Mixing bubblegum and taffy might seem like a bit of a redundant concept – they’re both a chewable confection, after all. But back in 1986, novelty bubblegum manufacturer Amurol did just that when they introduced Baffy, the “taffy that turns into bubble gum”.
Early last year I published a piece on the souvenir candy packaging that is often available at Disney theme parks. It was a lot of fun showcasing the pieces I had for that and it reminded me that there has been quite a lot of Disney candy over the years licensed for sale at standard retail. One of the companies that was in the licensed Disney candy business for decades was American Candy Co. Today I’ll be looking at American Candy’s Disney hard candy lineup first launched in 1977.
Troll dolls were invented by Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam in 1959. Dam created his first Trolls as a way to provide affordable playthings for his daughter and once her friends saw them, word spread. Within a few years, Trolls became a worldwide sensation and they would continue to be one through the 1960’s. The worldwide Troll craze would eventually die down but in the early 1990’s enthusiasm for Trolls would come back bigger than ever. The 1990’s saw all sorts of licensed tie-ins and products featuring the colorfully-haired Troll folk.
One of those 1990’s products was a Troll-shaped gummi candy from the Trolli company.
Back in the 1970’s the Deran Confectionery Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts had a line of flavored caramels sold under the name Wilds. Deran’s Wilds disappeared from store shelves decades ago but today I’m happy to be presenting CollectingCandy.com’s exclusive coverage of them – you won’t find anything written about these anywhere else online. So let’s get to it and take a look at a sweet treat not seen since the 1970’s: Deran’s Wilds!
Since launching back in early 2012, we’ve never celebrated St. Patrick’s Day here on CollectingCandy.com. The reason is pretty simple in that St. Patrick’s isn’t a holiday that has much of an association with candy – it’s mostly associated with beer. So it’s near-impossible to find candy or packaging created specifically for St. Patrick’s as there was never a strong reason to acknowledge it. But today I’ve got a neat offering from a few years ago that was created specifically to mark St. Patrick’s Day!
Back in January I devoted a three part series to the history of branded confectionery offerings from 7-Eleven stores here in the United States. I made special note of the two versions of Slurpee gum lines that were released in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Within those posts I wondered when we might next see a Slurpee-branded confection, not realizing that 7-Eleven Australia had already delivered just that with their Slurpee Shocks!
The Mentos brand falls along the outer edge of the core confectionery category that I usually cover here on the site. In most cases it’s more mint than candy, though sometimes it is a fruit-flavored chew and hence more typically candy. Ultimately, because they’re such a fun brand and one that’s been around a lot longer than you might expect, I decided it was time to devote some ink and illuminate some of the fun aspects of Mentos!
Today I’m taking a look at a series of wrappers released by Cadbury UK in the early-1970’s which featured characters from the classic children’s television show, The Wombles.
Today we’re looking back at a bar first released in 1971 under the Heath brand and whose initial marketing push became intimately tied to fierce linebacker and NFL legend, Dick Butkus. Let’s take a look at the Heath Super Crunch!
Starting just over a year ago, Wrigley began introducing new beverage-inspired flavors to it’s Hubba Bubba lineup. The first two to land in stores were Hubba Bubba Dr. Pepper and Hubba Bubba Orange Crush. Now arriving early in 2014 are the new Hubba Bubba A&W Root Beer and Hubba Bubba Hawaiian Punch flavors. Today we’ll take a look at those as well as a few earlier confectionery releases that carried these classic beverage brand names!
