{"title":"Original 1980s Vintage Collectibles | Pop Culture \u0026 Americana","description":"\u003cp\u003eNo decade was louder, brighter, or more commercial than the 1980s — and the collectibles it produced are just as bold. 🎸 Original 1980s Vintage Collectibles | Pop Culture \u0026amp; Americana is a collection of authentic NOS and period-genuine items from the decade that gave the world New Kids on the Block, Coca-Cola's plastic can disaster, and the first wave of Reagan-era nostalgia for the American past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eItems from the 1980s era include original New Kids on the Block promotional pins and sticker sheets from the height of boy band mania, vintage Jolt Cola and Cherry Coke NOS bottle caps from regional bottlers, mini Budweiser and Coors promotional cans in collectible formats, original McDonald's promotional items including stickers and storage tins, Copenhagen Snuff tin lids from the 1980s smokeless tobacco boom, advertising novelties from brand campaigns of the decade, original Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey enamel pins, and John Lennon commemorative pins from the years following his 1980 death. 🥤\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 1980s era is riding a major collector surge right now — and NOS condition items from the decade are becoming significantly harder to find. All items are original and period-genuine.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-clown-mouse-dexterity-puzzle-game-hong-kong-nos","title":"Vintage 1980s Clown \u0026 Mouse Dexterity Puzzle Game on Stapled Header Card - NOS Plastic Toys Hong Kong Dime Store Circus Novelty 🎪","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2etvxpl5IJ8\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e Still stapled to its red header card, still bagged, new old stock and never opened.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003c!-- BODY STARTS HERE --\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🤡 A Clown Who Never Got Opened\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese came to me the same way: stapled to a bright red header card, still in the bag, never sold, never played with. They've got the clown and the mouse - a wild-haired, white-faced circus clown grinning under a polka-dotted harlequin collar, set against a red-yellow-blue-green lightning-bolt background straight off a circus banner, with a small dark cartoon mouse tucked in at his shoulder. Two little white balls sit up top, waiting for a steadier hand than mine to walk them down into their holes - that's the whole game, a tilt-and-catch dexterity puzzle under a clear plastic dome, two inches across, with a plain black back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe card above it reads, in flowing white script, \"Plastic Toys,\" then in small block capitals \"NOT RECOMMENDED FOR CHILDREN UNDER 3 YEARS OF AGE,\" and along the bottom, \"MADE IN HONG KONG.\" No maker's name anywhere - not on the card, not on the puzzle. And that exact template turns up in other colors: the same wording and the same blank disc in the corner, printed on a yellow card wrapped around a toy helicopter. So \"Plastic Toys\" isn't a company - it's a stock header an export house printed by the thousand and slapped on whatever novelty needed a card that week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 Hong Kong Made It Cheap, and Made It Well\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat MADE IN HONG KONG line carries real weight. Hong Kong was a British Crown Colony when its plastics trade got going, and the China Plastic Company was already up and running by 1946 or 1947. After 1949, refugees and industrialists poured into the colony from the mainland with almost nothing but skill and nerve, and small plastics workshops went up fast. Most of them were tiny cottage factories tucked into old tenement buildings and ground-floor shops - a few hundred square feet and a few hand-set presses - while the bigger works were mostly started by entrepreneurs from Shanghai. Plenty of the owners had started out as workers themselves and lived by the motto \"fortune comes from hard work\" - out chasing orders all day, then back at the factory at night handling the production, sometimes working straight through till morning. By 1950 there were already eight registered plastics factories running there - Kader, Tai Nam, Cheung Kong and Winsome among them. One of the men behind that boom, Lam Leung-tim, got his start running the Lee Man Plastics and Bakelite works in Guangzhou with about a hundred hands on the floor, then founded Forward Products in Hong Kong in 1955 and merged it with Winsome Plastic Works in 1960 to build Forward Winsome Industries - one of the colony's great early plastics houses. Nobody put a factory name on this card, but the industry that turned it out belongs to men like him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy 1972 Hong Kong had passed Japan as the world's biggest toy exporter, and the colony went on to count more than 2,000 toy factories employing something like 56,000 people. A card that says MADE IN HONG KONG is a small piece of that story - millions of cheap, bright little novelties like this one, turned out fast and shipped everywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🐷 The Game Is Much Older Than the Plastic\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRoll-the-ball puzzles like this one go back a lot further than Hong Kong plastics. In 1889, toymaker Charles Martin Crandall put out Pigs in Clover at his Waverly Toy Works in Waverly, New York - a round puzzle where you steered marbles through rings into a pen in the center - and it turned into a genuine national craze. The factory was running eight thousand a day and still twenty days behind on orders; sales passed a million. The story that made it famous: Senator William Evarts carried one into the Senate on March 13, 1889, Senator George Vest got his hands on it, and a page was sent out to buy five more. Four days later a cartoon in the New York World showed President Harrison's own advisers hunched over the game.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery little ball-and-hole puzzle since - tin, glass or plastic - is living off that craze. By the time these were made, it had long since become penny-arcade and dime-store fare: a peg-rack impulse buy, cheap enough for pocket money, with whatever cartoon character happened to be on hand printed on the face.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎪 Circus Art, No License Required\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe clown is drawn in the full big-top style - painted white face with a little X on his brow, wild blue hair, a yellow ruff collar dotted in red - the kind of figure that circus posters and carnival banners stamped into American memory for generations. Ringling Bros. and Barnum \u0026amp; Bailey carried that painted face from town to town: the Ringlings bought Barnum \u0026amp; Bailey in 1907, and the two shows debuted as one combined circus in New York in 1919. Lou Jacobs clowned in its rings for 64 years, and in 1966 his painted face went onto a U.S. postage stamp. By 1968 so many of the circus's clowns were getting on in years that it opened its own Clown College to teach the trade to a new crowd. The mouse beside him is round-eared, big-eyed, drawn in the loose spirit of the famous cartoon mice without actually being one of them - no studio name, no license line, anywhere on the card or the puzzle. That was the norm for cheap novelty toys: borrow a look everybody already loved, skip the royalty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003c!-- BODY ENDS HERE --\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-clown-girl-gargoyle-dexterity-puzzle-game-hong-kong-nos\"\u003eVintage 1980s NOS Clown Girl and Gargoyle Dexterity Puzzle Game Plastic Toys Made in Hong Kong Circus Ball Maze 🧸\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980-galactic-battleships-vending-display-card-diamond-vending\"\u003eVintage 1980 Galactic Battleships Vending Display Card - Diamond Vending Supply Co. Sci-Fi Header C-23 NOS Hong Kong 🃏\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-1950s-tin-special-police-badges-uncover-detective-history-vintage\"\u003eVintage Tin Toy Badge 🕵️ Private Detective \u0026amp; Special Police on Original Card | 1950s–60s Japan Dime Store\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769713373349,"sku":"VAG-7034818625701","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3346398755_qorb.jpg?v=1785353610"},{"product_id":"rare-vintage-1980s-1990s-bock-beer-label-outrage-usa-oldenburg-ft-mitchell","title":"Vintage Oldenberg Brewing Company Outrageous Bock Beer Label Fort Mitchell Kentucky Microbrewed Bock Beer Collector Label 1980s - 1990s 🍺","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 5 x 3 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uFi_j55brGY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eDo You Remember When Fort Mitchell Had Its Own Brewery? 🐐 The Story Behind Oldenberg's Outrageous Bock\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere's a particular kind of nostalgia that belongs entirely to the craft beer world of the early 1990s — a time before taprooms were on every corner, before \"microbrewery\" was a marketing buzzword, and before anyone had fully figured out what American craft beer was going to become. It was a time of genuine experiments, of passionate founders betting everything on the idea that local people deserved something better than the same nationally distributed lager their fathers had drunk. Somewhere in that beautiful, uncertain moment — right across the river from Cincinnati, tucked into the hills of Northern Kentucky — Oldenberg Brewing Company was doing something genuinely outrageous. And this label is a direct, tangible piece of that story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏷️ What You're Actually Holding\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a New Old Stock (NOS) paper beer label for Oldenberg Brewing Company's \u003cem\u003eOutrageous Bock\u003c\/em\u003e — a microbrewed bock beer produced at Oldenberg's Fort Mitchell, Kentucky facility during the early-to-mid 1990s. \"New Old Stock\" means exactly what it sounds like: this label was printed, stored, and never applied to a bottle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt has been sitting somewhere cool and quiet since it left the print shop, and it shows. The front face carries a cream and sand-toned central panel framed in deep teal and brown, with the Oldenberg Brewing Company name arching across the top alongside their signature building logo mark. \"Outrageous Bock\" runs in two tiers — a smaller stacked word above, and then \u003cstrong\u003eBOCK\u003c\/strong\u003e in massive, bold red lettering that dominates the center of the label.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTucked just inside the lower curve of that \"O\" in BOCK is a beautifully rendered goat's head — the traditional symbol of bock beer going back centuries — drawn in a slightly rustic, hand-illustrated style that suits a brewery that wore its craft credentials proudly. A banner along the bottom reads \"Microbrewed Bock Beer,\" and \"12 FL OZ\" appears to the lower right within the cream panel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe whole composition is framed by geometric triangle accents in the teal field, giving it a confident, early-1990s craft aesthetic that feels both professionally designed and genuinely honest about what it was. This is a paper ephemera collectible from a specific moment in American brewing history — and in this condition, it does not come around often.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 Oldenberg Brewing Company — Fort Mitchell, Kentucky's Unlikely Giant\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOldenberg Brewing Company opened its doors in September 1987 in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, a suburban community sitting just five miles south of downtown Cincinnati in Kenton County. The timing was audacious. The American craft brewing revival was still in its infancy — Sierra Nevada had only been operating since 1980, the Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) since 1984 — and the idea of opening a full-scale microbrewery in greater Cincinnati, a city with deep German-American brewing heritage but one whose major commercial breweries had been consolidating and closing for decades, was the kind of move that made bankers nervous and beer enthusiasts electric with curiosity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat made Oldenberg unusual — and what made it legendary in the region — was the sheer ambition of the concept. This was not a humble garage operation. Oldenberg was designed from the beginning as a destination brewery, anchored to a sprawling entertainment and hospitality complex that included a restaurant, a large events venue, and most famously, what was promoted at the time as the \u003cstrong\u003eWorld's Largest Collection of Beer Memorabilia\u003c\/strong\u003e — an enormous assembly of vintage beer cans, trays, taps, signs, labels, steins, and advertising artifacts that drew collectors and curious visitors from across the region.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe brewery itself produced a range of styles that took the German lager tradition seriously — a sensible homage given the heavy German-immigrant heritage of both the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky communities. Bock beer, of course, has deep roots in that tradition. Strong, malty, historically brewed by Bavarian monks as a seasonal sustenance during fasting periods, bock beer carried centuries of European brewing culture in its glass. Oldenberg's decision to call their version \"Outrageous Bock\" was a perfect expression of the early craft beer era's personality: one foot planted firmly in the old world, the other kicking enthusiastically into something new and American and unapologetic about being both at once.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📍 Fort Mitchell, Kentucky — The Cincinnati Region's Brewing Backyard\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFort Mitchell doesn't always get the credit it deserves when people trace the geography of American craft brewing history, but it earns its place in that story. Located in Kenton County — part of the larger constellation of Northern Kentucky communities that sit just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati — Fort Mitchell in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a comfortable, established suburban community that wouldn't have seemed, on paper, like the natural birthplace of a nationally recognized microbrewery. And yet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky metro area has one of the deepest German-American brewing histories in the entire country. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Cincinnati was a genuine rival to Milwaukee and St. Louis as a brewing powerhouse — a city whose Over-the-Rhine neighborhood was so saturated with German immigrants, beer gardens, and working lager cellars that it earned comparisons to Munich. That heritage didn't vanish when Prohibition shuttered the breweries and postwar consolidation finished off many of the survivors. It went underground, survived in family recipes, in neighborhood pride, in the particular way people in that region talked about what beer was supposed to taste like. When the craft brewing revival offered a path back to something locally rooted and honestly made, communities across the Greater Cincinnati area were primed to respond. Oldenberg, sited just across the river in Fort Mitchell, was positioned perfectly to absorb and reflect that heritage while also building something forward-looking and new.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLocal collectors from the Kenton County and Campbell County areas still speak about the Oldenberg complex with the warmth reserved for places that shaped a decade. Stories circulate — passed down at bottle shows and antique malls — about the Friday nights at Oldenberg, the weekend tours, the big events and festivals the brewery hosted that drew thousands. It was, by multiple accounts, genuinely the kind of place that made people proud their region had it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍺 The Craft Beer Revolution — What This Label Represents\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo fully appreciate what this Outrageous Bock label means as a collectible, it helps to understand how extraordinary the early American craft brewing scene actually was in historical terms. By 1990, the number of operating breweries in the United States had fallen from a pre-Prohibition high of over 1,300 to fewer than 100 — an almost complete erasure of regional brewing diversity that had taken less than a century to accomplish. The craft brewing revival was, in the truest sense of the word, a restoration movement. Breweries like Oldenberg weren't just making beer; they were rebuilding something that had been taken away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe labels from this era carry that weight. They were designed not merely to identify a product but to communicate an identity — to say, loudly and clearly, \u003cem\u003ewe are here, we are local, we are serious, and we are proud\u003c\/em\u003e. Look at the Outrageous Bock label's design choices: the hand-illustrated goat's head evoking centuries of bock beer tradition, the bold architectural confidence of that red BOCK lettering, the building logo that ties the beer directly to a specific place, the \"Microbrewed\" banner worn like a declaration rather than a disclaimer. This is a label that knows exactly what it is and where it comes from. In an era before every grocery store had a craft beer aisle, before \"local\" was a marketing category, that was a genuinely radical posture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEphemera from first-generation American craft breweries — particularly from smaller regional operations that have since closed or been absorbed — has become an increasingly respected area of breweriana collecting. A label that never touched a bottle, never sat in a recycling bin, never got wet — a label that simply waited — represents the cleanest possible artifact from that moment in time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🐐 The Goat, the Bock, and a Symbol Older Than Most Nations\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThat small, beautifully rendered goat's head tucked inside the \"O\" of BOCK is doing more work than it might appear to do at first glance. The association between bock beer and the goat stretches back to medieval Germany — specifically, according to brewing lore, to the town of Einbeck in Lower Saxony, where a strong lager style was developed that eventually made its way to Munich, where Bavarian brewers mispronounced \"Einbeck\" as \"ein Bock\" — meaning, simply, \"a billy goat.\" Whether or not that etymology is entirely accurate (brewing historians debate it with the particular enthusiasm reserved for questions that can never be fully resolved), the goat became the enduring symbol of bock beer, appearing on labels, tap handles, steins, and brewery logos across centuries and continents. When Oldenberg's label designers placed that illustrated goat's head inside the letter O, they were participating in one of the longest-running visual traditions in all of commercial brewing. On a label that says \"Outrageous Bock\" in 1990s Fort Mitchell, Kentucky — that's a lovely thing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display Ideas\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e🖼️ \u003cstrong\u003eMatted and framed\u003c\/strong\u003e — the label's 5 x 3 inch format fits beautifully in a standard 4x6 or 5x7 mat opening; pair with deep teal or kraft-paper matting to echo the label's own color palette and give it gallery-worthy presence on any wall.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e🍺 \u003cstrong\u003eBreweriana shadow box\u003c\/strong\u003e — combine with other Oldenberg pieces, vintage Cincinnati-area beer cans or bottle caps, and a small topographic or road map of Northern Kentucky for a compelling regional brewing history display.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e📚 \u003cstrong\u003eEphemera collection binder or album\u003c\/strong\u003e — NOS labels in this condition are ideal for archival-sleeve storage in a dedicated breweriana or paper ephemera collection, where they can be appreciated without handling risk.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e🐐 \u003cstrong\u003eBock beer themed display\u003c\/strong\u003e — the goat imagery makes this a natural centerpiece for a collection built around bock beer labels and memorabilia from multiple eras and breweries, letting the centuries-long visual tradition tell its own story across a single display.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e🏙️ \u003cstrong\u003eGreater Cincinnati \/ Northern Kentucky regional pride wall\u003c\/strong\u003e — pair with maps, postcards, photographs, and other ephemera from the Fort Mitchell, Covington, or Newport areas for a deeply local display that honors the region's identity.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e🎨 \u003cstrong\u003eCraft beer graphic design study\u003c\/strong\u003e — the Outrageous Bock label is a strong example of early-1990s American craft brewery visual identity; displayed alongside other labels from the era, it becomes part of a compelling graphic design history collection.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎁 Who Collects These\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe collector community that gravitates toward a piece like this Oldenberg Outrageous Bock label is broader and more varied than you might expect, and it's genuinely growing. \u003cstrong\u003eBreweriana collectors\u003c\/strong\u003e — those who specialize in beer-related ephemera, advertising, and packaging — are the most natural audience. Within that world, first-generation American craft brewery material has been gaining consistent recognition as a historically important and increasingly scarce collecting category. Labels from defunct or significantly changed small breweries in NOS condition are among the most desirable finds at breweriana shows and in specialist dealer inventories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGreater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky regional collectors\u003c\/strong\u003e are another strong group. The Oldenberg brand carries genuine local resonance — it's the kind of place people remember viscerally, the kind of brewery that shows up in \"whatever happened to...\" conversations at family gatherings. For collectors with roots in Kenton County, Campbell County, Hamilton County, or the broader tristate area, an Oldenberg label is a piece of home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaper ephemera and graphic design collectors\u003c\/strong\u003e find early craft beer labels compelling as artifacts of a specific visual moment — the era when small American producers were developing independent design languages without large agency budgets, producing work that was sometimes rough but often brilliantly honest. \u003cstrong\u003eBock beer enthusiasts and homebrewers\u003c\/strong\u003e with an interest in the history of the style appreciate the goat imagery and the lineage it represents. And \u003cstrong\u003egift givers\u003c\/strong\u003e looking for something genuinely personal for the beer lover, the history buff, the Cincinnati expat, or the vintage graphic arts enthusiast in their lives will find this label does exactly what the best vintage gifts do — it tells a real story, and it tells it beautifully.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Frequently Asked Questions\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat does \"New Old Stock\" mean for this label, and why does it matter?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew Old Stock — abbreviated NOS in collector shorthand — means this label was manufactured and stored but never used for its original commercial purpose. In the case of a paper beer label, it was never applied to a bottle, never ran through a bottling line, and never entered the commercial distribution chain in applied form. It has simply been kept somewhere since its production in the early-to-mid 1990s. For paper ephemera collectors, NOS condition is the gold standard because paper is genuinely fragile over time — vulnerable to moisture, light, adhesive migration, tearing, and the routine damage that comes from actual use. A label in NOS condition from a brewery that has been closed or significantly changed for decades is a meaningful rarity. This particular label is described as clean, bright, and crisp with little to no wear — language that reflects exactly the kind of preservation NOS condition makes possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIs this label from a brewery that is still operating?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOldenberg Brewing Company had a complex trajectory after its celebrated early years. The brewing operation and the broader entertainment complex went through significant changes during the 1990s, and the brewery as it was originally conceived — the destination complex with its massive memorabilia collection, restaurant, and event venue — no longer exists in that form. That history is precisely what makes early Oldenberg labels collectible: they represent a specific, documented moment in American craft brewing history that is now behind us. The label you're acquiring is from that original era of operation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow should I store or display this label to protect it long-term?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor long-term storage, archival-quality polyester or polypropylene sleeves (often sold for trading card or paper ephemera storage) are ideal — they're acid-free, won't off-gas, and allow you to handle the sleeve rather than the label itself. Keep stored labels away from direct light, humidity, and temperature extremes. For display, UV-filtering glazing in a frame will protect against light fading significantly better than standard glass. Many collectors mat and frame NOS labels without ever applying any adhesive to the label itself, using small conservation corners or a mat opening sized to hold the label in place by its edges — this keeps the piece fully reversible and preserves its collector value.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat is the significance of the goat image on this label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe goat — specifically the billy goat or bock — is one of the oldest and most consistent symbols in all of commercial brewing iconography, tied directly to the bock beer style. The traditional explanation traces back to the German town of Einbeck and the linguistic evolution of \"Einbeck\" into \"ein Bock\" (a billy goat) in Bavarian pronunciation, a folk etymology that stuck with remarkable persistence across centuries. German and later American bock beer labels, tap handles, and brewery signage have incorporated goat imagery consistently for well over 150 years. The goat's head rendered inside the \"O\" of BOCK on this Oldenberg label is Oldenberg's designers participating consciously in that tradition — connecting a 1990s Fort Mitchell, Kentucky microbrewery to a lineage that stretches back to medieval Bavarian brewing culture. For collectors interested in the iconographic history of brewing, that's a genuinely interesting detail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIs this label valuable as a collectible investment?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst-generation American craft brewery ephemera — particularly from breweries that are no longer operating in their original form — has been a quietly appreciating area of the breweriana market for several years. NOS labels in clean condition from this era are scarcer than their relatively recent production dates might suggest, because most labels from working breweries were consumed in the bottling process.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOldenberg specifically has regional significance in the Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati collector community that adds a layer of local demand beyond the general breweriana market. As with all paper ephemera, condition is the primary driver of value, and this label's described state — clean, bright, crisp, little to no wear — places it at the top of the condition range for this type of piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBottle shows in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region, regional antique malls, and specialist online breweriana dealers are the most productive hunting grounds. Given Oldenberg's well-documented emphasis on beer memorabilia collecting as part of its own identity, it's a pleasantly appropriate irony that Oldenberg's own material has become the thing collectors now seek out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLore among Northern Kentucky antique dealers holds that the best Oldenberg pieces tend to surface in the tristate area first — around Cincinnati, Covington, and Lexington — before working their way into wider collector circulation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat makes early 1990s craft beer label design distinctive, and why does it hold collector appeal?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEarly American craft brewery labels occupy a very specific and unrepeatable visual moment. They were created by small teams — sometimes a single designer, sometimes the brewery owner working with a local print shop — without the significant budgets or brand strategy infrastructure that characterizes contemporary craft brewery design. What they often had instead was genuine conviction, direct connection to the brewery's actual identity, and a willingness to borrow freely from both historical brewing traditions and whatever design vocabulary felt right for the moment. The Outrageous Bock label is a strong example: hand-illustrated goat imagery nodding to centuries of bock beer tradition, bold typography with real graphic confidence, a color palette — teal, cream, brown, red — that is immediately of its era without feeling dated in a negative sense. These labels weren't designed to look vintage; they simply are vintage now, and the honesty of that is part of their appeal. They document a real moment in American cultural and commercial history that was genuinely important, and they do it with the directness that only ephemera can manage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-2000-easy-street-wheat-beer-label-odell-brewing-co-ft-collins\"\u003eRetro 2000 Odell Easy Street Wheat Beer Label 🍺 Odell Brewing Co. Fort Collins Colorado Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-odell-brewing-label-bundle-combo-ft-collins-2000-treasures-antique\"\u003eRetro 2000 Odell Brewing Co Beer Label Set 90 Shilling Easy Street Wheat Cutthroat Porter Pale Ale Fort Collins Colorado 🍺\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-2000-90-schilling-colorado-ale-label-odell-brewing-co-ft-collins\"\u003eRetro 2000 Odell Brewing Co. 🍺 90 Shilling Colorado Ale Label NOS Fort Collins\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769717403813,"sku":"VAG-7034819575973","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3294472028_iya4.jpg?v=1785353676"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-clown-girl-gargoyle-dexterity-puzzle-game-hong-kong-nos","title":"Vintage 1980s NOS Clown Girl and Gargoyle Dexterity Puzzle Game Plastic Toys Made in Hong Kong Circus Ball Maze 🧸","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m0gya-LfgRE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e Still stapled to its red header card, still bagged, new old stock and never opened.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003c!-- BODY STARTS HERE --\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🤹 A Clown Girl and Her Fanged Companion\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are still stapled to their cards, still bagged, never opened - the same red \"Plastic Toys\" header as the clown-and-mouse puzzle I list alongside it, but a different face under the dome. Here it's a wide-eyed clown girl with rosy cheeks and painted lashes, and tucked right up against her, a blue, pink-snouted, big-toothed little creature boxed inside a green oval - a gargoyle, or close enough to one, grinning out from a scatter of green and yellow triangles. Two small white balls sit loose at the left, waiting to be tilted down into their holes - a two-inch tilt-and-catch dexterity puzzle under a clear dome, plain black on the back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe card above it: white script \"Plastic Toys,\" small block capitals \"NOT RECOMMENDED FOR CHILDREN UNDER 3 YEARS OF AGE,\" and \"MADE IN HONG KONG\" along the bottom. No maker printed anywhere - and the same wording, the same blank white disc in the corner, turns up in yellow on a completely different toy, a bagged helicopter. \"Plastic Toys\" was a stock header an export house reused, not a brand of its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 Where the Card Comes From\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMADE IN HONG KONG means something real here. After 1949, refugees and entrepreneurs from the mainland flooded into the colony and built a plastics industry practically overnight - eight registered factories running by 1950, among them Kader, Tai Nam, Cheung Kong and Winsome. Lam Leung-tim, who'd cut his teeth running a plastics and bakelite works in Guangzhou, founded Forward Products in Hong Kong in 1955 and merged it with Winsome Plastic Works in 1960 to build Forward Winsome Industries. No factory name made it onto this card, just the country of origin, but it came out of that same fast-growing industry - one of thousands of cheap, bright little novelties Hong Kong shipped out by the million. And a whole lot of those millions were headed for America. Once the 1960s were out, the United States was the main market for Hong Kong's plastic goods - toys most of all - and in 1972 Hong Kong passed Japan to become the biggest toy exporter in the world. Twenty years later we were still Hong Kong's largest toy customer, taking about 30 percent of its toy exports, which is how a little red-carded puzzle like this one ends up on this side of the Pacific.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎭 Clown and Creature, Side by Side\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePutting a friendly clown face next to a fanged little monster on the same toy wasn't unusual - carnival and sideshow art always lived comfortably together, and a dime-store novelty rack didn't draw a hard line between cute and creepy. Neither figure carries a studio name or a license line; both are drawn in the same bold, flat, made-to-be-seen-from-three-feet-away style that Hong Kong's export artists turned out by the thousand. Ball-and-hole tilting puzzles like this one are older than the plastic they're molded from - the format's great American moment was Charles Crandall's Pigs in Clover, launched in 1889 and sold by the million - and by the time these came off the line, the game had long since settled into cheap, cheerful peg-rack fare: pocket money, a rainy afternoon, and whatever cartoon face happened to be on the press that week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003c!-- BODY ENDS HERE --\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-clown-mouse-dexterity-puzzle-game-hong-kong-nos\"\u003eVintage 1980s Clown \u0026amp; Mouse Dexterity Puzzle Game on Stapled Header Card - NOS Plastic Toys Hong Kong Dime Store Circus Novelty 🎪\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980-galactic-battleships-vending-display-card-diamond-vending\"\u003eVintage 1980 Galactic Battleships Vending Display Card - Diamond Vending Supply Co. Sci-Fi Header C-23 NOS Hong Kong 🃏\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1950s-jumbo-clown-circus-popcorn-bag-patriotic-red-white-blue\"\u003eVintage Jumbo Pop Corn Bag 🤡 - Clown Face Circus Carnival Concession Sack, Mid-Century Americana Paper Ephemera, NOS Unused\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769746960549,"sku":"VAG-7034826195109","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.7779946878_3pni.jpg?v=1785353989"},{"product_id":"vintage-1970s-1980s-bunny-rabbit-toothpick-holder-stash-box-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1970s-1980s Bunny Toothpick Holder 🥃 Amber Yellow Figural Rabbit in Magic Hat, New Old Stock in Original Box, Retro Kitchen Novelty, Item K4670","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/45Fwp0XmrSA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 6 x 3 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e New old stock, never used, still in its foam ear wrap and original K4670 carton.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003c!-- BODY STARTS HERE --\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🐰 The Bunny-in-a-Hat That Beat Alessi to It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1998 Stefano Giovannoni designed the Magic Bunny toothpick holder for Alessi - a rabbit that rises out of a top hat and leaves the toothpicks waiting inside, still in production and still sold today as a design classic. These aren't that. They're older: a 1970s-1980s bunny toothpick holder in frosted, translucent amber-yellow plastic, made well before Giovannoni's design existed, with no brand or Alessi mark anywhere. The plain kraft carton is stamped ITEM#: K4670, BUNNY TOOTHPICK HOLDER, MADE IN CHINA - and that line fits the range too: China reopened to American trade in 1971, and the trade really took off after Congress granted it most-favoured-nation status in 1980.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔍 The Object\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo pieces. The rabbit is one molded figure - a round head with two long upright ears and black-and-white painted eyes, a slender neck, and a round foot that drops down into the hat. The hat is a tall brimmed cylinder, open at the top. Push the rabbit down and only its eyes and ears show over the brim; lift it out by the ears and the toothpicks underneath are right there. The plastic is frosted, so light glows through the amber-yellow. Mine come with a foam sleeve over the ears, bubble wrap, and the original carton.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎩 The Famous One That Came Later\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStefano Giovannoni was born in La Spezia in 1954 and graduated in architecture from Florence in 1978. In the mid-1980s he and Guido Venturini opened a studio they called King-Kong Productions and began designing for Alessi; their Girotondo family, started in 1989, has sold more than seven million pieces and is still, by Giovannoni's own studio's account, the best-selling \"family\" in the history of design. He kept designing playful plastic for Alessi - the Lilliput salt and pepper shakers, the Merdolino toilet brush, the Mary Biscuit box - and in 1998 came the Magic Bunny, model ASG16, 14 cm tall, made in Italy. Retail write-ups say he applied what he called the \"Children Code\" to it, taking the awkwardness out of reaching for a toothpick and turning it into a small game. The design became such an icon that in 2014 a version was milled by robot from pink onyx and lit from inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 Alessi, and the Town That Made It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlessi started in 1921, when Giovanni Alessi and his brother opened a workshop in Omegna, on Lake Orta in Piedmont, processing brass and nickel silver sheet with a foundry attached. Giovanni's son Carlo joined in 1932 and designed most of the firm's output from the mid-1930s to 1945; the founder's grandson Alberto joined in 1970 and, in the early 1990s, opened the Centro Studi Alessi to work with young designers - which is how the catalogue grew past steel into wood, glass, porcelain, ceramic and plastic, Giovannoni's pieces among them. Omegna itself was first recorded in 1221 and named a city in 1939; for generations it was Italy's main center for pots and small household appliances, the industrial world the Alessi workshop grew out of.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📜 Who Pulled the First Rabbit\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLouis Comte, born in Geneva in 1788, was a celebrated Paris magician who performed for Louis XVIII at the Tuileries and was later made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor - which earned him the nickname \"conjurer to three kings.\" In 1814 he became the first magician on record to pull a white rabbit from a top hat. Magic legend credits the same trick to John Henry Anderson too, the self-styled \"Great Wizard of the North,\" who claimed Sir Walter Scott gave him that name. Anderson's luck ran hot and cold: on March 5, 1856, fire broke out at London's Covent Garden Theatre in the closing hours of a masked ball he'd staged there, destroying the building and his stage properties with it and bankrupting him for the second time. He died in 1874, the year Harry Houdini was born, and in 1909 Houdini - who counted Anderson among his own inspirations - arranged for the upkeep of his grave.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🦷 An Old Habit, a New Piece of Theater\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe toothpick is the oldest dental tool there is. Evidence of its use goes back some 1.8 million years to early humans at Dmanisi, Georgia, and a Neanderthal upper jaw found near Oliva in Valencia, Spain, carries grooves worn by a toothpick its owner used against sore gums. It went to the machine in the 19th century - Marc Signorello built the first toothpick-making machine in 1869, and Silas Noble and J. P. Cooley patented another in 1872. A rabbit that lifts out of a hat to reveal them turns the oldest habit at the table into a bit of theater.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003c!-- BODY ENDS HERE --\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1950s-bronze-pike-fish-candle-holder-candlestick-vintage-home-decor\"\u003eVintage 1950s Bronze Fish Candle Holder ✨ Coiled Figural Pike Candlestick, Aged Verdigris Patina, Standing Sculptural Decor\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-1950s-bunny-rabbit-candy-holder-easter-decor-treasures-gifts\"\u003eVintage 1950s Bunny Rabbit Candy Container — Hard Plastic Easter Decor 🐰\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-planters-mr-peanut-whistle-1950s-rip-1916-2020-highly-collectible\"\u003eVintage 1950s Planters Mr. Peanut Figural Whistle 🥜 NOS Advertising Collectible Red \u0026amp; Beige Plastic Figure Top Hat Monocle\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769747353765,"sku":"VAG-7034826260645","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4076247680_b0ih.jpg?v=1785354224"},{"product_id":"vintage-1970s-porcelain-christmas-tree-ornament-decorations-peace-sign","title":"Vintage 1970s-1980s Red \u0026 White Porcelain Peace Sign Hinged Trinket Box Ornament, Surprise Ornament Locket Keepsake with Gold Clasp 🥫","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8TnQ_AVl1fs\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 2 x 0.75 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e New Old Stock, with its SURPRISE ORNAMENTS box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePeace on earth, with a secret inside.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom across the room it is a Christmas ornament: a glossy red and white peace sign hanging from a gold cord. Pick it up and it opens on a little gold hinge into a white porcelain box, just the size for a ring, a folded note or a tiny gift. Call it a keepsake box, a pill box or, in the spirit of the symbol on the lid, a stash box. That symbol began in 1958 as a British designer's drawing of his own despair about the bomb. Twelve years later an American magazine was telling readers it was an anti-Christian \"broken cross.\" Hanging a peace sign on the Christmas tree answers that argument without saying a word. This one is New Old Stock, still with its SURPRISE ORNAMENTS box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Ornament Up Close\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lid is a porcelain disc glazed in bright red, with the peace symbol's circle and lines in red over four cream-white fields. A gold cord loops through a small red and gold bead at the top. A gold-tone metal hinge sits on one side, and on the other a star-shaped gold-tone clasp holds the lid shut. Open it and both halves are bound in gold-tone metal rims, the lid lined in white and the box itself a single smooth white porcelain well. A small gold oval sticker on the side reads MADE IN CHINA. The white cardboard box it came in is labeled SURPRISE ORNAMENTS, COLOR: PCE, with a barcode.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eType: hinged porcelain trinket box ornament\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDesign: red and white peace sign\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHardware: gold-tone hinge, star-shaped clasp and rims\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHanging: gold cord through a red and gold bead\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInside: one open white porcelain well\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSize: 2 x 0.75 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMarked: MADE IN CHINA sticker\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBox: original SURPRISE ORNAMENTS box\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCondition: New Old Stock\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eGerald Holtom Draws Despair\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGerald Holtom was born on January 20, 1914, studied at the Royal College of Art in London and spent the Second World War as a conscientious objector. On February 21, 1958, he designed a badge for the first march of the new Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Easter walk from London to the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, April 4 to 7, 1958. He built it from two semaphore signals: N, two flags held down and out at an angle, and D, one flag straight up and one straight down, for Nuclear Disarmament. Then he drew a circle around them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHoltom said the shape was also a picture of himself. \"I was in despair. Deep despair,\" he explained, and he drew a figure with palms stretched outward and downward, like Goya's peasant facing the firing squad. Five hundred cardboard lollipop placards carried it on that first march, half black on white and half white on green. Holtom died on September 18, 1985.