Thursday, November 30, 2006
Here's a blast from the past. Pillsbury used to make powdered drink mixes named Funny Faces as a competitor to Kool Aid in many flavors, grape being my favorite. The most politically incorrect one was Chinese Cherry. That certainly couldn't be on the shelves today.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Of the two major brands fruit pies, these were my favorite. The Hostess ones were one big half moon shaped pie, but the Drake's were two individual pies covered with so much glazed sugar it would melt off in your hands. Fun trivia tip, both Drakes and Hostess are now owned by the same company, talk about monopolies!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
A combination game and candy, you had to move the candy Pac Men, Power Pills and Ghosts from the home area in the middle through the maze and to the hole in the bottom. Part of the huge Pac Man craze where they put Pac Man on just about everything from food to toys to games.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Welcome back to all after the holiday! We start this week with what was kind of like a square life saver. Charms candies are multi-fruit flavors just like Life Savers, but I always was partial to them over Life Savers, I just thought the flavors were better. I happened to see these for the first time in a long time this past weekend at a retro-store in L.A. while visiting for Thanksgiving. The store has a lot of cool stuff, and a lot of retro candy as well.
Here's a link to their website: http://www.ducksoupretro.com
Sunday, November 26, 2006
A Wonka candy that is no longer available, this little rounded discs came in a variety pack of fruit flavors. There has been a push to bring these back apparently.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
This one is basically a butterfinger center with a toasted coconut topping. Still available and definitely worth a try if you like peanut butter and coconut.
Friday, November 24, 2006
The Whatchamacallit bar was a crispy rice, peanut, caramel, and chocolate concoction that I believe you can still buy. Quite tasty I always thought.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Happy Turkey Day! Here's a treat you could wear as "Bling" to Thanksgiving dinner, then eat right after. Another homage to Mr. T! I pity the fool who doesn't like Turkey!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Thanksgiving starts with a rare treat. A white chocolate covered candy bar. The Zero bar is kind of a combination of a Snickers and a Mars Bar, with peanuts, almonds, nougat, and is covered in white chocolate. A lot of companies have started to make "special edition" bars in white chocolate, but this one's been available for over 20 years.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Another unusual snack that came out in the 70's, Funyuns were pseudo onion rings. I believe onions weren't even the primary ingredient.
Monday, November 20, 2006
These 'fries' were simply puffed corn in the shape of a french fry. My favorite was the hot fries (pictured) but there were plain, cheddar, and a few other flavors as well, including a cheesesteak flavor.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
For Sunday we have a candy that has been part of a trend for a while and may have even started the whole gross candy trend. Garbage Can Candy were little hard candy bits shaped like garbage. Things like dead fish, shoes, etc. These paved the way for all kinds of nasty stuff, like gummi worms and such.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
What's a Saturday without some gum. This was an interesting little product. A hunk of bubblegum that looked like a hamburger and came in a resealable burger box that looked like a fast food burger container.
Friday, November 17, 2006
We start the weekend with a novelty that I had pretty much forgotten about, but once I saw them, I remembered them well. Little plastic fruits with candy "dust" inside. Fun Fruits they were called.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Today's selection is another that seems to still be available. I haven't seen it in stores for a long time but looking online, it looks as if you can still get it. It was interesting in that it was targeted at adults, with the slogan/jingle "Toffifay is too good for kids, Toffifay, it's made for grownups".
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
I pity the fool who didn't eat Mr. T cereal! This was post A-Team, when he had a Saturday morning cartoon where he fought crime with a bunch of kids. It simply consisted of T shaped bits, I don't quite remember the taste of these, but they weren't around for long.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Paying homage to the Sugar "Family". The Daddy, the Mama, and the Babies! The Mama was just the Daddy covered in chocolate and I don't know if it's is even available anymore.
Monday, November 13, 2006
While most chocolate candy came in a "bar" shape, the Chunky bar was/is just a square hunk of chocolate with nuts and raisins. I think they tried making a couple different types but the raisin and peanut one is the only one that I think is still around, but I don't see them in that many places anymore.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
This cereal was the bane of my existence for the longest time. I kept asking people if they remembered this "monster" cereal but no one could. I was vindicated when Quentin Tarantino showed a box of this in Pulp Fiction, when Eric Stoltz's drug dealer character is sitting eating a bowl of it watching TV. It hasn't been available in a long time, so I would guess he wasn't actually eating it. A few years after this one went away, another fruit flavored monster cereal appeared and disappeared just as fast, can you name it??
Saturday, November 11, 2006
This was one of my personal favorites as a kid, it was loaded with sugar and stayed crunchy for a long time in milk, but was great just by the handful as a snack. Believe it or not, by popular demand, Quaker started making this again a few years back and its available via special order.
Friday, November 10, 2006
We kick the all cereal weekend off with a one that was just AWFUL. It turned the milk an orangish color and claimed it tasted like orange juice. This one didn't last long.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
This one was interesting. You could create a caramel apple simply by wrapping these sheets of caramel around your apple, no melting required.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
An all time classic. Remember all the rumors about Mikey from the Life cereal commercials and how he died from eating Pop Rocks and drinking Coke (or was it Pepsi?). Interesting side note about Mikey. My cousin went to Fairfield U. in Connecticut and he was in her class there and he was apparently a giant jerk.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Monday, November 06, 2006
We'll start the week with some edible jewelry. The candy necklace was the first of many of these, with 
watche
s and bracelets also sold.
watche
s and bracelets also sold.Sunday, November 05, 2006
Now this one was a favorite of mine, chocolate cake filled with peanut butter filling. It went well with chocolate milk. The Funny Bone!
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Here we have the Suzy-Q. Another one I didn't like, it was spongy devils food cake with a creamy filling that had a different consistency from their other fillings. Definitely an aquired taste.
Friday, November 03, 2006
It's a Hostess Snack Cake weekend. We start out with a bit of an oddball. The quintessential Twinkie was given a chocolatey coting in the late 70's and rebranded the Chocodile. I was never fond of these, the creamy filling seemed to have a different taste and consistency than the Twinkie and I am not sure if they are still even made, but definitely a retro snack.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
I used to love these as a kid. They started out crunchy like candy, but ended up gum. Still available too!
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Available in Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry and best eaten after freezing, the Charleston Chew was a nougat lovers dream.
