Here's the Fruit Of The Month winner for December 2011. Expanding from last month's winner, Orangehead, Ferrara Pan has assembled some of his friends on a delightful new Christmas themed box.
Chewy Lemonhead & Friends are now Frosty Chewy Lemonhead & Friends. Lemonhead, Cherryhead and Applehead are having a good time making snowballs in their Santa hats amidst a beautiful green backdrop.
Interestingly enough, the lemon candies inside are white instead of the usual yellow. Along with the green Appleheads and red Cherryheads, the now-white Lemonheads fit in nicely with the holiday colors.
Congratulations and thanks to the Ferrara Pan candy company for a wonderful new stocking stuffer!
Here's my Fruit Of The Month post for November 2011. Just barely got this one in before December!
This month I'm celebrating a tangy treat from Ferrara Pan -- Orangehead candy!
Orangeheads were introduced in March of 1996 as an extension of their popular Lemonhead candy line. Small semi-hard candies with a softer, flaky candy shell, these are really tasty.
Quite unfortunately, I have to report that Orangehead was discontinued earlier this year. I've confirmed that fact with a Ferrara Pan company representative. :-(
Here's a box that I saved from 2008. The good old Orangehead mascot has looked the same on the box ever since the product's inception.
When the Chewy Lemonhead & Friends assorted pack was introduced, it included a chewy version of Orangheads along with the other flavors. Tastes just like the original Orangheads, but softer on the teeth.
Here's a box of those that I saved from 2008. You can see that they gave Orangehead a redesign here, but that redesign never made it to the regular Orangehead box, as far as I've seen at least. Applehead, Grapehead and Cherryhead, however, got their own new box designs earlier this year.
While regular Orangehead has been discontinued, fortunately the chewy version is still in the Chewy Lemonhead & Friends pack. Hopefully that will not change. Long live Orangehead!
Today I'm sharing with you this ghoulishly good snack cake box from Dolly Madison. Perennial snacking favorite Zingers are here in a fun Halloween themed box from 2004.
Since we are closing in on Halloween, I picked an appropriate choice for Fruit Of The Month. For October 2011, I'm highlighting Pumpkin-Face Bubble Gum!
Pumpkin-Face Bubble Gum was a holiday creation from Fleer, makers of myriad cool and creative gum products over the years. The company was especially on a roll in the 1980s, which is when this package was made.
Pumpkin-Face gum was introduced to the market in 1982 (reference). By the 1990s, the package was re-designed to look like this.
The pumpkin, or jack-o-lantern here proclaims itself as "sweet 'n juicy", although pumpkin flavor gum does not sound all that appealing to me. I don't remember trying this product before, but it's a fun little collectible.
My apologies in advance for stooping to this level, but here's a fun little product mascot that needed to be documented.
This gross looking guy is, well, a booger. Boogerman is his name, and he once represented Boogers and Stretchy Boogers gummy candy products in the 1980s and 1990s. If you can look past the "yuck" factor, it's a fun candy salesman who seems to be full of personality.
Stretchy Boogers candy was made in Argentina and imported into the US by Confex.
According to US trademark records, Boogerman was first used in commerce in August 1988 (see logo trademark submission here). Apparently there was first a plain "Boogers" candy in 1988 (see trademark submission here), followed by Stretchy Boogers in December 1989 (see trademark submission here.)
Here's an old candy wrapper I have, which is not dated, but would be from the very late 1980s or more likely the early 1990s. Boogerman is sampling the goods there atop the logo. Also of interesting note is the assortment of other flavors and shapes, including Goopy Grape, Lumpy Lemon, Clingy Cherry and Wobble Melon. I'd like to find those, too!
I found a small image of the original "Boogers" candy wrapper -- also with Boogerman on it -- in the November 1989 issue of Spy magazine. See that magazine on-line here and scroll down to page 9 and look at the bottom of that page.
Does anybody remember eating these? (No jokes, please. I mean the actual candy.)
On the back of the package we see a different image of Boogerman, imploring kids to send in their best booger jokes. Winners would be picked (sorry) to have their jokes printed on a wrapper. Pretty cool.
