Travel Trunk Collection The majority of candy available from the Wonka Inventing Room are boxed truffles. I hope that they ship some of these out to Pennsylvania so that I can try them.
The Sweet Hollywood candy shop has partnered with Nestle to create the Wonka Inventing Room. This store-within-a-store is selling some of the most creative candy I have ever seen. Unfortunately, these products won't be available in stores across the country, but you can order them online.
This is my favorite page out of the ones that were shared by Todd. It's pretty cool to see space-themed things in the years leading up to the moon landing.
Wal-Mart Advertisement Arkansas Democrat (October 11, 1978)
This advertisement was shared a few days ago on The Sphinx by a guy whose mother brought him out to Wal-Mart when he was five years old to meet the Dark Lord of the Sith in the flesh... er... suit. She also saved the newspaper clipping and photos of the event for over 34 years. That's a pretty darn cool mom! Click here to see more and to read his memories of the experience.
Video Fever ABC Los Angeles (1982)
Like any other trend that children and teenagers enjoy, parents groups and the media lost their minds about video games. This five part series aired on the ABC Evening News in 1982 to discuss the dangers of addiction, blisters and "Pac Man Wrist". This was recorded off of television back in the day and shared by Steven Hertz.
Baiser de Marseille Gerard Julien / AFP This photo was taken in Marseilles, France. The two ladies are kissing each other in front of a group of bigots who have gathered to demonstrate against women's reproductive health care and gay marriage.
Rambo Combat Set Largo Toys (1985) First Blood premiered in theaters 30 years ago today. I didn't see the movie many years later, but I did have this Rambo Combat Set when I was a kid. This was back in the 80's when a kid playing with a plastic .45 and survival knife wasn't strange at all. Truth be told, I really wanted it for the compass.
Bridgeport Sound Tigers @ Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins Mohegan Sun Arena - Wilkes-Barre, PA October 20, 2012
We had a luxury box for the Penguins home opener. It was a very nice experience. There were baskets of popcorn and tortillas and dip, cookie trays, beer and soda and meatballs to enjoy. The Sound Tigers beat the Penguins 3-2.
Baby Pac-Man Sticker Aladdin's Castle (1982) The offspring of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man had his own cabinet in arcades. It had a pinball machine table and an arcade screen that players would access by hitting the ball at target. This video game/pinball machine hybrid first appeared in arcades thirty years ago today.
Africa (Toto) Produced in Mario Paint by Alec Britt
Thirty years ago today, one of the most beautiful rock songs ever recorded was released as a single. Africa by Toto went on to reach #1 on Billboard's Hot 100. In this video, Alec Britt shares his incredible recreation of the 80's classic using Mario Paint on SNES.
One of my favorite games in the Atari 2600 library is turning 30 years old today. It was designed by Steve Cartwright, and has a play style similar to Space Invaders in that you control a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and the object is to shoot all of the enemies at the top before the time (or energy bar) runs out. However those enemies differ quite a bit from the 1978 Taito classic. They come in waves with each one behaving differently than the wave that came before, and they take forms that are very different from the alien spaceships that gamers were familiar with, including hamburgers, cookies, bugs, tires, diamonds, irons, bow ties and dice. It's a hell of a lot of fun.
Babe Ruth Sweatshirt ad Grant's Merchandise (1932)
If you were a boy between the ages of 10-18 in 1932, you could win a Babe Ruth autographed baseball from your local Grant's store. All you had to do was get an entry blank and write out why you love "this splendid shirt" in 20 words or less. If you won the baseball, you would be entered into a second contest to win an all expenses paid trip to Babe Ruth's private box at the 1932 World Series, in which Ruth's Yankees swept the Chicago Cubs. If you stayed in town for Game 3, you would have been in attendance to see Ruth's mythical "called shot".
If you were older than 18, younger than 10, a girl, or if you couldn't think of something nice to say about a 50 cent sweatshirt, you were out of luck.
Ice Cream Pizza Emack & Bolio's
I found this groovy ice cream pizza at Wegmans. It's made up of vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, marshmallow cream, candy stars and moons, and raspberry filled chocolate hearts that the box calls "bleeding hearts". This is arranged on a brownie crust and topped with a big chocolate peace sign. Very groovy.
The back of the box has a brief history of the Emack & Bolio's company:
Hunter Pence was traded to the Giants at the July 31'st deadline, but the team decided to go ahead as scheduled and give out his bobblehead at tonight's game against the Reds. Inside was this note from the right fielder to his fans in Philadelphia.
Notes: I'll always remember going to this game with my dad less than two months after my 12th birthday. The Famous Chicken mascot made a special appearance. On the way to the game, Dad told me a bit about him. He began his career in California where Ted Giannoulas first donned the chicken costume to become a character then known as the KGB Chicken. After separating from KGB Radio, he performed as the San Diego Chicken, and then The Famous Chicken later.
The Chicken was a brilliant physical comedian who gave birth to the concept of the sports mascot as we know it today. He began performing at San Diego Padres games in the mid 70's and was the inspiration behind the creation of the beloved Phillie Phanatic. Like the Phanatic, The Famous Chicken made everything that he touched more fun and special. This game where I first saw him took place 20 years ago, and I still remember it and smile today.
