Vintage Groovy California Raisin 🍇 Tin Pin

Remember the Groovy California Raisin? 🕺 The Groovy California Raisin Tin Pin, 1980s

Size: 1 1/2"

Vintage Groovy California Raisin Tin Pin, WOW The Memories! This Raisin is really feeling it: head tilted, sleepy red-and-blue eyes, mouth open mid-note, one white glove up by his face and the other pointing, knees bent in his blue high-top sneakers. Pure groove.

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.

🍇 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).

📺 From a Commercial to Prime Time

The Raisins were dreamed up at the Foote, Cone & Belding ad agency in San Francisco, California for the California Raisin Advisory Board and brought to life in clay by Will Vinton's studio, and Michael Brunsfeld designed the characters. The first 30-second commercial, with the Raisins singing "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," cost $300,000 to develop and test, and it became the start of a craze. The drummer and singer Buddy Miles sang most of the leads, and the group put out four albums in 1987 and 1988.

On November 4, 1988, CBS aired a primetime special, Meet the Raisins!, a musical mockumentary that was nominated for an Emmy and gave the band their names and parts. A Saturday morning cartoon, The California Raisin Show, followed in 1989 and ran 13 episodes, and a second special, Raisins: Sold Out!, came in 1990. Not bad for a box of dried grapes.

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.