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first peace sign keepsakes were ceramic too. Eric Austen of Kensington CND made the earliest badges from white clay with the symbol painted on in black, and he read the despairing gesture as the death of man and the circle as the unborn child. The symbol has deliberately never been copyrighted. No one has to pay or ask permission to use it, which is exactly how it ended up on everything from protest banners to a porcelain ornament.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eAcross the Atlantic\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow the peace sign reached America is its own small mystery. The story most often told credits Bayard Rustin, the civil rights organizer and close collaborator of Martin Luther King Jr., who had taken part in the 1958 march in Britain. The peace activist Philip Altbach said he brought CND buttons home from England to his colleagues. Either way, the civil rights movement used it first in the United States, and the anti-war movement and the counterculture carried it everywhere after that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eLore: The Broken Cross\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot everyone welcomed it. In 1970 American Opinion, the magazine of John Birch Society founder Robert Welch, ran an article called \"Peace Symbols: The Truth About Those Strange Designs\" that compared the sign to an anti-Christian \"broken cross\" carried by the Moors into Spain in the 8th century and tied it to Communism and Satanism. That October Ezra Taft Benson, the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and later president of the Latter-day Saints church, repeated the charge from the pulpit at the church's General Conference. The rumor still circulates. Its designer's own sketches say otherwise: two flag signals and a man in despair. A peace sign on a Christmas tree, among the angels and the stars, sits comfortably with the old carol line, peace on earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA Hinged Box With French Ancestors\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe hinged porcelain trinket box goes back to France. The discovery of fine kaolin clay near Limoges in 1768 made that city a center of porcelain, and its small hinged boxes began as long, narrow cases for costly needles before growing into boxes for scissors, thimbles, powder and snuff. Later makers turned the form into a gift of its own, and the Surprise Ornaments idea puts it on the tree: a figure that looks like any ornament until it opens to hold something small inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eMade in China\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe little MADE IN CHINA sticker has a history too. The United States and China restored diplomatic relations in January 1979, signed a trade agreement on July 7 of that year, and Congress approved most-favored-nation trade status for Chinese goods on January 24, 1980. Trade between the two countries grew from $4.8 billion in 1980 to $45.8 billion in 1996, and Chinese-made gifts and decorations became a familiar sight on American shelves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1970s-coca-cola-felt-calendar-scroll-1899-calendar-reissue\"\u003eVintage 1970s Coca-Cola Felt Calendar Scroll 🥤 Commemorative Reissue of the 1899 Calendar, Victorian Lady, Fringed Wall Hanging\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-atlas-broom-label-1910s-1940s-old-memorabilia-treasures-gifts\"\u003eVintage Atlas Broom Label NOS 1950s Space Age Atomic Globe Planets Stars Mid Century Modern Wall Art Decor 🧹\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1976-elvis-presley-card-calendar-rca-records-year-before-his-tragic\"\u003eVintage 1976 Elvis Presley Card Calendar 🎸 RCA Records Memorabilia\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769747779749,"sku":"VAG-7034826326181","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3282121108_ae9e.jpg?v=1785353995"},{"product_id":"rare-vintage-1980s-double-x-dos-equis-beer-coaster-treasures-antique-gifts-home","title":"Vintage Dos Equis XX 🍺 Die-Cut Double-Sided Beer Coaster 1980s Breweriana Imported Beer Collectible","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HsQ5i5MZ1YA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 6 x 3 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e Never used.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🍺 Dos Equis XX Die-Cut Beer Coaster, Double-Sided, Labatt USA Years\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis coaster is cut in the shape of the famous two X's, and it's printed on both sides. The front is the classic Dos Equis look: one X in bright red and one in deep maroon, edged in gold, with DOS EQUIS across a gold banner, a round gold medallion with a man's profile in the middle, and IMPORTED BEER® underneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlip it over and it becomes a little menu. \"One Beer. Dos Flavors.\" The gold X is the AMBER: \"Brewed since 1897, Dos Equis Amber is known for its rich color and superior quality. Dos Equis Amber ensures a robust flavor, smooth drinkability and a perfectly balanced blend of malt and hops.\" The green X is the SPECIAL LAGER: \"a crisp, golden lager with a refreshing, classic flavor ... a distinctive, refined taste that only traditional European-style pilsners can offer.\" Across the bottom: \"Let Your Tastes Travel.™\" And in tiny type along the edge, the importer's line, Labatt USA, Norwalk, CT.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e✖️ Why Two X's\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat \"Brewed since 1897\" is the whole story of the name. Dos Equis was first brewed in 1897 by Wilhelm Hasse, a German-born brewer in Mexico, at the Moctezuma brewery near Orizaba, in the state of Veracruz. Americans have been able to buy it since 1973, when Dos Equis Amber was first imported from Mexico, and the Lager Especial followed it north in 1983. With a new century coming, he named his beer Siglo XX, \"Twentieth Century,\" and marked the bottles with the Roman numeral XX. People just called it by what they saw on the bottle, dos equis, \"two X's,\" and that became the name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🌎 How It Got to Your Bar\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Moctezuma brewery was brought together with Cervecería Cuauhtémoc of Monterrey in 1985, adding Dos Equis, Superior, Sol and Noche Buena to a family that already included Carta Blanca, Tecate, Bohemia and Indio. Then in 1994 the Mexican company FEMSA sold a 22 percent share of its beer business to John Labatt Ltd. of Canada and signed an agreement to team up their companies in the United States. That partnership is the Labatt USA of Norwalk, Connecticut, named on the edge of this coaster. Heineken announced in January 2010 that it was buying FEMSA's beer business.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a great piece for a home bar, a breweriana wall or anybody whose favorite beer has two X's on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-old-style-beer-coaster-pure-brewed-gods-country-1970s\"\u003eVintage 1970s Heileman's Old Style Special Export Beer Coaster - G. Heileman Brewing Co La Crosse Wisconsin Double-Sided Coupon 🍺\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-boulevard-brewing-co-beer-coaster-kansas-city-mo-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage Boulevard Brewing Co. Beer Coaster 🍺 Kansas City Southwest Boulevard Craft Brewery Since 1989\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-schlitz-malt-liquor-wooden-nickel-1960s-treasures-antique-gifts-home\"\u003eVintage 1960s Schlitz Malt Liquor Wooden Nickel Don't Take Wooden Nickels Chief Head Breweriana Beer Advertising Token Collectible 🍺\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769808728229,"sku":"VAG-7034839564453","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3287801821_t6te.jpg?v=1785354705"},{"product_id":"4-8-12-vintage-gumby-pokey-figurines-1970s-1980s-both-colors-highly","title":"Vintage Gumby \u0026 Pokey Bendable Figures 🟢 Set of 5 or 4, 1970s-1980s Teal \u0026 Orange Plastic Toys, CHINA Mark Figurine","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aBiwK3gqE9c\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: Approx. 2 inches tall — molded plastic construction ~\u003c\/strong\u003e New old stock, sold loose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe story goes that Gumby's slanted head came from an old photograph of Art Clokey's father, who died in a car accident when Art was nine. The boy grew up to animate clay, and he gave the hairstyle in that photograph to the little green figure who made him famous.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese are the little flat Gumby and Pokey minis that came out of gumball and vending machines, and I have them in two groups. Set 1 is five figures: one teal Gumby, two orange Gumbys and two teal Pokeys. Set 2 is the same group without the teal Gumby, four figures in all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧸 What You Get\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGumby stands in his familiar pose, one arm raised beside his slanted head, his legs a long split V that flares out at the feet. The teal Gumby has white eyes and a red smile, some with painted brows too. The orange Gumbys share the same molded shape, with white-and-black eyes and painted brows, and a faint molded mark on the back. Pokey is a long-faced pony with a white eye, an open grin, and a glossy black mane and tail painted over the teal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe word CHINA is molded in raised letters on Pokey's flank, and if you flip a Gumby over you'll find the same word running right down his back. The paint varies a little from figure to figure, which is half the fun of a set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎬 Art Clokey and the Clay Boy\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArt Clokey was born Arthur Charles Farrington in Detroit, Michigan, on October 12, 1921. After his father's death he was adopted, at 11, by the composer Joseph Waddell Clokey. He studied geology at Pomona College, served as an Air Corps reconnaissance photographer in World War II, and at the University of Southern California came under the influence of the film teacher Slavko Vorkapich. In 1953 he made \u003cem\u003eGumbasia\u003c\/em\u003e, a three-minute film of clay shapes moving to music, its title a wink at Disney's \u003cem\u003eFantasia\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat student film caught the eye of Samuel G. Engel, president of the Motion Picture Producers Association, who paid for a pilot. Gumby first appeared on \u003cem\u003eHowdy Doody\u003c\/em\u003e and then got his own program, \u003cem\u003eThe Gumby Show\u003c\/em\u003e, in 1957. His name, as the story is told, came from \"gumbo,\" the sticky, muddy clay on Clokey's grandparents' farm. The story goes that Clokey chose green because it was both racially neutral and a symbol of life, and he gave Gumby wide feet for a practical reason: a clay figure has to stand up on its own between frames.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePokey, the talking orange pony, was invented by Al Eggleston in the early episodes, and Clokey himself gave Pokey his voice. Dallas McKennon voiced Gumby from 1957, and Norma MacMillan took over in the 1960s episodes. Clokey went on to make \u003cem\u003eDavey and Goliath\u003c\/em\u003e for the Lutheran Church in America, built his business around Gumby as Premavision and its toy arm, Prema Toy Company, and died on January 8, 2010, in Los Osos, California, at 88.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧸 Gumby in Your Hand: The Toy Line\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe character was made to bend, and toy makers built real bendable figures to match. Lakeside Toys introduced Gumby Super-Flex bendable figures to the public in 1965, filing a trademark on May 20 of that year for \"Gumby's Pal Pokey\" as a flexible plastic doll. Lakeside paid $102,676.45 for the rights to make Gumby and Pokey dolls, a sum large enough that the deal ended up in a tax dispute that reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In the 1980s Jesco made Gumby minis of its own, and Clokey's Prema Toy Company filed its own trademark for Gumby figurines in February 1986. Trendmasters made them in the mid-1990s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe company that makes Gumby toys today has a family story of its own. Nick Croce Sr. started selling gift lines in 1953, carrying Hagen-Renaker, Josef Originals and Goebel, the maker of Hummel figurines, and consulted for Disney. His son co-founded N.J. Croce Co. in 1981 to import European brassware. In 1983 Nick Sr. signed the company's very first licensing agreement, for Gumby, with Art Clokey himself, and the brass importer reinvented itself as a character-toy company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📺 \"I'm Gumby, Dammit!\"\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn March 27, 1982, Eddie Murphy walked onto \u003cem\u003eSaturday Night Live\u003c\/em\u003e as a cranky, cigar-chomping Gumby, a show-business has-been who was nothing like the gentle original, and \"I'm Gumby, dammit!\" became one of the show's best-loved catchphrases. That first night he sat down with Joe Piscopo, playing talk-show host Tom Snyder, to plug his tell-all book, \u003cem\u003eI'm Gumby, Dammit\u003c\/em\u003e. Clokey approved of the parody, and Murphy brought the character back through 1984. The sketches led to a real Gumby revival: merchandise sales rose, the original episodes came out on home video, a new series called \u003cem\u003eGumby Adventures\u003c\/em\u003e followed in 1988, and in 1993 \u003cem\u003eTV Guide\u003c\/em\u003e named Gumby the best cartoon series of the 1950s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🐴 The Green Pony Who Should Be Orange\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn television Pokey is orange and Gumby is green. In this group the colors trade places: every Pokey is teal with a black mane, and every set includes two orange Gumbys. Set 1 adds a teal Gumby, so both of Gumby's colors stand side by side. I love that swap - it's the first thing anybody notices when they pick them up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-bendable-poseable-skeleton-figure-halloween-toy\"\u003eVintage Bendable Skeleton Figure 🦴 Poseable Halloween Toy Bendy Skeleton, 1980s-1990s\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/8-16-vintage-1980s-animals-on-a-swing-pencil-toppers\"\u003eVintage 1980s Animals on a Swing Pencil Toppers 🎨 Set of 8 or 16\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-bendable-poseable-dog-toy-figure-anime-promotional-item-1978-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1960s Bendable Poseable Dog Toy Figure 🧸 Anime Collectible Memorabilia\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Set 1","offer_id":43654073286888,"sku":"VAG-7062670246053","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Set 2","offer_id":43654073319656,"sku":"VAG-7062670246053-2","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.6593604705_3dji.jpg?v=1785355089"},{"product_id":"vintage-flintstones-jetsons-hanna-barbera-store-display-1980s-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s NOS Hanna‑Barbera Flintstones \u0026 Jetsons Vending Display Sign 🦴","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OEI1LpFjb7Q\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 9 x 8 inches\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eVintage 1980s NOS Flintstones \u0026amp; Jetsons vending display sign straight out of the era of mall entrances, dime stores, and 25¢ capsule machines. This is unopened old stock from a locked‑away cache, an original Hanna‑Barbera advertising piece that never got used on a machine or store counter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003e📺\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHanna‑Barbera 80s comfort\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the 1980s, The Flintstones and The Jetsons were nonstop comfort TV, with both families showing up in reruns, toys, and vending prizes. Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty from Bedrock meet George, Jane, Judy, and Elroy from Orbit City in one bright crossover display that looks exactly like what you remember seeing on machines—only this one survived untouched.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003e🪙\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e25¢ capsule machine nostalgia\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the style of display sign that sat above rows of plastic capsules at the entrance of grocery stores and malls. You’d dig for a quarter, twist the metal knob, listen for the rattle, and hope the mystery capsule held your favorite character or sticker. Here you’re getting the actual top card, in NOS condition, the part most shops tossed the moment the promotion ended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003e🇺🇸\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOriginal NOS Americana advertising\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis isn’t a modern print or repro. It’s genuine 1980s new old stock: original Hanna‑Barbera vending \/ store display advertising that was stored away and never put into service. Because it stayed locked up, you get crisp graphics and that “pulled from the back room” feeling collectors love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003e🏠\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePerfect for your space\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"marker:text-quiet list-disc\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"py-0 my-0 prose-p:pt-0 prose-p:mb-2 prose-p:my-0 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:pt-0 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:mb-2 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:my-0\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eGame room, home theater, bar, or office wall\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"py-0 my-0 prose-p:pt-0 prose-p:mb-2 prose-p:my-0 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:pt-0 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:mb-2 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:my-0\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eNext to records, VHS tapes, comics, or arcade machines 🎮\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"py-0 my-0 prose-p:pt-0 prose-p:mb-2 prose-p:my-0 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:pt-0 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:mb-2 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:my-0\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eRetro gallery wall with other 70s\/80s\/90s treasures\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"py-0 my-0 prose-p:pt-0 prose-p:mb-2 prose-p:my-0 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:pt-0 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:mb-2 [\u0026amp;\u0026gt;p]:my-0\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eGift for cartoon fans, 80s kids, and vending‑machine nostalgics\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eModern vending is all sleek snack machines and tap‑to‑pay; this NOS display sign celebrates the quarter‑eating, surprise‑capsule era in the exact condition it left the 1980s. Hang it up and watch people instantly start telling “just one more quarter, please” stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980-galactic-battleships-vending-display-card-diamond-vending\"\u003eVintage 1980 Galactic Battleships Vending Display Card - Diamond Vending Supply Co. Sci-Fi Header C-23 NOS Hong Kong 🃏\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1975-patriotic-bicentennial-yogi-bear-boo-stickers-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1975 Yogi Bear Boo Boo Bicentennial Stickers 🐻 Patriotic Hanna‑Barbera NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1990s-tony-tiger-cereal-celebrities-collectible-keychain-key-chain\"\u003eVintage 1998 Kellogg's Cereal Celebrities Tony the Tiger Key Chain Fun 4 All NOS Sealed Frosted Flakes Mascot Collectible 🐯\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43654128500968,"sku":"VAG-7353639043304","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.7825795959_ozv0.jpg?v=1785355851"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-california-raisins-pinback-button-set-all-9","title":"Vintage 1980s California Raisins Complete Set All 9 Tin Pins 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6DBA5glNF5E\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1.5 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍇 Remember When Raisins Could Dance?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI still catch myself humming it — that bassline hit, and a whole gang of clay raisins in sunglasses and sneakers would strut across the screen like they owned the place. If you were anywhere near a TV in the late '80s, you know exactly the feeling I mean. This is a complete set of nine California Raisins pinback buttons, each one its own little personality: a surfer riding a blue wave on a red board, a singer with a red microphone and a blue bow tie, a saxophone player, one in red sunglasses pointing skyward, another in red sunglasses pointing with both hands, one smiling and pointing up, one with a hand near its face, one with both gloved hands raised by its cheeks, and a tennis player in orange sunglasses with a racket and ball. Nine different poses, all from the same grinning cast.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📺 Where They Came From\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe idea started as a pitch nobody was sure would work. Seth Werner, a copywriter at Foote, Cone \u0026amp; Belding's office in San Francisco, California, came up with dancing raisins set to \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine\" — and the California Raisin Advisory Board, the growers' own promotion board, actually ran with it. The first thirty-second commercial aired September 14, 1986, and it turned a fruit nobody thought twice about into the thing everyone was talking about.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎬 Claymation and the Cast Behind the Cast\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWill Vinton's studio animated them frame by frame — the same Vinton who later trademarked the word \"Claymation\" itself. Michael Brunsfeld designed their now-iconic look, and Buddy Miles sang lead. The very first commercial, \"Lunch Box,\" won a Clio Award, \"Late Show\" took home the Lion d'Argent at Cannes, and \"Raisin Ray\" brought back the Gold Award for Best Animated TV Commercial from the Houston International Film Festival. Not bad at all for an ad about dried fruit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍔 The Hardee's Years\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardee's put them in kids' hands with molded California Raisins figurines in 1987, again in 1988, and once more in 1991. By then the Raisins had two television specials, \u003cem\u003eMeet the Raisins\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eRaisins Sold Out\u003c\/em\u003e, their own Saturday morning cartoon, \u003cem\u003eThe California Raisin Show\u003c\/em\u003e, and a part in \u003cem\u003eA Claymation Christmas Celebration\u003c\/em\u003e, which went on to win an Emmy. There was even an album, \u003cem\u003eThe California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs\u003c\/em\u003e. My favorite bit of trivia: it was \u003cem\u003eMeet the Raisins\u003c\/em\u003e, on CBS on November 4, 1988, that finally gave the band names — A.C. Arborman on vocals, his younger brother Beebop Arborman on drums, their cousin Red Raisin on guitar and piano, and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson on bass. For a few years there, they were everywhere. Even the Smithsonian took notice, and a good many of the pieces made for the campaign are part of its permanent collection today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📉 The Twist Nobody Put on the Lunch Box\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere's the part the merchandise never told you: that first commercial actually worked — raisin sales rose about 20 percent after it aired. But running the whole campaign, the commercials, the specials, the licensing, cost the growers almost twice what it brought back in. The California Raisin Advisory Board closed its doors on July 31, 1994, after the farmers themselves balked at the fees. The characters didn't disappear, though — the rights passed to the State of California, and from 1998 on they were licensed out through the California Raisin Marketing Board. It's a genuinely bittersweet story: the ad worked, and it still wasn't enough to save the board that made it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📌 What's In This Set\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNine round buttons, 1.5 inches each, on plain white grounds: the surfer, the singer, the saxophone player, the two in red sunglasses, the one smiling and pointing up, the one with a hand near its face, the one with both hands raised by its cheeks, and the tennis player. Flip one over and you'll find a metal face shell crimped over a white plastic back with a gold-tone safety pin, and no printing anywhere, front or back. Pin the whole set to a jacket, line them up on a shelf, whatever you like — they're still one of my favorite little relics of that whole raisin-shaped moment in advertising history, and I like knowing a piece of that story is going out the door with them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-dancing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Dancing California Raisin Tin Pin 📌 WOW The Memories!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-all-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pointing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pointing California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41976428495080,"sku":"VAG-7355033256168","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3430653186_5rgk.jpg?v=1785355856"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-san-juan-horse-racing-stock-certificate-100-shares-coca-cola-coke","title":"Vintage 1980s San Juan Racing Stock Certificate Coca Cola of New York 1978 Takeover Bid El Comandante Puerto Rico 📜","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jUkYqmTwCrA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 12 x 8 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🐎 What does a Caribbean racetrack have to do with the birth of New York disco radio?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt sounds like a trivia question with no real answer — until you hold a piece of paper like this one. Long before \"Disco 92\" ever hit the New York airwaves, and long before a horse named Waiter ever thundered down a dusty Puerto Rican track and set off a racing mania across the island, a company called San Juan Racing Association, Inc. was quietly building one of the more unusual little empires in mid-century American business: a thoroughbred racetrack monopoly in Puerto Rico that also, almost improbably, owned a stable of U.S. mainland radio stations. This certificate is a genuine surviving share of that company, and the engraving on its face — a classical reclining figure holding a sundial while a jockey drives a numbered racehorse past in the background — was commissioned to make sure investors understood that this was no small-time operation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a common stock certificate issued by San Juan Racing Association, Inc., a corporation organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, engraved and printed by the Security-Columbian Banknote Company of New York, N.Y. Certificates of this series carry a printed issue date in 1982, near the end of the company's public life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEach measures 12 x 8 inches, printed in blue and black intaglio banknote-style engraving on cream\/tan stock. Across the top, twin panels announce the share denomination in bold lettering framed by dense blue guilloche work — the wave-upon-wave geometric engraving that banknote printers relied on precisely because it was so difficult to hand-forge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLower left carries an embossed corporate seal bearing the company name and the year 1954 worked into its border. Lower right is the showpiece: a bare-chested, classically draped male figure reclining against a pedestal, one arm resting easy, the other cradling a sundial disc tilted toward the light, with a jockey in racing silks driving a horse numbered \"7\" past in tight crosshatched engraving behind him, and a stylized Art Deco numeral motif with a hint of palm trees anchoring the corner.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo officer signature lines run beneath the certifying text, and the document names The Chase Manhattan Bank as registrar and the Registrar and Transfer Company of Jersey City, N.J., as transfer agent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis kind of certificate can collect a paper trail the way any real financial document does: things like hole punches or cut cancellations, staple holes, stamped endorsements from a registrar or transfer agent, revenue stamps, and pencil notations left by a clerk. It is history on the page, not a condition problem, the kind of detail that separates a real financial artifact from a print.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏇 The company: a racetrack monopoly that also ran the radio\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSan Juan Racing Association was, at its core, the company that owned Puerto Rico's only thoroughbred racetrack — a genuine legal monopoly on the sport in the commonwealth. But it diversified in a way that still surprises people who dig into it: alongside the racetrack, SJRA held real broadcasting interests on the U.S. mainland, including radio stations such as WKTU in New York, WYSP in Philadelphia, WJMD in Washington, WQAL in Cleveland, WKLS in Atlanta, and KRLY in Houston. In Philadelphia radio history, \"SJR\" is remembered as shorthand for \"San Juan Racing\" — the parent company behind the call-letter change that created WYSP.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe New York station's story is the one people still tell today. In the mid-1970s, the San Juan Racing Association's FM outlet at 92.3 in New York flipped from a soft-rock format to become \"Mellow 92,\" then in 1978 abruptly switched over to a disco-based top-40 sound as \"Disco 92\" — and within months, WKTU was the number-one station in New York City, riding the same wave that filled dance floors across the country. It's a strange and wonderful footnote: a company best known in Puerto Rico for horses and a betting window helped light up one of the most famous radio call signs of the disco era.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe company's reach went further still. According to the obituary of its founding president, San Juan Racing Association also held interests in Madison Square Garden, Roosevelt Raceway, and Shenandoah Downs — a genuine cross-industry sporting and entertainment portfolio built out of a single Caribbean racetrack license. Financial reporting from the late 1970s described the company as cash-rich, drawing meaningful interest income on its investments even in years when the track itself faced operating headwinds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌴 The track: El Comandante and the horse that started a mania\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePuerto Rico racing history holds that a horse named Waiter — the island's first Triple Crown winner — set off such enthusiasm for the sport that the existing small courses simply couldn't handle the crowds anymore, and El Comandante Race Track was born out of that demand. The original El Comandante operated in Carolina, just outside San Juan, from 1957 until it was replaced in 1976 by a new facility built at Canóvanas, which opened its gates on Halloween of that year. That newer track went by \"El Nuevo Comandante\" for its first three decades and is known today as Hipódromo Camarero — still the only thoroughbred track on the island, a roughly one-mile course a short drive east of San Juan proper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe company's founding president, Hyman N. Glickstein, is on record as having helped found San Juan Racing Association in the 1950s and led it as president and board chairman for nearly 35 years, only stepping back when the racing operation was ultimately sold off. That sale, and the broader winding-down of the company's assets, took place across the 1980s — which places a certificate dated 1982 right at the tail end of the enterprise's public existence, issued as the company was already moving toward the exit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖋️ The engraver: Security-Columbian Banknote Company\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe firm named on this certificate was a serious player in American financial printing, not a minor jobbing shop. The Columbian Bank Note Company traced back to 1904, founded by a former president of the Western Bank Note Company, and in 1957 merged with the Security Banknote Company to form Security-Columbian — for decades a genuine rival to the American Bank Note Company in the printing of stock certificates, bonds, debentures, and corporate securities. Late in its history, the firm (by then reorganized as U.S. Banknote Corporation) moved to acquire American Bank Note itself, in what stood as the largest consolidation in the American banknote-printing industry in over a century. That lineage is worth knowing when you look at the density of the guilloche borders and the fine crosshatched shading in the allegorical figure here — this was engraving done by people whose entire trade depended on making a piece of paper both beautiful and nearly impossible to counterfeit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e👤 The people behind the signatures\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe president's signature on certificates of this series belongs to Hyman N. Glickstein, a Manhattan-born, Columbia-educated lawyer who was active in New York City politics in his younger years before turning to business in the 1950s. He co-founded San Juan Racing Association and stayed at its helm for the better part of thirty-five years, guiding it through the racetrack's growth, the radio acquisitions, and finally its 1980s sale. The secretary's signature belongs to Robert A. Phelps, named on the certificate itself as the company's corporate secretary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎨 Reading the artwork\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt's easy to look at the sundial-holding figure and the racing scene behind him and see exactly what the engraver intended: an allegory of time itself standing beside the raw motion of a horse race, as though the whole business of racing came down to that one tension — the clock against the finish line. The stylized numeral motif tucked into the corner alongside a hint of palm trees reads, at least to my eye, like a small wink toward luck and the tropical home of the track itself, though that's my own read on it rather than anything documented. What is certain is the craft: this was Art Deco commercial engraving at a genuinely high level, applied to a document whose only real audience was meant to be a broker's file drawer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📻 Impact today\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEl Comandante's successor track, Hipódromo Camarero, still runs thoroughbred racing in Canóvanas today, carrying forward the sport that this company built its name on. WKTU, born under this company's ownership, remains a recognizable New York call sign decades after its disco-era heyday. And Security-Columbian's engraving lineage lives on in the broader history of American banknote and security printing that it helped shape through its later mergers. For collectors, a certificate like this one sits at a genuinely rare crossroads — Puerto Rican sporting history, American radio history, and the vanishing art of hand-engraved financial paper, all on one sheet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display Ideas\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🖼️ Frame it alongside other horse-racing memorabilia for a den or home bar with a sporting theme\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🌴 Pair it with vintage Puerto Rico or Caribbean travel ephemera for a tropical-history vignette\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e📻 Group it with old radio or broadcasting memorabilia to tell the WKTU\/disco-era story visually\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e💼 Mat and frame it as a conversation piece for a home office or finance-themed collection\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🏛️ Set it beside other Art Deco engraved ephemera to spotlight the allegorical figure and guilloche work\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🎁 Give it as a gift to a horse racing fan, a radio history buff, or a scripophily collector\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎁 Who Collects These\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScripophily collectors — people who collect old stock and bond certificates for their artwork and history rather than any financial value — are the natural audience here, and this one offers an unusually rich story for the category: a Puerto Rico racetrack monopoly, a piece of New York radio history, and a well-documented engraving house all on a single sheet. Horse racing enthusiasts and Puerto Rico history buffs will find plenty to love in the El Comandante connection, while fans of classic American radio will appreciate the tie to WKTU's disco-era rise. Collectors of Art Deco commercial engraving and banknote-style printing will find the allegorical sundial figure and guilloche borderwork a strong example of the genre.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ FAQ\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs this a real, genuine stock certificate?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nYes — it's a certificate for common stock of San Juan Racing Association, Inc., engraved and printed by the Security-Columbian Banknote Company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat company is this stock from, and what did it do?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nSan Juan Racing Association, Inc. was a Puerto Rico corporation best known as the parent company of the El Comandante racetrack, and it also held U.S. radio broadcasting interests, including the station that became New York's WKTU.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow old is this certificate?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nCertificates in this series carry a printed issue date in 1982.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat does the 1954 date on the seal mean?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nThat year appears in the border of the embossed corporate seal, marking an early charter\/incorporation reference for the company — it is not the date this certificate itself was printed or issued, which is 1982.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWho printed and engraved it?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Security-Columbian Banknote Company of New York, N.Y., a firm formed from the 1957 merger of the Security Banknote Company and the Columbian Bank Note Company, historically a major competitor to the American Bank Note Company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat does the artwork on the certificate show?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nA reclining classical male figure holding a sundial, with a jockey riding a numbered racehorse in the background, alongside a stylized Art Deco numeral motif and a hint of palm trees, framed by blue guilloche borderwork.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDoes the racetrack this company owned still exist?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nYes — its successor, Hipódromo Camarero in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, still operates as the island's thoroughbred racetrack today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-san-juan-racing-stock-certificate-coca-cola-coke-horse-1960s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1960s San Juan Racing Association Stock Certificate Coca Cola of New York 1978 Bid El Comandante Puerto Rico 📜\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-monmouth-jockey-club-stock-certificate-horse-racing-heyday-vintage\"\u003eVintage 1940s-1950s Monmouth Park Jockey Club Stock Certificate 🐎 Jersey Shore Horse Racing Wall Art\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-standard-federal-bank-stock-certificate-troy-mi-1980s-icon-since-1893\"\u003eVintage 1980s Standard Federal Bank Stock Certificate 🏦 Detroit \/ Troy Michigan, Common Stock Scripophily\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42159386231016,"sku":"VAG-7499647484136","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3515939372_42vu.jpg?v=1785356563"},{"product_id":"rare-vintage-double-cola-bottle-cap-chattanooga-tn-unique-bottler-1980s","title":"Vintage NOS 1980s Double Cola Bottle Cap • Chattanooga, Tennessee 🥤","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r01LMAJk70c\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e🥤 \u003cstrong\u003eVintage New Old Stock (NOS) 1980s Double Cola Bottle Cap\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis \u003cstrong\u003eunused, uncrimped New Old Stock (NOS)\u003c\/strong\u003e bottle cap dates to the \u003cstrong\u003e1980s\u003c\/strong\u003e and is marked for \u003cstrong\u003eChattanooga, Tennessee\u003c\/strong\u003e, the longtime home of the \u003cstrong\u003eDouble Cola Company\u003c\/strong\u003e. Caps bearing Chattanooga identification are far less commonly encountered than later regional bottler issues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDouble Cola\u003c\/strong\u003e was founded in \u003cstrong\u003e1933\u003c\/strong\u003e and built its identity around offering more soda for the same price. The company helped popularize \u003cstrong\u003e12‑ounce bottles\u003c\/strong\u003e at a time when most competitors were still selling 6‑ounce servings, and later expanded to \u003cstrong\u003e16‑ounce bottles\u003c\/strong\u003e, reinforcing its value‑driven reputation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e📜 \u003cstrong\u003eSoda‑Industry Legend\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring \u003cstrong\u003eWorld War II\u003c\/strong\u003e, sugar rationing placed enormous financial pressure on many soft drink companies. A long‑standing soda‑industry legend holds that Double Cola, then in a comparatively strong position, had an opportunity to acquire the struggling \u003cstrong\u003ePepsi‑Cola\u003c\/strong\u003e brand but ultimately chose not to pursue it. While no documented transaction has ever been confirmed, the story has endured for decades as a reminder of how differently American soda history might have unfolded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDetails\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eNew Old Stock (NOS) — unused, uncrimped\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e1980s production\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eMarked for Chattanooga, Tennessee\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eDouble Cola Company branding\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eAuthentic American soda memorabilia\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA documented example of \u003cstrong\u003elate‑20th‑century American soda history\u003c\/strong\u003e, tied directly to one of the industry’s most enduring independent brands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-sunkist-orange-soda-bottle-cap-beautiful-cap-treasures-antique\"\u003eRetro NOS 2000s Sunkist Orange Soda Bottle Cap 🍊\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-nehi-orange-bottle-cap-dr-pepper-bottling-jefferson-nc-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Nehi Orange Bottle Cap 🍊 from West Jefferson NC\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-vintage-1980s-jolt-cola-bottle-cap-rochester-ny-amazing-cap-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s 🥤 Jolt Cola Lightning Bolt Bottle Cap — Rochester NY Soda Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43334066995432,"sku":"VAG-7831197319400","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4005039163_9n5b.jpg?v=1785356739"},{"product_id":"vintage-nehi-orange-bottle-cap-dr-pepper-bottling-jefferson-nc-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Nehi Orange Bottle Cap 🍊 from West Jefferson NC","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MhkidcXc_TM\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e🍊 Nehi Orange! If you grew up in the South, that name alone probably tastes like summer. This one's from a Blue Ridge mountain bottler, and the brand on it has a history full of Hollywood stars, a pair of stockinged legs and a leg lamp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🔍 What's on it\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA New Old Stock twist-off crown, never on a bottle, in bright orange. At the top, a white \u003cstrong\u003eN\u003c\/strong\u003e in a circle inside an orange-and-white diamond, then \u003cstrong\u003eORANGE\u003c\/strong\u003e between two thin rules, \u003cstrong\u003eNEHI\u003c\/strong\u003e in big faceted white-and-black block letters with a ®, and \u003cstrong\u003eSINCE 1924\u003c\/strong\u003e on a black bar. Around the skirt: \u003cem\u003e\"Bottled by Dr Pepper Bottling Co. West Jefferson, NC 28694,\"\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003e\"TWIST OFF\"\u003c\/em\u003e with a curved arrow, and a small 16. Inside, a dark grey liner with a two-digit mark pressed in. Like every uncrimped crown it measures 1 1\/4\" across. The \"Since 1924\" is Nehi's birth year, not the cap's.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🦵 \"Knee high\"\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNehi came out in \u003cstrong\u003e1924\u003c\/strong\u003e from \u003cstrong\u003eClaud A. Hatcher\u003c\/strong\u003e's Chero-Cola company in Columbus, Georgia, the same outfit that later gave us RC Cola. Say it out loud and you get the joke: \"knee high,\" a nod to the tall bottles it came in. The old advertising logo was a woman's legs in stockings, and that's the picture Jean Shepherd had in mind for the famous Leg Lamp in \u003cem\u003eA Christmas Story\u003c\/em\u003e. The drink was such a hit that in \u003cstrong\u003e1928\u003c\/strong\u003e the whole company became the \u003cstrong\u003eNehi Corporation\u003c\/strong\u003e, and in \u003cstrong\u003e1955\u003c\/strong\u003e, riding RC's success, it renamed itself the Royal Crown Company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNehi had star power, too. After the war Bing Crosby, Joan Crawford and Bob Hope all endorsed it, and Robert Ripley of \"Believe It or Not!