Pop Bottle Candy – a Topps classic from my Woolworth’s youth.

Since I launched CollectingCandy.com, there are a few topics that I’ve been especially excited to talk about and share pieces of – and Pop Bottle Candy is definitely one of them.

I don’t recall exactly what it was about Pop Bottle Candy, but in 1979-1980, whenever my brother and I visited our local Woolworth’s store, I had to have one.  For those that never experienced them, this was basically a flattened bottle shape of hard candy, similar to the candy that makes up a clear Topps Ring Pop.  It was good, and it lasted a long time.

Now decades later, my passionate collector nature has me hunting for whatever evidence of these I can find.

Topps Pop Bottle Candy B&W display box images - 1979

The first pieces that I found with references to Pop Bottle Candy were on Topps trading card wrappers – one of the more common pieces you’ll see that reference the confection.

Topps Moonraker trading cards wrapper with Pop Bottle Candy ad - 1979 - scan courtesy Branded in the 80's

Also in Topps’ Alien non-sport gum card set, they had ads for Pop Bottle Candy on the backs of some of the stickers.  Here’s one of them:

1979 Topps Aliens trading cards sticker back - scan courtesy of Branded in the 80's

I didn’t know if I’d ever find an actual vintage Pop Bottle Candy package, and when I did,  it surprised me a bit.

What I found was a proof version of a Pop Bottle Candy cello wrapper.  As I’ve documented here on the site, cello wrappers pose unique challenges, and Pop Bottle Candy cello wrappers were no different.  They were quickly and brutally destroyed when getting to the candy inside, so finding a proof wrapper was great:

Topps - Pop Bottle Candy Grape - cellophane wrapper proof - 1970's

Later I acquired a set of Pop Bottle Candy display box flats, which originally came from the files of a printing company that handled many of Topps products – another unusual bit of Pop Bottle Candy history that might otherwise never turn up:

Topps Pop Bottle Candy Juicy Cherry display box flat - 1970's

Topps Pop Bottle Candy Juicy Grape display box flat - 1970's

Topps Pop Bottle Candy Watermelon display box flat - 1970's

But even with all of those pieces, I wasn’t ready to do a write-up on this, because I didn’t have a quality image of what the candy really looked like.  But that changed this weekend when a collector pal of mine dug up an old Topps promotional sheet for them.  Here’s a clip from it, showcasing a rack of Pop Bottle Candy, in all their glory.

Pop Bottle Candy vertical display rack - 1979

That great shot comes courtesy of the dynamite sales sheet below.  Not only does it lay out how great the candy is, but it also tells a little about the Saturday Morning Cartoon that would soon be running to support Pop Bottle Candy’s release:

Topps - Pop Bottle Candy sales flyer - 1979

Topps - Pop Bottle Candy sales flyer reverse - 1979

And that’s all for Pop Bottle Candy.  This piece is going up much later than my normal daily post, as I was busy with collector-related tasks all-day long.  Good ones, too.   I’ll share a snippet of that tomorrow.

And heck, there’s even something from today’s work I was doing, that I can add for today’s article.  So here it is, a store-bought Pop Bottle Caps pack (scanned in front of a white as well as a black background – can never figure which I like best for pieces like this):

Topps - Pop Bottle Candy Cherry - cello pack wrapper - 1979