Surprisingly, I found these candy Boogers mentioned in a 1989 Time magazine article which underscored the product's popularity among kids. See the Time article here. Time also makes reference to the mascot's name along with costumed Boogerman promotional appearances. Oh, I'd love to see some of those photos!
Here's my Fruit Of The Month post for August 2011 -- Sour Punch Bits candy.
I noticed last year that American Licorice introduced a new box design for their Sour Punch Bits, so I thought I would show the before and after photos.
Here are the tangerine-lemonade boxes first from 2009 and then 2010 below. Fortunately, the little Sour Punch mascots made the leap onto the new boxes. The new design seems to stand out more, so I'd say it was a good move.
The Fruit Of The Month award for July 2011 goes to none other than Loud-Mouth Lime! LML was one of the original flavors of Pillsbury Funny Face drink mix in 1964, along with Goofy Grape, Rootin'-Tootin' Raspberry, Injun Orange, Freckle Face Strawberry and Chinese Cherry. Together they quenched a lot of thirsts in the groovy 1960s.
Here's an unopened, vintage pack from 1965-1966. This was a second series pack.
By 1967, the lime flavor was discontinued. Lefty Lemon became Lefty Lemon-Lime. Our friend Loud-Mouth Lime took on a new persona (and flavor) as Loud-Mouth Punch. Compare the two packs below. The Punch pack is from the early '70s, but it's still basically the same mascot, lime-shaped but now with a really snazzy hat.
Take a look at this vintage commercial on YouTube:
Several years ago, Funko put out an awesome set of Wacky Wobbler bobblehead figures, expertly designed in the likeness of six of our Funny Face friends. Loud-Mouth Lime somehow did not make the cut in that set. However, I'm happy to report that last month Funko released this wonderful new LML bobblehead!
Really cool.
Also in modern Funny Face news, there's still a cartoon series in the works, as I've posted previously on this blog. Take a look at a newly animated Loud-Mouth Lime in this cartoon short on Daily Motion.
July 11th is 7/11 Day, a day in which we celebrate all things 7-Eleven related. The convenience store chain is gracious enough to offer free 7.11 ounce Slurpees at participating locations on this day only.
I enjoyed a Big Red flavored Slurpee and a bag of 7-Select pretzels today.
They seem to put out a new special edition free cup every year. This year's is really nice with a cupcake sporting 7 and 11 candles.
This is a flashback for us kids of the 1970s! Hunt's Snack Pack products, primarily pudding and fruit cups, made regular appearances in my lunchbox back then. This month I'm happy to show this great Snack Pack Diced Peaches box from 1974.
There's the Snack Pack kid, who was nameless as far as I know, smiling big and proudly showing us that the lids are now safe for kids. Let's not kid ourselves -- those lids were deadly and everybody knew it! Raise your hand if you ever got cut by one of those lids. (I'm raising my hand from 4th grade.)
I've got a few other Snack Pack collectibles and did a bit of research on the product line. The Diced Peaches were introduced in 1969.I'm fairly certain that this box is from 1974, having found evidence of the Snack Pack kid being used only between 1973 and 1974. Prior to that they had a horse named "Snack Pack", and then by 1975 they brought in a new mascot named "Snack Pack Jack".
The kid here also appeared on the pudding boxes during those years, but I do not have any of them.
Open wide and have a spoonful of peaches! I hope it puts a smile on your face. :-)
Right now, on a cereal aisle near you, you can get Trix cereal with these Funny Fruity Stickers inside. There's a wacky assorted bunch of fruit characters to collect -- lemon, orange, watermelon, banana and more!
To me this is an old-school promotion. I love the totally generic premiums like we used to get back in the '70s. They're not promoting a movie or a TV show. It's just good goofy fun, the way it should be.
There are four different sticker sheets, each with three sections. Here's the first one I got, showing the three sections separately here.
Meet Morris, Doris, Norris, Cloris and Boris! Collectively these little raisins got together to teach us a fun magic trick. Follow the instructions here on the side of the box and put on a show to impress your friends and family with your Raisin Training skills!
I spotted this magical quintet on the side of a Burger King kids meal box -- a Magic Meal to be precise. It's a fun little box dating to 1981. There's the old Magical Burger King mascot on the box, too. He always had a few tricks up his sleeve.