\" plugged it on his radio show. And every \u003cem\u003eM*A*S*H\u003c\/em\u003e fan remembers Radar O'Reilly ordering his Grape Nehi. Today Nehi is part of Keurig Dr Pepper, as it has been since 2008, and it still has a loyal following among people who love the old regional flavors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏔️ The West Jefferson bottler\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eH.R. Vannoy\u003c\/strong\u003e started the Dr Pepper Bottling Company in West Jefferson, up in Ashe County in the Blue Ridge, in \u003cstrong\u003e1937\u003c\/strong\u003e. Carl Colvard and Vannoy ran it through the 1940s, and the Vannoy family still owns it. These caps came out of the old plant, the two-story brick building downtown at 108–110 North Third Avenue that still wears a faded \u003cem\u003e\"Dr. Pepper-Grapette Bottling Co.\"\u003c\/em\u003e sign and is part of the West Jefferson Historic District on the National Register. The company moved out to a newer plant on NC Highway 163, where it still bottles Nehi Orange, Nehi Grape and Nehi Peach along with dozens of other flavors, in glass longnecks with real cane sugar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e📌 A great little piece of Nehi and North Carolina soda history for a cap collection, a shadow box, a gift for a \u003cem\u003eM*A*S*H\u003c\/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003eChristmas Story\u003c\/em\u003e fan, or a bottle-cap craft.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1970s-cock-n-bull-soda-bottle-cap-incredible-collectible-treasures\"\u003eRetro 2000s Cock 'n Bull Ginger Beer Bottle Cap 🐓 Soft Drink Crown, Dr Pepper Bottling, West Jefferson NC\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-cheerwine-bottle-cap-west-jefferson-salisbury-nc-treasures\"\u003eVintage Cheerwine Bottle Cap – 1980s NOS – West Jefferson NC Bottler – Twist‑Off 🍒\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-vintage-1980s-7-up-bottle-cap-west-jefferson-nc-treasures-antique-gifts\"\u003eRetro 2000s 7-Up Bottle Cap 🧢 Red Dot Logo, West Jefferson NC NOS Crown Cap\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43352869765352,"sku":"VAG-7836047704296","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3968760818_efvr.jpg?v=1785356755"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-tennis-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Tennis California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-8onRsTOzgA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🎾 The Tennis California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage 1980s Tennis California Raisin Tin Pin, WOW The Memories! This Raisin is ready for Wimbledon: orange sunglasses, a yellow racket held high in one glove, a tennis ball in the other, and orange-and-white sneakers. Game, set, raisin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to just say WOW again because when I saw these the memories came flooding back and I went to youtube and watched every single Raisin video ever. And let me add nothing is better than listening to a song sung by a California Raisin!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a round tin pin with the picture printed right on the metal, and the back is painted cream with a gold-tone safety pin held on by two little metal tabs. The last photo shows three pin backs next to a quarter so you can see the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🍇 The Band\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia Raisins were given individual names and characterizations: A.C. Arborman (vocals), his younger brother Beebop Arborman (drums), their cousin Red Raisin (guitar\/piano), and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson (bass).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🛍️ The Raisins Craze\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce the Raisins hit with \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine,\" they were on everything: lunch boxes, notebooks, clothing, posters, bedsheets, even a Halloween costume. A California Raisins Fan Club started in 1987 with its own newsletter, the Grapevine Gazette, and Blackthorne Publishing put out a six-issue California Raisins 3-D comic with the glasses included. The Raisins sold Post Raisin Bran, and Hardee's handed out little Raisin figures with its Cinnamon 'N' Raisin biscuits in 1987, 1988 and 1991, and again in 2001.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCapcom even made a Nintendo game, The California Raisins: The Grape Escape, with five side-scrolling levels against evil fruits and vegetables who had stolen the Raisins' music. It was finished and reviewed, and then never released. The whole ride ended on July 31, 1994, when the California Raisin Advisory Board collapsed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Raisins were invented in 1986 and seem to pop up and do events and cameos over the years unbeknownst to me. I've been missing out! I have seen some people say these pins are from the 1970s but it isn't possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are so highly collectible that the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History keeps the California Raisins in its permanent collection. Here is a piece for you that the Smithsonian I am sure would be proud of!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📦 About the Supply\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease note the supply that was found of these were in a warehouse all just in big boxes all together for 40 years~ then moved so some might have a mark or blemish. Most who have these list them as new but as you know if you follow me I am meticulous about the condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nostalgia for these isn't going to go away any time soon, so this is a great opportunity to display it as decor or wear it for fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-vocal-solo-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Vocal Solo California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-surfer-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 1980s 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hog-head-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hog Head Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Buck-Toothed Pig Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43386389692648,"sku":"VAG-7845892063464","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3430692340_pqb0_8804343f-b015-4e93-aeae-af8b8426cb4e.jpg?v=1785356764"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-jazz-hands-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Jazz Hands California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J4_A4k1IEt4\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🙌 The Jazz Hands California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage 1980s Jazz Hands California Raisin Tin Pin, WOW The Memories! Both big white gloves are up, palms out, fingers spread, and he's got a sly grin, droopy blue eyes with pink lids, skinny black arms and legs and blue-and-white high-tops. Showtime!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to just say WOW again because when I saw these the memories came flooding back and I went to youtube and watched every single Raisin video ever. And let me add nothing is better than listening to a song sung by a California Raisin!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a round tin pin with the picture printed right on the metal, and the back is painted cream with a gold-tone safety pin held on by two little metal tabs. The last photo shows three pin backs next to a quarter so you can see the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🍇 The Band\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia Raisins were given individual names and characterizations: A.C. Arborman (vocals), his younger brother Beebop Arborman (drums), their cousin Red Raisin (guitar\/piano), and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson (bass).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🎬 Will Vinton and His Claymation\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe man who made the Raisins move was Will Vinton, born in McMinnville, Oregon in 1947. He and clay animator Bob Gardiner started out in his Portland basement, and in 1975 their film Closed Mondays won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the first film made in Portland ever to win one. Vinton later trademarked the word Claymation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis studio built the Raisins, and a lot more: the Domino's Pizza Noid and the M\u0026amp;M's characters came out of the same shop. The Raisins sang \"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" in Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration in 1987, which won the Emmy. In 2005 the studio was renamed Laika, the company behind Coraline. Vinton was nominated for five Academy Awards in all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Raisins were invented in 1986 and seem to pop up and do events and cameos over the years unbeknownst to me. I've been missing out! I have seen some people say these pins are from the 1970s but it isn't possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are so highly collectible that the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History keeps the California Raisins in its permanent collection. Here is a piece for you that the Smithsonian I am sure would be proud of!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📦 About the Supply\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease note the supply that was found of these were in a warehouse all just in big boxes all together for 40 years~ then moved so some might have a mark or blemish. Most who have these list them as new but as you know if you follow me I am meticulous about the condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nostalgia for these isn't going to go away any time soon, so this is a great opportunity to display it as decor or wear it for fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-surfer-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 1980s 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-dancing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Dancing California Raisin Tin Pin 📌 WOW The Memories!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-all-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43386492616936,"sku":"VAG-7845901271272","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4030214751_1cms.jpg?v=1785356774"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-surfer-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 1980s 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Js9MSVEAJBA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🏄 The Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin, WOW The Memories! This Raisin is hanging ten on a red surfboard, riding right through the curl of a big blue wave with his gloves out for balance and a grin on his face. California all the way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to just say WOW again because when I saw these the memories came flooding back and I went to youtube and watched every single Raisin video ever. And let me add nothing is better than listening to a song sung by a California Raisin!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a round tin pin with the picture printed right on the metal, and the back is painted cream with a gold-tone safety pin held on by two little metal tabs. The last photo shows three pin backs next to a quarter so you can see the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🍇 The Band\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia Raisins were given individual names and characterizations: A.C. Arborman (vocals), his younger brother Beebop Arborman (drums), their cousin Red Raisin (guitar\/piano), and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson (bass).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e☀️ Where California Raisins Come From\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe real raisins behind the band come from the San Joaquin Valley around Fresno. In 1873 Francis T. Eisen planted an experimental vineyard of Muscat grapes near Fresno, packaged raisins were shipping out of the state by 1878, and by 1903 California was producing 120 million pounds a year. In 1912 the growers formed the California Associated Raisin Company, and in 1914 they launched the Sun-Maid brand with a train of 60 freight cars of raisins headed for Chicago, every car carrying the banner \"Raisins Grown by 6,000 California Growers.\" The original Sun-Maid Girl was a real person, Lorraine Collett, who handed out raisin samples at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd for some old raisin lore: for centuries people played a Christmas Eve parlor game called snap-dragon. Raisins went into a bowl of warm brandy, the brandy was lit, the lights went down, and everybody snatched raisins out of the blue flames. Samuel Johnson put it in his 1755 dictionary as \"a play in which they catch raisins out of burning brandy.\" Our Raisin here would rather go surfing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Raisins were invented in 1986 and seem to pop up and do events and cameos over the years unbeknownst to me. I've been missing out! I have seen some people say these pins are from the 1970s but it isn't possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are so highly collectible that the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History keeps the California Raisins in its permanent collection. Here is a piece for you that the Smithsonian I am sure would be proud of!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📦 About the Supply\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease note the supply that was found of these were in a warehouse all just in big boxes all together for 40 years~ then moved so some might have a mark or blemish. Most who have these list them as new but as you know if you follow me I am meticulous about the condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nostalgia for these isn't going to go away any time soon, so this is a great opportunity to display it as decor or wear it for fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-jazz-hands-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Jazz Hands California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pointing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pointing California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-all-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43386540523752,"sku":"VAG-7845924471016","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3982565726_79qg.jpg?v=1785356781"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-all-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JwB8DnJqDgU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e😎 The All Me California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin, WOW The Memories! This is the Raisin who knows he's the star of the show. He's got his red shades on and both big white gloves pointed right back at himself, knees bent, in red-and-white high-top sneakers. It's all me, baby.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to just say WOW again because when I saw these the memories came flooding back and I went to youtube and watched every single Raisin video ever. And let me add nothing is better than listening to a song sung by a California Raisin!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a round tin pin with the picture printed right on the metal, and the back is painted cream with a gold-tone safety pin held on by two little metal tabs. The last photo shows three pin backs next to a quarter so you can see the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🎬 \"Everything but Dancing Raisins\"\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe raisin growers had tried just about every kind of ad there was. Then in 1986 a writer at Foote, Cone \u0026amp; Belding in San Francisco named Seth Werner said, \"We have tried everything but dancing raisins singing 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine.'\" Somebody took him seriously. Will Vinton's studio in Portland, Oregon, the folks who coined the word Claymation, built the Raisins out of clay with character designs by Michael Brunsfeld, and that first 30-second commercial cost $300,000 to develop and test. It was a smash, and it's credited with lifting raisin sales by 20 percent. The next year the Raisins sang \"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" in A Claymation Christmas Celebration, which won an Emmy, and on November 4, 1988 CBS gave them their own prime-time special, Meet the Raisins!, which was nominated for one. The big stars wanted in, too. Ray Charles got his own clay raisin, \"Raisin Ray,\" and in July 1989 Michael Jackson showed up in clay as himself and as \"Michael Raisin,\" glove and fedora and all, in a spot that ran in 5,700 movie theaters before it ever hit TV. The museums took notice, too: The Henry Ford in Dearborn keeps a 1988 California Raisins advertising poster and the original character artwork Dawn Nori drew for Will Vinton Productions and Applause Licensing, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences keeps a Will Vinton Collection of more than 200 items from his films.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🍇 The Band\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia Raisins were given individual names and characterizations: A.C. Arborman (vocals), his younger brother Beebop Arborman (drums), their cousin Red Raisin (guitar\/piano), and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson (bass).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🎤 The Albums, the End and the Missing Head\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Raisins put out four albums: The California Raisins (also called The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs) in 1987, which reached number 60, then Sweet, Delicious, \u0026amp; Marvelous, Meet the Raisins! and Christmas with The California Raisins, all in 1988. The drummer and singer Buddy Miles, who had played in Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys and recorded with Carlos Santana, sang most of the leads, starting with \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine.\" The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History notes that Will Vinton's clay figures were first developed in 1986 as caricatures of African American rhythm-and-blues groups.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut fame cost a fortune. The raisin growers paid for the whole campaign through the California Raisin Advisory Board, and they grew alarmed at the ever-rising fees as more and more money went back into commercials and merchandise. The board collapsed, and the Raisins were retired on July 31, 1994. Their trademarks and copyrights went to the State of California, which has licensed them since 1998 to the new California Raisin Marketing Board. Even the original clay puppets had a rough time. They sat in a box for years and were headed for the trash before Webster Colcord, a former Vinton animator, saved them, and when he photographed them the A.C. puppet was missing its head. A live-action and CGI reboot was announced in 2015, and it never came to anything, so pins like this one are how the Raisins live on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Raisins were invented in 1986 and seem to pop up and do events and cameos over the years unbeknownst to me. I've been missing out! I have seen some people say these pins are from the 1970s but it isn't possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are so highly collectible that the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History keeps the California Raisins in its permanent collection. Here is a piece for you that the Smithsonian I am sure would be proud of!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📦 About the Supply\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease note the supply that was found of these were in a warehouse all just in big boxes all together for 40 years~ then moved so some might have a mark or blemish. Most who have these list them as new but as you know if you follow me I am meticulous about the condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nostalgia for these isn't going to go away any time soon, so this is a great opportunity to display it as decor or wear it for fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-trombone-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Saxophone California Raisin Tin Pin 📌 WOW The Memories!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-surfer-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 1980s 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pointing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pointing California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43386548322536,"sku":"VAG-7845927059688","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4030231393_994k.jpg?v=1785356790"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-vocal-solo-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Vocal Solo California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xUU4iQ7yZhg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🎤 The Vocal Solo California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Vocal Solo California Raisin Tin Pin, WOW The Memories! This Raisin is in the middle of his big number. His eyes are closed, his mouth is wide open, he's wearing a little blue bow tie, and he's gripping a red-and-yellow microphone in one white-gloved hand while the other hand shoots up in the air. White sneakers, a plain white background, and nothing but soul. If he isn't A.C. himself, the band's lead singer, he's doing a mighty good impression.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to just say WOW again because when I saw these the memories came flooding back and I went to youtube and watched every single Raisin video ever. And let me add nothing is better than listening to a song sung by a California Raisin!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe picture is printed right on the tin, and the back is painted a pale cream with a gold-tone safety pin. The last photo shows three pin backs next to a quarter for size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🍇 The Band\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia Raisins were given individual names and characterizations: A.C. Arborman (vocals), his younger brother Beebop Arborman (drums), their cousin Red Raisin (guitar\/piano), and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson (bass). Those names and parts came from Meet the Raisins!, the CBS special that aired on November 4, 1988.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🎶 The Voice Behind the Raisin\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Raisins were invented in 1986 and seem to pop up and do events and cameos over the years unbeknownst to me. I've been missing out! I have seen some people say these pins are from the 1970s but it isn't possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe real lead singer was no joke. Buddy Miles, born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1947, whose father played upright bass for Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Charlie Parker, was a founding member of the Electric Flag, which made its live debut at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and he played drums in Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys in 1969 and 1970. He met Hendrix at 16, when they were both sidemen at a show in Montreal. Twenty years later he was singing lead for a bunch of clay raisins on TV, and he recorded two California Raisins albums of rhythm and blues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Raisins came out of the San Francisco office of Foote, Cone \u0026amp; Belding for the California Raisin Advisory Board, and Will Vinton's studio animated them in clay. The group put out four albums in 1987 and 1988, full of Motown and rock standards, with Ellis Hall and Niki Haris taking the occasional lead and Howard McCrary, Howard Smith and Leslie Smith singing backup. \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine\" reached number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100, and in 1987 they sang \"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" in the Emmy-winning A Claymation Christmas Celebration. It all wound down in 1994 when the Raisin Advisory Board folded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are so highly collectible that the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History keeps California Raisins in its permanent collection, from the original pencil sketches and clay armatures to the albums. Here is a piece for you that the Smithsonian I am sure would be proud of!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📦 About the Supply\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease note the supply that was found of these were in a warehouse all just in big boxes all together for 40 years~ then moved so some might have a mark or blemish. Most who have these list them as new but as you know if you follow me I am meticulous about the condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nostalgia for these isn't going to go away any time soon, so this is a great opportunity to display it as decor or wear it for fun. Put it on a jean jacket, a guitar strap or a record shelf, or give it to anybody who can still sing every word of Grapevine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-tennis-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Tennis California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pointing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pointing California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-all-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43386552353000,"sku":"VAG-7845929386216","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4030243807_9ei3.jpg?v=1785356800"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-pointing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Pointing California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kRQb2hJyBtQ\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e👆 The Pointing California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage 1980s Pointing California Raisin Tin Pin, WOW The Memories! This Raisin has his finger pointed straight up to the sky and his other white-gloved hand pointed at the floor, with a big toothy grin, sleepy red-and-blue eyes and blue high-top sneakers. It's the classic disco point, and I can't look at it without hearing the bass line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to just say WOW again because when I saw these the memories came flooding back and I went to youtube and watched every single Raisin video ever. And let me add nothing is better than listening to a song sung by a California Raisin!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a round tin pin with the picture printed right on the metal, and the back is painted cream with a gold-tone safety pin held on by two little metal tabs. The last photo shows three pin backs next to a quarter so you can see the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🍇 The Band\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia Raisins were given individual names and characterizations: A.C. Arborman (vocals), his younger brother Beebop Arborman (drums), their cousin Red Raisin (guitar\/piano), and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson (bass).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🎵 The Song Behind the Raisins\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe whole thing started with a song. \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine\" was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown in 1966. The Miracles recorded it first, on August 6, 1966, but Motown sat on it. Gladys Knight \u0026amp; the Pips put it out as a single in September 1967, and it went to number one on the R\u0026amp;B chart and number two on the pop chart and became the biggest-selling Motown single up to then. Marvin Gaye had cut his version back in early 1967, and when Berry Gordy finally released it as a single in October 1968, it sat at number one on the pop chart for seven weeks. Creedence Clearwater Revival stretched it into an eleven-minute jam in 1970, and in 1998 it went into the Grammy Hall of Fame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen in 1986, Seth Werner, a writer at the Foote, Cone \u0026amp; Belding ad agency in San Francisco, California, joked that they had \"tried everything but dancing raisins singing 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine,'\" and the California Raisin Advisory Board took him up on it. The Raisins' own version made the Billboard Hot 100 too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Raisins were invented in 1986 and seem to pop up and do events and cameos over the years unbeknownst to me. I've been missing out! I have seen some people say these pins are from the 1970s but it isn't possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are so highly collectible that the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History keeps the California Raisins in its permanent collection. Here is a piece for you that the Smithsonian I am sure would be proud of!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📦 About the Supply\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease note the supply that was found of these were in a warehouse all just in big boxes all together for 40 years~ then moved so some might have a mark or blemish. Most who have these list them as new but as you know if you follow me I am meticulous about the condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nostalgia for these isn't going to go away any time soon, so this is a great opportunity to display it as decor or wear it for fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-dancing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Dancing California Raisin Tin Pin 📌 WOW The Memories!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-surfer-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 1980s 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-all-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43386557202664,"sku":"VAG-7845931221224","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3982598774_7lwm.jpg?v=1785356808"},{"product_id":"vintage-trombone-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Saxophone California Raisin Tin Pin 📌 WOW The Memories!","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BjCmcAd7o08\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1.5 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎷 The Band So Big It Broke the Board That Built It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor eight years a clay band of raisins was all over American television, and the fame is exactly what finished them. The California Raisins sold platinum records, Hardee's figures, lunch boxes and tin buttons, but every commercial was paid for by the raisin growers of Fresno, California, out of their own crop. On July 31, 1994 the California Raisin Advisory Board closed its doors for good. Today the Smithsonian keeps the clay. This saxophone man is what's left for the rest of us to hold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eI need to just say WOW again. When I saw these the memories came flooding back, and I went to YouTube and watched every single Raisin video ever. And let me add: nothing is better than listening to a song sung by a California Raisin!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📌 The Pin\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA round tin pinback button, 1 1\/2\", printed with a single California Raisin on a plain white face. Brown wrinkled body, white cartoon gloves wrapped around a bright yellow saxophone, blue eyelids shut tight, black-and-white shoes planted mid-note. He is the band's horn man, leaning into a solo with his eyes closed. On the back is a gold-tone safety-pin clasp, so it wears as easily as it displays.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Busy Beaver Button Museum, an archive devoted entirely to pinback buttons, catalogs a California Raisins saxophone button of this description (a raisin in black-and-white shoes playing a yellow sax on a white ground) alongside Raisins buttons showing a singer, a football player, a skateboarder and a hot tub scene.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eI have seen some people say these pins are from the 1970s, but it isn't possible. The California Raisins did not exist until 1986, and these came out of the Raisins' heyday in the 1980s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍇 Fresno, and the Legend of the Accidental Raisin\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe story Fresno tells about itself goes like this. Francis Eisen, a Swedish immigrant, planted a vineyard along Fancher Creek east of Fresno in 1873 with his brother Gustav, meaning to make wine. Then a brutal heat wave rolled through the San Joaquin Valley just before harvest and dried the Muscat grapes right on the vine. Rather than lose the crop, Eisen packed the shriveled fruit and took it to San Francisco, where it was sold as an exotic import. In the most-repeated version of the legend, a grocer there put them out as \"Peruvian Delicacies.\" Tellers disagree on whether the heat came in 1873 or 1877. Either way, a ruined harvest became an industry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe women came next, and history mostly forgot them. Minnie Austin, a Nantucket-born schoolteacher, and fellow teacher Lucy Hatch had burned out in the classrooms of Chicago and San Francisco. They bought into M. Theo Kearney's Central California Colony and planted the Hedgerow Vineyard on Elm Avenue, with two more teachers, E.A. Cleveland and J.B. Short, as silent partners. Austin and Hatch shipped their first raisin crop in 1878 under the Austin brand, likely the first packaged raisins ever sent out of Fresno, and by 1886 they were shipping 7,500 boxes a year. They were the first to sulfur their vines at bloom and the first to use a raisin dehydrator. Austin died in 1889. Hatch lived until 1926 and spent her last years urging growers to stay united under the Sun-Maid banner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThat banner was born in the same valley. The name Sun-Maid was coined in 1915 by advertising man E.A. Berg, and the girl in the red bonnet was a real young woman, Lorraine Collett, who handed out raisins at San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition that year. In 1918 Sun-Maid opened a plant near downtown Fresno. By the early 1980s, though, raisins had become a hard sell, and the growers needed something nobody had tried.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔍 What Is Printed on This Button\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNothing but the picture. The face carries the saxophone Raisin and no lettering at all — no maker, no licence line, no date. Worth saying plainly, because the same artwork was also printed on a button that reads \u003cem\u003eThe California Raisins™\u003c\/em\u003e in blue script with \u003cem\u003e©1987 CALRAB\u003c\/em\u003e beneath it. That marked button is a different piece from this one; this is the unmarked printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎬 \"We Have Tried Everything But Dancing Raisins\"\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Raisin Advisory Board, known as CALRAB, was a state marketing board headquartered in Fresno. Growers paid into it to regulate and promote the whole California crop rather than any single brand, and the new campaign got off the ground with an initial $3 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. CALRAB took the job to the San Francisco office of the ad agency Foote, Cone \u0026amp; Belding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere, the story goes, a 31-year-old copywriter named Seth Werner, working with his partner Dexter Fedor, threw out a line in frustration: they had tried everything but dancing raisins singing \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine.\" The joke became the pitch. The job went to Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon, the Oscar-winning animation house that had built its name on Claymation, and Michael Brunsfeld drew the character designs. The first 30-second spot cost about $300,000 to make and aired on September 14, 1986. Sunglasses on, high-tops laced, the Raisins shuffled through Marvin Gaye's hit, and raisin sales rose 20 percent after it aired.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe voice was the real thing. Lead vocals came from Buddy Miles, the drummer and singer who had played alongside Jimi Hendrix in the Band of Gypsys. That is a big part of why the Raisins sounded like a soul act instead of a jingle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📀 Platinum Albums, Hardee's Figures and an Emmy\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Raisins stopped being a commercial and became a band. Their \"Grapevine\" reached No. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100. Four albums followed across 1987 and 1988, two of them went platinum, and more than 2 million people bought Raisins records, with covers like \"Lean on Me\" and \"You Can't Hurry Love.\" Hardee's gave away collectible Raisins figures in 1987, 1988 and 1991. Among the licensed Raisins collectibles of the day, the toy company Applause made the little PVC figures marked CALRAB in 1987 and 1988. There were plush toys, air fresheners, comic books and a fan club. Capcom even built a Nintendo game, The California Raisins: The Grape Escape; it was finished and reviewed by critics but never released.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTelevision came calling. Will Vinton's \u003cem\u003eA Claymation Christmas Celebration\u003c\/em\u003e (1987), featuring the Raisins, won a Primetime Emmy. On November 4, 1988 CBS aired the mockumentary \u003cem\u003eMeet the Raisins!\u003c\/em\u003e, which was nominated for an Emmy and gave the core band full names: A.C. Arborman on vocals, his younger brother Beebop Arborman on drums, their cousin Red Raisin on guitar and piano, and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson on bass. Stamford! I love that the bass man got the fanciest name in the band. \u003cem\u003eThe California Raisin Show\u003c\/em\u003e cartoon ran 13 episodes in 1989. Ray Charles and Michael Jackson each recorded their own version of \"Grapevine\" for later commercials, and Jackson, by the popular account, did it for free on the condition that he work with Vinton, whom he knew from Disney's Captain EO.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the original run of figures, the man on this pin is simply the Saxophone Player: eyes closed, cheeks puffed, leaning back into the blues. When Hardee's first handed out four Raisins figures in 1987, at 99 cents apiece with its Cinnamon 'N' Raisin biscuits, the other three got pun names (Tiny Goodbite the singer, and the dancers Justin X. Grape and Ben Indasun), and my horn man was just the Saxophone Player. Somehow that suits him. He lets the sax do the talking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📉 How the Fame Became the Problem\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the part most people never heard. CALRAB was a nonprofit, so it could not keep what the Raisins earned. It poured the proceeds from the campaign back into more advertising, costs climbed with every new spot, and by the end the campaign was costing growers almost twice what it brought them. Growers revolted over the fees they were required to pay, and the board ended on July 31, 1994, citing irreconcilable differences among its members. The characters became property of the State of California. In 1998 a new grower-funded California Raisin Marketing Board was formed and licensed them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏛️ The Smithsonian, and the Whole Legacy\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Smithsonian's National Museum of American History holds a sculpted clay California Raisin, Claymation props and wire armatures, sixteen original pencil sketches from the campaign, a Raisins T-shirt and a school friends collector album. The museum's own record describes the figures as developed by Will Vinton Productions in 1986 \"based on caricatures of African American rhythm-and-blues groups.\" That belongs in the story too. The campaign changed the fortunes of a Central Valley crop, and it did it by borrowing its whole sound from Black music: Marvin Gaye's song, Buddy Miles's voice, Ray Charles's cameo. In June 2025 Michigan State University scholars Ed Timke and Christina L. Myers presented \"Consuming Black Culture: The Materiality and Cultural Exploitation of the California Raisins Campaign\" at CHARM, a marketing-history conference in London, examining how the beloved campaign intersected with cultural appropriation, commercial exploitation and representation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese are so collectible that the Smithsonian keeps California Raisins material in its collection. Here is an instant collection for you that I am sure the Smithsonian would be proud of!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe supply that was found of these was in a warehouse, all together in big boxes for 40 years~, then moved, so some might have a mark or blemish. Most who have these list them as new, but as you know if you follow me, I am meticulous about the condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Good For\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eA denim jacket, tote or band bag. The safety-pin clasp works the way it was made to.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eAn 1980s pop culture shadow box next to cereal-box prizes and Saturday morning memorabilia.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eA record room or practice space, for anybody who plays the horn.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eA California agriculture or Central Valley history display beside a Sun-Maid box.\u003c\/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eA gift for anyone who still hums \"Grapevine\" when they open a box of raisins.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhich California Raisin is on this pin?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe saxophone player. In the 1988 special \u003cem\u003eMeet the Raisins!\u003c\/em\u003e the named members were A.C. (vocals), Beebop (drums), Red (guitar and piano) and Stretch (bass). The horn man comes from the Raisins' original line-up of figures, where he appears eyes shut with a yellow sax, just as he is printed here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old is a California Raisins button?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo older than 1986, when the first commercial went on the air. Anything sold as a 1970s California Raisins pin is misdated. This one came out of the band's peak years in the 1980s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho created the California Raisins?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCopywriter Seth Werner and partner Dexter Fedor at Foote, Cone \u0026amp; Belding in San Francisco came up with the idea for the California Raisin Advisory Board of Fresno. Will Vinton Studios in Portland animated them in clay, and Michael Brunsfeld designed the characters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho sang for the California Raisins?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuddy Miles sang lead, a veteran soul and rock drummer and singer rather than a studio jingle voice. Ray Charles and Michael Jackson later recorded their own versions of \"Grapevine\" for Raisins spots.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy did the California Raisins disappear?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMoney. Growers funded the ads through mandatory fees, the ads kept getting more expensive, and the members fell out. CALRAB closed on July 31, 1994, and the characters passed to the State of California.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere did raisins in California come from in the first place?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLegend credits a heat wave in the 1870s that dried Francis Eisen's Muscat grapes on the vine near Fresno, fruit that was then sold in San Francisco as \"Peruvian Delicacies.\" Schoolteachers Minnie Austin and Lucy Hatch shipped the first packaged raisins out of Fresno in 1878.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eCan I wear it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes. It has a gold-tone safety-pin clasp on the back and measures 1 1\/2\" across.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-all-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-jazz-hands-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Jazz Hands California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-surfer-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 1980s 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43386571358440,"sku":"VAG-7845933154536","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4030266459_m6k5.jpg?v=1785356816"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-dancing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Dancing California Raisin Tin Pin 📌 WOW The Memories!","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yEFIyFhWGR8\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🍇 The Dancing California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Dancing California Raisin Tin Pin, WOW The Memories! One of the Raisins is striking a pose on a cream background: red sunglasses, big white cartoon gloves, red-and-white high-top sneakers, one finger pointed at the ceiling and the other hand pointed at the floor. If you can look at him without hearing \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine\" in your head, you're doing better than me.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to just say WOW again because when I saw these the memories came flooding back and I went to youtube and watched every single Raisin video ever. And let me add nothing is better than listening to a song sung by a California Raisin!