{"id":5580,"date":"2012-08-03T08:43:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T12:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=5580"},"modified":"2012-08-04T00:21:26","modified_gmt":"2012-08-04T04:21:26","slug":"evolution-of-the-skrunch-willy-wonkas-super-skrunch-that-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=5580","title":{"rendered":"Evolution of the Skrunch! Willy Wonka’s Super Skrunch, that is."},"content":{"rendered":"

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As I teased yesterday<\/a>, today’s article is the first half of a two-day span of coverage for the original two Wonka candy treats.<\/p>\n

Today, we’ll be talking about Willy Wonka’s Super Skrunch.\u00a0 It might sound like an odd name, but for nearly a decade it was the chocolate bar face of the Wonka brand.<\/p>\n

I’m going to be revealing wrappers today covering the entire life cycle of the bar, as well as its ultimate end.\u00a0 Many of the pieces I’ll be showing can’t be found anywhere else, and today marks the first time most of these will be seen in the internet age.<\/p>\n

Before we get to the wrappers, I’d like to pull an image from yesterday’s trade ad preview shot.\u00a0 This is what an original 1970’s Willy Wonka Super Skrunch bar looked like, “unwrapped”:<\/p>\n

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Willy Wonka’s Super Skrunch bar “unwrapped” – circa 1972<\/p><\/div>\n

I recall gleefully consuming these bars on a number of occasions, and when I see this image I can nearly taste them again – that great peanut butter texture clear in my memory.\u00a0 Yum!<\/p>\n

Here’s a page from an early Willy Wonka Candy Salesman book:<\/p>\n

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Willy Wonka Candy Salesman book – Skrunch page – Courtesy Dan Goodsell<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Quaker Oats owned the Wonka brand when it was first introduced, and the earliest Super Skrunch bars were branded under that company.\u00a0 I don’t have any of the Quaker-branded Skrunch wrappers, but I do have a later example that retains the original design, as well as a 15-cent printed-on price:<\/p>\n

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Concorde Confections – Sunline – Willy Wonka’s – Super Skrunch 15-cent candy bar wrapper – early 1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

This “full-body” Willy Wonka Super Skrunch bar wrapper design lasted from the 1971 introduction of the bar, likely until around 1974 or 1975.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s another example of this first design wrapper.\u00a0 This time sporting a slightly lighter weight (1 oz, down from 1 1\/4oz), and without any printed-on price:<\/p>\n

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Concorde Confections – Sunline – Willy Wonka’s – Super Skrunch – early 1970’s – courtesy Dan Goodsell<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Here is the bottom and top of a Super Skrunch display box from the early 70’s:<\/p>\n

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Willy Wonka’s Super Skrunch – store display box top and bottom- Early 1970’s – Image courtesy Dan Goodsell<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

In 1975, the Super Skrunch wrapper would lose its original design, briefly being replaced by a wrapper with\u00a0 an oddly-plain logo.\u00a0\u00a0 Uncovered earlier this year as part of the L.M. Kallok Collection<\/a>, this wrapper serves as an important and fascinating piece in the Skrunch timeline.\u00a0 This is the only known example:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark-Concorde – Willy Wonka’s – Super Skrunch – Magic Illusions – candy bar wrapper – 1975<\/p><\/div>\n

Note that the early 70’s Willy Wonka’s logo remains, as does an inset image of the original Willy Wonka mascot.\u00a0 Also of note is the mail-away offer for “magic illusions”.\u00a0\u00a0 That mail-away offer would be retained for one more year, when Super Skrunch would receive its recognizable late-70’s look:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark-Concorde – Willy Wonka’s – Super Skrunch – magic illusions mail-away – 20-cent wrapper – 1976<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the next several years, the look of the Super Skrunch remained fairly stable, with minor changes made to reflect marketing and standards adjustments.\u00a0 1977 saw the first Super Skrunch wrapper to include a bar code:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark – Willy Wonka’s – Super Skrunch – candy bar wrapper – 1977<\/p><\/div>\n

