Let's Do The Twist

 A bit of an unexpected update today campers!  You may recall some earlier posts on the 1968 Topps Wild Animal Surprise Box which is a bit of a mysterious product.  The retail pack (which is a box) has been seen previously and here's an example with a helpful ruler measurement of one side (roughly three inches in length):

So that looks like the width could be around five inches. The retail box had what looks like a checklist on the top flap:

However, as we're about to see, that may not be a full or correct checklist.  This recent eBay auction looks like it contained an interloper, not to mention it's the first time I've seen what is purported to be the contents of the box:

Yup, it's a polar bear! As you may note, said creature is not detailed on the box flap checklist so that's a bit off-putting.  Here is a closeup:

Oddly enough, that Banana twist gum looks like it's packed in the cello with the polar bear, which this side confirms:

At the moment, I'm not clear if those two grape twists came inside the box originally, although I suspect they did. It's quite nice to see a wild animal surprise though!

Friend o'the Archive Lonnie Cummins sent along some scans of opened twist wrappers.  They turned out to be Flavor Mates too:

The 1968 commodity code matches that of the Surprise Box, which is nice to see. Lonnie also sent along an Orange Flavor Mate scan, which has no visible code:

As has been the pattern lately here at the main Topps Archives Research Complex, finding a long sought after item or two has inevitably led to other questions! More to come once I can figure out some answers...

Boxing Greats

Taking a look at some 60's boxes today kids-movin' and groovin'!

Topps issued an esoteric set of little plastic animals boxed up with what I assume was their Block Busters Bubble Gum, a repeat tactic from 1956 when they deployed leftover Block Busters in their Baseball Buttons packs (really a small box, just like these packs). You will recall, of course, that this bubble gum resembled little Chiclets and remained something Topps futzed around with at least into the 1970's. I have always presumed the gum was cello bagged and the pin (or animal in this case) would have been loose within the pack as I have never seen an interior with any kind of staining on the Baseball Buttons.

I'd previously show the retail pack (box) for these but here is the display box in all it's colorful glory:

We already know the set is from 1968 thanks to a commodity code on the pack flap and now we can see the checklist.  I can't find anything on the look of the actual product but they would likely be a single color and knowing Topps each could be found with all colors used for this run (likely four). It's virtually certain the animals had been used previously in another application by another firm or represent an aborted product accordingly. Surviving animals would be hard to identify today and they appear to have been made in the USA. Other oddball, short checklist sets of the era issued by Topps would often be packed so a full set could be found in each retail box. I suspect that would be the pattern here as well.

The packs have Wally Wood artwork and while I have shown these scans before, they are worth showing again:

Drifting back a year, we have 1967's Phoney Record Stickers:

Dating is confirmed by the box bottom:

I'll have to delve into the set (and the inserted Stupid Hit Songs cards) in another post as there is a lot to look at but REA had a nice pack a while back I want to show now:

Fun!

The Mild Ones

Bazooka was the main Topps bubble gum brand for decades but that didn't stop them from experimenting with some different confections from time to time while still selling oodles of Young America's Favorite. Blony (Bowman's bubble gum flagship at the time of absorption by Topps in 1956) was pretty much the stalwart #2 brand and Bozo gumballs seemingly went off to Canada after going gangbusters in the late 1940's. Topps most famously put baseball cards on the backs of Bazooka boxes for more than a decade but would muck around with other stuff as well, trying to move more and more of the pink stuff. I though we would take a hop, skip and a jump and look at some different things, bubble-gum-wise today.

1968 brought the world (or at least a small part of it) the Wild Animal Surprise Box, a more personal sized box of bubble gum:

Said to measure 2 1/2" x 4 inches by a recent seller, there only a little more than a half ounce of gum inside but I'm not sure what the surprise was. I make the height to be about 3/4".

That gorilla looks a lot more enticing than your standard Bazooka box, since the latter was aimed at moms in the supermarket and not a kiddie consumer. When baseball season waned, Topps would put some odd things on the backs of the Bazooka party boxes.  This Toppscience panel dates from 1966-69 (Update 6/30/24: it's from 1967):

 I'm all for science but..... NERD!!!!  The dating can be derived from the curved Topps logo on the back and the Brooklyn address on the side flap.  Remember I posted a guide to dating Topps items a while back...

Of course nothing beats the 1971 O-Pee-Chee Bazooka boxes with hockey cards on the back, courtesy of Bobby Burrell:

Those are miniature versions of the '71 hockey cards, blank backed, of course. Super rare and often counterfeited, the Orr card is one of hockey's most sought after collectibles. That little logo on the bottom right flap must be the printer: