Merry Christmas from Chips Ahoy!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Recently I picked up this package of Chips Ahoy! cookies. I really love the Cookie Guy mascot and this special edition Christmas packaging. These are available at Wal-Mart in promotion of the Merry Madagascar DVD release.

Ho ho ho!

Remember Garfield cereal?

Amongst my collection of cereal premiums was the Garfield sticker sheet below. It was still sealed in the package along with this interesting coupon.

I do not remember a Garfield cereal from Quaker Oats, but this indicates that it was on the market at least in 1985. The coupon expired in May 1985.

We can see that the cereal came in both raspberry and blueberry flavors. There must have been two different styles of cereal boxes, likely very colorful and similar to the illustration on the coupon.

Instinctively, I wonder how the taste of blueberry Garfield compared to monster cereal staple Boo Berry, but alas, I will never know.

This one is still a mystery to me. Perhaps it was a test market, was otherwise short-lived or it was ubiquitous and I just missed it. Does anyone remember a Garfield cereal from Quaker Oats?

Hostess Cakes Logos and News

It was announced on November 2, 2009 that Interstate Bakeries Corporation was changing its name to Hostess Brands! As a long-time Hostess cakes fan, I thought this was pretty substantial news.

Interstate Bakeries Corporation has also been known at different times as Interstate Brands Corporation, Interstate Brands Companies, IBC Holdings Company and Interstate Baking Company. IBC has a long history before acquiring Hostess in 1995, including Dolly Madison cakes and Drake's cakes among other brands.

I thought I would post a little history of the Hostess brand name and the companies responsible for making such tasty treats as Hostess Twinkies, Hostess Ding Dongs and Hostess Fruit Pies. After doing some extensive research, I found a fair amount of inaccurate information out there on the internet. Here's a summary I put together which should be reliable enough:

• 1919 - Continental Baking Company creates their "CupCakes", though not branded as Hostess yet.
• 1925 - Hostess brand name started as part of Continental Baking Company (CBC) when CBC bought Taggart Bakery, makers of Wonder Bread.
• 1930 - James Dewar invents the Twinkie for CBC in Indianapolis.
• March 1967 - Hostess Ding Dongs are created.
• April 1967 - Hostess Ho Hos are created in San Francisco.
• September 13, 1968 - ITT Corporation (International Telephone and Telegraph) bought CBC, making it a wholly owned subsidiary, forming ITT Continental Baking Company (ITT Continental) with headquarters in Rye, NY.
• 1970-1971 - Hostess mascots such as Twinkie the Kid, Captain CupCake, King Ding Dong and others are created by artist Don Duga to represent products in animated commercials.
• October 9, 1984 - ITT sold CBC to Ralston-Purina (RP). RP retained the CBC name as a subsidiary, headquartered in St. Louis, MO.
• 1984-1995 - As far as I've been able to tell, the Ralston-Purina (RP) name and "checkerboard" logo were never used on Hostess packaging. Products still maintained the Hostess and Continental Baking Company names.
• July 24, 1995 - Interstate Brands Corporation completed purchasing CBC from RP.
• 1995 - The Continental Baking Company name was no longer used at this point.
• 1995 - Interstate Brands Company changes its name to Interstate Bakeries Corporation and the headquarters was in Kansas City, MO.
• 2009 - IBC corporate headquarters moved to Irving, TX (near Dallas) after emerging from bankruptcy.
• November 2, 2009 - Interstate Bakeries Corporation changes company name to Hostess Brands.

Despite all of the changes over the years, the Hostess brand name has remained steady and strong for nearly 85 years!

Here are some Hostess logos over the years.

Late '60s to early '70s bird logo (courtesy of Jason)

1970

1977

1978

1991

2001

2008

2000 IBC

2008 IBC

1978 Freshness Pledge

1991 Freshness Pledge

2000 Quality Pledge

Sorry for the boring post, but as a fan and collector of Hostess items, I think it is important to know some of the history.

For those who stuck it out to the end of this post, you are hereby rewarded with this YouTube commercial posted by FuzzyMemoriesTV and featuring Twinkie the Kid and Fruit Pie the Magician.

Happy Halloween 2009!

I hope everyone is having a nice Halloween. I've sure had my fill of candy and treats today.

Here are a few holiday themed items I thought I'd share today.

First is a special edition of Chips Ahoy! cookies from Nabisco. Cookie Guy, their mascot, is dressed up as a vampire bat! Orange morsels are mixed in with the chocolate to make an extra special treat.




Next is a fun Halloween sign from a Hostess outlet store. This is from a few years ago and features Fruit Pie The Magician and Twinkie the Kid showing off the holiday goodies. Thanks to my buddy Gregg for this!



Lastly, here's a surprise find at Dunkin' Donuts this year. It's a pretty groovy Halloween box. Best of all it was filled with those delicious Munchkins!

Sugar Crisp Cereal - 1960s

One of my all-time favorite product mascots is none other than Sugar Bear, the wise-cracking, super-cool, anthropomorphic bear from Post Cereal fame.