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a round tin pin with the picture printed right on the metal. The back is painted cream, with a gold-tone safety pin held on by two little metal tabs. The last photo shows three pin backs next to a quarter so you can see the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🎤 Meet the Band\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia Raisins were given individual names and characterizations: A.C. Arborman (vocals), his younger brother Beebop Arborman (drums), their cousin Red Raisin (guitar\/piano), and their friend Stamford \"Stretch\" Thompson (bass). They got those names in Meet the Raisins!, a primetime CBS special that aired on November 4, 1988 and was nominated for an Emmy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📺 How a Box of Raisins Became a Motown Act\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Raisins were invented in 1986 and seem to pop up and do events and cameos over the years unbeknownst to me. I've been missing out! I have seen some people say these pins are from the 1970s but it isn't possible. I obviously went and read up on them too, and here's what I found.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe idea came out of the San Francisco office of the ad agency Foote, Cone \u0026amp; Belding, working for the California Raisin Advisory Board, when one of the writers, Seth Werner, joked that they had \"tried everything but dancing raisins singing 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine.'\" That was the 1968 song made famous by Marvin Gaye and by Gladys Knight \u0026amp; the Pips. Will Vinton's studio brought the raisins to life in clay, with characters designed by Michael Brunsfeld, and the first 30-second commercial cost $300,000 to develop and test. Nobody expected what happened next. The spot was a smash, and the drummer and singer Buddy Miles became the Raisins' lead voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1987 they sang \"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" in the Emmy-winning A Claymation Christmas Celebration. They put out four albums in 1987 and 1988, and \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine\" made the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 84. A fan club started in 1987 with its own newsletter, the Grapevine Gazette. Hardee's gave away little Raisin figures with its Cinnamon 'N' Raisin biscuits in 1987, 1988 and 1991, the Raisins sold Post Raisin Bran, and CBS gave them a Saturday morning cartoon, The California Raisin Show, in 1989. Their faces went on lunch boxes, notebooks, posters, bedsheets and just about anything else you could print on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ride ended on July 31, 1994, when the California Raisin Advisory Board collapsed. Growers were fed up with the fees that paid for all those commercials. The Raisins' trademarks and copyrights went to the State of California, which has licensed them since 1998 to the new California Raisin Marketing Board. The original clay puppets had a close call too. They sat in a box for years and were headed for the trash before a former Vinton animator, Webster Colcord, rescued them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are so highly collectible that the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History put the California Raisins in its permanent collection, from Vinton's pencil sketches, clay figures and armatures to a Raisins T-shirt and a School Friends collector album. Here is a piece for you that the Smithsonian I am sure would be proud of!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📦 Where These Came From\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease note the supply that was found of these were in a warehouse all just in big boxes all together for 40 years~ then moved so some might have a mark or blemish. Most who have these list them as new but as you know if you follow me I am meticulous about the condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nostalgia for these isn't going to go away any time soon, so this is a great opportunity to display it as decor or wear it for fun. Pin it on a jean jacket, a lunch box or a cork board, or give it to anybody who ever danced along to the Raisins on TV.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pointing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pointing California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-jazz-hands-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Jazz Hands California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-surfer-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage Surfer California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 1980s 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43386575454440,"sku":"VAG-7845934301416","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4030287067_dici.jpg?v=1785356832"},{"product_id":"vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-yellow-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Yellow - Sanrio Japan NOS","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 11.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZiiJEh_imEI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Bad news,\" says the headline, and Hello Kitty squeezes her eyes shut and reads it anyway. That little joke sits in one corner of this 1980s cotton handkerchief, with three happier scenes in the others: an ice cream sundae, a pile of presents and a picture on an easel. It is a pocket-sized piece of Hello Kitty's first great decade, printed on the one thing Japanese schoolchildren are still asked to bring to class every day.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty cotton napkin handkerchief with a yellow border, new old stock. Size: 11 1\/4\" square.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat Is Printed on It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA square of fine, light cotton with a sunny yellow border and a narrow stitched edge. Hello Kitty appears four times, one scene set at an angle in each corner and facing outward, so that folded into quarters any corner can sit on top and show a complete picture. Every scene has HELLO KITTY in rounded yellow letters, with a short English caption underneath in its own color.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIce cream\u003c\/strong\u003e, captioned in pink: Kitty in pink with a yellow bow, holding a cone with a red scoop, a little pink bird on one side and a pink sundae in a red footed dish, a cherry on top, on the other.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePresents\u003c\/strong\u003e, captioned in orange: Kitty hugging an orange gift tied with a green ribbon, a pink box with a yellow bow beside her and a pink envelope lettered MINNY, sealed with a yellow heart.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDrawing\u003c\/strong\u003e, captioned in green: Kitty in green with a crayon in her paw, a pink drawing board propped on a yellow easel and red and orange crayons standing by.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBad news\u003c\/strong\u003e, captioned in red: Kitty with her eyes closed behind a pink paper headlined \"bad news\" in multicolored letters, a milk bottle marked M with a pink straw on her right and a red jar marked with a yellow fish on her left.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe design is printed on one side. On the back the four scenes show faintly through the thin cotton, in reverse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eCondition\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew old stock. Besides the one opened for photos, these napkins were bundled in original packaging and stored away for decades. The colors are bright and the cotton is clean.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWho Hello Kitty Is\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHello Kitty was designed in 1974 by Yuko Shimizu for Sanrio. Shimizu took the name from Lewis Carroll's \u003cem\u003eThrough the Looking-Glass\u003c\/em\u003e, where Alice plays with a cat she calls Kitty. The character's first product was a small vinyl coin purse sold in Japan in 1975, and the next year Hello Kitty reached America through a Sanrio store in San Jose, California. Setsuko Yonekubo took over as lead designer in 1976, and in 1980 Yuko Yamaguchi became lead designer and stayed in charge from then on, so a 1980s hanky like this one comes from the Yamaguchi years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSanrio gives her a full biography. Her name is Kitty White and her birthday is November 1. She was born in the suburbs of London, England, she is five apples tall and weighs three apples, and she has an identical twin sister, Mimmy, who wears a yellow bow on her right ear. On this handkerchief Kitty's own bow is printed yellow too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eShe Is Not a Cat\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2014 the University of Hawaii anthropologist Christine Yano, author of \u003cem\u003ePink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek Across the Pacific\u003c\/em\u003e, was curating a Hello Kitty exhibition for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Her script called the character \"Sanrio's cat,\" and the company corrected her: Hello Kitty is a little girl. She is never shown on all fours, she walks and sits like a two-legged creature, and she keeps a pet cat of her own named Charmmy Kitty. The correction made headlines around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eSanrio, From Silk to Sandals\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShintaro Tsuji founded the company on August 10, 1960, as the Yamanashi Silk Company, with one million yen in capital. By 1962 he was selling rubber sandals painted with flowers and saw that a cute design made them sell far better, so he began hiring artists to draw characters for his goods. The business became Sanrio in 1973. Tsuji explained that the name comes from reading the characters of Yamanashi another way, as \"Sanri,\" with an \"o\" added for the happy sound people make. Sanrio first paid to license outside characters such as Snoopy, then built its own design team to avoid the royalties; Coro Chan came out of it in 1973 and Hello Kitty in 1974. Tsuji ran the company for sixty years, stepping down in June 2020 and handing it to his grandson Tomokuni Tsuji, who at 31 became the youngest chief executive of a listed company in Japan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhy a Handkerchief\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Japan a handkerchief is everyday equipment. Many public restrooms have no paper towels or hand dryers, so people carry a cloth to dry their hands, and public schools ask children to bring a handkerchief or small towel every day. It is for clean hands, summer sweat and the odd tear, never for blowing your nose. A character hanky is the kind of small, useful present Sanrio's whole business was built around.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Legend of the Square Handkerchief\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJapan even keeps a Handkerchief Day. The Japan Handkerchief Federation set it in 1983 on November 3, the Culture Day holiday, one day after Marie Antoinette's birthday, because of a legend about the queen. The story goes that she grew tired of handkerchiefs cut in every shape and size, and in 1785 Louis XVI obliged her with a decree that \"the length of handkerchiefs shall equal their width throughout my entire kingdom.\" Whatever the truth of it, the handkerchief has been square ever since, and at 11 1\/4\" on every side this one keeps the queen's rule.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eCute Becomes a Culture\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHello Kitty arrived just as Japan fell in love with cuteness. In the 1970s Japanese teenage girls began writing in a large, rounded, childlike hand, drawn with mechanical pencils and decorated with hearts, stars, little faces and English letters. It went by names like marui ji, \"round writing,\" and koneko ji, \"kitten writing,\" and it caused enough of a stir that many schools banned it. The researcher Kazuma Yamane studied what he called \"Anomalous Female Teenage Handwriting\" from 1984 to 1986, and the scholar Sharon Kinsella concluded that the girls had invented the style themselves as an underground trend, not copied it from comics. By the 1980s magazines, comics and product packaging had all taken it up. Hello Kitty was an immediate success in that world and became the model for the whole kawaii merchandise industry, and the playful English captions on this hanky, Ice cream, Presents, Drawing and Bad news, speak exactly that language.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat Came After\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1983 Hello Kitty was named UNICEF's children's ambassador to the United States. In 2008 Japan made her its ambassador of tourism. By 2013 she was doing about $8 billion at retail, and the first Hello Kitty Con, held in Los Angeles in 2014, drew more than 25,000 visitors. Rock and pop took her up as well: the Hello Kitty Stratocaster guitar has been played by Krist Novoselic, Courtney Love, Dave Navarro and Lisa Loeb, and Avril Lavigne released a song called \"Hello Kitty\" in 2013. She turned 50 in 2024. Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and New Line Cinema have dated a Hello Kitty feature film for July 21, 2028, directed by Leo Matsuda; its producer, Beau Flynn, spent nearly a decade winning over Shintaro Tsuji, and it is the first time Sanrio has granted film rights to its most famous character.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eQuestions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIs it a napkin or a handkerchief?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEither. Light cotton at 11 1\/4\" square works as a pocket handkerchief or a small napkin, and it frames nicely too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHas it been used?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo. It is new old stock that stayed in its original packaging until one was opened for photos.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy are the pictures turned toward the corners?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach scene faces out from its own corner, so a complete picture shows on top however the handkerchief is folded into quarters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWho drew Hello Kitty?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYuko Shimizu created her in 1974. Yuko Yamaguchi became her lead designer in 1980.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIs Hello Kitty really not a cat?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Sanrio she is a little English girl named Kitty White, which is why she stands upright and even keeps a cat as a pet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy do Japanese people carry handkerchiefs?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMostly to dry their hands, since many restrooms in Japan offer no towels or dryers, and because schools ask children to carry one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-blue-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Blue - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-pink-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Pink - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-combo-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkins-handkerchiefs-all-3-colors-1980s\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Set 🎀 Pink Blue Yellow Sanrio NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43423576686824,"sku":"VAG-7856897425640","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4047155791_pcpf.jpg?v=1785356927"},{"product_id":"vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-pink-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Pink - Sanrio Japan NOS","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 11.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sv3v_iFdd0g\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA pile of presents, a sundae with a cherry on top, a picture on the easel and one very bad morning with the newspaper: Hello Kitty lives a whole day in the four corners of this pink-bordered 1980s handkerchief. In Japan, where children are still asked to carry a hanky to school every day, this is exactly the kind a Hello Kitty fan wanted in her pocket.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty cotton napkin handkerchief with a pink border, new old stock. Size: 11 1\/4\" square.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Four Corners\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe handkerchief is light cotton, cream-white with a bright pink border finished in a narrow stitched edge. Each corner holds one little scene, turned on the diagonal to face outward, so whichever corner ends up on top when it is folded in quarters shows a full picture. HELLO KITTY runs under every scene in rounded pink letters, and a caption below it names what she is up to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePresents\u003c\/strong\u003e, in orange: Kitty, her bow printed pink, wraps both arms around an orange box tied in green ribbon, with a blue box and pink bow beside her and a blue envelope sealed with a pink heart.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIce cream\u003c\/strong\u003e, in blue: Kitty in a blue outfit holds a cone with a red scoop, a small blue bird hops up on one side, and a blue sundae with a cherry waits in a red footed dish on the other.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDrawing\u003c\/strong\u003e, in green: Kitty in green works with a crayon at a blue drawing board set on a pink easel, red and orange crayons lined up beside her.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBad news\u003c\/strong\u003e, in red: eyes shut tight, Kitty holds up a blue paper headlined \"bad news\" in letters of every color, between a milk bottle marked with a pink M and a red jar marked with a pink fish.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe printing is on one side only; turned over, the scenes show through the fine cotton in reverse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eCondition\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew old stock. Besides the one opened for photos, these napkins were bundled in original packaging and stored away for decades. Clean cotton and bright color.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA Girl Named Kitty White\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSanrio designer Yuko Shimizu drew Hello Kitty in 1974. The name came from Lewis Carroll: early in \u003cem\u003eThrough the Looking-Glass\u003c\/em\u003e, Alice plays with a cat she calls Kitty. In 1975 the character made her debut on a little vinyl coin purse sold in Japan, and in 1976 she crossed the Pacific, arriving in the United States through a Sanrio shop in San Jose, California. Setsuko Yonekubo led the design work from 1976, and Yuko Yamaguchi took charge in 1980.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer official profile reads like a children's book. She is Kitty White, born on November 1 in the suburbs of London, England. She measures five apples tall and weighs three apples, and she shares her birthday with her identical twin, Mimmy, the sister who wears a yellow bow on her right ear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat she is not, according to Sanrio, is a cat. When University of Hawaii anthropologist Christine Yano wrote \"Sanrio's cat\" into the script for a 2014 Hello Kitty exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the company asked for a correction: Kitty is a little girl. She is never pictured on all fours, and her pet is a cat named Charmmy Kitty. The news traveled around the world in a matter of days.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eHow a Silk Company Found Its Cat\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSanrio began on August 10, 1960, when Shintaro Tsuji opened the Yamanashi Silk Company with one million yen. Two years later he tried rubber sandals with flowers painted on them, watched them outsell plain ones, and started hiring cartoonists to put cute characters on his products. In 1973 the company renamed itself Sanrio; Tsuji said the name was an alternate reading of Yamanashi, \"Sanri,\" plus the \"o\" of an excited cry. To stop paying licensing fees on borrowed characters like Snoopy, Sanrio built its own studio, which produced Coro Chan in 1973 and Hello Kitty the following year. Tsuji stayed at the head of the company for sixty years. In June 2020 he passed it to his 31-year-old grandson, Tomokuni Tsuji, then the youngest head of a listed company in Japan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Handkerchief Country\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFew places take the pocket handkerchief as seriously as Japan. Plenty of public restrooms there offer no paper towels and no dryer, so drying your hands means bringing your own cloth, and Japanese public schools have children carry a handkerchief or a small towel every day. A hanky is for hands, for the sticky heat of summer and for a tear at a sad movie; blowing your nose into one is bad manners. Small, cheerful and useful, a character handkerchief is the sort of little gift Sanrio's business was founded on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA Queen's Square\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe country has an annual Handkerchief Day, too. The Japan Handkerchief Federation chose November 3 in 1983: the Culture Day holiday, and the day after Marie Antoinette's birthday. The legend behind the choice is a good one. Handkerchiefs in 18th-century France came round, oblong and every shape between, and the story goes that the queen found the muddle so irritating that she had Louis XVI sign a decree in 1785 ordering that \"the length of handkerchiefs shall equal their width throughout my entire kingdom.\" True or not, square is how handkerchiefs have been made ever since, and this 11 1\/4\" hanky follows the queen's rule to the inch.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eKitten Writing and the Kawaii Boom\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHello Kitty was born into a craze. During the 1970s teenage girls in Japan took up a big, round, childish style of handwriting, drawn with fine mechanical pencils and scattered with hearts, stars, smiling faces and Latin letters. People called it marui ji, \"round writing,\" koneko ji, \"kitten writing,\" and burikko ji, \"fake-child writing,\" and many schools banned it outright. Kazuma Yamane researched it as \"Anomalous Female Teenage Handwriting\" between 1984 and 1986, and Sharon Kinsella, who studied Japanese cute culture, found that the girls had invented it on their own as an underground trend rather than copying manga. By the 1980s the style had moved onto magazines, comics and packaging. Hello Kitty was an immediate success in that cute-crazy market and became the model for the kawaii merchandise business that grew out of it, which is why a Japanese character hanky of the decade speaks in cheerful little English captions like Presents, Ice cream, Drawing and Bad news.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eFifty Years On\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUNICEF made Hello Kitty its children's ambassador to the United States in 1983, and Japan appointed her an ambassador for tourism in 2008. Retail sales of Hello Kitty goods reached about $8 billion in 2013. More than 25,000 fans came to the first Hello Kitty Con in Los Angeles in 2014, the Hello Kitty Stratocaster found its way into the hands of Krist Novoselic, Courtney Love, Dave Navarro and Lisa Loeb, and Avril Lavigne put out a single named after her in 2013. Kitty reached her 50th anniversary in 2024. Next comes the movie: Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and New Line Cinema have set July 21, 2028, for a Hello Kitty feature directed by Leo Matsuda. Producer Beau Flynn spent close to ten years persuading Shintaro Tsuji, and it is the first time Sanrio has ever let Hello Kitty go to the movies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eQuestions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat size is this Hello Kitty handkerchief?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e11 1\/4\" square, with a pink border.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIs it new?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is new old stock, kept in its original packaging for decades; one was taken out to photograph.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCan it be used as a napkin?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes. It is sold as a napkin handkerchief, and the soft cotton works for either job, or for framing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat are the four scenes?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne per corner: Kitty with her gifts, with a sundae, at the easel, and hiding from the headline, each captioned under the words Hello Kitty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWho created Hello Kitty?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYuko Shimizu designed her for Sanrio in 1974, and Yuko Yamaguchi has led her design since 1980.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy is Handkerchief Day on November 3?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt sits beside Marie Antoinette's birthday, honoring the legend that she had handkerchiefs made square.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-blue-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Blue - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-yellow-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Yellow - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-combo-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkins-handkerchiefs-all-3-colors-1980s\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Set 🎀 Pink Blue Yellow Sanrio NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43423628624104,"sku":"VAG-7856909451496","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3999659210_kamm.jpg?v=1785356934"},{"product_id":"vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-blue-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Blue - Sanrio Japan NOS","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 11.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tFJw3LTNjSs\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eHello Kitty \"Bad News\": A 1980s Handkerchief That Still Carries Her Very First Props\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook closely at the \"Bad news\" corner. Kitty is reading a newspaper, and on either side of her sit a milk bottle marked M and a goldfish bowl. Those two props go back to the very first Hello Kitty product ever sold, a small clear vinyl coin purse released in Japan in March 1975 that showed her sitting between a bottle of milk and a fish in a bowl. Years later the same little milk bottle and fishbowl were still keeping her company on everyday cotton goods like this handkerchief.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Handkerchief\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA cotton cloth napkin and handkerchief, approximately 11 1\/4\" square, white with a blue border stitched all the way around. Each of the four corners holds a different scene, with \"Hello Kitty\" in blue letters and a caption in its own color:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDrawing\u003c\/strong\u003e (green caption): Kitty in a green outfit at a yellow easel, with red and orange paint bottles beside her.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePresents\u003c\/strong\u003e (orange caption): an orange gift tied with green ribbon, a yellow box tied in blue, and a yellow envelope lettered MINNY and sealed with a blue heart.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBad news\u003c\/strong\u003e (red caption): Kitty squinting over a yellow paper headlined \"bad news,\" between the M milk bottle and a red goldfish bowl.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIce cream\u003c\/strong\u003e (yellow caption): Kitty in yellow holding a striped treat, with a yellow chick at her side and a sundae in a red footed dish.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer bow is blue in all four scenes, matched to the border; Sanrio's own character profile gives Kitty a red bow and her twin sister Mimmy a yellow one. The design is printed on one side, so the corners show through faintly in reverse on the back. Besides the one opened for photos, these napkins were bundled in original packaging and stored away for decades, unused; colors are bright and the cotton is crisp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eSanrio: From a Silk Shop to \"Social Communication\"\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShintaro Tsuji founded the Yamanashi Silk Center Company in 1960 and renamed it Sanrio in 1973, from the Spanish words for saint and river. His insight was that people wanted cute designs on small, everyday things they could give one another, a philosophy the company calls social communication. When Sanrio needed a name for its new character, Tsuji chose \"Hello\" to fit that motto, after considering \"Hi Kitty.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eKitty White, of the London Suburbs\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDesigner Yuko Shimizu created Hello Kitty in 1974. Her first name comes from Kitty, the cat Alice plays with in Lewis Carroll's \u003cem\u003eThrough the Looking-Glass\u003c\/em\u003e. Sanrio's official story makes her Kitty White, born November 1 in the suburbs of London, five apples tall and three apples heavy, with a twin sister named Mimmy. The British background was chosen because Britain was fashionable with young people in 1970s Japan. After Shimizu left, Setsuko Yonekubo led the design from 1976, and in 1980 Yuko Yamaguchi became Hello Kitty's lead designer, the decade this handkerchief comes from.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eLegends, Rumors and the Great \"Not a Cat\" Uproar\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe missing mouth.\u003c\/strong\u003e The most repeated question about Kitty has several official answers. Sanrio says she has no mouth so that people can project their own feelings onto her, and that she speaks from the heart rather than in any one language. Yamaguchi once said the mouth is simply hidden in her fur.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShe is not a cat.\u003c\/strong\u003e In August 2014 anthropologist Christine Yano, of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, Hawaii, was preparing a Hello Kitty exhibition for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California, and called Kitty \"Sanrio's cat\" in her script. Sanrio corrected her: Hello Kitty is a little girl and a friend, and she is never shown on all fours. The remark went around the world in a day, and Sanrio followed up that Kitty is a personification of a cat, which settled nothing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe purse in the vault.\u003c\/strong\u003e The story goes that only one of the original 1975 coin purses survives, locked away at Sanrio's headquarters in Japan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy handkerchiefs are square.\u003c\/strong\u003e Legend has it that Marie Antoinette preferred square handkerchiefs, and that on June 2, 1785, Louis XVI decreed that the length of handkerchiefs shall equal their width throughout his kingdom. Some tellings put the royal size at around eleven and a half inches, within a hair of this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhy a Handkerchief: Japan's Hanky Habit\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Japan the handkerchief, hankachi, is daily equipment rather than an heirloom. Many public restrooms, particularly in older buildings, have no paper towels or dryers, so people carry their own square of cloth to dry their hands, blot sweat in humid summers, or spread across the lap for a boxed lunch. In the early twentieth century carrying one was a mark of good manners, especially for girls, and it became part of school etiquette. Character handkerchiefs are still a standard small gift and souvenir, which is exactly the kind of everyday present Sanrio built its business on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat Kitty Changed\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe little 1975 purse became Sanrio's surprise best seller that year, and Kitty became the character that carried Japanese kawaii goods around the world. UNICEF named her a children's ambassador to the United States in 1983 and to Japan in 1994, and in 2004 gave her the title UNICEF Special Friend of Children. By the late 1990s Hello Kitty had become a fashion statement for grown-ups too, taken up by celebrities such as Mariah Carey. She marked her 50th anniversary in 2024, and a Warner Bros. and New Line animated feature is scheduled for July 21, 2028. Pieces from her first decade under Yamaguchi, printed with the original props, are the part of that history collectors now hunt.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eDisplay and Use\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 11 1\/4\" square it frames neatly in a standard shadow box, drapes over a shelf edge in a Sanrio display, or folds into a vintage lunchbox as a backdrop. It is cotton, so it can also simply be used the way it was meant to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eQuestions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old is this Hello Kitty handkerchief?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a 1980s Hello Kitty piece, unused and stored in its original bundle until now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow big is it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApproximately 11 1\/4\" square, with a blue border.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat scenes are on it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFour corner scenes captioned Drawing, Presents, Bad news and Ice cream.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy is there a milk bottle and a goldfish bowl next to Kitty?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth appeared beside her on the first Hello Kitty product, the vinyl coin purse of March 1975, and they became part of her early world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIs Hello Kitty a cat?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSanrio says she is a little girl named Kitty White from the London suburbs, a personification of a cat rather than a cat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy doesn't Hello Kitty have a mouth?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSanrio's explanation is that the missing mouth lets people read their own feelings into her face.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-pink-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Pink - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-yellow-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Yellow - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-combo-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkins-handkerchiefs-all-3-colors-1980s\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Set 🎀 Pink Blue Yellow Sanrio NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43423686328552,"sku":"VAG-7856953852136","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4047328389_qn78.jpg?v=1785356943"},{"product_id":"vintage-combo-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkins-handkerchiefs-all-3-colors-1980s","title":"Vintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Set 🎀 Pink Blue Yellow Sanrio NOS","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B3mfnoVhu5A\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 11.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e New old stock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn March 1975 a tiny vinyl coin purse went on sale in Japan for ¥220.\u003c\/strong\u003e Printed on it was a small white cat character sitting on the floor between a bottle of milk and a goldfish bowl, and the purse said only \"HELLO\" — she did not have a name yet. Now look at the \"Bad news\" corner of these cotton napkins. The milk bottle is still at her side with its straw poking out, the round red bowl with its little pink fish is still on the other, and Hello Kitty sits between them with her eyes squeezed shut behind a newspaper whose headline reads, in rainbow letters, \"bad news.\" Of the four scenes printed on every napkin in this trio, one quietly goes straight back to the very first thing she ever appeared on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎀 What is in the set\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThree cotton napkins — the size and weight most people would call a handkerchief — each \u003cstrong\u003e11 1\/4 inches square\u003c\/strong\u003e, each hemmed all the way around in its own border color:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePink border\u003c\/strong\u003e, with Kitty's bows printed in pink\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBlue border\u003c\/strong\u003e, with her bows in blue\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eYellow border\u003c\/strong\u003e, with her bows in yellow\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe printer did not simply swap the hem color. On each napkin the bows, the gift boxes, the easel, the little bird and the lettering all shift to a new palette, so the three read as a family rather than three copies. The cotton is light enough that the print shows clearly through to the reverse side, so from the back every scene reads in mirror image. The trio is new old stock and is sold together as the complete three-color set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖍️ Four captioned scenes on every napkin\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach napkin carries a scene in every corner, turned so it reads from its own edge, each captioned \"Hello Kitty\" with a title beneath:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDrawing\u003c\/strong\u003e — Kitty in overalls, crayons standing beside her, a board propped on an easel and her picture in her paws. On the pink napkin the board is blue on a pink easel; on the yellow it is pink on yellow; on the blue it is yellow on blue.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePresents\u003c\/strong\u003e — Kitty hugging a big orange box tied with a green ribbon, a second wrapped box at her feet and a heart-sealed envelope in her other paw. On the blue and yellow napkins that envelope is lettered \u003cstrong\u003eMINNY\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBad news\u003c\/strong\u003e — the milk bottle (marked with an \"M\") on one side, the fishbowl on the other, and Kitty behind her headline. It is the one sad face in the set, and it is the one that echoes her 1975 debut.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIce cream\u003c\/strong\u003e — Kitty with a red spoon, a footed sundae dish topped with a cherry beside her, and a small bird keeping her company. The bird changes with the napkin: blue on the pink, pink on the yellow, a yellow chick on the blue.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross the three napkins that is twelve little printed moments, and each one is a slightly different drawing in color, if not in line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e💌 The name on the envelope\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Sanrio's story Hello Kitty is Kitty White, and she has a twin sister named \u003cstrong\u003eMimmy\u003c\/strong\u003e. The two are drawn almost identically; the way to tell them apart is the bow. Kitty wears hers on her left ear, and Mimmy, the shyer twin, wears a yellow bow on the right. The letter Kitty holds in the \"Presents\" corner does not say Mimmy. It says MINNY, two strokes shy of her sister's name. Read it as a birthday note from her twin if you like; the letters on the cloth spell MINNY, and that small oddity is part of what makes this print its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧵 Where Hello Kitty came from\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe company behind her did not start with cartoons. \u003cstrong\u003eShintaro Tsuji founded\u003c\/strong\u003e the business on August 10, 1960 as the \u003cstrong\u003eYamanashi Silk Company\u003c\/strong\u003e, with one million yen in capital. By 1962 he was selling rubber sandals decorated with flowers and noticed something that would shape the rest of his life: a cute design sold far better than a plain one. Rather than keep paying royalties to license other people's characters, Tsuji put his own designers on staff, and in 1973 the company took the name Sanrio — by Tsuji's own explanation \"Sanri,\" another reading of the characters in Yamanashi, plus \"o,\" the happy sound people make.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1974 an in-house designer named \u003cstrong\u003eYuko Shimizu\u003c\/strong\u003e drew a small white cat with a bow. The name came from Lewis Carroll's \u003cem\u003eThrough the Looking-Glass\u003c\/em\u003e, where Alice plays with a cat called Kitty, and Sanrio weighed \"Hi Kitty\" before settling on \"Hello Kitty.\" The coin purse followed in 1975, it outsold the other designs, and she was on her way. A company that began by selling silk ended up building its most famous character on small, soft, everyday things — purses, pencil cases, and cloth squares like these.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e✏️ The 1980s: Yuko Yamaguchi's decade\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShimizu left Sanrio a few years after inventing Kitty, and Setsuko Yonekubo took over the design for a short spell. In 1980 a young designer named \u003cstrong\u003eYuko Yamaguchi\u003c\/strong\u003e won an internal competition with a drawing of Hello Kitty playing the piano and became her third lead designer. She held the job for 46 years. In February 2026 Sanrio announced she would step down, calling it \"the passing of the baton from the third generation to the fourth\" and handing the pencil to a designer known only by the pen name Aya.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 1980s were the decade Kitty stopped being a novelty and became a fixture. Sanrio had already opened its first shop in the Western Hemisphere, a Gift Gate store at Eastridge Mall in San Jose, California, in 1976. In 1983 UNICEF named Hello Kitty its children's ambassador to the United States. By the late '80s she had become a kindergarten favorite in Japan, and in 1987 Sanrio released a monotone design aimed, for the first time, at high school students.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧻 Why a handkerchief\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Japan a handkerchief is not a quaint accessory; it is part of the school kit. Schools there commonly ask children to bring a handkerchief every day, and many public restrooms have long had no paper towels or hand dryers, so a small cotton square in a pocket or bag is how people dry their hands, dab summer sweat, or spread a napkin across their lap. The habit starts in childhood and very often lasts a lifetime, and a handkerchief printed with a favorite character is exactly what a child wants to pull out of that pocket.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe square shape carries a legend of its own. Handkerchiefs once came round, oblong and triangular, and the story goes that Marie Antoinette told Louis XVI she preferred them square — so in 1785 the king decreed that handkerchiefs made in France must be as long as they were wide. Whether or not the queen really had her way, square is the shape the handkerchief has kept ever since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🐱 Lore, legend and the missing mouth\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSanrio's official profile reads like a storybook. Kitty White was born on November 1 in the suburbs of London. She stands five apples tall and weighs as much as three. Her favorite food is her mother's apple pie, her hobbies are baking cookies and playing the piano, and her dream is to become a pianist or a poet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe detail everyone notices is that she has no mouth. Sanrio's answer is that Hello Kitty \"speaks from her heart,\" leaving people free to project their own feelings onto her, and Yamaguchi has been quoted saying the mouth is simply hidden in her fur. The internet was less gentle. A Spanish-language chain email that began circulating in 2008 claimed that desperate parents had made a pact with the Devil to cure their daughter's mouth cancer, and that \"kitty\" meant \"demon\" in Chinese. Snopes took the rumor apart: Hello Kitty is Japanese, not Chinese, and no such meaning exists.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen in August 2014 came the headline that made fans spit out their coffee. Christine Yano, an anthropologist at the University of Hawaii preparing a Hello Kitty exhibition with the Japanese American National Museum, had called her \"Sanrio's cat\" in her script — and was corrected. Hello Kitty, Sanrio said, is not a cat but a little girl who never goes on all fours. The company later softened it: she is \"a personification of a cat.\" Look at the napkins and you will see Sanrio's point. In every one of the twelve scenes she sits upright, holding a crayon, a gift, a newspaper or a spoon, like any child at a table.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌍 The legacy\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat ¥220 purse became one of the most valuable characters in the world. By 2008 Hello Kitty was on more than 50,000 licensed products and earned half of Sanrio's net income, and by 2013 she accounted for about $8 billion in retail sales worldwide. In 2008 Japan made her a tourism ambassador. Her image has flown on airliners and turned up on guitars and home appliances, but the everyday pieces — the handkerchiefs children carried to school, used, washed and eventually lost — are the ones that rarely survive in bright, unused condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-yellow-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Yellow - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-pink-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Pink - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-hello-kitty-cotton-cloth-napkin-handkerchief-blue-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Hello Kitty Cotton Napkin Handkerchief 🎀 Blue - Sanrio Japan NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43424282345704,"sku":"VAG-7857381015784","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4075813418_rxuj.jpg?v=1785356951"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-new-kids-block-pin-jonathan-knight-boston-ma-nkotb-blue-treasures","title":"Vintage New Kids on the Block Pin 📌 Jonathan Knight, Boston, MA 1980s NKOTB Blue","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zZELLIE48pE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1.5 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch2\u003eStill Remember the Face That Papered Every Locker Door in America? 