The Topps Company was founded in America in 1938 and produced Bazooka bubble gum. The first cards were included with their gum in 1950 and they went into partnership with the British A&BC in 1959.

In 1962 they bought out one of the A&BC directors and so were involved with the A&BC football sets from this point on. In fact the A&BC set issued in 1962/63 carried the name Bazooka.

Unfortunately, problms arose with the partnership, and in 1974 Topps won a litigation case against A&BC which resulted in the latter company being wound up.

Topps stepped into the void left by A&BC producing their own sets from 1975 until 1981.

They bought the Merlin company in 1995, producing sticker albums under that name since then.