Fruit Of The Month - #21: Mike and Ike Stripes

My Fruit Of The Month post for February 2012 coincides perfectly with today's holiday. Here in the U.S., we celebrate President's Day today! I can remember when we celebrated Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays on separate holidays, but these days they have to share.

This candy box is a patriotic variety of the classic Mike and Ike called Stripes. The candies were red, white and blue, of course, flavored as cherry, blueberry and vanilla cream.

The little fruit guys here were on other Mike and Ike boxes in the early to mid 2000s. They were typically a cherry and a lemon, but here the lemon is morphed into a blueberry for the special occasion.

Also, I'm presenting this Just Born sales flier which shows us that the Stripes candy was introduced for President's Day in 2002 -- 10 years ago!

I hope this makes you feel extra patriotic today, setting aside political differences to remember what makes our country great.

Fruit Of The Month - #19: Orangehead

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!

Stretchy Boogers Gummy Candy

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!

 

That's all for now!

Fruit Of The Month - #17: Sour Punch Watermelon

Here's my Fruit Of The Month post for September 2011 -- Sour Patch Watermelon candy.

I picked up this tasty box of chewy candy in 2010. Why limit yourself to one product mascot when you can have a whole slew of little watermelon guys?

Fruit Of The Month - #16: Sour Punch Candy

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.

Fruit Of The Month - #11: Gummy Black & Red Berries

Here's my Fruit Of The Month post 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.

Merry Christmas from Willy Wonka!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas yesterday!

I wanted to share these old candy boxes with you for the holiday. These jawbreakers from Willy Wonka are mini versions called Christmas Gobstoppers. They are from 1991.

When I found them, the boxes were still full, though I have no intent of eating 19 year old candy! The previous owner had used them back then to make Christmas ornaments. Here's a picture of one as I found them.

For sake of comparison, here's a more modern holiday-themed Gobstoppers box. I saved this box of Gobstopper Snowballs during Christmas of 2006.

They still make Gobstopper Snowballs. I found them in larger sized boxes this year. The packages have been redesigned and no longer feature the cool Gobstopper mascots. Hopefully the folks at Wonka will correct that next year.

Fruit Of The Month - #6: Rascals Candy

Here's my Fruit Of The Month feature for October 2010 -- four fruit friends collectively known as Rascals, as in Rascals candy.


I have this old candy bag from 1989. At the time, Rascals candies were made by Warner-Lambert. These fruit-shaped candy bits were likely intended to compete directly against Willy Wonka's Runts candy.





Here are close-ups of the four mascots -- a Native American styled apple (or is that a cherry?), a punching orange, a silly strawberry and a swimming watermelon.














I don't remember ever eating these, but I did enjoy Willy Wonka Runts, and still do.


Here's an old Rascals commercial at Retro Junk.


Rascals are now made by Concord Confections, and I found a current image this page. The mascots have been changed, but still look like a lot of fun.


If you know more about Rascals, please let me know. I haven't found much else. I'm guessing they were created in the 1980s. We'll have to wait for more information to surface.

Fruit Of The Month - #4: Chewy Extinguisher

Here's my Fruit Of The Month post for August 2010.

From the American Licorice Company in 2008 here's a box of Chewy Extinguisher candy, sour citrus variety. They treated us to four fun fruit mascots on this box -- Tangy Tangerine, Sour Lemon, Super Sour Lime and Berry Sweet Relief!

Along with the fun characters this was an easy grab for me because I really enjoy any kinds lime and tangerine candies. Apparently you're supposed to be so shocked by the sourness of the orange, yellow and green candies that you've got to down a blue one for some relief.

I assumed these would be outrageously sour, but they were actually rather mild. Still it was some very good candy and a delightful box!

See more of these guys at http://www.extinguishercandy.com/

Fruit Of The Month - #2: Mr. Melon

The Fruit Of The Month for May 2010 is none other than Mr. Melon!

Mr. Melon was a candy made by the Ferrara Pan candy company. Not surprisingly, it was watermelon flavored. Mr. Melon himself was a friendly little fellow, smiling and waving right on the box, inviting shoppers to pick up a box by the checkout stand.

This box is from 1985 and still full of vintage candy. I have no plans of eating it, of course, but wanted to photograph it for posterity. 

I don't know much more about Mr. Melon. When was he first created? How long was he on the market? Questions to be answered. Please post a comment if you have information to share.

For now, we'll just enjoy these photos and soak in some watermelon goodness.

Stay tuned for next month's Fruit Of The Month post!