🎤\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere was a stretch of years — you know exactly which ones if you lived through them — when a certain kind of smile, a certain haircut, a certain blue-background yearbook-style photo showed up on more bedroom walls, denim jackets, and trapper keepers than almost anything else in American pop culture. Boy band mania didn't start with a boy band from Orlando or a British import. It started in Boston, and it started with five guys whose faces you could pick out of a crowd from fifty feet away. This little button holds one of those faces — dark-haired, easy smile, the kind of photo that made an entire generation of preteens save up their allowance for a magazine poster. I've handled a lot of fan memorabilia over the years, and there's something about a pin-back button that captures a moment differently than a poster or a t-shirt ever could. It's small. It's personal. It went on your jacket, your backpack strap, your bulletin board — wherever you wanted the world to know exactly who you loved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a \u003cstrong\u003epin-back button, 1.5 inches\u003c\/strong\u003e (about 3.8cm) across, produced by a maker identified right on the piece as \u003cstrong\u003eButton-Up\u003c\/strong\u003e, out of \u003cstrong\u003eTroy, Michigan\u003c\/strong\u003e. The edge printing is unmistakable and reads verbatim: \u003cem\u003e\"BUTTON-UP 2011 AUSTIN TROY, MI 48083.\"\u003c\/em\u003e That printed line is Button-Up's own maker's mark and street address — 2011 Austin, Troy, Michigan 48083, where the number in front of the street name is a street number and not a date.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe rim carries a second imprint that IS a date: \"©1989 BIG STEP PRODUCTIONS, INC.\", the band's own production company, which puts this button in 1989. The printing itself is a photographic halftone offset process, the same basic technique that has put faces onto buttons for well over a century. The front is a close, warm portrait: a smiling young man with dark, tousled hair, set against a solid blue background, rendered in the flesh tones, blacks, whites, and blues typical of photo-litho button printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe face is identified as \u003cstrong\u003eJonathan Knight\u003c\/strong\u003e, one of the five original members of \u003cstrong\u003eNew Kids on the Block\u003c\/strong\u003e. This example comes to you as \u003cstrong\u003eNew Old Stock (NOS)\u003c\/strong\u003e — meaning it was produced, never sold or used, and has sat in inventory ever since, waiting for a fan to finally bring it home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎤 The Band That Basically Invented the Modern Boy Band\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo understand why a face on a button could move mountains of allowance money, you have to go back to Boston in the mid-1980s. Producer Maurice Starr had already had a hand in shaping New Edition, and he set out to build a similar vocal group — but with a different look and a different audience in mind. What came out of that effort was New Kids on the Block: Jonathan Knight, his younger brother Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood. They started rough — their self-titled debut barely made a ripple — but by the time \"Hangin' Tough\" dropped, something had shifted culturally in a way nobody quite predicted. Suddenly you had five guys from Boston becoming the biggest thing in American youth culture, full stop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOld-timers who lived through it — and honestly, anyone who was a kid with a landline in their house — remember the NKOTB fan hotline. It's one of those pieces of pop culture lore that sounds almost unbelievable now: a 1-900 number, charged by the minute, where devoted fans could call in and hear a recorded message from the band. At its peak, that hotline was reportedly fielding something like 100,000 calls a week. What was it like calling that hotline back then? The official line went up in 1989, and it ran $2 for the first minute and 45 cents for every minute after that — and to the band's credit, a portion of what came in went to United Cerebral Palsy. Do the math on $2 a call and up across that kind of volume, across years, and you start to understand how a group of five guys from Dorchester ended up, in 1991, topping Forbes' list of highest-paid entertainers in the entire country — ahead of Michael Jackson, ahead of Madonna, ahead of Prince. That's not an exaggeration passed down through fan message boards; it's genuinely how big the machine got. Merchandising was everywhere — dolls, lunchboxes, bedsheets, trading cards, and yes, pin-back buttons just like this one, worn on jackets and backpacks by kids who wanted the whole world to know who their favorite was.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere's a fun bit of trivia collectors love to pass along, too: before she was Jennifer Lopez, global superstar, she spent time as a backup dancer for New Kids on the Block. It's the kind of detail that makes you realize how many careers and how much of an era got tangled up in this one band's orbit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNKOTB didn't stay broken up forever, either. After fading from the spotlight through the mid-90s, the group reunited in 2008 to a wave of nostalgia nobody quite expected — grown adults who'd once begged their parents for concert tickets suddenly had disposable income of their own, and they showed up in force. That reunion energy kept building for years, and in 2011 the group was touring at full strength alongside the Backstreet Boys on the massive NKOTBSB Package Tour, one of the biggest joint boy-band tours of the era. It's a neat detail for a collector to sit with: the ©1989 on this button's rim puts it squarely in the band's original heyday, so it was already a little piece of history by the time that second great wave of Kids mania came along, when a whole new round of fans — some the original ones grown up, some brand new — were once again lining up for the merch table. The band has shown real staying power since, too; as recently as 2022 they released a music video called \"Bring Back the Time,\" pulling in Salt-N-Pepa, Rick Astley, and En Vogue for one big nostalgia reunion of an entirely different kind. This is a group that, decades on, still knows how to bring people back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧑 Jonathan Knight, the Quiet One Everyone Loved Anyway\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEvery boy band has its archetypes — the heartthrob, the funny one, the bad boy, the baby of the group — and Jonathan Knight was famously cast as the quiet, steady one. Born and raised in the Boston area, he was the older brother in the Knight family duo (his younger brother Jordan was the group's more overtly flashy performer), and fans of a certain age will tell you that Jonathan's low-key charm was exactly the appeal. He wasn't chasing the spotlight the way some of his bandmates seemed to; he just showed up, sang his part, and let the rest of the group do the mugging for cameras. That restraint became its own kind of magnetism — the \"shy one\" pin or poster sold every bit as well as anyone else's in the group, because plenty of fans preferred the quiet ones.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJonathan stepped away from the spotlight for stretches over the years, including some real distance from the group in the mid-1990s, but like the band itself, he came back around. In more recent years he's built a public life well beyond the boy band days — including television work centered on home renovation, and he's spoken candidly and publicly about his own life in a way that generation of fans, now adults themselves, has followed with real warmth. It's a nice arc, honestly: the quiet teen idol grown into someone still comfortable being seen, on his own terms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📌 The Humble Pin-Back Button's Own Long History\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt's easy to overlook just how old the pin-back button actually is as a format, because it feels so disposable — cheap to make, cheap to buy, meant to be worn and eventually lost. But the basic technology behind this little button dates back to 1896, when the Whitehead \u0026amp; Hoag Company patented the modern celluloid pin-back button: a metal shell, a printed paper disc, a clear celluloid or mylar cover, and a pin fastened to the back. That single invention ended up powering everything from political campaign buttons to Cracker Jack prizes to, eventually, every band, cartoon, and cause a kid ever wanted to broadcast their loyalty to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe photographic halftone printing seen on this button — that fine dot pattern that lets a full photographic image, with all its shading and skin tones, get reproduced on a small round surface — became the standard technique for exactly this kind of fan merchandise: recognizable faces, printed cheap and printed fast, meant to move by the thousands at concerts, record stores, and mall kiosks. Political buttons and fan buttons have always shared the same printing houses and the same basic hardware; a campaign button for a presidential hopeful and a button for a teen heartthrob came off remarkably similar equipment. That shared lineage is part of why pin-back button collecting has such a broad, cross-generational following — the format itself is Americana, whether the face on it belongs to a politician or a pop star.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏙️ Troy, Michigan, and the Small Shops Behind the Fandom\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTroy sits in Oakland County, just north of Detroit, in the thick of Michigan's metro auto-industry corridor — a suburb long known as much for its business parks and small manufacturing shops as for anything flashy. It's the kind of place where a small operation like Button-Up could set up shop, quietly print buttons for fan clubs, school groups, local businesses, and collectors, and turn out work like this without ever needing a storefront on Main Street. The button itself is proof of the operation: real printed edge text, a real ZIP code (48083 checks out as Troy, Michigan), a genuine small-run production piece rather than a mass-market factory product. There's something satisfying about that — a fan of a Boston-born band, wearing a button printed by a small Michigan shop, is its own quiet little snapshot of how far fandom travels once it leaves the original hometown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📺 Why This Kind of Piece Still Resonates Today\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBoy band nostalgia has proven to have real staying power, wave after wave. What started as a phenomenon powered by landline hotlines and mall posters has, decades later, become fuel for reunion tours, docuseries, streaming specials, and an entire secondary market of collectors hunting down the exact pieces of merchandise they remember from childhood — or discovering it fresh, the way younger fans now discover NKOTB the same way they discover any classic band, through parents, through playlists, through the internet's long memory. A button like this sits at a sweet spot for collectors: it's tied to one of the true founding acts of the modern boy band format, it carries a 1989 date on its own rim from the year Hangin' Tough climbed to number one, and it's small enough to display in about a dozen different charming ways. It's a tangible piece of a story that keeps getting retold — proof that some faces really do stick with you for decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display Ideas\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e📌 Pin it to a cork or felt board alongside other 1980s–90s pop culture memorabilia for an instant nostalgia corner\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🖼️ Frame it in a small shadow box with a concert ticket stub or magazine clipping from the era\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🎒 Clip it onto a denim jacket lapel or backpack strap, exactly the way it would have been worn originally\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e💙 Set it on a small stand or button holder on a shelf, letting that blue background pop against a neutral backdrop\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🎁 Give it as a nostalgic gift to anyone who grew up on New Kids on the Block, wrapped alongside a mixtape or throwback playlist\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e📚 Add it to a themed collection of boy-band or pop-music pin-back buttons for a growing display\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎁 Who Collects These\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis one draws a wonderfully specific crowd: die-hard New Kids on the Block fans building out a complete collection of band memorabilia, pin-back button collectors who chase the crossover between fandom culture and printing history, 1980s–90s pop culture enthusiasts rounding out a nostalgia display, and gift-givers looking for that perfect \"remember when\" present for a friend who still knows every word to \"Hangin' Tough.\" It also appeals to collectors chasing first-wave merchandise specifically, since the 1989 copyright on the rim ties this button to the exact year Hangin' Tough took over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ FAQ\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIs this an original 1980s New Kids on the Block button?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes — the edge of the button carries two separate imprints. \"BUTTON-UP 2011 AUSTIN TROY, MI 48083\" is the maker's name and street address, where 2011 is a street number and not a production date. The date is the other imprint, \"©1989 BIG STEP PRODUCTIONS, INC.\", which puts this button in 1989 — matching the band's original late-1980s heyday look, because that is exactly when it was made.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow big is this button?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt measures 1.5 inches (about 3.8cm) across, the classic size for fan and pop-culture pin-back buttons of this style.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho is pictured on the button?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe portrait is identified as Jonathan Knight, one of the five original members of New Kids on the Block, shown in a photographic halftone print against a blue background.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat does \"Button-Up\" mean, and where was it made?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eButton-Up is the maker name printed right on the button's edge, alongside the location Troy, Michigan and ZIP code 48083 — the shop responsible for producing this button.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat condition is it in?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is New Old Stock (NOS) — produced and never used, having sat in inventory since it was made rather than being worn or displayed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIs the printing style photographic or illustrated?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a photographic halftone offset print, meaning the portrait was reproduced from an actual photograph using the fine-dot printing technique standard for fan and advertising buttons of this style.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow is it dated??\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy the copyright line on its own rim: \"©1989 BIG STEP PRODUCTIONS, INC.\" That places it in the Hangin' Tough year, when New Kids on the Block were the biggest act in American pop and merchandise like this was moving by the crate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-new-kids-block-band-picture-pin-boston-ma-nkotb-pose-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1989 New Kids on the Block Pinback Button 🎤 \"The Pose\" NKOTB Button-Up Troy MI Metal Pin\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1990s-new-kids-block-logo-pin-pinback-boston-ma-nkotb-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1990s New Kids on the Block Logo Pin Pinback 📌 Boston, MA NKOTB\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-new-kids-block-pin-jordan-knight-close-up-boston-ma-nkotb\"\u003eVintage 1980s NKOTB Pin Jordan Knight Close Up Photo Boston Boy Band Collectible Button 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43426113880296,"sku":"VAG-7857665769704","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4049499721_2h9n.jpg?v=1785356977"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-new-kids-block-band-picture-pin-boston-ma-nkotb-bat-treasures","title":"Vintage New Kids on the Block Pinback Button - NKOTB Band Photo Pin, Button-Up Troy MI, 80s Boy Band Memorabilia 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g9x43mrWCKU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1.5 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch2\u003eBefore \"Step by Step,\" There Was a School Bus 💙\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1970s, a Dorchester kid named Donnie Wahlberg rode a bus more than half an hour each way across a city at war with itself over school desegregation, to a mostly Black elementary school in Roxbury. On those rides and in that school he fell for soul and rap. A few years later a Boston producer built a group around his rapping, and by 1991 Forbes was calling that group the highest-paid entertainers in America. This vintage New Kids on the Block pinback button carries a ©1989 date on its rim, the year it all broke open: five kids from busing-era Boston in front of a blue sky, one of them with a baseball bat on his shoulder.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📌 What Is on the Button\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is a color group photograph of all five New Kids. The one at left, in a red-and-black striped jacket, rests a yellow baseball bat across his shoulder; the one behind him wears a chain with a peace-sign pendant; the one standing at right has a small round badge pinned to his gray jacket lapel. The band name runs across the bottom in red capitals, NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, with the O in BLOCK drawn as an open ring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo lines are printed in red around the cream rim:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBUTTON-UP 2011 AUSTIN TROY, MI 48083\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e©1989 BIG STEP PRODUCTIONS, INC.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first is the maker's street address, 2011 Austin in Troy, Michigan, not a year. The second is the copyright line that dates the design. The back is cream plastic with a steel bar pin and clasp, and the button measures 1.5 inches across. It is new old stock, never worn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏢 Big Step Productions: The Name Behind the Merchandise\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat ©1989 line is the same copyright that runs across the New Kids' merchandise boom. Big Step Productions put its name on the 1989 NKOTB trading cards, an 88-card base set, on the 1990 New Kids fashion figures and on an official New Kids scrapbook. It also co-produced, with DIC Animation City, the \u003cem\u003eNew Kids on the Block\u003c\/em\u003e cartoon series that ran on ABC from September 8 to December 14, 1990: 15 episodes in which the band appeared in live-action clips while other actors voiced their animated selves, each show ending on a moral lesson. Disney Channel reran it from October 12, 1991.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 Button-Up of Troy, Michigan\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe maker printed its own address on the rim: 2011 Austin, Troy, Michigan 48083. The same Button-Up of Troy, Michigan name turns up on other novelties of the era, from an \"Over the Hill\" birthday button to California Raisins keyrings marked Applause\/Button-Up. Troy grew from a crossroads called Troy Corners, which took shape after land purchases began in 1819, when Johnson Niles bought 160 acres; its settlers, many from New York, named it after Troy, New York and the ancient city of Troy. It was organized as Troy Township in 1827 and stayed a township for more than a century, until residents incorporated it as a city in 1955, largely to keep neighboring towns from annexing it. About 15 miles north of downtown Detroit in Oakland County, it boomed as a suburb, from 19,402 people in 1960 to 67,102 in 1980, and Kmart kept its headquarters there until 2005.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎤 The Five Kids\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducer Maurice Starr and his partner Mary Alford started the group in Boston in 1984, after Starr's split from New Edition, the teen group he had built before. Starr had built New Edition and was dismissed by that group in a dispute over money. Fifteen-year-old Donnie Wahlberg's rapping won Starr over first. Donnie's younger brother Mark came in and soon left, and so did Jamie Kelly. Donnie's friends Jordan Knight and Danny Wood came in, Danny earning Starr's approval by breakdancing, and Jordan's brother Jonathan Knight joined later. To fill Jamie Kelly's spot, Starr wanted a kid who could sing and hold a stage like a young Michael Jackson, and he found him in twelve-year-old Joey McIntyre of Jamaica Plain, who at first did not want to join because the others were all buddies and Dorchester felt too far from home. The older boys gave him a hard time until Donnie told him the group wanted him to shine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStarr first called them Nynuk, pronounced \"na-nook.\" Columbia Records wanted something else, and in 1986 they became New Kids on the Block, after a rap song Donnie had co-written for their first album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎭 The Lore: Prison Gigs and a Kite Festival Riot\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNynuk took any stage it could get: talent shows, social halls, retirement homes. The story the band tells is that they even played a men's prison where one of the Wahlberg brothers was locked up, and won the inmates over by throwing them cigarettes. At the Franklin Park Kite Festival in Boston it went the other way; the crowd started throwing things at them, and Danny Wood's face was cut. Donnie insisted they get back up and finish, later saying it was about believing in themselves and standing their ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTheir 1986 debut album flopped. What turned it around was a pop station in Florida that started playing \"Please Don't Go Girl,\" from the September 1988 album \u003cem\u003eHangin' Tough\u003c\/em\u003e. The single climbed to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and \"I'll Be Loving You (Forever)\" hit No. 1 in June 1989. \"You Got It (The Right Stuff)\" climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Hangin' Tough went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, was certified eight-times platinum in the U.S., and has sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🚌 Boston: The Busing Years That Shaped Them\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn June 21, 1974, in \u003cem\u003eMorgan v. Hennigan\u003c\/em\u003e, federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ruled that Boston's public schools were unconstitutionally segregated. Busing began that September. On the first day, only 13 of the 550 South Boston juniors ordered to Roxbury High showed up, state troopers were stationed at South Boston High for three years, and at least 40 riots broke out in the city between September 1974 and the fall of 1976. The courts kept control of the schools until 1988, by which time enrollment had fallen from 93,000 to 57,000.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Wahlbergs, Danny Wood and the Knight brothers were all bused out of Dorchester as elementary-school kids. Donnie's route went to the William Monroe Trotter School in Roxbury, where he fell for the soul and rap his friends there loved, years before he rapped for Maurice Starr.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📈 The Impact: The Biggest Merchandise Machine of Its Day\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Step by Step,\" written and produced by Starr, came out May 10, 1990 and spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, also reaching No. 1 in Canada and No. 2 in the UK. It became the group's biggest-selling single, with each member singing one \"step\": Danny Wood the first, Donnie the second, Jordan the third, Joey the fourth and Jonathan the fifth. Starr had first recorded the song in 1987 with another of his groups, the Superiors, on Motown, where it went nowhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew Kids on the Block have sold more than 80 million records worldwide. The band won American Music Awards in 1990, and that summer's Magic Summer Tour grossed $74 million from 3.2 million fans. Their merchandise brought in an estimated $400 million in 1991, the year Forbes put them at the top of its highest-paid entertainers list, ahead of Michael Jackson and Madonna. The Official NKOTB Hotline, 1-900-909-5KID, took roughly 100,000 calls a week, and the fan club passed 200,000 members. Buttons like this one were part of that flood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fall came fast. In 1992 a music teacher accused them of lip-syncing; they answered on \u003cem\u003eThe Arsenio Hall Show\u003c\/em\u003e, and he retracted the claim that April. After \u003cem\u003eFace the Music\u003c\/em\u003e sold poorly, the group broke up in 1994. Jonathan Knight, the oldest New Kid, was the first to leave, in 1994 during the Face the Music tour, and the other four disbanded shortly after. After the split Donnie Wahlberg followed his younger brother Mark into acting, and Joey McIntyre and Jordan Knight both recorded solo albums in 1999. They reunited in 2007 to record a comeback album, confirmed the reunion publicly in April 2008, and went back on tour that year. \u003cem\u003eThe Block\u003c\/em\u003e debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and the band released \u003cem\u003eStill Kids\u003c\/em\u003e in May 2024 and opened a Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM on June 20, 2025. New Kids on the Block are often credited with paving the way for the boy bands that followed, such as Take That, the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🗳️ The Pinback Button's Own Story\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe format goes back to Newark, New Jersey, where Benjamin S. Whitehead and Chester R. Hoag founded Whitehead \u0026amp; Hoag in 1892. On July 21, 1896, the company was granted the last in the series of patents that set the design still used today: a printed picture sealed under a clear cover over a metal shell, with a pin on the back. That same year William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan fought the first presidential race to lean heavily on campaign pins, and Whitehead \u0026amp; Hoag turned out more than 2,000 designs for them. The favorite story from that race: after a solar eclipse, McKinley's pins showed him eclipsing Bryan, and Bryan's side answered with pins promising to do the same to McKinley. It wasn't only politics, either. Right alongside the campaign pins, Whitehead \u0026amp; Hoag landed an order from the American Tobacco Company for millions of buttons to tuck into product packages, and made the first advertising buttons for national brands like Heinz Baked Beans, King Arthur Flour, Wilbur's Cocoa and Gold Medal Flour. The pins and back papers still went in by hand, so the company paid children and families around the Newark factory to do it, and kids would stop by after school to pick up a box of work. Ninety-three years after that 1896 patent, the pinback button was carrying five kids from Boston.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📏 Details\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e💙 Vintage 1980s New Kids on the Block group photo pinback button\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🏷️ Rim marked ©1989 Big Step Productions, Inc. and Button-Up, Troy, Michigan\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e📏 1.5 inches across\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e📌 Cream plastic back with steel bar pin and clasp\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🟢 NOS, new old stock, never worn\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs there a date on this button?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes. The rim is printed ©1989 BIG STEP PRODUCTIONS, INC.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs \"2011\" on the rim a year?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo. 2011 Austin is the street address of the maker, Button-Up, in Troy, Michigan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow big is it?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1.5 inches across.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat is the yellow object in the photo?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA baseball bat, resting on the shoulder of the member at left.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWho were Big Step Productions?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe company whose copyright appears on New Kids trading cards, fashion figures and scrapbooks of 1989-1990, and a co-producer of the band's 1990 ABC cartoon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere did New Kids on the Block come from?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDorchester and Boston, where Maurice Starr and Mary Alford put the group together in 1984.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHas it been worn?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo. It is new old stock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e📌 Pin it on a jean jacket the way it was made to be worn, or set it in a shadow box with a cassette single or a ticket stub.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-new-kids-block-pin-band-picture-boston-ma-nkotb-tshirt-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1989 New Kids on the Block Pinback Button 🎤 Button-Up Troy MI NKOTB Group Photo Pin\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-new-kids-block-band-picture-pin-boston-ma-nkotb-pose-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1989 New Kids on the Block Pinback Button 🎤 \"The Pose\" NKOTB Button-Up Troy MI Metal Pin\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-vintage-1990s-new-kids-block-earrings-boston-ma-nkotb-pink-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1991 New Kids on the Block Dangle Earrings 🥃 NKOTB Pink Logo Charms on Original Button-Up Display Card, Boy Band Fan Jewelry\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43426643935464,"sku":"VAG-7857756864744","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4049901031_h9gv.jpg?v=1785356994"},{"product_id":"vintage-crater-face-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Crater Face Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Cratered Grimace Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-F58xLudT5A\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🌕 Crater Face: Pitted Like the Moon and Twice as Ugly\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Crater Face Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! This poor fellow. He has a bald, lumpy head the color of old putty, pitted all over with little craters and pockmarks, droopy pink-rimmed eyes that do not quite match, and a wide snarl full of long, jagged teeth with green slime dripping off them. A purple border runs all the way around the edge, and CRATER FACE is printed in black along the lower left. You laugh first and cringe second, which is exactly how these were supposed to work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. The copycats came fast. ERTL made a line of Blurp Balls drawn by the artist James Groman, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. The Weird Balls line had characters called Sewer Face and Rock Slime, and Crater Face would have fit right in with them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrater Face was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Creep Queen, Mad Marvin, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus, Pigulus and Sad Lad. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🌙 The Man in the Moon\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrater Face is pitted like the surface of the moon, and people have been seeing a face up there for as long as anybody has looked up. What I love is how many different stories there are about who he is. An old European tradition says the Man in the Moon was banished up there for some crime. One version makes him the man in the Book of Numbers who was caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Some Germanic peoples said he was a woodcutter caught working on the Sabbath, a Roman legend made him a sheep thief, and a medieval Christian tradition said he was Cain, doomed to wander around the earth forever. Dante mentions that one in the Inferno.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Haida people of the Pacific Northwest tell it as a boy who was sent out to gather sticks. His father told him the moon would light his way, the boy grumbled and made fun of the moon, and for his rudeness he was taken up and trapped there. In Norse myth the moon was Máni, who drives a horse-drawn carriage across the sky with the great wolf Hati chasing him. In China the goddess Chang'e drank a double dose of an immortality potion and ended up stranded on the moon, with a moon rabbit for company in some tellings, while a man named Wu Gang keeps chopping at a tree up there that always grows back. Japanese parents often tell their kids the markings are a rabbit making rice cakes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe playwright John Lyly summed it all up back in 1591: \"There liveth none under the sunne, that knows what to make of the man in the moone.\" My own theory is that the fellow on this pin is what the Man in the Moon looks like after a few billion years of getting hit by rocks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the stargazer with a sick sense of humor, or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-mad-marvin-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Mad Marvin Gross-Out Monster Pin 🥃 Bulging Eyeball Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-cat-bat-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Cat Bat Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Green Fanged Vampire Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-evileen-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Evileen Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Fanged Green Cat Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43440802070760,"sku":"VAG-7862080504040","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4008888106_5wi0.jpg?v=1785357071"},{"product_id":"vintage-mad-marvin-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Mad Marvin Gross-Out Monster Pin 🥃 Bulging Eyeball Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BxHplkTdt-c\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🧠 Mad Marvin: Brains, Guts and One Loose Eyeball\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Mad Marvin Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! Mad Marvin is my pick for the grossest one in the whole series. His face looks like it is built out of a pile of pink worms, or maybe guts, with a lumpy brain showing on top. One eyeball has popped right out on the left, the other eye is half shut like he does not care, and a long red tongue curls out of the whole mess. MAD MARVIN is printed in black across the top. Kids loved this stuff and I still do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. The copycats came fast. ERTL made a line of Blurp Balls drawn by the artist James Groman, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. The official Madballs had Aargh, a Frankenstein-looking monster covered in stitches with one eye missing, and Bash Brain, a zombie head with its brain showing, and Mad Marvin looks like the two of them had a very bad day together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMad Marvin was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus, Pigulus and Sad Lad. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e⚡ Frankenstein and the Year Without a Summer\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA mad fellow pieced together out of spare parts puts me right in mind of Frankenstein. In 1815 the volcano Mount Tambora erupted, and the next year, 1816, went down as the Year Without a Summer. Mary Shelley was 18 and not yet married when she and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It was too cold and rainy to do anything outdoors, so they sat around the log fire reading German ghost stories, and Byron proposed that they \"each write a ghost story.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMary thought for days and came up empty. Every morning somebody asked if she had thought of a story yet, and every morning she had to say no. Then one night the talk turned to galvanism and whether a corpse might be brought back to life. She went to bed after midnight, could not sleep, and saw what she called her \"waking dream\": a pale student kneeling beside the thing he had put together. That became Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, published without her name in London on January 1, 1818, when she was 20. In the book Victor Frankenstein builds his creature one piece at a time from \"the dissecting room and the slaughter-house.\" Byron's doctor, John Polidori, wrote The Vampyre out of that same contest, so one miserable summer gave us two of the great horror stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA little more lore for you. On a trip along the Rhine in Germany in 1815, Mary stopped in Gernsheim, about 11 miles from Frankenstein Castle, where a century earlier the alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel had carried out his experiments. She never mentions him, and nobody knows if she heard the stories. And the monster brought to life by a huge jolt of electricity? That came mostly from James Whale's 1931 movie with Boris Karloff. In the book the process is left a mystery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the horror fan, the biology teacher with a sick sense of humor, or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-crater-face-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Crater Face Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Cratered Grimace Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-evileen-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Evileen Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Fanged Green Cat Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pigulus-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pigulus Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Pig-Nosed Baby Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43441260101864,"sku":"VAG-7862149054696","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4056850585_p9di.jpg?v=1785357080"},{"product_id":"vintage-pufang-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Pufang Pin Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kFgoY_wkzHs\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e😵 Pufang: A Baby Face Only a Mother Could Love\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Pufang Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! Meet Pufang. He's a pale, bald, lumpy little baby head with one eye squeezed shut and the other one bulging wide open, rimmed in pink and staring right through you. His mouth is full of crooked baby teeth with a pair of little fangs, and green slime is drooling down over his chin. PUFANG runs up the right edge in small black letters. It's gross, and I think he's adorable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe picture is printed paper under a glossy clear front, and the back is gray metal with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the photo of three backs beside a quarter show how they are made and how big they are.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Gross Was In\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePufang is one of a whole cast of named monster buttons collectors trade as a group, alongside Mummeye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Mad Marvin, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus and Pigulus. None of them were official AmToy Madballs, and nobody put a maker's name on the buttons, so I still can't tell you who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e👶 The Babies Who Started It All\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA slimy baby face like Pufang's is a joke on one thing: the Cabbage Patch Kids. As the story goes, a 21-year-old art student in the North Georgia mountains named Xavier Roberts came across the craft artist Martha Nelson's Doll Babies, which came with a birth certificate and adoption papers. Roberts hand-stitched his own dolls, called them the Little People, and told customers they were not for sale. They could only be adopted, for anywhere from $60 to $1,000, at Babyland General Hospital, an old medical clinic in Cleveland, Georgia that he and his friends turned into a toy store.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFisher-Price already owned the name Little People, so they became the Cabbage Patch Kids, and the licensing agent Roger Schlaifer wrote them a legend: little flying BunnyBees pollinate a secret cabbage patch behind a waterfall with magic crystals, and the babies are born right out of the cabbages. Coleco started making them in 1982 and shipped 3.3 million dolls in 1983. By that October parents were fighting in the aisles to get one, in what the papers called the Cabbage Patch riots, and in December a Cabbage Patch Kid made the cover of Newsweek.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen in 1985 Topps put out the Garbage Pail Kids, sticker cards of babies that were drooling, oozing, exploding and worse, drawn in a way nobody could mistake. Roberts's company, Original Appalachian Artworks, sued Topps for $30 million. By then Topps had sold more than $70 million worth of the cards, and it settled for $7 million and kept right on printing them. Babyland General is still going, too, in a newer building on the edge of Cleveland, Georgia since 2010.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Show Him Off\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin him on a denim jacket, a backpack or a baby bag if you have a sense of humor, or line him up in a shadow box with the rest of the monster crew. He makes a great little gift for anybody who had a Cabbage Patch Kid and a stack of Garbage Pail Kids in the same bedroom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-creep-queen-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Creep Queen Pin Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-mummeye-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Mummeye Pin Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-sad-lad-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Sad Lad Gross-Out Pin 📌 Droopy Bloodshot Monster Face, Pin-Back Button in the Spirit of the 80s Gross-Out Craze\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43441328652520,"sku":"VAG-7862177693928","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4056883325_buyx.jpg?v=1785357088"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-sad-lad-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Sad Lad Gross-Out Pin 📌 Droopy Bloodshot Monster Face, Pin-Back Button in the Spirit of the 80s Gross-Out Craze","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/atyNVUlgXCg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e😢 Sad Lad: The Gloomiest Face in the Bunch\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Sad Lad Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! Poor Sad Lad. His pale gray face is scrunched into the saddest scowl you ever saw: a heavy furrowed brow, two huge dark eyes sitting in bloodshot, red-veined whites, and a long droopy nose hanging down over everything. SAD LAD is printed in black along the top edge. He looks like he just found out summer vacation is over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. The copycats came fast. ERTL made a line of Blurp Balls drawn by the artist James Groman, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. Lanard's Spit Balls even had one called Crybaby, so Sad Lad had at least one cousin who understood him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSad Lad was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Mad Marvin, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus and Pigulus. