangs still gleaming, grin still enormous, ready to leer at someone new.

🕰️ The Craze It Came From

For a few glorious years in the mid-1980s, disgusting and monstrous was the whole marketing plan. In 1985 AmToy launched Madballs — squishy foam balls molded into hideous grinning faces — and Topps unleashed Garbage Pail Kids, the sticker cards that turned sweet Cabbage Patch babies into oozing little horrors. Parents were appalled; kids were obsessed; and that tension only poured fuel on the fire. Around those licensed hits grew a whole cloud of tributes and unlicensed spin-offs, and cheap pin-back buttons like this were the most affordable way for a kid to wear the craze on a jacket or a bag.

Cat Bat belongs to that wider gross-out moment. He is an independent tribute pin, made in the spirit of the trend rather than an official Madballs or Garbage Pail Kids product — and that unbranded, outsider-art energy is part of the charm.

🔍 An Honest Look at the Back

Turn the pin over and you get the plain truth of it. It is a classic pin-back button: a metal shell with the printed art sealed under a domed clear film on the front, and on the back a dark gunmetal surface fitted with a working gold-tone steel safety pin. Here is where I stay straight with you — there is no maker's name, no company logo, and no copyright or trademark mark anywhere on this pin. That absence is exactly why I do not, and will not, call it an official Madballs or Garbage Pail Kids button. It carries no such licensing, and I will not pretend otherwise. What it honestly is: an unbranded 1980s gross-out tribute pin, with its own character name printed on the face and nothing on the back but the pin itself.

📏 Size and Scale

This is a compact, wearable button — roughly an inch and a quarter across, comfortably larger than a US quarter. So you never have to take my word for it, several of the photographs include a real quarter set beside the pins for scale; line them up and the true size is obvious at a glance.

✨ Condition

It presents beautifully. The printed colours are bright and unfaded, the domed film over the art is clean and glossy, and the safety pin on the back is intact and works exactly as it should. It reads as unused old store stock — bright, crisp and unworn, with only the light, ordinary handling you would expect from a small object that has spent its life tucked away rather than pinned to a jacket. As with any genuine vintage piece, tiny surface signs of age can be present, and the photographs are the definitive record; what you see is what you will receive. Offered exactly as pictured, nothing altered and nothing hidden.

💡 Ways to Enjoy It

• 🧥 Wear it on a denim jacket, a hoodie, a hat, a tote bag or a backpack strap for an instant hit of retro monster attitude.
• 🖼️ Pin it into a shadow box or a frame alongside other monster and gross-out pins to build a whole wall of cheerful ugliness.
• 🎁 Give it to the friend with the darkest sense of humour, the horror-movie fan, or anyone who loves a good grinning monster.
• 📌 Drop it on a corkboard, a lanyard or a battle vest as a weird, fanged conversation starter.
• 🦇 Or just keep it as what it is — a small, honest, wonderfully monstrous piece of 1980s pop culture.

❓ Questions Worth Answering

Is this an official Madballs or Garbage Pail Kids pin?

No. There is no maker, brand or copyright mark anywhere on it, so I describe it honestly as an unlicensed tribute pin made in the spirit of that 1980s gross-out craze — not official AmToy or Topps product.

Does the pin say "Cat Bat" on it?

Yes. The character name CAT BAT is printed right on the front rim, and it is quoted here because it is genuinely there in the art. (This is a different character from the similar-looking "Evileen" pin in this seller's group.)

How big is it?

About an inch and a quarter across. A US quarter appears beside the pins in the photos so you can judge the exact size.

What condition is it in?

Bright, glossy and unworn, with a clean working safety pin, presenting as old store stock. Offered exactly as pictured.

🧼 Keeping It Bright

A pin like this asks almost nothing of you. The one firm rule is to leave the printed front alone — never clean it with water, sprays or abrasives, because the thin domed film sealed over the artwork can cloud or lift, and that cannot be undone. A soft, dry dusting is all it will ever need. Keep the metal back dry, since damp is the enemy of any steel pin, and if you are storing rather than wearing it, lay it flat in a sleeve, a button box or a display case so nothing rubs the face. Treated gently, it will look exactly as it does today for many years.

😱 Why It Is Worth Having

Some collectibles are prized for being rare and expensive. This one is worth having because it is real, funny and true to its moment — a genuine 1980s gross-out pin with its own grinning green monster and its own printed name, preserved in bright, unworn shape. It carries no invented pedigree and needs none. What it offers is the thing itself: a small, honest, wearable piece of the decade when a great monster was the height of cool. Cat Bat is ready to grin at someone new.