The Chicken was awesome with kids. I got to meet him at the game where he signed this 8x10 photo for me, which I kept with the game program all these years. I was able to see him perform one more time, 16 years later on August 14th, 2008. The game was in Scranton where the SWB Yankees were taking on the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. I may have been the only 28 year old who stood in line to meet him that night, but I wanted to take a moment to shake his hand and thank him and let him know how much I enjoy his work ever since that first night back in '92 when I was a kid. He was a very gracious and awesome guy, and he took a moment to sign my game program with his real name.
The Expos has a great game the night that the Chicken came to town. Southpaw Joey Eischen struck out 12 in 7 innings of work for his 7th win of the season. Eischen made his major league debut two years later with the Montreal Expos. He was traded along with Roberto Kelly to the Dodgers in 1995. He would go on to pitch in relief for the Dodgers, Tigers and Reds before returning to the Expos in 2001. He had an excellent season in 2002 with a 6-1 record, a 1.34 ERA, and 51 strikeouts in just under 54 innings of work out of the bullpen. He remained with the organization for the rest of his career, including the move from Montreal to Washington in 2005, and retired after the 2006 season.
Hamburger Card American Greetings (1980)
My grandparents house had a cupboard above the stove. In this cupboard was a plastic box that was mostly used to store coupons and batteries, but throughout my life, this box also had a few of these hamburger cards.
You open the card by flipping up the top bun which reveals the lettuce and tomato topping on the burger. When you're ready to mail it out, you can seal the burger up with the pickle stickers that were included with the pack of cards.
The back of the card looks sort of like a postcard. There's a place to put a stamp, and a place to write an address, so you don't need an envelope to put it in the mail.
These cards were released by American Greetings in 1980, and I'm pretty sure that's around the time that my grandmother bought them. They're exactly the kind of thing that she would pick up at the mall - just clever enough to get you to smile, and inexpensive enough to not be a complete waste of money. This sort of thing was like crack to my grandmother.
After she bought them, I'm certain that she put them in the cupboard with the thought that they'd come in handy some day, but that "some day" never came. As a result, they've been safely tucked away in the cupboard for over 30 years. They've literally been in the same spot for entire life. My grandmother passed away earlier this year and I found them while cleaning out her house. Now, they're in my house, where I'm sure they will sit unused until I die and some poor schlub has the unfortunate task of having to clean out all of my random junk.
Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino purchased this billboard on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It can be seen if you're traveling west near the Willow Grove exit (343). You will be missed, dude.
Gallery1988 is holding its first show outside of California. It features the work of over 200 artists and opens tonight in New York City at 6:00 pm 64 Gansevoort Street in the Meat Packing District. This poster was designed by artist Jason Edmiston to promote the event.
Donkey Kong Junior Cereal Ralston (1984) Thirty years ago, Donkey Kong Junior made its arcade debut in the United States. In honor of this milestone, here is a box of a breakfast cereal that I never got to try. My family weren't sticklers for nutrition or anything, but I think even they had enough sense not to feed a three year old a bowl of pure sugar first thing in the morning. I had to be at least old enough for Kindergarten.
I may not have ever tried the cereal, but I had plenty of the Topps baseball cards that came free inside. They were one of the coolest subsets of the 80's.
Bart Simpson trading card WFLX Fox 29 (1990) This card was given to me at Municipal Stadium at a West Palm Beach Expos game in 1992. I'm pretty sure that it was same July 29th game where I was given the red baseball bat because the local Fox affiliate was on hand giving away promotional material. I think it was printed in 1990 during the first or second season of The Simpsons, so they probably had a few boxes of them lying around the office and decided to bring them out to the ballpark to give to the kids in attendance.
According to Bart's stats on the back of the card, he hit .247 with 75 home runs.
This was one of the best giveaway night I've ever been to. The first 1,000 kids under the age of 14 (including a 12 year old me) were given a souvenir baseball bat. However, this wasn't one of those miniature replica bats that you see in stadium gift shops. It was a real, full-sized wooden baseball bat. It was bright red and featured the Expos logo and the logo of the local Fox TV affiliate. I still have mine.
I remember this game fondly as a fun night at the ballpark with my dad. As usual, I spent a little time playing the pitching machine game. The way it worked was that you would pay a few dollars and they would let you throw a baseball in a batting cage three times. A display showed you how fast you pitched the first two balls. You then had to guess how fast your third pitch would be before you threw it. If you guessed correctly, you won a plastic replica baseball helmet of your choice of teams.
The Expos won 9 - 1 in a game that featured several players on both teams that went on to the major leagues. West Palm Beach CF Rondell White went on to hit 198 HR and to play on the 2003 All-Star Team in a a 15 year MLB career with the Expos, Cubs, Yankees, Padres, Royals, Tigers and Twins. DH Glenn Murray had a much shorter MLB career, but he did appear in 38 games for the Phillies in 1996.
In the visitors dugout, catcher Ken Huckaby would go on to play parts of six seasons in the big leagues for the Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Rangers, Orioles and Red Sox. Second baseman Roberto Mejia appeared in parts of four seasons in the mid to late 90's with the Rockies and Cardinals before ending his career with the independent El Paso Diablos in 2009. The player who would go on to the most stardom from the Vero Beach Dodgers that night was shortstop Miguel Cairo. Cairo went 0-4 that night against WPB Expos pitching, but he would have a 17 year MLB career with ten teams, including the 2009 National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies.