Later that same year, Super Skrunch became Peanut Butterier<\/em> and Skrunchier<\/em>:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark-Concorde – Willy Wonka’s – Super Skrunch – NOW Peanuterier – candy wrapper – 1977<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1979, focus was put on the Super Skrunch being larger than it had been:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark-Concorde – Willy Wonka’s – Super Skrunch – 43 percent more – candy wrapper – 1979<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sunmark-Concorde – Willy Wonka’s – Super Skrunch – more candy – candy wrapper – 1979<\/p><\/div>\n

The following year (in 1980) Super Skrunch would, for reasons currently not known, be renamed to an adjective-less “Skrunch”.\u00a0 The Wonka brand logo would also get a new look:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark-Concorde – Willy Wonka’s Skrunch – candy wrapper – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s a vend bar variation of this same 1980 wrapper.\u00a0 Note that the “Willy Wonka’s” logo and size information were printed to be read with the bar standing up, as it would in a vending machine:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark-Concorde – Willy Wonka’s Skrunch – vend candy wrapper – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, in 1981, the Skrunch bar would receive another major overhaul.\u00a0 Not only would the wrapper be completely redesigned, but actual peanuts would be added to the ingredients list.\u00a0 It would be a significant change, and would also be the final Wonka product to bear the name Skrunch:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark – Willy Wonka’s – Skrunch – candy bar wrapper – 1981<\/p><\/div>\n

1981 marks the first wrapper that lacks the Concorde company name, now replaced by Willy Wonka Brands.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s impossible to know what led to the discontinuation of the Skrunch brand name, but we can assume that it simply wasn’t competing well enough in the marketplace.\u00a0 There must have certainly been changes in the company that might have led to some arbitrary desire to evolve and re-align the brand offerings.<\/p>\n

Though 1981 was the end of the Skrunch bar in name, it turns out that it was not entirely dead.\u00a0\u00a0 Several months ago I made a startling discovery when I learned of the existence of a Willy Wonka Peanut Butter Bar<\/em>, from 1982.\u00a0\u00a0 Upon close examination, Willy Wonka’s Peanut Butter Bar has an ingredients list which matches exactly the ingredient list of 1981’s Skrunch bar.<\/p>\n

The gold foil Peanut Butter Bar wrapper is another CollectingCandy.com exclusive, and one I’m excited to wrap up with today.\u00a0 The gold foil of this wrapper evokes the look and feel of the cinematic Golden Ticket from the original film.\u00a0 At least it does to me.\u00a0 It’s pretty awesome:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark – Willy Wonka’s – Peanut Butter Bar – foil candy wrapper – 1982<\/p><\/div>\n

I can’t be sure, but my suspicions are that Willy Wonka’s Peanut Butter Bar was short-lived.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a dramatic redesign and re-branding of one of the two launch-pieces of the Wonka candy company – a final attempt to keep the Skrunch bar going, if not in name, at least in content.\u00a0 But sadly it didn’t last.<\/p>\n

So, what began in 1971 as Willy Wonka’s Super Skrunch bar, ended in 1982 as Willy Wonka’s Peanut Butter Bar.\u00a0\u00a0 Beautiful in gold foil, but destined to become a near-forgotten part of confectionery history.<\/p>\n

And that’s everything I’ve got to share today with regard to the history of the Skrunch.\u00a0 Come back again tomorrow to check out our look at one of my all-time favorite treats: Willy Wonka’s Oompas!<\/p>\n

See you next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I teased yesterday, today’s article is the first half of a two-day span of coverage for the original two Wonka candy treats. Today, we’ll be talking about Willy Wonka’s Super Skrunch.\u00a0 It might sound like an odd name, but … 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":[24,56,119,164],"tags":[317,497,493,379,498,494,321,316,328,351,332,14,324,78,333,21,499,15,348,386,11],"class_list":["post-5580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1970s","category-chocolate-2","category-peanut-butter","category-wonka","tag-1970s-candy","tag-1970s-candy-bars","tag-1970s-willy-wonka","tag-70s-candy","tag-70s-candy-bars","tag-70s-wonka-candy","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-packaging","tag-skrunch","tag-sweets","tag-vintage-candy-wrapper","tag-willy-wonka-candy","tag-wrapper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-1s0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580","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=5580"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5620,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580\/revisions\/5620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}