Halloween Zingers 2004

Happy Halloween everybody!

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.

Enjoy!

 

Don't put rocks in this guy's treat bag!

Fruit Of The Month - #18: Pumpkin-Face Gum

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.

Happy Halloween!

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 - #15: Loud-Mouth Lime

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.


Organic by funnyface

I'm looking forward to seeing more from this new venture!

I hope you've enjoyed this Fruit Of The Month segment celebrating our little lime friend.

Happy 7/11 Day!

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.

Happy 7/11 Day!

Cheetos Calendar - July 1987

Cheetos Calendar - June 1987

Fruit Of The Month - #14: Hunt's Snack Pack Peaches

Here's my Fruit Of The Month post for June 2011.

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.  :-)