Here's myFruit Of The Monthpost for March 2011 -- Gummy Black & Red Berries candy. As you can see, here we have some berry characters putting on a show for us. Conveniently they are black and red, just like the product name says. It looks like the gang is dancing under the spotlight to an audience full of adoring berry fans. The Cinema Sweets brand comes from China, distributed here in the U.S. by Greenbrier International of Chesapeake, Virginia. I found this at one of the dollar stores back in 2009.
Yesterday, I stopped by the store to pick up a few things. As usual, I strayed from the shopping list and made a run through the snack aisles to see if there was anything new. Much to my surprise I discovered a new box design for Hawaiian Punch Fruit Snacks along with a totally modern new look for Punchy himself!
Packages change, sure -- but I did not expect such a radical change to the iconic, fist-packing little guy we've all come to know and love for over 40 years.
Overall, the new fruit snacks box is pretty sweet looking. I love the colors, the wave and especially the flying gummy bits right there on the box front. You know what you're getting right up front. But the newly designed Punchy just isn't working for me. Gone is the pasty-faced mascot who always packed a wallop, and in comes the computer generated, suntanned version.
The fun, but menacing fist was replaced with the (apparently) more kid-friendly "hang loose" sign. Hmmm...
Well let's dive into the details and read more below. Here's the new style box, again pretty dynamic looking.
Here's the outgoing box style with the more familiar version of Punchy with his surfboard. Notice the old box includes a Brach's logo. Farley & Sathers was licensed to distribute the fruit snacks and previously co-branded Hawaiian Punch and Brach's. They're still made by the same company, but they've moved away from the Brach's tie-in.
Taking a quick peek over at hawaiianpunch.com, we see that the site is currently closed as of this post, but with a teaser for "New Punchy! Same great taste!"
Apparently we're in for a full-scale makeover of all Hawaiian Punch products, including cans, bottles, drink mixes and fruit snacks.
Getting back to the fruit snacks, comparing the old (left) vs. new (right) boxes, we see that they have also changed the actual shapes of the two Punchy snacks themselves.
Next, here are the inner snack pouches (old on left, new on right). I prefer the new pouch for the full scene depicted compared to the simple, small, repeated logo on the old one.
So far I've not seen the H-P makeover on any other products, but I'll be watching out for them. Change is good, they say, and I must admit the new box design is beautiful... but the radical Punchy change is a disappointment.
I'll end with a plug. These are some of the best tasting fruit snacks ever! I've tried many different brands, and these are so flavorful!
"How about a nice Hawaiian Punch?" ... Sure, but give me back my old Punchy!
Here's myFruit Of The Monthpost for February 2011 -- Orange Plus. Orange Plus was a brand of orange juice that was made by Birdseye. This is a coupon form was used to mail away for their plush mascot. If the mascot has a name, it has escaped me. The form simply refers to it as "Orange Plush". Notice the "+" sign on its hat!
This offer came out either in 1969 or early 1970. The reverse side says it expired June 30, 1970.
I don't believe I've seen one of these actual plush toys. Does anyone out there have one?
I'm celebrating today with this delightful box of Jell-O Pudding Pops from my collection. It is from 1989, representing their special Chocolate Lovers variety -- milk chocolate, chocolate fudge and double chocolate swirl. Mmm!
Not only is this a tasty treat, but we were treated to four little chocolate mascots. The Pudding Cupid is just marvelous with his wings, bow and arrows!
The Pudding Pops commercials with Bill Cosby sure were memorable, making these a a must-have treat for many years. The thought of them now is making my very hungry as I'm typing this!
Here's myFruit Of The Monthpost for January 2011 -- Wild Crazy Fruit Snacks! From Global Brands, made in Indonesia and sold here in the U.S., this product features a trio of wild and crazy guys. There's Groovy Grape on a skateboard, Jammin' Strawberry on roller blades and Very Berry Cherry on a scooter.
I have a theory on why these guys look so kooky. They're not wearing helmets, knee pads or elbow pads, so they've probably had some wicked spills out on the pavement. Just a thought really.
The only other question I have is about Very Berry Cherry. Tell me, since when is a cherry considered a berry?
This box is from 2010 and has a really nice overall design.
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