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🖼️ The Curse of the Crying Boy\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSad Lad always makes me think of the Crying Boy, the saddest face that ever hung over a sofa. It was a mass-produced print of a painting by the Italian artist Bruno Amarillo, who worked under the name Giovanni Bragolin, and from the 1950s on it was everywhere, along with a whole run of other tearful boys and girls. Then on September 5, 1985, the same year Topps put out the Garbage Pail Kids, the British tabloid The Sun reported that a firefighter in Essex, England, said copies of the painting kept turning up undamaged in the ruins of burned houses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat was all it took. The legend spread that the Crying Boy was cursed and would burn down any house that hung him, and by the end of November The Sun was holding mass bonfires of the prints, sent in by readers who wanted them gone. Later stories named the boy Don Bonillo or Diablo and tied him to a string of fires, even one at the painter's studio, but the journalist David Clarke says those tales did not appear until a book came out in 2000. In 2010 the comedian Steve Punt took on the curse for his BBC Radio 4 show Punt PI and had the prints tested at the Building Research Establishment. The answer was a varnish with fire retardant in it, and the string holding the picture burned through first, so the print dropped face down on the floor and came through the fire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo Sad Lad is part of a long tradition of sad faces nobody can quite get rid of. I promise he has never set anything on fire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the friend who is always a little gloomy, or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-bot-eye-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Bot Eye Gross-Out Pin 🥃 Bulging Bloodshot Bug-Eyes and Manic Grin, Pin-Back Button in the 80s Gross-Out Spirit\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-biface-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Biface Gross-Out Pin 📌 Half Monster Half Boy Two-Faced Character, Pin-Back Button in the 80s Gross-Out Spirit\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-cat-bat-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Cat Bat Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Green Fanged Vampire Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43441614061800,"sku":"VAG-7862303457512","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4009340506_njes.jpg?v=1785357097"},{"product_id":"vintage-biface-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Biface Gross-Out Pin 📌 Half Monster Half Boy Two-Faced Character, Pin-Back Button in the 80s Gross-Out Spirit","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FcnuFtcpuGo\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🎭 Biface: Half Boy, Half Monster\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Biface Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! One face, split right down the middle. On the left he is a purple monster with a lumpy bulb of a nose, a fang poking up over his lip, jagged teeth and a long drooling tongue. On the right he is a regular kid with neat dark hair, a big ear and a brown eye, gritting his teeth like he is trying very hard to keep the other half in. BIFACE is printed in black along the lower left edge. We have all had days like that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. The copycats came fast. ERTL made a line of Blurp Balls drawn by the artist James Groman, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. The official Madballs had Splitting Headache, a monster with the skin peeled off half of its face, so the half-and-half idea was going around.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBiface was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Mad Marvin, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus and Pigulus. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🧪 Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde and the Deacon\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBiface is Jekyll and Hyde on a button, and the story of how that book got written is as good as the book. Robert Louis Stevenson had been chewing on the idea for years. As a teenager in Scotland he started a play about William Brodie, an Edinburgh cabinet-maker, deacon of a trades guild and city councillor who led a secret life as a burglar to pay for his mistresses and his gambling. Stevenson moved to the seaside town of Bournemouth, England, in 1884, and he was stuck in bed there, sick and racking his brain for a plot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen one night his wife Fanny woke to him crying out in his sleep. She shook him awake, and he was not happy about it: \"Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.\" Fanny remembered the first draft taking less than three days. She wrote in the margins that it ought to be an allegory, he stormed off, came back admitting she was right, and threw the draft into the fire so he could not be tempted to save it. Scholars still argue about whether that burning really happened, but the story goes that he started over and rewrote the whole thing in three to six days.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde came out in January 1886, sold as a one-shilling paperback, one of the \"shilling shockers,\" and it was an immediate success. The actor Richard Mansfield bought the stage rights, the play ran in Boston and London, and \"Jekyll and Hyde\" has meant a person with a good side and a shockingly bad one ever since. Biface just wears both on the outside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the friend with two moods, or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-sad-lad-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Sad Lad Gross-Out Pin 📌 Droopy Bloodshot Monster Face, Pin-Back Button in the Spirit of the 80s Gross-Out Craze\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-crater-face-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Crater Face Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Cratered Grimace Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pigulus-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pigulus Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Pig-Nosed Baby Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43441688215784,"sku":"VAG-7862351495400","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4057006439_44mf.jpg?v=1785357105"},{"product_id":"vintage-evileen-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Evileen Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Fanged Green Cat Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/q-7-j9CcHYg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e😼 Evileen: Big Eyes, Little Fangs\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Evileen Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! She almost looks sweet. A pale cat-like face with enormous black eyes rimmed in green, green markings sweeping up from her nose like wild eyebrows, and little green spots where the whiskers should be. Then you get down to the mouth and there are the two fangs hanging over her lip. EVILEEN is printed in black along the top edge, and she earned the name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. The copycats came fast. ERTL made a line of Blurp Balls drawn by the artist James Groman, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. ERTL's Blurp Balls had a Retch-A-Rat Tomcat, so Evileen was not the only nasty cat of the 1980s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvileen was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Mad Marvin, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus and Pigulus. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🐈 The Cat Sìth of the Highlands\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvileen reminds me of the cat sìth, the fairy cat of the Scottish Highlands. In the old stories it is a big black cat with one white spot on its chest, and when it thinks nobody is watching it walks on its hind legs. Some people said it was no fairy at all but a witch who could turn herself into a cat, and that a witch who changed nine times was stuck as a cat for the rest of her life. The legend may have grown out of the Scottish wildcat, or the Kellas cats, a wildcat and house cat cross found only in Scotland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cat sìth was believed to steal the soul of someone who had just died, before it could go on to the land of the dead, just by passing over the body. So before burial families kept a watch called the Late Wake, with music, games, dancing and catnip to keep the cat distracted, and no fire near the body, because the cat was drawn to the heat. Around Samhain folks left out a saucer of milk for it. Do that and the house had good luck for the year. Forget, and the cat sìth would dry up the milk of your cows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd then there is the English folk tale The King of the Cats. A man comes home and tells his wife and their cat, Old Tom, that he saw nine black cats with white spots on their chests carrying a coffin with a crown on it, and one of them told him, \"Tell Tom Tildrum that Tim Toldrum is dead.\" Old Tom jumps up, cries that he is the King of the Cats now, and shoots up the chimney, never to be seen again. I keep Evileen away from the fireplace, just in case.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the cat lover with a dark streak, or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-cat-bat-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Cat Bat Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Green Fanged Vampire Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-crater-face-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Crater Face Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Cratered Grimace Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-mad-marvin-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Mad Marvin Gross-Out Monster Pin 🥃 Bulging Eyeball Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43441711677672,"sku":"VAG-7862366798056","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4057014035_6uwy.jpg?v=1785357113"},{"product_id":"vintage-cat-bat-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Cat Bat Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Green Fanged Vampire Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/as_Vu6j8v9k\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🦇 Cat Bat: Dracula's Hairline, a Cat's Eyes and a Mouthful of Fangs\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Cat Bat Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! Every piece of this guy's face was borrowed from a legend, and I love him for it. He is green all over, with a slicked black widow's peak, bushy black eyebrows pulled into a scowl, yellow-orange cat eyes with thin slit pupils and a broad flat nose. Then there is that grin, huge and curling, packed with fangs top and bottom around a red tongue, with webbed green folds pinching in at the corners like the edge of a bat's wing. CAT BAT is printed in small black capitals along the lower left edge. The hairline is Dracula's, the eyes are the cat's and the wings are the bat's.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were created by AmToy, a toy division of the American Greetings Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio, and dreamed up by a creative team at American Greetings Properties that included Ralph Shafer, George Chanter, Mark Spangler, Jim Elliott, Kim Hammeren and Vint Gonser. The first eight reached stores in the United States and Canada in February 1986, though collectors often date them 1985: Aargh, Bash Brain, Dust Brain, Horn Head, Oculus Orbus, Screamin' Meemie, Skull Face and Slobulus. They started out in hard rubber and moved to soft foam, and the fad led to two animated cartoons in 1986 and 1987, a comic series from 1986 to 1988, and video games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. Art Asylum revived the line in 2007 and 2008, and Just Play brought it back again from 2017 to 2019.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps released Garbage Pail Kids in 1985, with Art Spiegelman, Mark Newgarden and John Pound among the creators. The stickers were such an obvious send-up of the Cabbage Patch Kids that in 1986 the doll's owner, Original Appalachian Artworks, sued Topps for trademark infringement, and the settlement made Topps change the characters' look and the logo. Schools all over the country banned the cards as a classroom distraction, which only made kids want them more. A live-action movie came out on August 21, 1987, and it still holds a 0% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. The copycat balls came from all over: ERTL made Blurp Balls, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. A button like Cat Bat let a kid wear the whole rebellious joke on a jean jacket for pocket change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCat Bat was never one of the official Madballs, though. He belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Pigulus, Hog Head, Sad Lad and Ocufungus. There is no company name, copyright line or country of origin anywhere on the front or back, and I have never found who made the series. They are the playground cousins of the licensed toys, telling the same jokes with characters of their own, and they are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🧛 The Vampire Legend Behind the Face\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story goes that the Spanish conquistadors in the Americas watched bats lapping blood from sleeping animals and named them vampire bats, after the creatures of European legend they already knew. The legend came full circle when scientists named a giant extinct vampire bat of Central and South America Desmodus draculae, in honor of Count Dracula, \"the greatest human vampire of folklore.\" It was about 30% bigger than today's common vampire bat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe face is pure Hollywood. The Hungarian immigrant Bela Lugosi played Count Dracula on Broadway in 1927 and then in Tod Browning's 1931 Universal film, and his accent, cape, pale skin, slicked black hair and widow's peak, his own natural hairline sharpened with makeup, became the picture of a vampire for everybody after him. Half a century later the gross-out artists were still drawing that hairline on their monsters, and Cat Bat wears it proudly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack strap, a hat or a battle vest, add it to a Halloween costume or a horror-movie night outfit, or frame it in a shadow box with your other 1980s monster pins. It's a perfect little gift for the horror fan, the vampire lover or anybody who grew up on Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pigulus-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pigulus Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Pig-Nosed Baby Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-evileen-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Evileen Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Fanged Green Cat Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-crater-face-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Crater Face Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Cratered Grimace Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43445842804968,"sku":"VAG-7863600447720","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4011607898_fz4t.jpg?v=1785357122"},{"product_id":"vintage-1980s-pigulus-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Pigulus Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Pig-Nosed Baby Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v6FYqSP2xTI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🐷 Pigulus: Half Baby Face, Half Hog\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Pigulus Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! Look at this guy. He has a soft, doughy face like somebody's great-uncle, bushy purple eyebrows, watery green eyes rimmed in red, and right where his nose should be, a pig's snout with two dark nostrils. His lips are dark and pouty and a fat pink tongue is hanging out of the side of his mouth. PIGULUS is printed in black along the lower left edge. The name sounds like it came out of the same meeting as the real Madballs Slobulus and Oculus Orbus, and I think that is exactly the joke.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. The copycats came fast. ERTL made a line of Blurp Balls drawn by the artist James Groman, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. The official Madballs had their own pig, Swine Sucker, an ugly drooling wild boar, and the Weird Balls line had one called Wart Hog, so Pigulus was in good company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigulus was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Mad Marvin, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus and Sad Lad. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🐽 The Pig-Faced Lady\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigulus reminds me of one of the strangest legends England ever fell for. Stories of a pig-faced woman turned up at almost the same time in the Netherlands, England and France in the late 1630s, and they nearly always go the same way. A rich woman who is expecting a baby turns away a beggar and her children and compares them to pigs. The beggar curses her, and her daughter is born perfect in every way except for the face of a pig. The girl eats out of a silver trough, grunts when she talks, and her worried parents offer a fortune to any man who will marry her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn one week of December 1639 five different ballads about Tannakin Skinker, the \"Hog-faced Gentlewoman,\" were published in London. They are all lost now, but a chapbook from 1640 survives. It says her father offered a dowry of 40,000 pounds. A Scottish captain spent most of a month's pay on a new suit to court her, lifted her veil, and ran off saying he \"could indure no Porke.\" A pig farmer was sure that knowing pigs meant he could handle her, and he left saying he had never seen \"such a Hogsnout.\" After that the family gave up and moved to London. Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, even kept a 1640 ballad about a pig-headed woman from Holland in his collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen the legend got attached to a real woman. Griselda Steevens paid for Dr Steevens' Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and lived in it from 1723 until she died. She had trouble with her eyes and wore a veil in the sun, and by the 1800s it was common belief in Dublin that she was hiding a pig's face under it. The story goes that she sat out on an open balcony so people could see her, and hung her own portrait in the hospital hall, and folks still believed the rumor. The man who wrote the hospital's history found no sign of the story in her lifetime at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLondon had its own go at it in the winter of 1814. Word spread that a pig-faced lady was living in Marylebone, and a would-be husband put an ad in the papers. The Times refused to print it and gave his one-pound fee to the Marine Society, and a letter writer to The Times said that if he meant to have her, \"he must woo her in grunts.\" Showmen took living pig-faced ladies around the fairs, and those may well have been shaved bears in dresses. The last serious book to treat pig-faced women as real came out in 1924, and today the legend is almost forgotten. Pigulus is doing his part to keep it alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the pig lover with a weird sense of humor, or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-cat-bat-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Cat Bat Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Green Fanged Vampire Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-crater-face-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Crater Face Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Cratered Grimace Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-mad-marvin-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Mad Marvin Gross-Out Monster Pin 🥃 Bulging Eyeball Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43446013788392,"sku":"VAG-7863657627880","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4059347515_tq8b.jpg?v=1785357131"},{"product_id":"vintage-creep-queen-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Creep Queen Pin Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IE9P6kcLAIA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e👑 Creep Queen: A Doll Face With Fangs\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Creep Queen Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! She is the one that gets people. From a distance she is a pale little doll face with big green eyes and a scowl, and then you notice the red cracks spreading down her forehead like a china doll that got dropped, and the mouth full of fangs. CREEP QUEEN is printed in black up the right edge. Queen of the creeps is a fair title.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. The copycats came fast. ERTL made a line of Blurp Balls drawn by the artist James Groman, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. The real Madballs even had a queen of sorts: the 1986 cartoon Madballs: Escape from Orb added a girl Madball named Freakella, modeled after the Bride of Frankenstein, who only ever appeared in the cartoon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCreep Queen was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Craterface, Mad Marvin, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus, Pigulus and Sad Lad. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🎎 Robert the Doll, Key West's Haunted Doll\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith that cracked doll face, Creep Queen always puts me in mind of my favorite haunted doll story. Robert the Doll belonged to Robert Eugene Otto, a painter and writer from a prominent family in Key West, Florida. The doll was reportedly made by the Steiff company of Germany, and Otto's grandfather bought it on a trip to Germany in 1904 and gave it to the boy for his birthday. The little sailor suit it wears was probably one of Otto's own. Otto grew up, studied art in New York and Paris, married Annette Parker in Paris in 1930, and brought her home to the family house on Eaton Street, where the doll stayed until Otto died in 1974. In 1994 Robert was given to the East Martello Museum in Key West, and he has been drawing a crowd ever since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow the legend. Folks say Robert moves around on his own, changes his expression and giggles. One story says young Otto blamed all his childhood mishaps on the doll, and that is what woke him up. Visitors are told to ask Robert's permission before they take his picture, and the wall around his case is covered with letters of apology from people who did not ask and blame him for car wrecks, broken bones, lost jobs and divorces. In 2008 he left Key West for the first time in 104 years, for a paranormal convention up in Clearwater, and in 2015 a horror movie loosely based on him came out, called simply Robert, with four sequels after it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI would ask Creep Queen's permission before you take her picture too, just in case.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the horror fan, the doll collector with a dark streak, or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-pufang-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pufang Pin Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-mummeye-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Mummeye Pin Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/radical-vintage-1980s-tots-stickers-unleash-nostalgic-fun-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Trash Can Tots Stickers 🗑️ Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 8\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43446034563304,"sku":"VAG-7863669194984","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4011714192_g1x6.jpg?v=1785357138"},{"product_id":"vintage-mummeye-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Mummeye Pin Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/q4e3bJgEskk\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e👁️ Mummeye: A Bandaged Mummy With One Bloodshot Eye\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Mummeye Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! This one cracks me up. A mummy's head is wrapped up tight in old tan bandages streaked with red, and right in the middle one big bloodshot eyeball has pushed its way out through a gap and is staring straight at you. Where the wrappings have slipped you can see wrinkled green skin underneath. MUMMEYE is printed in small black capitals along the top right edge. A mummy plus an eye, and somebody decided that was the name. I love it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. Two of the originals could be Mummeye's parents. Dust Brain was a mummy with rotting teeth and wrinkly teal skin, and Oculus Orbus was one giant bloodshot eyeball.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMummeye was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Craterface, Creep Queen, Mad Marvin, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus and Pigulus. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏺 The Mummy Behind the Joke\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery bandaged mummy in a cartoon owes something to Boris Karloff. Universal Pictures released The Mummy on December 22, 1932, with Karloff as Imhotep, an Egyptian high priest buried alive and brought back by archaeologists who read a scroll they should have left alone. Make-up artist Jack Pierce studied photographs of the mummy of the pharaoh Seti I to design him. On Karloff's first day Pierce started at 11 in the morning, building his face out of cotton, collodion and spirit gum, putting clay in his hair and wrapping him in linen bandages that had been treated with acid and burnt in an oven. He finished at 7 that evening. Karloff shot until 2 a.m., spent two more hours getting it all off, and called it the most trying ordeal he had ever endured.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe film was inspired by the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and the legend that came with it, the curse of the pharaohs. The story goes that Howard Carter's pet canary was killed by a cobra, the symbol of Egypt's kings, on the very day the tomb was broken into. Then Lord Carnarvon, who paid for the dig, was bitten by a mosquito, nicked the bite while shaving and died of the infection. The novelist Marie Corelli had warned in print of \"dire punishment\" for anyone who disturbed a sealed tomb, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, suggested that spirits set by Tutankhamun's priests had done it. The newspapers loved every word.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd here is the one that really gets me. For about two hundred years painters used a color called mummy brown, made from real ground-up Egyptian mummies mixed with pitch and myrrh. The Pre-Raphaelites loved it. In 1881 Edward Burne-Jones found out what was actually in his tube and gave it a proper burial in his garden. In 1964 Time magazine reported that C. Roberson, the London colorman who was the last to sell it, had run out of mummies a few years before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the horror fan or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/radical-80s-garbage-pail-tots-stickers-revive-retro-nostalgia-vintage-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Trash Can Tots Stickers 🗑️ Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 10\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-creep-queen-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Creep Queen Pin Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/radical-80s-tots-stickers-bring-garbage-pail-kids-nostalgia-vintage-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Trash Can Tots Stickers 🗑️ Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired 2\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43446170976488,"sku":"VAG-7863733551336","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4011766186_7qg0.jpg?v=1785357149"},{"product_id":"vintage-ocufungus-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Ocufungus Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 One-Eyed Cyclops Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vF5J3M9UZGw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e👁️ Ocufungus: The One-Eyed Monster Madballs Never Made\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Ocufungus Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! Somebody looked at the real Madball Oculus Orbus, whose name is basically Latin for \"eye ball,\" and thought, what if we put that eye in the middle of a face and let it grow mold? So here he is: a soft, lumpy tan face with dark shading around the edge, one big eye dead center with an orange-brown iris and red veins running through the white, a big bulb of a nose under it, and a wavy frown. Green fungus is creeping across his brow and around the eye. OCUFUNGUS arches in dark capitals along the top edge. Ocu for the eye, from the Latin oculus, and fungus for the rest. That is exactly what you get.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were the work of AmToy, the toy division of the greeting-card giant American Greetings Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio, and they grew out of ideas from its American Greetings Properties creative team, among them Ralph Shafer, George Chanter, Mark Spangler, Jim Elliott, Kim Hammeren and Vint Gonser. The original eight reached North American stores in February 1986, though collectors often date them 1985: Aargh, Bash Brain, Dust Brain, Horn Head, Oculus Orbus, Screamin' Meemie, Skull Face and Slobulus, first in hard rubber and later in soft foam. A bunch of them were one-eyed horrors. Horn Head was a horned cyclops, Slobulus had one eye hanging out of its socket, and Oculus Orbus was nothing but a giant bloodshot eyeball. Kids loved them and parents did not, and the fad led to two direct-to-video cartoons, a comic book series and home computer games before it faded. Art Asylum brought them back in 2007, and Just Play did it again in 2017.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGarbage Pail Kids came first, from Topps in 1985, created with the artists Art Spiegelman, Mark Newgarden and John Pound as a sticker-card parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids. Original Appalachian Artworks, the company that owned the dolls, sued in 1986, and the settlement changed the look of the characters and the logo. Schools banned the cards, the 1987 movie flopped, and the playgrounds filled up with knockoff stickers and buttons like this one. The copycat balls came from all over: ERTL made Blurp Balls, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOcufungus was never one of the official Madballs, though. He belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Biface, Bot Eye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Hog Head, Mad Marvin, Mummeye, Pigulus, Sad Lad and Cat Bat. Their names play off the licensed toys without copying them, the way Ocufungus plays off Oculus Orbus. No maker, copyright or country is marked anywhere on this button, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏛️ The Legend of the Cyclops\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat one eye goes back a lot further than the toy aisle. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus and his men get trapped in the cave of Polyphemus, a man-eating giant, and escape only by blinding him. Here is a fun one: Homer never actually says Polyphemus has one eye. The blinding only makes sense if he does, so everybody has assumed it ever since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greeks had other Cyclopes too. In Hesiod's Theogony they are three brothers, Brontes, Steropes and Arges, who made Zeus his thunderbolt, Poseidon his trident and Hades his helmet of darkness. Later poets put them to work at the forge of the smith god Hephaestus under Mount Etna in Sicily, and another tradition said the Cyclopes built the huge walls of Mycenae and Tiryns. The classical Greeks figured nobody else could have lifted those boulders, which is why that kind of giant rough stonework is still called Cyclopean masonry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom at least the fifth century BC the Cyclopes were tied to Sicily, and in 1914 the Austrian paleontologist Othenio Abel offered an explanation for where the one-eyed giant came from. Fossil skulls of dwarf elephants turn up on the Mediterranean islands, Sicily, Malta, Crete and Cyprus among them, elephants that had died out thousands of years before the Greeks ever got there. In the middle of each skull, where the trunk once attached, is one huge opening. To somebody who had never seen an elephant, Abel said, that hole would look just like the socket of a single giant eye. Plenty of scholars say there is no real evidence for it, but it is a great story, and Ocufungus is sitting right in the middle of it: one eye, dead center, above the nose, right where the old storytellers put it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a jean jacket, a backpack, a hat or a lanyard, add it to a Halloween costume, or frame it in a shadow box with your other 1980s gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the mythology buff, the biology teacher or the eye doctor with a sense of humor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-mad-marvin-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Mad Marvin Gross-Out Monster Pin 🥃 Bulging Eyeball Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-cat-bat-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Cat Bat Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Green Fanged Vampire Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-evileen-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Evileen Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Fanged Green Cat Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43446197485800,"sku":"VAG-7863744921832","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4059420465_gmhz.jpg?v=1785357157"},{"product_id":"vintage-bot-eye-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage 1980s Bot Eye Gross-Out Pin 🥃 Bulging Bloodshot Bug-Eyes and Manic Grin, Pin-Back Button in the 80s Gross-Out Spirit","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yOCVACfyiFg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e👀 Bot Eye: Eyes Bulging Right Out of His Head\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Bot Eye Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! This guy is having way too good a time. He has a tan face with two big blue-violet eyes bulging right out of his head, the whites all shot through with red veins, a big bulb of a nose, and a huge toothy grin under bright red lips. BOT EYE is printed in black up the right edge. He looks thrilled about something, and I am not sure I want to know what.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps started it in 1985 with Garbage Pail Kids, a gross-out parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls dreamed up by Art Spiegelman and drawn at first by John Pound. The doll company sued in 1986 and schools all over the country banned the cards, which of course made every kid want them more. Madballs followed from AmToy, a toy company owned by the American Greetings Corporation: foam balls with disgusting faces, first in stores in 1986. The copycats came fast. ERTL made a line of Blurp Balls drawn by the artist James Groman, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls. The real Madballs had Oculus Orbus, one giant bloodshot eyeball, and Lanard's Spit Balls had one called 20\/20, so eyeballs were clearly a big seller.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBot Eye was never one of the official Madballs, though. It belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons that collectors trade together, with names like Mummeye, Craterface, Creep Queen, Mad Marvin, Pufang, Cat Bat, Hog Head, Ocufungus and Pigulus. Nobody put a maker's name on them, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🧿 The Evil Eye\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith eyes like that, Bot Eye has to be the one that gets the evil eye story. It is one of the oldest beliefs in the world: a curse carried by a jealous glare. Amulets to protect against it have been found from around 5,000 years ago, and writers of the classical world from Hesiod and Plato to Plutarch and Pliny the Elder all wrote about it. Once glass beads started being made around the Mediterranean in about 1500 BC, eye beads spread with the Phoenicians, Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe blue and white eye charm you see hanging in homes and cars today is the nazar, most common in Turkey, and the idea is that the staring eye bends the bad look right back at whoever sent it. In Greece the evil eye is simply called mati, the eye, and it gets cast out with a secret prayer handed down from an older relative, usually a grandparent. In southern Italy folks carry a little horn called a cornicello. In Mexico and Central America babies are thought to be most at risk, so they get an amulet bracelet with an eye-like spot painted on it, and one traditional cure in Latin America has a curandero, a folk healer, sweep a raw egg over the person to soak up the curse. And in places where light eyes are rare, people with green eyes, and especially blue eyes, were thought to pass the curse along whether they meant to or not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBot Eye has big blue ones and he is staring right at you, so you might want a nazar handy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack or a Halloween costume, or put it in a shadow box with your other gross-out buttons. It's a perfect little gift for the eye doctor with a sense of humor, or anybody who grew up with Madballs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-sad-lad-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Sad Lad Gross-Out Pin 📌 Droopy Bloodshot Monster Face, Pin-Back Button in the Spirit of the 80s Gross-Out Craze\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-biface-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Biface Gross-Out Pin 📌 Half Monster Half Boy Two-Faced Character, Pin-Back Button in the 80s Gross-Out Spirit\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-mad-marvin-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Mad Marvin Gross-Out Monster Pin 🥃 Bulging Eyeball Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43446303097064,"sku":"VAG-7863823466728","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4059485229_i2rx.jpg?v=1785357165"},{"product_id":"vintage-hog-head-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s Hog Head Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Buck-Toothed Pig Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XBoMAJltjyI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1 1\/2 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🐷 Hog Head: The Gross-Out Pig Who Only Wants to Grin\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage Hog Head Pin, Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids Inspired, 1980s! Where most of the monsters in this bunch want you to gag, Hog Head just wants to grin at you. He has pale pink skin, sketchy brown brows, heavy lids over big green eyes, a wide pink snout with two black nostrils, and an open grin with two square white buck teeth. HOG HEAD is printed in black capitals up the lower right edge, and the word CHINA runs along the top of the rim, the only hint anywhere on these buttons about where they were made. He is the friendliest monster I own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front is printed paper under a glossy clear cover, and the back is gray with a brass-colored safety pin. The close-up of a button back and the last photo, three backs lying next to a quarter, are there to show the construction and the size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🤢 Madballs, Garbage Pail Kids and the Knockoffs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were a huge hit in the 1980s, and they came right on the heels of the Garbage Pail Kids. They spawned a bunch of others including Whacky Ghoulies, Ugly Balls, Burp Balls, Weird Balls, and Spit Balls. Parents and teachers hated these things so much!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMadballs were made by AmToy, the toy arm of the American Greetings Corporation, the greeting card company then based in Brooklyn, Ohio, just outside Cleveland, and now in Westlake, Ohio. The characters came out of its design and licensing division, Those Characters From Cleveland, which had already turned Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears into fortunes: Strawberry Shortcake brought in $500 million in retail sales in 1981, and the Care Bears $2 billion in their first two years. Collector histories credit Madballs to a team there that included Ralph Shafer, George Chanter, Mark Spangler, Jim Elliott, Kim Hammeren and Vint Gonser. The fad led to two Nelvana cartoons in 1986 and 1987, a Marvel Star Comics series that ran from September 1986 to June 1988, and a 1988 Ocean Software game for 8-bit home computers. Art Asylum revived the line in 2007 and 2008, Just Play brought it back from 2017 to 2019, and Premium DNA Toys started six-inch figures in 2020.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe official line even had its own hog. The second series of eight Madballs included Swine Sucker, an ugly drooling wild boar, who shared the shelf with Wolf Breath, Fist Face, Lock Lips, Snake Bait, Bruise Brother, Freaky Fullback and Splitting Headache. The first eight had been Screamin' Meemie, Slobulus, Aargh, Horn Head, Dust Brain, Oculus Orbus, Skull Face and Bash Brain. Swine Sucker was sculpted to disgust you. Hog Head, with his soft pencil shading and dopey eyes, was drawn to be liked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopps put out Garbage Pail Kids in 1985 as a parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, created by the cartoonist Art Spiegelman with Mark Newgarden and John Pound. Spiegelman had helped create Topps' Wacky Packages parody stickers in the 1960s, and he went on to win a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for Maus, the first graphic novel ever to get one. In 1986 Original Appalachian Artworks, which held the Cabbage Patch Kids rights, sued Topps for trademark infringement, and the settlement made Topps change the characters' look and its logo. Schools all over the country banned the cards as a classroom distraction. A live-action movie opened on August 21, 1987, made about $1.58 million, and still holds a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Mexico has banned Garbage Pail Kids imports since 1988. The copycat balls came from all over: ERTL made Blurp Balls, The Mel Appel Company made Weird Balls, and Lanard Toys made Spit Balls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHog Head was never one of the official Madballs, though, and he is not one of the sixteen AmToy put out in its first two series. He belongs to a whole cast of named monster buttons, each 1 1\/2 inches across, that collectors trade together: Biface, Bot Eye, Cat Bat, Craterface, Creep Queen, Evileen, Mad Marvin, Mummeye, Ocufungus, Pigulus, Pufang and Sad Lad. There is no company name, copyright line or licence anywhere on the pin, and I have never found who made the series. They are definitely neat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🐗 The Legend of the Boar's Head\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA pig's head has carried legends for centuries. Every December The Queen's College, Oxford carries a boar's head through its hall at the Boar's Head Gaudy while the Boar's Head Carol is sung, a carol printed by Wynkyn de Worde in his Christmasse Carolles of 1521. The story they tell at Queen's is that a student walking in nearby Shotover Forest, reading his Aristotle, was charged by a wild boar. He rammed the book down the animal's throat with a cry of \"Graecum est\" and choked it with philosophy. Scholars trace the feast back even further, possibly to the Germanic Yule custom of the sonargöltr, a boar offered at midwinter in honor of the Norse god Freyr.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🛢️ Hog's Head or Hogshead? The Barrel Lore\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSay his name out loud and a cooper hears a barrel. A hogshead is a big cask, first standardized by the English Parliament in 1423. A wine hogshead holds 63 U.S. gallons, and in the British and American colonies tobacco traveled in hogsheads 48 inches long and 30 inches across that weighed about 1,000 pounds when packed. Why a barrel should be named for a hog is a riddle the word books still argue over. The philologist Walter William Skeat pointed to the Dutch oxhooft, the Danish oxehoved and the Old Swedish oxhuvud, all naming a cask as an \"ox head,\" and the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica suggested hogshead began as a corruption of oxhead. Other scholars point to older Dutch cask words still, hukeshovet and hoekshoot. Nobody has settled it, which suits Hog Head just fine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📌 Wear It or Frame It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePin it on a denim jacket, a backpack strap, a hat or a battle vest, frame it in a shadow box with your other 1980s monster buttons, or stick it on a barbecue apron or a smokehouse corkboard. It's a perfect little gift for the pig collector, or for anybody who traded Garbage Pail Kids at recess.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-crater-face-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s Crater Face Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Cratered Grimace Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-cat-bat-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-1980s-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Cat Bat Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Green Fanged Vampire Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-pigulus-pin-madballs-garbage-pail-kids-inspired-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Pigulus Gross-Out Monster Pin 📌 Pig-Nosed Baby Face Pinback Button, Weird Retro Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43446319186152,"sku":"VAG-7863839195368","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4011851314_2pn3.jpg?v=1785357175"},{"product_id":"rare-antique-vintage-large-charles-wells-lemonade-label-bedford-england-1970s","title":"Vintage Charles Wells Lemonade Label 🍋 1980s-1990s Bedford","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GdNC9K1d8Hc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 3 1\/2 x 3 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e Unused.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🍋 Charles Wells Lemonade Bottle Label, Bedford, England\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a rare vintage Charles Wells Lemonade label from Bedford, England, in sunny yellow with a red eagle crest, CHARLES WELLS and LEMONADE in bold black and blue letters, and a pattern of pale bubbles rising up the label. This label is a very unique one as this company was and is famous for its beer. Beverage labels from this company are very rare, especially in the 710 ml size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏷️ What's Printed on It\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCHARLES WELLS LEMONADE\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eINGREDIENTS: WATER, SUGAR, CARBON DIOXIDE, CITRIC ACID, FLAVOURINGS, ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER - SACCHARIN, PRESERVATIVES (E211, E223)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBOTTLED FOR CHARLES WELLS LTD., BEDFORD, ENGLAND\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e710 ml, BEST BEFORE\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat BEST BEFORE box is a good clue to its age: Britain first brought in best-before labelling in 1980, under the Food Labelling Regulations. The back is blank.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🍺 Charles Wells of Bedford\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis company is an English classic. It was founded in 1876 by... I bet you can't guess??? Ok, Charles Wells, sorry to hold you in suspense. Charles was born in Bedford in 1842, left school at 14 and ran away to sea, and when he gave up the sea he started the Charles Wells Family Brewery in 1876.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReally neat fact, and probably why their beer and soda are so popular: water is an essential ingredient for any beverage, obviously, and Wells knew good water was vital to the best drink. In 1902 he climbed a local hill a couple of miles from the brewery and sank his own well into an underground reservoir, purified through layers of chalk and limestone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2017 the company sold its brewery and brands like Young's and Courage to Marston's for £55 million, and it's still running strong, with over 200 pubs in England and 13 more in France, still in the family's hands with the fifth generation coming into the business. It won Pub Company of the Year at The Publican Awards two years running, in 2009 and 2010, along with the Retention Award at the Springboard Awards in 2010 and 2012 and Best Recruitment Initiative in 2011.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏡 Display\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey aren't making any more vintage labels obviously so once the limited supply for sale is gone and on display with collectors or in galleries then they will be very difficult to acquire. Imagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-2000-easy-street-wheat-beer-label-odell-brewing-co-ft-collins\"\u003eRetro 2000 Odell Easy Street Wheat Beer Label 🍺 Odell Brewing Co. Fort Collins Colorado Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-blackcurrant-cordial-label-wellingborough-england\"\u003eVintage Cooke's Blackcurrant Cordial Label 🫐 from 1980s-1990s England\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-antique-1930s-hires-r-j-root-beer-label-rip-2023-american-icon-vintage\"\u003eRare Antique 1930s Hires R - J Root Beer Label 🥤 RIP 2023 American Icon!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43492636262632,"sku":"VAG-7878043533544","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4079358653_g6z1.jpg?v=1785357319"},{"product_id":"antique-vintage-cookes-lemon-barley-water-label-wellingborough-england-1940s","title":"Vintage Cooke's 1980s-1990s Lemon Barley Water Label 🍋","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 3.75 x 3 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QGJDgsqVCeU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍋 Lemon \u0026amp; Barley Water: A King's Drink, a Wimbledon Tradition and a Label That Dates Itself\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA paper bottle label from Cooke's (W'boro') Ltd. of Wellingborough, England, for Lemon \u0026amp; Barley Water: a glistening wedge of lemon crossed by two golden ears of grain, a big brush-script \"Cooke's\" across the top and DILUTE TO TASTE beside the picture. Barley water is one of the oldest soft drinks in England, recorded by 1320 and drunk by George III on his ride home from the hunt, and the lemon version became the drink of Wimbledon. The label's own small print tells you when it was printed: the preservatives are listed by their European E numbers, E221 and E220, and that makes it a 1980s–1990s label. Vintage, not antique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt measures 3 3\/4\" x 3\" ~, printed on white paper with rounded corners. Along the bottom run 710ml on the left and 25 fl oz on the right (710 millilitres is 25 imperial fluid ounces), with the maker's line beneath: COOKE'S (W'BORO') LTD. WELLINGBOROUGH. The back is plain paper, the front printing faintly showing through in reverse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔎 What the Label Says\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe ingredients panel reads: water, sugar, lemon juice, citric acid, barley flour, flavouring, artificial sweetener-saccharin, preservative E221, E220. The bottle held a concentrate made with real lemon juice and barley flour, sweetened with sugar and saccharin together, meant to be poured into a glass and topped up with water until it tasted right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧪 How the Small Print Dates It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eE numbers are codes from a single European list of approved food additives. The list was first agreed for food colourings in 1962, preservatives were added in 1964, antioxidants in 1970, and emulsifiers and thickeners in 1974; the E stands for Europe. On this label E220 is sulphur dioxide and E221 is sodium sulphite, both preservatives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn England and Wales the Food Labelling Regulations 1984 (SI 1984\/1305) came into operation on 19 September 1984. They carried a schedule of additive categories that must be named in a list of ingredients by category name, and a schedule of serial numbers for additives. On 20 November 1984 the government answered a question in the House of Commons with the deadline: all additives, except flavourings, which present special labelling problems, had to be identified by name or serial number in the ingredients list on prepackaged foods by 1 July 1986. Read the Cooke's panel with that in mind. \"Preservative\" is followed by its numbers, \"artificial sweetener\" by its name, and \"flavouring\" stands on its own as a plain word, just as the flavourings exception allowed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSulphur dioxide has the longest pedigree of anything on the panel. The Romans discovered that burning sulphur candles inside empty wine vessels kept them fresh and free of the smell of vinegar, and winemakers still rely on it against spoilage. As E220 it also keeps dried apricots and figs from spoiling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌾 Barley Water: Seven Centuries in the English Kitchen\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBefore anyone bottled it, barley water was simply pearl barley boiled in water, a drink from the domestic kitchen. It is recorded in England at least as early as 1320, and it survived the centuries so quietly that the seventeenth-century writer Thomas Fuller called it \"an invention which found out itself\". Its roots go further back still: the ancient Greeks drank kykeon, made mainly of water and barley, both at sacred rites and in peasant cottages.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIts most famous devotee was George III, \"Farmer George\". The diarist Fanny Burney reported that the King refreshed himself with barley water as he rode home from a hard day's hunting, although his courtiers did not share his enthusiasm for so mild a drink after a day in the saddle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎾 Lemon Meets Barley: Robinsons and Wimbledon\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThen came the lemon. Robinsons, founded in 1823 by George Robinson and Alexander Belville, made patent barley, and in 1930 Eric Smedley Hodgson combined the company's barley crystals with real lemon juice and sugar. The story goes that he mixed his first batches for the players and umpires at Wimbledon, where the drink went down so well that he was invited back. Lemon barley water was marketed with the Wimbledon Championships from 1935, a partnership that lasted 86 years until it ended in 2022.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLemon squash was on the market a little earlier. By 1890 squash was sold as a still, cloudy, ready-to-drink juice drink, and concentrated lemon squash was introduced into Britain just before the First World War, gradually taking the name for itself. Northamptonshire bottlers stocked it early: in 1910 J. W. Bright of Rushden, a neighbouring town, advertised lemon squash cordial and lime juice cordial in the Rushden Echo, alongside orange champagne, cherry cider and stone ginger beer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏙️ Wellingborough: The Town of Wells\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCooke's squeezed its town into its company name as W'BORO'. Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, grew from Wendelingburgh, \"Waendel's burh\", a fortified place, and on 3 April 1201 King John granted a market charter to the Abbot and monks of Crowland for a Wednesday market there. Five wells ring the town, the Redwell, Hemmingwell, Witche's Well, Lady's Well and Whytewell, and all five stand on its coat of arms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the seventeenth century those waters made Wellingborough fashionable. The Duchess of Buckingham came to drink them about 1624; three years later Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria received the Mantuan ambassador in the town, and the Queen seems to have come again in 1628. The legend of the Red Well, as the county historians Morton in 1712 and Cole in 1837 told it, is that the King and Queen lived in tents a whole season on the hillside to drink its iron-rich water pure at the source. In 1811 a correspondent of the Northampton Mercury still recommended it for indigestion, debility and a pallid countenance. The spring later served as a stone watering trough for horses, and the council restored it in 2011.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe town made its later living from boots and shoes, ironworks, brewing and mineral waters. In January 1916, with the First World War raising the \"costs of materials, labour and transport\", eight mineral water makers from Kettering, Rushden and Wellingborough put their names to a joint notice raising their prices. Four of them were Wellingborough firms: F. Cooke Ltd., Campbell Praed \u0026amp; Co. Ltd., C. Cobley, and W. Dulley \u0026amp; Sons Ltd. Their drinks went out in patent bottles, corked bottles, stone ginger beer bottles and soda syphons. In the post-war decades Wellingborough took in families moving out of London, and it counted 56,564 people at the 2021 census.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis label is becoming uncommon. Imagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room: the lemon yellow and barley gold suit a kitchen, a pantry door, a café corner or a summer tennis room. My pictures seriously don't do it justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old is this Cooke's Lemon \u0026amp; Barley Water label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts two preservatives are printed as E221 and E220, set out the way British ingredient panels had to be from mid-1986. It is a 1980s–1990s label, vintage rather than antique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat is lemon barley water?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA concentrate of lemon juice, sugar and barley that you dilute with water. Plain barley water goes back to medieval England; the lemon version was created for Robinsons in 1930 and served at Wimbledon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat are E220 and E221?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSulphur dioxide and sodium sulphite, two preservatives on the European additive list.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere was Cooke's based?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. The label is signed COOKE'S (W'BORO') LTD. WELLINGBOROUGH.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat size is it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3 3\/4\" x 3\" ~.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1930s-glycerin-and-rose-water-label-waggoner-drug-co-klamath-falls-or\"\u003eAntique 1930s Glycerin \u0026amp; Rose Water Label – Waggoner Drug Co., Klamath Falls OR 🌹\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-muscat-de-valence-dutch-liquor-alcohol-wine-label-1930s\"\u003e1930s Muscat De Valence Wine Label: Antique Dutch Liquor Advertising 🍺\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/very-rare-antique-1910s-massage-cream-gold-embossed-label-paris-montreal\"\u003eAntique 1910s Massage Cream Label 💆 from Paris Montreal Chicago\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43492934156520,"sku":"VAG-7878111822056","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4079605393_ipmm.jpg?v=1785357329"},{"product_id":"antique-vintage-cookes-blackcurrant-cordial-label-wellingborough-england","title":"Vintage Cooke's Blackcurrant Cordial Label 🫐 from 1980s-1990s England","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 3.75 x 3 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K_znyhJAKA0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🫐 Blackcurrant Cordial: Britain's Wartime Fruit, America's Banned One\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA paper bottle label from Cooke's (W'boro') Ltd. of Wellingborough, England, for Blackcurrant Cordial: a cluster of glossy blackcurrants on bright green leaves, a big brush-script \"Cooke's\" across the top and DILUTE TO TASTE beside the fruit. Blackcurrant is the flavour that wartime Britain handed free to its babies and that the United States banned from its farms, and this label carries a second transatlantic divide in its small print: a green food dye that American food makers may not use. That small print also dates it. The preservative and both colours are listed by European E number, E220, E102 and E142, which makes this a 1980s–1990s label. Vintage, not antique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt measures 3 3\/4\" x 3\" ~, printed on white paper with rounded corners. Along the foot run 710ml on the left and 25 fl oz on the right (710 millilitres is 25 imperial fluid ounces), with the maker's line beneath: COOKE'S (W'BORO') LTD. WELLINGBOROUGH. The back is plain paper, with the currants and lettering faintly showing through in reverse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔎 What the Label Says\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe ingredients panel reads: water, sugar, blackcurrant juice, citric acid, flavouring, artificial sweetener-saccharin, preservative E220, colour E102, E142. Real blackcurrant juice, sweetened with sugar and saccharin together, kept with sulphur dioxide, and coloured with two synthetic dyes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧪 How the Small Print Dates It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eE numbers are codes from a single European list of approved food additives. The list was first agreed for food colourings in 1962, and preservatives were added in 1964; the E stands for Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn England and Wales the Food Labelling Regulations 1984 (SI 1984\/1305) came into operation on 19 September 1984, with a schedule of additive categories to be named in a list of ingredients and a schedule of serial numbers for additives. On 20 November 1984 the government gave the House of Commons its deadline: all additives, except flavourings, which present special labelling problems, had to be identified by name or serial number in the ingredients list on prepackaged foods by 1 July 1986. The Cooke's panel is set out in exactly that way. \"Colour\" and \"preservative\" are followed by numbers, \"artificial sweetener\" by its name, and \"flavouring\" is left as a plain word, just as the exception for flavourings allowed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe numbers were news in Britain at the time. Maurice Hanssen's guide E for Additives, published in October 1984 to explain the codes to shoppers, became a bestseller.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎨 E102 and E142: The Two Colours\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eE102 is tartrazine, a synthetic lemon-yellow azo dye discovered in 1890 by the Swiss chemist Johann Heinrich Ziegler in Basel, at a chemical laboratory that later became CIBA. In 2007 a study commissioned by the UK Food Standards Agency, known as the Southampton study, found a possible link between a mix of six artificial colours, tartrazine among them, taken with the preservative sodium benzoate, and increased hyperactivity in children. The European Union now requires foods containing any of the six to carry the words \"May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.\" This label's plain \"COLOUR E102\" comes from well before that warning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eE142 is Green S, a synthetic coal-tar dye used in mint sauce, desserts, gravy granules, sweets, ice cream and tinned peas, and in eye clinics as a stain that shows up the surface of the eye. It is approved as a food additive in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand, and prohibited in the United States, Canada, Japan and Norway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🇬🇧 The Wartime Fruit\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlackcurrant's hold on Britain comes out of the Second World War. With German submarines sinking cargo ships, oranges and other citrus fruit became almost impossible to get, and the government encouraged the growing of blackcurrants for their vitamin C. The Vitamin Welfare Scheme, launched in December 1941, provided blackcurrant syrup and cod liver oil free of charge to children under two, and the syrup went out from 1942. The story goes that those free wartime spoonfuls are why the flavour stayed a British favourite for the rest of the century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe best-known blackcurrant drink came out of Bristol. The University of Bristol scientist Vernon Charley developed it with the biochemist Audrey Green in 1933, and in 1938 S. M. Lennox of Bristol named it Ribena, from Ribes nigrum, the blackcurrant's botanical name. H. W. Carter \u0026amp; Co. made it; production moved to the Royal Forest Factory at Coleford in the Forest of Dean in late 1947, and the Beecham Group bought Carter's in 1955. The soft drinks trade's own history records that wartime conditions gave concentrated drinks a push that carried on into peacetime, with blackcurrant drinks built on vitamin C from home-grown fruit. Today Britain grows about 1,400 hectares of blackcurrants, almost all under contract to the juicing industry, and 95 per cent of the crop goes into Ribena and similar syrups and juices.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🇺🇸 The Fruit America Banned\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAcross the Atlantic the fruit went the other way. Currants are a host of white pine blister rust, a disease that threatened the logging industry, so in the early twentieth century growing currants was banned in the United States. The federal ban was handed to the individual states in 1966, and New York lifted its ban only in 2003, through the efforts of the horticulturist Greg Quinn; several other state bans stayed in place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍬 Sugar and Saccharin\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe label lists sugar and saccharin side by side. Saccharin was discovered in 1879 by Constantin Fahlberg, working in Ira Remsen's laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, who noticed a sweet taste on his hand one evening and traced it to the compound he had been working on that day. When the First World War made sugar hard to import, the British Saccharin Company was founded in 1917 at the Paragon Works near Accrington, Lancashire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏙️ Wellingborough\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eW'BORO' on the label is Wellingborough, a Northamptonshire market town whose charter King John granted on 3 April 1201. Its name comes from Wendelingburgh, \"Waendel's burh\", and five wells stand on its coat of arms. The town was famous for its waters in the seventeenth century. On 14 July 1627 Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, came with her physician Théodore de Mayerne to take them, and the county's old historians handed down the legend that the King and Queen lived in tents a whole season beside the iron-rich Red Well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLater Wellingborough lived on boots, shoes and iron, brewed its own beer and bottled its own mineral waters; a joint price notice of January 1916 carries four Wellingborough mineral water firms, F. Cooke Ltd., Campbell Praed \u0026amp; Co. Ltd., C. Cobley, and W. Dulley \u0026amp; Sons Ltd. In 1918 the town became the first constituency in southern England outside London to be represented by the Labour Party.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis label is becoming uncommon. Imagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room: the black fruit on green leaves stands out in a kitchen, a pantry or a café corner. My pictures seriously don't do it justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old is this Cooke's Blackcurrant Cordial label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts preservative and colours are printed as E220, E102 and E142, set out the way British ingredient panels had to be from mid-1986. It is a 1980s–1990s label, vintage and not antique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIs Green S (E142) allowed in the United States?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo. American food law does not permit it, and neither do Canada, Japan or Norway; Europe, Australia and New Zealand allow it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy is blackcurrant so popular in Britain?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCitrus was scarce in the Second World War, so the government encouraged blackcurrant growing for vitamin C, and from 1942 blackcurrant syrup was given free to children under two.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat does \"dilute to taste\" mean?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bottle held a concentrate. You poured a little into a glass and topped it up with water until it tasted right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat size is it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3 3\/4\" x 3\" ~.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-combo-labels-wellingborough-england-1940s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s-1990s Cooke's Combo Labels 🍹 Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-peppermint-cordial-label-wellingborough-england-1940s\"\u003eVintage Cooke's Peppermint Label 🌿 from 1980s-1990s England\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-1960s-coach-four-ginger-ale-soda-beverage-label-philadelphia-pa\"\u003eVintage 1960s Stage Coach and Four Ginger Ale Soda Beverage Label, Philadelphia, PA 🥤\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43494875824360,"sku":"VAG-7878729597160","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4081062979_qht1.jpg?v=1785357353"},{"product_id":"antique-vintage-cookes-peppermint-cordial-label-wellingborough-england-1940s","title":"Vintage Cooke's Peppermint Label 🌿 from 1980s-1990s England","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 3.75 x 3 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HrpIzVm1e0U\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌿 Peppermint Cordial: A Ha'penny Glass on a Cold London Morning\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA paper bottle label from Cooke's (W'boro') Ltd. of Wellingborough, England, for Peppermint Cordial: a spray of serrated green leaves with clusters of dusky pink flowers, a big brush-script \"Cooke's\" across the top and DILUTE TO TASTE beside the picture. Peppermint is one of the last survivors of the old English cordials, the syrupy home-made drinks once kept for invalids and special occasions, and in Victorian London it was sold on the street by the glass, a halfpenny a time, with black pepper or ginger steeped in it for extra bite. The label's own small print dates this one. Its preservative is listed as E210, a European additive number, which makes it a 1980s–1990s label. Vintage, not antique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt measures 3 3\/4\" x 3\" ~, printed on white paper with rounded corners. Along the bottom run 710ml on the left and 25 fl oz on the right (710 millilitres is 25 imperial fluid ounces), with the maker's line beneath: COOKE'S (W'BORO') LTD. WELLINGBOROUGH. The back is plain paper, the front printing faintly showing through in reverse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔎 What the Label Says\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe ingredients panel reads: water, sugar, citric acid, oil of peppermint, artificial sweetener-saccharin, preservative E210. No colour is listed and no flavouring: the taste is the oil of the plant itself, in a syrup of sugar and saccharin sharpened with citric acid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧪 How the Small Print Dates It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eE numbers are codes from a single European list of approved food additives. The list was first agreed for food colourings in 1962, and preservatives were added in 1964; the E stands for Europe. E210 is benzoic acid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn England and Wales the Food Labelling Regulations 1984 (SI 1984\/1305) came into operation on 19 September 1984, with a schedule of additive categories to be named in a list of ingredients and a schedule of serial numbers for additives. On 20 November 1984 the government gave the House of Commons its deadline: all additives, except flavourings, which present special labelling problems, had to be identified by name or serial number in the ingredients list on prepackaged foods by 1 July 1986. The Cooke's panel follows that pattern, a category word followed by the specifics: \"preservative E210\" and \"artificial sweetener-saccharin\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBenzoic acid itself is an old discovery. Its preparation by the dry distillation of gum benzoin was first described by Nostradamus in 1556. It occurs naturally in most berries, and cranberries and bilberries carry more of it than most. Benzoates are used to preserve acidic drinks and foods, from citrus juices and soft drinks to pickles, and this cordial is an acidic one, with citric acid third on its list.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🥃 The Old English Cordial\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCordials began in the home. In Tudor times there was \"water imperial\", a sweetened drink that seems to have held cream of tartar and lemons, and a sweetened cordial for invalids called Manays Cryste, flavoured with rosewater, violets or cinnamon. Cordials of that age were highly flavoured, syrupy, as thick as a liqueur, made to tempt an invalid's palate or brought out on special occasions, and sometimes stronger than they looked; they could, if you wished, be diluted to taste. The commercial cordials that carried that tradition into the modern shop are the essence-based ones, and peppermint, ginger and clove are the survivors. The words DILUTE TO TASTE on this label are that old instruction, printed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎩 Pepperminters: Mayhew's Street Sellers\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1851 London Labour and the London Poor, the journalist Henry Mayhew counted the capital's street sellers of peppermint-water, the \"pepperminters\". By his day they no longer distilled their own mint. They bought the distilled water from a chemist, stretched it with more water, and to give it heat steeped unground black pepper, or ginger, or now and then capsicums in it. Their public cry was \"Pep-permint water, a halfpenny a glass\", while to their customers they praised it as \"an excellent stomachic\". There were six sellers in winter and three in summer, some of them working only at night in the street markets. A quart from the chemist cost a shilling and sold for about two shillings in halfpenny glasses, and by Mayhew's reckoning some 900 gallons a year went down London throats. At Billingsgate he heard the hawkers cry \"Glass of nice peppermint, this cold morning a ha'penny a glass!\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌱 Mitcham Mint\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOil of peppermint was once an English crop. Peppermint was being farmed at Mitcham in Surrey by the middle of the eighteenth century, and the Mitcham growers made the place famous. James Moore farmed 543 acres there and ran five coal-fired copper stills beside a drying house. At harvest in July and August the plants were packed into wooden stills and trampled down by foot, and steam carried the oil off to be caught and sold in tin cans. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 Mitcham's oil was judged the best on show. By 1875 growers were turning their fields over to cereals and vegetables, and in the end cheap imported oils from France, Holland and Japan, and man-made drugs replacing the old remedies, finished the trade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍬 Sugar and Saccharin\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe label lists sugar and saccharin together. Saccharin was discovered in 1879 by Constantin Fahlberg, working in Ira Remsen's laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, who noticed a sweet taste on his hand one evening and traced it to the compound he had been working on that day; he patented it, and commercial production had begun in Germany by 1886. Britain came to it through war. With sugar hard to import from the West Indies during the First World War, the British Saccharin Company was founded in 1917 at the Paragon Works near Accrington, Lancashire, and made saccharin there until 1926. In the United States, rat studies led to a warning label in 1977; it was dropped in 2000, when research showed the effect was peculiar to rats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏙️ Wellingborough: The Well Town\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCooke's squeezed its town into its company name as W'BORO'. Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, received a market charter from King John on 3 April 1201, with a Wednesday market and, in time, three annual fairs. Its name comes from Wendelingburgh, \"Waendel's burh\", and five wells stand on its coat of arms. Cheese-making there goes back to the thirteenth century and once made its St Luke's Day cheese fair famous, and lace-making thrived there until machine-made lace killed it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe wells made it a resort in the seventeenth century. The Duchess of Buckingham came to drink the waters about 1624, and three years later Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria received the Mantuan ambassador in the town. The legend of the Red Well, as the county historians Morton in 1712 and Cole in 1837 told it, is that the King and Queen lived in tents a whole season on the hillside to drink the iron-rich water pure at its source. The well later served as a stone trough for horses, and the council restored it in 2011.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBy the twentieth century Wellingborough lived on boots and shoes and ironworks, and on its own drinks trade. In January 1916 eight mineral water makers from Kettering, Rushden and Wellingborough jointly raised their prices against wartime \"costs of materials, labour and transport\"; four were Wellingborough firms, F. Cooke Ltd., Campbell Praed \u0026amp; Co. Ltd., C. Cobley, and W. Dulley \u0026amp; Sons Ltd. Midland Road station, opened in 1857, is still in use.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis label is becoming uncommon. Imagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room: the green leaves and pink flowers suit a kitchen, a pantry, a bar or a café corner. My pictures seriously don't do it justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old is this Cooke's Peppermint Cordial label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts preservative is printed as E210, set out the way British ingredient panels had to be from mid-1986. It is a 1980s–1990s label, vintage rather than antique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat is peppermint cordial?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA sweet peppermint syrup made to be diluted with water. It descends from the home-made cordials of Tudor England, and Victorian street sellers sold peppermint water by the halfpenny glass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat is E210?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenzoic acid, a preservative that also occurs naturally in berries such as cranberries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere was Cooke's based?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. The label is signed COOKE'S (W'BORO') LTD. WELLINGBOROUGH.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat size is it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3 3\/4\" x 3\" ~.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-blackcurrant-cordial-label-wellingborough-england\"\u003eVintage Cooke's Blackcurrant Cordial Label 🫐 from 1980s-1990s England\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-combo-labels-wellingborough-england-1940s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1980s-1990s Cooke's Combo Labels 🍹 Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-lemon-barley-water-label-wellingborough-england-1940s\"\u003eVintage Cooke's 1980s-1990s Lemon Barley Water Label 🍋\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43494955253992,"sku":"VAG-7878735921384","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4033457930_ah31.jpg?v=1785357362"},{"product_id":"antique-vintage-cookes-combo-labels-wellingborough-england-1940s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s-1990s Cooke's Combo Labels 🍹 Collectible","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 3.75 x 3 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7xi2x-rz-ZY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍹 Dilute to Taste: Three English Cordial Labels That Date Themselves\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThree bottle labels from Cooke's (W'boro') Ltd. of Wellingborough, England: Peppermint Cordial, Lemon \u0026amp; Barley Water and Blackcurrant Cordial, each with a painted-style picture of its herb or fruit, a big brush-script \"Cooke's\" across the top and DILUTE TO TASTE beside the picture. Read the small print and the labels tell you when they were printed. Every additive is declared by its European E number: preservatives E210, E220 and E221, and on the blackcurrant, colours E102 and E142. These are 1980s–1990s labels from an English market town, and the blackcurrant one carries two things America kept out: a green food dye that is not approved in the United States, and a fruit whose farming the United States banned in the early 1900s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEach paper label measures 3 3\/4\" x 3\" ~, printed on white stock with rounded corners, marked 710ml and 25 fl oz, and signed along the bottom with the same maker's line: COOKE'S (W'BORO') LTD. WELLINGBOROUGH. The backs are blank.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔎 What Each Label Says\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePeppermint Cordial.\u003c\/strong\u003e A spray of serrated green leaves with clusters of dusky pink flowers. The ingredients: water, sugar, citric acid, oil of peppermint, artificial sweetener (saccharin), preservative E210.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLemon \u0026amp; Barley Water.\u003c\/strong\u003e A glistening wedge of lemon crossed by two golden ears of grain. The ingredients: water, sugar, lemon juice, citric acid, barley flour, flavouring, artificial sweetener (saccharin), preservatives E221 and E220.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBlackcurrant Cordial.\u003c\/strong\u003e A cluster of glossy blackcurrants on green leaves. The ingredients: water, sugar, blackcurrant juice, citric acid, flavouring, saccharin as the sweetener, preservative E220, colours E102 and E142.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧪 How the Small Print Dates Them\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eE numbers began as a single European list of approved food additives. It was first agreed for food colourings in 1962, preservatives followed in 1964, antioxidants in 1970, and emulsifiers, stabilisers and thickeners in 1974; the E stands for Europe. In Britain the Food Labelling Regulations 1984 set out how additives had to be named in an ingredients list, with a schedule of serial numbers for them, and Cooke's labels list theirs exactly that way, number by number.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe numbers make a small tour of the additive list. E210 is benzoic acid, E220 sulphur dioxide and E221 sodium sulphite, all preservatives. E102 is tartrazine, a synthetic lemon-yellow dye discovered in 1890 by the Swiss chemist Johann Heinrich Ziegler in Basel. E142 is Green S, a synthetic green dye used in mint sauce, desserts, gravy granules, sweets, ice cream and tinned peas, and not approved in the United States, Canada, Japan or Norway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTartrazine is one of the food colours said to cause food intolerance and hyperactive behaviour in children, though the evidence for it is weak. A 2007 study commissioned by the UK Food Standards Agency, known as the Southampton study, found a possible link between a mix of six artificial colours, tartrazine among them, plus the preservative sodium benzoate, and increased hyperactivity in children. Since 2010 the European Union has required foods containing it to carry the warning \"May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.\" The blackcurrant label's plain \"COLOUR E102\" comes from before all that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🫐 Blackcurrant: Britain's Wartime Fruit, America's Banned One\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlackcurrant has a lasting popularity as a flavour in Britain, and it became much less common in the United States. The reason is history. During the Second World War, with German submarines sinking cargo ships, oranges and other fruits rich in vitamin C became almost impossible to get in Britain, and the government encouraged the growing of blackcurrants. Under the Vitamin Welfare Scheme, launched in December 1941, blackcurrant syrup was given free to children under two from 1942. The best-known blackcurrant drink, Ribena, had been developed by Vernon Charley and Audrey Green, with research at the Long Ashton station near Bristol, and was introduced in 1938 by H. W. Carter \u0026amp; Co; its name comes from the botanical name for blackcurrant, \u003cem\u003eRibes nigrum\u003c\/em\u003e. The story often told is that those wartime spoonfuls are the root of the flavour's hold on the British.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmerica went the other way. Currants are one of the two hosts white pine blister rust needs to complete its life cycle, the other being white pines, and in the early 1900s currant farming was banned as a threat to the logging industry. The federal ban passed to the individual states in 1966, and New York lifted its ban only in 2003, through the efforts of Greg Quinn, a horticulturist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌾 Lemon \u0026amp; Barley Water: Kings and Tennis\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBarley water was a drink from the domestic kitchen long before anyone bottled it: pearl barley and water, known at least as early as 1320. The seventeenth-century writer Thomas Fuller called it \"an invention which found out itself\", and the diarist Fanny Burney reported that George III refreshed himself with barley water as he rode home from a hard day's hunting, though his courtiers did not share his enthusiasm. The bottled lemon version belongs to Robinsons, a company founded in 1823 that made Patent Barley. In 1930 Eric Smedley Hodgson combined its barley crystals with real lemon juice and sugar, and lemon barley water was marketed alongside the Wimbledon tennis championships from 1935 until that sponsorship ended in 2022.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌿 Peppermint Cordial: A Victorian Street Cry\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBefore cordials came in factory bottles they were home-made: highly flavoured, syrupy drinks with the body of a liqueur, meant to tempt an invalid or brought out on special occasions, and, if desired, diluted to taste. In Tudor times a sweetened cordial for invalids was flavoured with rosewater, violets or cinnamon. Peppermint is one of the few that lived on commercially as an essence-based cordial, and in Victorian London the journalist Henry Mayhew heard the hawkers at Billingsgate crying \"Glass of nice peppermint, this cold morning a ha'penny a glass!\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🥤 A Very British Bottle\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSquash, often called cordial in British English, is a concentrate made to be mixed with water, commonly one part to four or five, and it is popular in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth but not widely drunk in the United States. Concentrated lemon squash was introduced into Britain just before the First World War. The Second World War changed the drink again: wartime conditions gave concentrated drinks a push that carried on into peacetime, and blackcurrant drinks made the most of home-grown vitamin C. A 710ml bottle marked DILUTE TO TASTE belongs to that tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏙️ Wellingborough: The Well Town\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCooke's shortened its town to W'BORO' in its own company name. Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, received its market charter from King John in 1201, and its coat of arms carries five wells. The name was written Wendlesberie in the eleventh century and means Waendel's fortification, but it was the wells that made the town famous. Its waters were fashionable by about 1624, when the Duchess of Buckingham came to drink them. Three years later Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria received the Mantuan ambassador there, and the Queen seems to have come again in 1628. The legend, as an 1837 writer told it, is that the King and Queen lived in tents a whole season to drink the water of the Red Well pure at its source. By that 1837 telling, the well had become a stone watering trough for horses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe town grew on boots and shoes and on iron. James Rixon and William Ashwell opened a major ironworks there in 1870, supplied by ironstone quarries around Finedon, and Midland Road railway station, opened in 1857, is still in use. In the second half of the twentieth century Wellingborough grew fast as a new home for families moving out of London, and by 2021 it counted 56,564 people.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese labels are becoming uncommon. Imagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room: the three pictures, lemon yellow, blackcurrant black and peppermint green, make a natural row in a kitchen, a café corner or a bar. My pictures seriously don't do them justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old are these Cooke's labels?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey list their additives by E number, colours E102 and E142 and preservatives E210, E220 and E221, in the form British ingredient lists took under the Food Labelling Regulations 1984. They are 1980s–1990s labels, vintage and not antique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho was Cooke's?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCooke's (W'boro') Ltd. was the Wellingborough firm whose name is printed along the foot of each label, bottling cordials and lemon and barley water in 710ml bottles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat is Green S (E142)?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA synthetic coal-tar dye, permitted in the European Union. On this label it colours the blackcurrant cordial together with tartrazine, E102.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat does \"dilute to taste\" mean?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe drink in the bottle was a concentrate. You poured a little into a glass and topped it up with water until it tasted right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat size are the labels?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach is 3 3\/4\" x 3\" ~.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-blackcurrant-cordial-label-wellingborough-england\"\u003eVintage Cooke's Blackcurrant Cordial Label 🫐 from 1980s-1990s England\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-peppermint-cordial-label-wellingborough-england-1940s\"\u003eVintage Cooke's Peppermint Label 🌿 from 1980s-1990s England\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-lemon-barley-water-label-wellingborough-england-1940s\"\u003eVintage Cooke's 1980s-1990s Lemon Barley Water Label 🍋\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43494971048168,"sku":"VAG-7878739493096","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4033478828_1xgs.jpg?v=1785357372"},{"product_id":"antique-vintage-keana-rose-flavored-syrup-label-london-england-1970s-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s London Keana Rose Syrup Label 🌹 Collectible","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 4.5 x 3.5 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VOrUo1YG_js\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌹 A Rose From Blackstock Road\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis label never made it onto a bottle. Printed for \u003cstrong\u003eKeana Rose Flavoured Syrup\u003c\/strong\u003e by Keana Co. of 116 Blackstock Road, London N4, it carries one of the boldest roses ever put on a grocery label: a coral-red bloom in a black oval that jumps off a chartreuse and lavender ground. The artwork has since been copied onto poster prints sold as wall decor. This is an original printed label, unused, 4 1\/2\" x 3 1\/2\" ~.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat Is Printed on It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA tall paper label printed in full color. Across the top in dark green is \u003cstrong\u003eKEANA®\u003c\/strong\u003e, with \u003cstrong\u003eROSE FLAVOURED SYRUP\u003c\/strong\u003e curving beneath it. In the center a coral-red rose with green leaves sits on a black ground, framed by a twisting brown vine with orange highlights that wraps the whole label and sprouts leaves at the corners. The lower half turns lavender. On the left: \u003cstrong\u003eCONTENTS 720 ml ℮\u003c\/strong\u003e. On the right: \u003cstrong\u003eBEST BEFORE END\u003c\/strong\u003e, with no date filled in. Along the bottom:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIngredients: Sugar, Water, Flavour, Malic Acid, Stabiliser (E466), Preservative (E211), Colours (E122, E142).