Though the cereal has changed names over the years from Sugar Crisp to Super Sugar Crisp to Super Golden Crisp to finally just Golden Crisp, Sugar Bear has been keeping it cool on the breakfast table since 1963.

Here's an unused wrapper that would have gone on a single-serving cereal box between 1966 and 1968.

"Can't get enough of that Sugar Crisp!"

National Waffle Day 2009!

Today, August 24, is National Waffle Day in the United States! This celebrates the day in 1869 that Cornelius Swarthout patented the first U.S. waffle iron -- 140 years ago!

Be sure to enjoy some waffles today in celebration of Mr. Swarthout's contribution to the American breakfast table! Here are a couple of items I pulled out to share today.

First is this vintage Eggo Nutri-Grain waffles box from 1985:

And here's an Eggo Cereal box from Kellogg's earlier this year, 2009:

Lastly, here's an old Eggo Waffles commercial which appears to be from the late 1970s or early 1980s. It was posted to YouTube by Thessair.

Blackberry meets Blackberry

I was having a little fun here with my smartphone. Now I can take a bit of vintage Fruit Pie magic with me everywhere. After all, you never know when a giant sea monster will appear demanding snack cakes. Now where's my cape...?

Jungle Fred and the Toast'em Animals

(not Fred)

Did you ever have wild animals pop out of your toaster? If you were a kid in the late 1960s, that may have happened in a kitchen near you!

Popping off supermarket shelves and onto breakfast tables everywhere in the mid 1960s were new toaster pastries. There were Pop-Tarts by Kellogg's, Toastettes by Nabisco and Toast'ems by General Foods.

It seems that around 1967 Toast'ems launched another product specifically geared for kids called Toast'em Animals. These goodies came in colorful boxes, brilliantly designed with fun animals. The first flavors were Sugar Spice Lions, Chocolate Elephants and Berry Bears. (Oh my!) Sugar Spice Lions were also called Cinnamon Lions, though I'm not sure when the name changed.

My friend Dan has one of the original boxes on his blog: click here

And my friend PopTartsBox has an original supermarket display photo on Flickr: click here

According to the commercial and some loyal Toast'em fans, these pastries were bursting with flavor! Here's an image of the one-and-only Jungle Fred, a seasoned wild game hunter with a keen awareness of Toast'em Animals.

(Jungle Fred)

As the commercial goes, Jungle Fred reviews his super-secret supermarket map to stalk his crumbly prey. A priceless bit of animation and advertising history, here's the commercial which was uploaded to YouTube by retrotvluver.

What a treat! Jungle Fred looks like he may have been a cousin of the great Cap'n Crunch.

Some time after the original three flavors hit the market, General Foods continued the line with three more -- Peanut Butter Buffalo, Munch-A-Berry Monkey and Tutti-Frutti Owl. I have this lovely fold-over coupon in my collection which shows the three new fun-to-eat varieties. It's undated but I'd guess it's from 1968.

We see here that there were other Toast'em brands including Fancy Frosted and Pop-Ups. As for premiums, I know of some Toast'em Animals iron-ons. There may have been other items, though I'm not an expert on this product line.

As for Jungle Fred, I can only hope that he had many more adventures and lived a long life full of pastries and stories to tell. If you have memories or more information about Toast'em Animals, click the comments link below and post a comment. Of course I'd love to find one of the original boxes if you've got one lost in the back of your pantry. :-)

(Jungle Fred and his super-secret supermarket map)

Happy 7-Eleven Day 2009!

Today is 7-Eleven Day -- July 11th! Stores were giving away free 7.11 ounce Slurpees today in celebration.

Slurpees have been one of my great obsessions since childhood. The perfect mix of ice, syrup, colors, cool straws and cups. Of course back in the old days we were treated to all sorts of collectible plastic cups featuring super heroes, baseball players and cartoon characters. Fortunately I've never outgrown my love for Slurpees. I grab one whenever I can, and rather frequently in this crazy summer heat!

Here's a vintage matchbook cover from 7-Eleven in the 1960s. They used this bespectacled fellow in some of their ads back then. I'd like to know if he had a name. Also we see the older style store logo here. I'm more familiar with the logo atop this blog post from the 1970s to today.

And while we're at it, let's enjoy some salty snacks with our Big Gulp or Slurpee. Nothing better than Frito-Lay products to tackle that job! Here's a cross-promotional pog from the early 1990s in Hawaii featuring Chester Cheetah. "It isn't easy being cheesy," though it's much easier with an ice cold Slurpee on hand.

Golden Crisp / Night At The Museum Promotion

Post Cereal had a nice promotion this year in conjunction with the Night At The Museum movie. Some really cool cereal boxes were produced, like this one from Golden Crisp. I saved one from Honey-Comb and Fruity Pebbles, too.

They didn't do anything special on the box backs. They've used this same back in recent years.