Yummy Yuletide

Christmas Eve once again kids, time for Santa to come down the chimney and have a snack!  I don't always link the blog posts here with holidays but it's just too coincidental this year to avoid.

Topps, in their early days, worked with a couple of greeting card manufacturers from about 1948-50 to attach Topps Gum and some later penny tabs such as Varsity to various greeting cards, including Christmas themed ones, before they fully switched over to Bazooka bubble gum.  Following that they then tried a few lollipop filled Yuletide products from about 1950-51 featuring Santa and Rudolph but those didn't really outlast their standalone Candy Division from what I can tell, which was shut down circa early 1952 or so.

I've shown black and white pix of Santa and Rudolph before but in the interim have acquired a Santa Pops box and can now show it to you in glorious, living color:

I'm still not sure if the different backs (there are at least two) mean Santa Pops came out in multiple years but my best guess on date is 1951.

I'll not reprise all the Christmas items I've posted here over the years but will close with an item recently auctioned off by BFF o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd, dating from sometime in the 1970's. Behold!

Love the Bozo product placement! That Augie Napoli (1935-1994) credit is one of the few I can recall seeing on any Topps product or ephemera, their artists were usually anonymous. I believe he did the packaging artwork for the Star Wars sets in the 70's. I don't think he did the Santa on the reverse though:

And with that I will bid you all a Merry Christmas and Good Night!  See you New Year's Eve.....

So This Is Christmas...

...Topps style!

Santa came to the Main Topps Archives a bit early this year, after I purchased a nice lot of Topps items in October.  I've shown B&W scans before but here is the living color version.

The box is too big for my scanner but you get the drift.  Here is the indicia, which is always of import, left side first:

The item dates to 1951 based upon the sell sheet, which I won't show again as I have done so previously. We know this because the sell sheet shows the box with a 1952 "checklist" on the reverse to record good behavior for Santa's next visit.  This box however, waxes poetic:

I did not end up with a Rudolph Pops box unfortunately, an item that probably dates to 1950. Not to worry though, Sy Berger is on the case:

These cards are tiny and clearly meant to accompany a gift of some sort and each came with a similarly small envelope.  My guess is a bottle of booze was the gift of choice.  I have to say, for a bunch of Jewish guys from Brooklyn, Topps sure did put on a good show at Christmas!

See you after the presents are opened-Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you out there!

Happy Festivus!

Yes, it's already time for the "holiday for the rest of us"!

I'll be shutting down until after the holiday in order to get the Main Topps Archives Research Center in proper trim  and to rest up for the feats of strength later today.  In the meantime, Merry Christmas and a belated Happy Hanukah from The Topps Archives, along with a fervent wish that you all survive the Airing of Grievances tonight!

Christmas in August

There is a nice auction up at Legendary right now that features some late 40's and early 50's Topps corporate materials in one lot.  One of these lots, has an ad sheet for Santa Pops and it helps date the issue as a 1951 release.

Here is the sheet in question:

The back of the box has a "report card" for 1952 so kids (or their parents most likely) could keep track of their good deeds and hygiene habits to plan for Santa's visit in the next year.  This dates Santa Pops to 1951 then. There is also an ad sheet for the closely related Rudolph Pops but dating that is trickier.  I would say that release was from 1950 but it could just as easily have been sold in 1949. Here, you can see for yourself:

Note too that the case size for Rudolph Pops was smaller than the one for Santa Pops, which also points to it being an earlier issue, although that is not necessarily rock solid imperial evidence. With a lack of actual boxes to inspect, such little clues help with dating.

Wonder Wheel

Well pardners, a couple of Google searches with slightly altered search terms has resulted in a really neat shot coming your way in living color.  We first visited Topps 1950 Hoppy Pops about six months ago, where the wrappers for the lollipops were the main attraction.  But first they were the subject of a short article in a trade magazine in their year of issue:

The black and white photo does not do the box cover justice.  Have a gander at this:

Someone replaced the Hoppy Pops with Dum Dums for the auction (it was sold in 2010 for $720) but this is indeed the box in question.  The back has a nice photo of Hoppy that would have made a handsome display on a feller's dresser:

Now, can we find color scans of Rudolph Pops or Santa Pops? You can click that link for Rudolph but I haven't written about Santa Pops yet..  Since Christmas is still eleven months away, an out-of-season peek will have to do: