Vintage 1980s All Me California Raisin Tin Pin 📌 WOW The Memories!

Remember the California Raisins' All Me Pin? 😎 The All Me California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s

Size: 1 1/2"

Vintage 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.

I 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!

It'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.

🎬 "Everything but Dancing Raisins"

The raisin growers had tried just about every kind of ad there was. Then in 1986 a writer at Foote, Cone & 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.

🍇 The Band

California 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).

🎤 The Albums, the End and the Missing Head

The 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, & 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.

But 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.

The 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.

These 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!

📦 About the Supply

Please 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.

The 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.