{"id":14389,"date":"2014-05-04T15:45:28","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T19:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=14389"},"modified":"2014-05-04T15:45:50","modified_gmt":"2014-05-04T19:45:50","slug":"may-the-4th-be-with-you-star-wars-mms-packs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=14389","title":{"rendered":"May the 4th Be With You – Star Wars M&M’s Packs!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CC_StarWarsMaythe4th_TITLE<\/p>\n

Today is May 4th or as it is currently known, Star Wars Day!\u00a0 To mark this fun holiday, I’m dedicating today’s post to the Star Wars-themed M&M’s candy package wrappers that came out in 2005.<\/p>\n

[Note: For some earlier Star Wars candy coverage, check out CollectingCandy.com’s post on Nestle’s 1979 Star Wars Pendant mail-away offer.<\/a>]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before getting to the M&M’s wrappers, I wanted to share a little background on my personal relationship to Star Wars and how it actually ties into my candy collecting.<\/p>\n

When Star Wars came out in 1977, my older brother Jeff and I saw it and like millions of other kids our age, we became fast fans.\u00a0 Because we were also collectors, we saved whatever cool Star Wars stuff we could, putting special emphasis on the the Topps trading cards series that were released in the late 70’s.<\/p>\n

When Empire Strikes Back rolled around in 1980, we spotted a trading card promotion on the bottoms of Hershey chocolate bar six-pack trays and manged to get a few.\u00a0 We added them to our Star Wars collection and we still have to this day (for some reason we trimmed the edges off of two of them). \u00a0 These pieces represent a part of our childhood Star Wars collection, but are also remarkable in that they were the very first pieces of candy packaging I would ever hold onto and save – a bit of foreshadowing to the hobby I now embrace.\u00a0 Here are those original three Hershey trays:<\/p>\n

\"Star

Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back – Hersheys Reeses Crunchy pack collector card – Darth Vader – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Star

Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back – Hersheys Reeses pack collector card – Boba Fett – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Star

Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back – Hersheys Krackel pack collector card – Luke on Tauntaun – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

Jumping ahead to 2005, the Star Wars prequel trilogy was hitting its apex with Episode III and the waves of licensing that accompanied it.\u00a0 One of those licensees was the Mars company and through its Star Wars license it released all sorts of confectionery tie-ins – most notably with their M&M’s mascots getting re-imagined as the cast from the Star Wars universe.<\/p>\n

One of the ways Mars put its Star Wars Episode III license to work was with a series of M&M’s packages divided into two flavor camps:\u00a0 Jedi Mix and Darth Mix.\u00a0\u00a0 The special packages each featured the image of an original cast member from a Star Wars film alongside one of the M&M’s mascots dressed similarly.\u00a0 A huge promotion – there were 72 different M&M’s packages produced.<\/p>\n

I have only a fraction of those 72 in my collection but they will hopefully give you a good idea of what the promotion looked like.\u00a0 Here are the ones I have (note the Dark Chocolate Peanut packs – unusual to find them in standard-sized packs):<\/p>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 01 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Jedi Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 02 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Jedi Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 04 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Jedi Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 05 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Jedi Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 06 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Jedi Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 07 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Peanut Jedi Mix – 3.27 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 09 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Peanut Jedi Mix – 3.27 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 10 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Peanut Jedi Mix – 3.27 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 11 of 72 – Milk Chocolate Peanut Jedi Mix – 3.27 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 13 of 72 – Dark Chocolate Darth Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 16 of 72 – Dark Chocolate Darth Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 17 of 72 – Dark Chocolate Darth Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 18 of 72 – Dark Chocolate Darth Mix – 3.14 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 22 of 72 – Dark Chocolate Peanut Darth Mix – 3.27 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 23 of 72 – Dark Chocolate Peanut Darth Mix – 3.27 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – 24 of 72 – Dark Chocolate Peanut Darth Mix – 3.27 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

Those are the 24 packs that I have – and as many as that is, it’s still only a third of the ones that were released!<\/p>\n

Though M&M’s Crispy had been discontinued in the United States by 2005, they were still being made in other parts of the world so Australia had an M&M’s Crispy package with a similar Star Wars Episode III promotion on it:<\/p>\n

\"Australia

Australia – Mars – M&M’s Star Wars Episode III – Crispy Darth Mix – 200g candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

As I said earlier, Mars released all sorts of product tied-into their Star Wars license and they even had Skittles in the mix.\u00a0 While there were 72 different Episode III M&M’s packages, Skittles came close with 48 different Star Wars-themed packages of their own.\u00a0\u00a0 Currently I only have one of the 48:<\/p>\n

\"Mars

Mars – Skittles Star Wars Episode III – 08 of 48 – Tropical – Hunt for Grevous – 2.17 oz candy package – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

And that’s everything I’ve got to share on this 2014 Star Wars Day!\u00a0 May the 4th Be With You and I’ll see you next time!<\/p>\n

\"CC_StarWarsMaythe4th_closing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is May 4th or as it is currently known, Star Wars Day!\u00a0 To mark this fun holiday, I’m dedicating today’s post to the Star Wars-themed M&M’s candy package wrappers that came out in 2005. [Note: For some earlier Star … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,134,4,59],"tags":[321,316,328,351,332,14,324,78,333,153,760,1204,1209,21,159,15,348,11],"class_list":["post-14389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1970s","category-1980s","category-hershey","category-mms","category-mars","tag-candy-collecting","tag-candy-collection","tag-candy-collector","tag-candy-wrapper-collection","tag-candy-wrapper-collector","tag-collectible","tag-collecting-candy","tag-confectionery","tag-confections","tag-licensed","tag-lucasfilm","tag-mms","tag-mars","tag-packaging","tag-star-wars","tag-sweets","tag-vintage-candy-wrapper","tag-wrapper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-3K5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14389"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14430,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389\/revisions\/14430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}