\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small red rosebud sits in the lower right corner, and the last line reads \u003cstrong\u003eKEANA CO. 116 BLACKSTOCK ROAD, LONDON N4\u003c\/strong\u003e. The back is blank.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eReading the Fine Print Like a Date Stamp\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery line of small print on this label is there because a law asked for it, and those laws date it. Until 1980 British law did not require food to carry any date at all. The Food Labelling Regulations 1980 brought UK law into line with the 1979 EC labelling directive, 79\/112\/EEC, which required a date of minimum durability: the best-before date. The ingredient list names each additive by its job and its E number, Stabiliser (E466), Preservative (E211), Colours (E122, E142), the category-and-number format set out in the schedules of the Food Labelling Regulations 1984, which came into operation on 19 September 1984. The little ℮ beside 720 ml is the European estimated sign, from EEC directives of 1974 and 1976, which lets a pack be sold across member states without re-checking its fill. A label carrying all three was printed in the 1980s or later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eE122, E211 and the Southampton Six\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo ingredients on this little rose label had a future nobody saw coming. E122 is carmoisine, a red azo food colour, and E211 is the preservative sodium benzoate. In September 2007 The Lancet published a study from the University of Southampton, by Jim Stevenson, Donna McCann, Edmund Sonuga-Barke and John Warner, which found that mixtures of six artificial colours, carmoisine among them, together with sodium benzoate, were linked to increased hyperactivity in some children. On 10 April 2008 the Food Standards Agency recommended to ministers that the six colours be phased out of food and drink and asked manufacturers to remove them voluntarily. The study led to a warning label: from 20 July 2010, food and drink still containing any of the \"Southampton six\" had to say the colour may have effects on activity and attention in children. Carmoisine is listed as banned in the United States, Canada, Japan and Norway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eBlackstock Road, London N4\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKeana Co. gave its address as 116 Blackstock Road. The road runs from Seven Sisters Road south-west to Highbury in north London, near Finsbury Park and Arsenal stations. It began as a dirt track called Boarded River Lane, after a 462-foot wooden aqueduct that carried the New River over the shallow valley of Highbury Vale and Hackney Brook; the New River was put into a pipeline alongside Green Lanes in 1866. At the Peace News offices on the road in 1958, artist Gerald Holtom first unveiled his symbol for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The northern end, full of Algerian cafés, is known as Little Algiers, and in November 2025 Time Out named Blackstock Road among the coolest streets in Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Rose in the Glass: The Lore of an Old Drink\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRose syrup is a far older idea than any London label. Rose water most likely began in Persia, where it is called golab, from gol, rose, and ab, water. Legend gives the credit for distilling it to Ibn Sina, the Bukharan-born physician known in the West as Avicenna, who lived from 980 to 1037 and worked out how to use the still to draw the essence out of flower petals. Add sugar to rose water and you have rose syrup. Sharbat, the sweet syrup drinks of Persia seasoned with roses, sandalwood and hibiscus, are first mentioned in a 12th-century Persian medical encyclopedia, the Zakhireye Khwarazmshahi. Rose still flavors laddu, gulab jamun and peda in South Asia, Turkish delight and baklava in the Middle East, and a red rose cordial called sirap mawar in Southeast Asia, and Iran today supplies around 90 percent of the world's rose water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA Label Worth Framing\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat rose has been reproduced as poster art, but posters are copies. This is the kind of original label they were made from, printed to go on a real bottle of rose syrup sold out of north London, and never used. They aren't making any more of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eQuestions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old is the Keana Rose Flavoured Syrup label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt dates to the 1980s or later. Its BEST BEFORE END line and its E-number ingredient list follow British food labelling law first brought in during 1980 and 1984.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat is E122?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCarmoisine, a red food colour and one of the six colours in the 2007 Southampton hyperactivity study.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere was Keana Co.?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 116 Blackstock Road, London N4, between Finsbury Park and Highbury.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow big is the label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFour and a half inches tall by three and a half wide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHas it been used?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo. It was never put on a bottle, and the back is clean and blank.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow much syrup did the bottle hold?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e720 ml, as printed on the label.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-cookes-blackcurrant-cordial-label-wellingborough-england\"\u003eVintage Cooke's Blackcurrant Cordial Label 🫐 from 1980s-1990s England\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-1930s-dixie-home-peanut-butter-label-greenville-sc-winn-dixie\"\u003eAntique Dixie Home Peanut Butter Label 🥜 from the 1930s\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1910s-new-england-vermont-maple-sap-syrup-label-boston-ma\"\u003eAntique 1910s 🍁 New England Vermont Maple Sap Syrup Label NOS Boston MA\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43495548649704,"sku":"VAG-7878898942184","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4033822116_sqy1.jpg?v=1785357396"},{"product_id":"vintage-fantasia-crate-label-fresno-ca-1960s-dancer-treasures-antique-gifts","title":"Vintage Fantasia Brand Fruit Crate Label 💃 — 1980s Tri-Boro Fruit Co. Fresno California, Flamenco Dancer Pinup Art","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W6dMuNUSz0Y\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 11.75 x 4 inches\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e💃 A Risqué Dancer, a Fresno Grape House, and a Family That Started Over\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe stretches one ankle-strapped red heel across the top of the word FANTASIA and leans back as if the grape box were a stage. That was the whole job of this label: stop a produce buyer on a busy wholesale floor long enough to remember a brand. Behind the pinup glamour sits a better story than most crate labels carry — a Fresno fruit house that took its name from a New York landmark, built by an Italian-American family that lost a macaroni factory to fire and started over on grapes bought off the railcars.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏷️ What Is Printed on It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA long, narrow lithographed paper label on a deep navy ground. A dark-haired dancer in a fitted flame-red dress, her skirts flounced in red and yellow, reclines across the upper left with a red rose at her ear and a pale green fan-shaped ornament in her hair. \"California Quality Fruits\" runs across the top in yellow capitals; FANTASIA sweeps through the center in huge cream letters edged in red; \"Produce of U.S.A.\" sits in red at the left; and the lower right carries the packer's line, \"Packed by Tri-Boro Fruit Co., Inc., Fresno, Calif. 93725.\" The back is blank paper, with the front printing showing softly through in mirror image — what a label looks like when it was never pasted to a box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌉 Why a Fresno Company Is Named for a New York Bridge\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Tri-Boro\" is the Triborough Bridge, the complex of spans that joins Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens across the East River. Work on it began in October 1929, just as the stock market crashed, and it opened to traffic on July 11, 1936. New Yorkers still call it the Triborough, even though it was officially renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Fazio family story, as the produce trade tells it, goes like this. The family were Italian immigrants in New York City, where the father ran a macaroni factory. In the early 1930s the factory burned down. To survive, he began buying grapes from the rail operations and selling them, and to secure a steady supply he sent his son Chris to Fresno. There the family founded Tri-Boro Fruit Company — carrying the name of a New York landmark clear across the continent and into the vineyards of the San Joaquin Valley.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e👨‍👩‍👦 The People: Chris Fazio and Four Generations of Grapes\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDomenico \"Chris\" Fazio was born in New York on August 20, 1918, the youngest of nine children of Italian immigrant parents. Along with his father and brothers he helped lead the family to California, where they founded Tri-Boro Fruit Company, growing, packing and shipping wine and table grapes and dehydrating raisins. Chris spent his working life in the fresh fruit business and served on the board of the California Fresh Fruit Association until he retired in 1995. He died in Fresno on December 21, 2014, at the age of 96, survived by his children Don, Joe and Ann.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1984 Don Fazio and his son Tony formed Fazio Marketing, with Tri-Boro Fruit Co. as its sister company — a full-service grower, packer and shipper of California table and wine grapes. The trade press counts the family's grape business at four generations, and business directories still list Tri-Boro at 2500 S. Fowler Avenue in Fresno, inside the very ZIP code printed on this label.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍇 Grapes Off the Railcars: How Prohibition Built the Trade\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA New York immigrant buying California grapes off the rail lines in the early 1930s was not a quirk of one family. It was one of the strangest trades in American history. Prohibition outlawed the sale of wine, but it let a head of household buy wine grapes and make up to 200 gallons of wine a year at home. Immigrant families in the eastern cities, Italian-American households above all, kept their winemaking tradition alive that way, and at every harvest thousands of carloads of red wine grapes rolled east from California on the railroads.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia growers answered by planting more vineyard, and the home-wine grape trade changed the state's farm country — more acreage, more packing sheds, more shippers in the valley towns. Repeal came in December 1933, but the rail link between California vineyards and eastern kitchens did not vanish, and it is the same link that sent a New York macaroni maker's son to Fresno to stand at the source of the fruit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌹 The Lore of the Señorita on the Box\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCalifornia fruit was never sold on flavor alone. It was sold on a dream of California itself. In the mid-1940s the journalist Carey McWilliams gave that dream a name: the \"Spanish Fantasy Heritage,\" a sunny, romanticized legend of old California, of gallant dons and rose-crowned señoritas, that had very little to do with how people had actually lived. Historians count orange and fruit crate labels among the places that myth lived most publicly, shipped on the ends of boxes to grocers from coast to coast.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA flamenco-styled dancer in a red dress, a rose tucked at her ear, lounging above a brand called Fantasia, sits squarely in that tradition. By the time this sheet was printed, the fantasy had long outlived the missions-and-mantillas boosterism that spawned it — and it was still doing its old job, catching an eye on a stack of California grapes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📅 How Old Is This Label?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe label sets its own lower limit. The packer's line carries a five-digit ZIP code, and the Post Office Department introduced ZIP codes on July 1, 1963, so this printing cannot be older than that. It is a 1980s printing, and the same 4 x 11.75 inch Tri-Boro Fantasia label turns up in crate-label dealers' stock described as printed in the 1980s, unused, out of a warehouse find. The Fantasia brand has a place in a public collection as well: the California Museum in Sacramento holds a Tri-Boro Fantasia label with a dancing woman and a basket of fruit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe museum's catalogue puts that one around the 1950s, and there is an older, bigger Tri-Boro Fantasia too, 5.25 x 13 inches with a woman kicking her leg up, that a label dealer also puts in the 1950s. The name itself was on the federal trademark register by 1958, when a firm called C. \u0026amp; R. Fazio of Del Rey, down in Fresno County, registered FANTASIA for fresh fruits, and Tri-Boro Fruit Co. registered the name in 1984. So Fantasia was already on California fruit back in the 1950s. The ZIP code in the corner puts this one no earlier than the summer of 1963, a later label than those early Fantasias.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📦 Why It Was Never Used\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePacking houses bought labels as inventory, in string-tied bundles of a thousand, and a bundle took up almost no room. Leftovers went into a label room or a corner of the warehouse and stayed there; as one veteran label dealer puts it, some packing houses were poor housekeepers. Nearly every unused crate label on the market today came out of finds like that, anywhere from a thousand to tens of thousands of sheets at a time. A few people began gathering labels in the 1960s, and crate labels have since become a recognized field of American commercial art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔍 Condition\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnused and never pasted. The navy is deep, the reds and yellows strong and the cream lettering crisp, and the blank reverse shows only the soft mirror-image show-through of the front. Offered as pictured.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Living With It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e💃 A slim frame suits the long panel shape — a natural for a bar, a den or a dressing room.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🍇 Pair it with other San Joaquin Valley grape labels for a wall of California farm history.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🌉 A gift with a real thread for anyone with Italian-American New York roots, or anyone who grew up around Fresno.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🌈 The cream and red figure reads well against white walls and dark paint alike.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWho packed fruit under the Fantasia brand?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTri-Boro Fruit Co., Inc. of Fresno, California, the Fazio family's grape growing, packing and shipping company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy is a California fruit company called Tri-Boro?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is named after New York's Triborough Bridge. The Fazios lived in New York City before the family founded the company in Fresno.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIs this label a reproduction?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo. It is an original lithographed label from packing-house stock that was never applied to a box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat fruit went in the box?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe label itself reads \"California Quality Fruits,\" a general line. Tri-Boro's business was grapes, table and wine, along with raisins.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIs Tri-Boro Fruit Co. still around?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBusiness directories still list Tri-Boro Fruit Co. on South Fowler Avenue in Fresno, alongside its sister company Fazio Marketing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow big is it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e11.75 x 4 inches.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-polar-bird-crate-label-reedley-ca-1950s-penguin-artic-decor\"\u003eVintage Polar Bird Brand Penguin Lithograph Crate Label Royal Valley Fruit Growers Reedley California A. Carlisle Co. 🐧\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-1950s-royal-blush-flush-crate-label-fresno-ca-poker-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1950s Royal Blush Brand Crate Label 🂡 — Anthony Abbate Fruit Distributors, Fresno CA — Schmidt Litho, Poker Art\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-vintage-1950s-liberty-bell-crate-label-fresno-modesto-ca-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1950s Liberty Bell Brand 🔔 Crate Label C. \u0026amp; A. Emerzian Growers Fresno \u0026amp; Modesto California Grapes\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43627077828840,"sku":"VAG-7912409628904","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4057214986_n136.jpg?v=1785357598"},{"product_id":"vintage-bendable-poseable-skeleton-figure-halloween-toy","title":"Vintage Bendable Skeleton Figure 🦴 Poseable Halloween Toy Bendy Skeleton, 1980s-1990s","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Og0a-MVr_ak\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e5 1\/2\" x 4 1\/4\" ~\u003c\/strong\u003e hand-sized, and he stands up on his own two feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🦴 Seven of these fought Jason in 1963, and it took four and a half months to film\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNot this one — mine is a dime-store toy and nobody's name is on it. But the trick inside it is the same trick, and that is the thing I love about these. Bend an arm, bend a leg, stand him up in a new pose and he stays exactly where you put him. Something soft over something that holds a bend. That is a bendy toy, and it is also, in principle, a stop-motion armature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Ray Harryhausen shot the skeleton fight in \u003cem\u003eJason and the Argonauts\u003c\/em\u003e, he had three actors going against seven skeletons, each one with five limbs to move in every single frame — at least thirty-five separate adjustments, by hand, before he could click the shutter once. Some days he got thirteen or fourteen frames. Under a second of finished film in a day's work. Four and a half months for a sequence that runs about three minutes, and it is still the scene every stop-motion animator points at. Those skeletons were eight to ten inches tall, built on thin metal armatures with latex and cotton wool worked over the bones.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMine is five and a half inches and cost somebody pocket change. Same idea, bottom shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e💀 What you are actually getting\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA small moulded plastic skeleton, bone white, with a grey wash brushed down into the ribs, the spine and the pelvis so the detail actually reads instead of going flat.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBlack paint in the eye sockets and the nose. The skull has a moulded suture line across the crown and a full set of upper and lower teeth.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFive separate fingers on each hand, not a mitten. And the feet — huge, flat, paddle-shaped things with the toes and the metatarsals moulded right in. That is the joke of the sculpt: anatomically fussy from the neck up, cartoon from the ankles down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHe bends and he holds it. Look at my three pictures — that is the same figure three times, arms crossed, hands up, then both arms overhead with a leg forward. He went wherever I put him and stayed there.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew old stock. Never played with, never hung on a string, never left too close to a candle.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnd here is the honest bit: there is not one mark on him.\u003c\/strong\u003e No maker, no brand, no copyright line, no patent number, no country. I went over the shins, the back of the pelvis, the feet and the back of the skull at magnification — the usual places a factory hides a mark — and there is nothing there. What looks like tiny lettering on the shin is the sculpt of the tibia and fibula catching a shadow. So who made him is anybody's guess.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔧 Something soft over something that bends\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe bendy toy is one of those quietly clever bits of engineering that nobody thinks about. A wire armature gets buried inside the rubber or the PVC, and that is the whole product — the wire does the holding, the soft skin does the looking. Earlier ones were foam latex over bendable wire, which is why so many of the old ones have gone hard and crumbly in a box somewhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe category has been running for sixty-odd years. Lakeside Industries was turning out bendies in the 1960s — collectors list a Gallant Yank soldier in 1966 and a Popeye in 1967. Bendy Toys over in Britain did the Muppets in 1977 and 1978 and Sesame Street through the 1980s. Just Toys made Bend-Ems the shorthand for the whole idea in the 1990s, and the name is still going. And underneath every one of those licensed, named, blister-carded figures there was an ocean of unbranded ones — skeletons, monsters, aliens, spiders — sold loose out of a bin near the register with no card, no name and nobody's copyright on them. This little guy is one of those. Nobody was ever going to research him, which is exactly why I am doing it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎃 Why a plastic skeleton is a big deal to a certain kind of kid\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBefore the twelve-foot yard skeletons and the animatronics, Halloween decorating meant a rack of rubbery little monsters near the register and whatever you could talk a parent into. A skeleton was the pick of the litter, because a skeleton could \u003cem\u003edo\u003c\/em\u003e things — get posed climbing a bookshelf, get stood on the windowsill facing out so the mail carrier got a jump, get tucked into a lunchbox to be found at school.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd then something happened that turned a small posed skeleton into a thing a whole generation went looking for on purpose. Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo made \u003cem\u003eI Spy Spooky Night\u003c\/em\u003e for Scholastic, and Wick built the whole book around a photographed toy skeleton — a trickster who beckons you room to room and turns up somewhere on every single page. Wick bought two Newport dollhouse sets to build those rooms and rebuilt them both to suit. Scholastic later put out an early reader called \u003cem\u003eI Spy A Skeleton\u003c\/em\u003e. Millions of kids spent their childhood hunting a little toy skeleton across a photograph. Mine is not that skeleton and carries no name at all — but if you grew up hunting one, I understand completely why this one stops you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🕯️ The lore\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCollectors of this era's Halloween odds and ends tell it that the little bendy skeletons were more often \u003cem\u003ewon\u003c\/em\u003e than bought — grab-bag prizes at a school carnival, party favors at a Halloween birthday, the thing the one good neighbour dropped in your bag instead of another fun-size candy bar. That is the story handed down, and it is why almost nobody remembers where theirs came from.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhich is also why the packaging never survives. Nobody keeps a card off a two-for-a-quarter toy. Grown adults go looking for \"that little bendy skeleton I had\" with no name to type into a search box — only the size, the pose and the feel of it in a hand.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOld-timers in the novelty trade will tell you the bin by the register outsold the shelf every October, and that the unbranded stuff moved fastest because it cost the least. No catalogue was ever kept of any of it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions people ask me\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDoes he actually bend, or did you just pose him for the pictures?\u003c\/strong\u003e He bends. All three pictures are the same figure, moved. He holds whatever you set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAny marks on him at all?\u003c\/strong\u003e None. I looked hard, including at magnification.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy do these matter if nobody made a record of them?\u003c\/strong\u003e That is exactly why. The stuff that got catalogued takes care of itself. Nobody wrote a line about the cheap bin toy that half the country's kids owned, so if we do not keep it, it is gone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrab him while I have a few left. He will go out packed properly and quickly, and thank you for helping me keep this stuff from disappearing. 💀\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-bendable-poseable-dog-toy-figure-anime-promotional-item-1978-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1960s Bendable Poseable Dog Toy Figure 🧸 Anime Collectible Memorabilia\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/4-8-12-vintage-gumby-pokey-figurines-1970s-1980s-both-colors-highly\"\u003eVintage Gumby \u0026amp; Pokey Bendable Figures 🟢 Set of 5 or 4, 1970s-1980s Teal \u0026amp; Orange Plastic Toys, CHINA Mark Figurine\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/large-vintage-1960s-world-circus-tin-horn-noisemaker-clowns-animals-balloons\"\u003eVintage Large NOS 1960s World Circus Tin Horn Noisemaker 🧸 Litho Menagerie Toy\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43663124496616,"sku":"VAG-7922007277800","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4123841109_dyqk.jpg?v=1785357885"},{"product_id":"8-16-vintage-1980s-animals-on-a-swing-pencil-toppers","title":"Vintage 1980s Animals on a Swing Pencil Toppers 🎨 Set of 8 or 16","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zx-nAOHwWIA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 2 x 1.5 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e New old stock, never played with.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🐰 Little Riders\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach topper is built the same way: a hollow plastic socket that slips over a pencil, a ring or arch frame rising off it, and a tiny swing hung from the top with a small molded animal riding the seat. The riders in my photos include a kangaroo, a frog, a cat with whiskers, a turtle with its arms raised, a chick with its wings spread, a bird, a floppy-eared bunny, a hippo, a second pink cat and a monkey - frames in red, green, white and purple, swings in blue, pink and green. Pick a set of 8 or 16 and you get an assorted mix; and honestly that mix is half the fun of them for me.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎡 The Swingers Vending Card\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToppers built just like these - a ring or arch frame on a pencil socket, an animal riding a hanging swing - were sold for 25 cents out of vending machines under a header card that reads SWINGERS T.M. PENCIL TOPPERS, \"NEW-HOT EVERYBODY LIKES\" and \"COLLECT ALL 12 SWINGERS,\" numbered C-413 and marked copyright D.V.S. 1988, Made in Hong Kong. The card's own art shows a bear, a frog, a chick, a turtle and a bunny riding these same swings, and it's easy to believe these came off a card just like it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e✏️ The Eraser End\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese sit exactly where Hymen Lipman put the eraser. Lipman was born in Kingston, Jamaica on March 20, 1817, came to Philadelphia around 1829, and by 1840 had succeeded Samuel M. Stewart as the city's leading stationer. Three years later he founded the country's first envelope company, and on March 30, 1858 he patented a pencil with a rubber eraser fixed to the end - U.S. Patent 19,783. He sold that patent in 1862 to Joseph Reckendorfer for $100,000, a fortune at the time, and Reckendorfer sued the pencil maker Faber over it. In 1875 the Supreme Court ruled against him: joining a pencil to an eraser, the justices said, was just putting two known things together, nothing new about it. Lipman died in Philadelphia on November 4, 1893 - patent invalidated, but his idea very much still in use, right here on the end of these toppers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🍬 From Gumballs to Gashapon\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLittle vending prizes like these have a real lineage. Gum vending machines date back to 1888, and the first machines dispensing actual gumballs followed in 1907, probably from the Thomas Adams Gum Co. The Norris Manufacturing Company patented its own machine in 1923 and ran its chrome \"Master\" line through the 1930s, a penny or a nickel a turn. The Northwestern Corporation, which started out in 1909 making kitchen matches, put out its Model 33 in 1933, and its Models 60 and 80 are still sold today. In 1934 the Ford Gum and Machine Company of Akron, New York started placing gumball machines whose profits helped fund the Lions Club and Kiwanis International. Capsule toy vending grew straight out of that American gumball trade: in 1965 the machines were exported to Japan, where Ryuzo Shigeta - remembered today as the Grandfather of Gacha - set up the first one and wrapped every prize inside a plastic ball. Bandai has run its own capsule machines under the Gashapon name since 1977, and had sold about 3.711 billion of the little toys by March 2021. These pencil toppers are American vending stock rather than gashapon, but they're kin - the same small surprise for a coin that turned into a whole world of collecting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/4-8-12-vintage-gumby-pokey-figurines-1970s-1980s-both-colors-highly\"\u003eVintage Gumby \u0026amp; Pokey Bendable Figures 🟢 Set of 5 or 4, 1970s-1980s Teal \u0026amp; Orange Plastic Toys, CHINA Mark Figurine\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1993-fun-learn-coloring-book-50-pages-glimpse-into-past-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1993 Fun to Learn Coloring Book 🖍️ 50+ Pages of a Glimpse into the Past!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1993-first-word-book-coloring-glimpse-into-past-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1993 My First Word Book Coloring Book 🖍️ Glimpse into Past!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"8 assorted","offer_id":43666068111592,"sku":"VAG-7923191546088","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"16 assorted","offer_id":43666068144360,"sku":"VAG-7923191546088-2","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4078190272_dmnj.jpg?v=1785357894"},{"product_id":"1980s-5-10-vintage-tin-dinosaur-collectible-charms-colorful-treasures-antique","title":"Vintage Tin Dinosaur Charms 🦖 from the 1980s","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/00uh5wrNX8Q\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1.25 inches\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🦕 Tin Dinosaur Charms From the 1980s, and the Feud Behind the Names\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery animal on these little gold-tone charms comes with a story older than the charm. Three of them, the Pteranodon, the Stegosaurus and the Triceratops, were named by Othniel Charles Marsh of Yale's Peabody Museum, in the middle of the nastiest rivalry fossil hunting has ever seen. Marsh named Brontosaurus too, the long-necked giant a picture like the pink one brings to mind. The tyrannosaur got its name from Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1905. And the creature flying across the hot pink sky is not a dinosaur at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are 1980s tin dinosaur charms, still bright after more than 40 years. Each one is a round medallion with a fluted gold-tone rim, a printed picture of a prehistoric animal in the center, and a loop at the top threaded on a plastic cord. They are sold in assorted lots of 5 or 10: a lot of 5 comes with at least 3 different dinosaurs, and a lot of 10 with at least 4 different.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🔍 What Is on the Charms\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTyrannosaur:\u003c\/strong\u003e brown and yellow, standing upright on a rocky peak against an orange-red ground\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTriceratops:\u003c\/strong\u003e green head and horns with a speckled yellow back, head lowered, against a blue sky ruled with fine white horizon lines\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePteranodon:\u003c\/strong\u003e orange wings and a long beak, flying over the rocks on a hot pink ground\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLong-necked dinosaur:\u003c\/strong\u003e a pale sauropod with long neck and tail, on a hot pink ground\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eStegosaurus:\u003c\/strong\u003e green and cream with dark spots, a row of yellow back plates and a raised, spiked tail, on a blue-to-teal ground\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEvery design:\u003c\/strong\u003e the animal stands or flies above a heap of red, white and blue rocks\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eRim:\u003c\/strong\u003e gold-tone tin with a ring of radiating flutes, and a small hanging loop at the top\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBack:\u003c\/strong\u003e plain gold-tone metal with a small stamped mark\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCords:\u003c\/strong\u003e plastic, in yellow, blue and red in the photos\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.25 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe photos show five different designs. Lots are assorted, so the designs in yours will vary, and there may be more dinosaurs in the stock than the five shown here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🦖 The Animals and the Names\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePteranodon, 1876.\u003c\/strong\u003e Marsh named it from the Greek for \"wing\" and \"without tooth\", because it had no teeth, which was unheard of among flying reptiles known at the time. It is a pterosaur, part of a group closely related to dinosaurs but not dinosaurs themselves. Pteranodon soared over Late Cretaceous North America, over what is now Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota and Alabama, and the largest had wingspans of more than 20 feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStegosaurus, 1877.\u003c\/strong\u003e The name means \"roof lizard\". Marsh first pictured its plates lying flat along the back, overlapping like shingles on a roof. In fact it carried 17 to 22 upright plates and a tail with spikes two to three feet long, and the evidence says those spikes were used in real fights, against predators such as Allosaurus. It lived in the Late Jurassic, in what is now the western United States and Portugal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBrontosaurus, 1879.\u003c\/strong\u003e Marsh's \"thunder lizard\" came from a partial skeleton at Como Bluff, Wyoming. In 1903 Elmer Riggs decided it was too close to Apatosaurus, a name published earlier, and Brontosaurus became a synonym. The public never let go. Henry Fairfield Osborn kept the name alive at the American Museum of Natural History, and when the U.S. Postal Service printed Brontosaurus on its dinosaur stamps in 1989, critics objected and the Postal Service answered that the name was more familiar to the public. In 2015 a study by Emmanuel Tschopp, Octavio Mateus and Roger Benson brought Brontosaurus back as a genus of its own, though not every paleontologist agrees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTriceratops, 1889.\u003c\/strong\u003e \"Three-horned face.\" Two years earlier, a pair of brow horns on a piece of skull turned up near Denver, and Marsh named them Bison alticornis, taking them for a giant bison. Only when more digging uncovered the third horn on the nose did he see his mistake. Triceratops lived about 69 to 66 million years ago in western North America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTyrannosaurus rex, 1905.\u003c\/strong\u003e Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History, gave it the name \"tyrant lizard king\". It lived at the very end of the age of dinosaurs, about 69 to 66 million years ago, in western North America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e⚔️ The Bone Wars\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMarsh's great rival was Edward Drinker Cope of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and from 1877 to 1892 the two men raced each other across the American West for fossils. Marsh came out ahead on the count, with 80 new dinosaur species to Cope's 56. The fight was ugly. Cope once rebuilt the sea reptile Elasmosaurus with its head on the end of its tail, then tried to buy up every copy of the journal that printed it. Marsh secretly paid New Jersey marl pit operators to send new finds to him rather than to Cope. Both sides destroyed small or damaged fossils, or filled their digs back in with dirt and rock, so the other could not have them. Several of the most famous dinosaur names in the world came out of that feud, and some of them ended up on charms like these.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e📼 Dinosaurs in the 1980s\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDinosaurs were being redrawn in the decade these charms come from. The change had started with the Dinosaur Renaissance, set off by John Ostrom's 1964 discovery of Deinonychus. Robert Bakker gave the movement its name in an April 1975 Scientific American article, and his book The Dinosaur Heresies came out in 1986. Artists stopped drawing lizard-like animals dragging their tails and showed them in active poses with their tails lifted. In 1985 the CBS documentary Dinosaur! took those ideas to television audiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKids of the 1980s were also wearing their collections. In the middle of the decade, plastic bell charms clipped onto chain necklaces, belt loops and house keys became a playground craze, and the trading grew so intense, and so noisy, that some schools banned them. Tin dinosaur charms on bright plastic cords are a piece of that charm-happy decade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🎁 Who Wants These\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🦕 \u003cstrong\u003eDinosaur lovers of any age:\u003c\/strong\u003e five famous prehistoric animals in bright colors\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🎒 \u003cstrong\u003e1980s kids:\u003c\/strong\u003e the cords, the colors and the charm habit of the decade\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e✂️ \u003cstrong\u003eCrafters and jewelry makers:\u003c\/strong\u003e small medallions with a loop, ready for a chain, bracelet, keyring or zipper pull\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🎉 \u003cstrong\u003eParty favors and small gifts:\u003c\/strong\u003e a lot of 10 goes a long way at a dinosaur birthday\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🖼️ \u003cstrong\u003eShadow box display:\u003c\/strong\u003e a row of different designs makes a cheerful little prehistoric lineup\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow many charms come in a lot?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou can buy 5 or 10. Lots are assorted: 5 charms include at least 3 different dinosaurs, and 10 charms include at least 4 different.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhich dinosaurs are there?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe designs photographed are a tyrannosaur, a triceratops, a pteranodon, a long-necked dinosaur and a stegosaurus. The mix in any lot varies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow big are they?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.25 inches.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat are they made of?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA gold-tone tin rim with a printed picture in the center, hung on a plastic cord.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIs a Pteranodon a dinosaur?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo. It is a pterosaur, a flying reptile closely related to dinosaurs, and these charms put it right in the lineup with them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old are they?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey are from the 1980s, more than 40 years old, and still bright.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-all-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin WOW The Memories! 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-california-raisins-pinback-button-set-all-9\"\u003eVintage 1980s California Raisins Complete Set All 9 Tin Pins 📌\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-dancing-california-raisin-tin-pin-wow-memories-treasures-antique\"\u003eVintage 1980s Dancing California Raisin Tin Pin 📌 WOW The Memories!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"5 assorted","offer_id":43666547572968,"sku":"VAG-7923428851944","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"10 assorted","offer_id":43666547605736,"sku":"VAG-7923428851944-2","price":10.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4126465809_phq9.jpg?v=1785357913"},{"product_id":"10-20-vintage-ninja-charms-1980s-bright-colorful","title":"Vintage Ninja Charms 🥷 Collectible 1980s Toys","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UBK4Oxx-Gjk\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 3\" long with chain and 1 1\/2\" in diameter ~\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🥷 Ninja Clip Charms From the '80s Craze\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn assortment of vintage plastic ninja clip charms: a flat round disc about 1 1\/2 inches across with the art on a sticker under the surface, a little metal jump ring, and a plastic snap-hook clip with a five-point star at its base. No maker's name or date on them, but they're pure 1980s. Menahem Golan, who directed \"Enter the Ninja,\" put it in theaters in 1981 and started the ninja-movie craze. By the mid-'80s clip charms were everywhere, hooked on belt loops, house keys and plastic chain-link necklaces. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 came out of Mirage Studios in Dover, New Hampshire in May 1984, and its first 3,000 copies sold out in a few weeks. It was a very ninja decade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔤 What the Designs Say\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's more on these than just the word NINJA. One disc pairs it with the kanji 忍 (nin) in the middle, which is built from the character for \"blade\" sitting over the character for \"heart\" and means to bear or endure. Another has NINJA over a kusarigama, a sickle on a chain with an iron weight at the end, used to tangle up an opponent's sword or spear. The cleverest one spells NINJA with the first and last letters drawn as the two kanji of 忍者 itself, sitting above a big eight-point shuriken. 忍者 means a person of 忍, a word that means to endure and also to steal away and hide, which is about as good a description of a ninja as you'll get. And shuriken literally means \"hand-hidden blade.\" A 1985 ad in Black Belt magazine sold an eight-point one as a \"Chinese Star.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📦 How I Ended Up With These\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was actually shipped these by mistake. There are several styles and clip colors mixed in, so the assortment comes as a random mix of designs and colors, not a matched set. A fun grab for anyone who grew up on '80s ninja movies, or who just wants a goofy little clip for a bag or a set of keys.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-clown-mouse-dexterity-puzzle-game-hong-kong-nos\"\u003eVintage 1980s Clown \u0026amp; Mouse Dexterity Puzzle Game on Stapled Header Card - NOS Plastic Toys Hong Kong Dime Store Circus Novelty 🎪\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980s-clown-girl-gargoyle-dexterity-puzzle-game-hong-kong-nos\"\u003eVintage 1980s NOS Clown Girl and Gargoyle Dexterity Puzzle Game Plastic Toys Made in Hong Kong Circus Ball Maze 🧸\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1980-galactic-battleships-vending-display-card-diamond-vending\"\u003eVintage 1980 Galactic Battleships Vending Display Card - Diamond Vending Supply Co. Sci-Fi Header C-23 NOS Hong Kong 🃏\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"10 assorted","offer_id":43674616987880,"sku":"VAG-7926380626152","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"20 assorted","offer_id":43674617020648,"sku":"VAG-7926380626152-2","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4085516364_6qjc.jpg?v=1785358029"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/collections\/original-1980s-vintage-collectibles-pop-culture-americana-rare-tin-tin-wind-tots.webp?v=1781397789","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/collections\/80s.oembed?page=7","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}