Wacky Packages

Gumball Trinkets & Charms

These Little Wackys were sold in Vending Machines in the late 1960's as part of a larger Non-Parody Set of Grocery Store Items. The Four known Wacky Pack titles are Band-Ache,  Breadcrust Hash,  Demented Tomatoes,  and Fink. They came in 3 Shapes - Cans, Jars, and long-neck Bottles

There were at Least 45 Titles Released in 3 Different Sets.

Known Titles & the Series they were found in  --

Aunt Jemima Pancakes - 1, 3 Heinz White Vinegar - 1, 3
Band-Ache (Wacky) - 1, 2, 3 Hellmann's Mayonnaise - 1, 3
Breadcrust Hash (Wacky) - 1, 3 Karo Syrup - 1, 3
Camel Cigarettes - 1 Libby's Tomato Juice - 1, 3
Campbell's Tomato Soup - 1, 3 Lucky Strike Cigarettes -1
Canada Dry Ginger Ale - 1, 3 Lux Detergent - 1, 2, 3
Canadian Ace Ale - 1, 2, 3 Mobiloil - 1, 3
Carnation Milk - 1 Morton Salt - 1
Chase & Sanborn Coffee - 1 Niblets (Green Giant) - 1, 3
Cheerios - 1, 3 Pepsi Cola - 1, 3
Chesterfield Cigarettes - 1 Planter's Peanut Butter - 1, 3
Coca Cola - 1, 3 Post Toasties - 1
Cocomalt - 1 Rinso - 1
Corn Flakes - 1, 2, 3 Ritz Crackers - 1
Cream of Wheat - 1 Royal Crown Cola - 1, 3
Crisco - 1, 2, 3 Schlitz Beer - 1
Dad's Root Beer - 1 7 Up - 1, 3
Del Monte Pineapple Juice - 1 Snider's Catsup - 1, 2, 3
DeMented Tomatoes (Wacky) - 1?, 3 Texaco Oil - 1
Dr. Pepper - 1, 3 Wheatena - 1, 2
Fink (Wacky) - 2, 3 Wheaties - 1
Gulden Mustard - 1, 3 White Rock - 1 (brown label), 2 (red), 3 (red)
Heinz Ketchup - 1 (yellow label), 2 (blue), 3 (yellow)  

SERIES 1 - WACKY CHARMS (1968 - mid 1970s, 44/45 titles)

As you can see in the Header Card below, the "Charm" Set had Loops on Top

"PLAY STORE SUPERMARKET CHARMS"

The Set above has a mix of 3 Different Colors -- Yellow, Red, and Blue.  But they were issued several times and in additional colors of Pink, White, Green, Gray, Black and Amber.

After the supermarket charms, the eight soft drink titles Canada Dry, Coca-Cola, Dad's Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, Royal Crown Cola, White Rock, and 7up were reissued as their own set.

Some of the non-soft-drink titles were changed to trinkets. White Rock Creme Soda is the only soda title found in the trinket set.

SERIES 2 -WACKY TRINKETS (1970 - 1980, 10 titles)

The "Trinket" Set had Flat Tops rather than Loops.

The DeMented Tomatoes shown above may be a charm with the loop removed, as I have not found it among any trinkets.

They had the same Shapes and Labels as the Charms, and the Trinkets came in Yellow, Red, White, Blue, Orange, and Green

Two Bags, each containing 20 Green Band-Aches, have been found over the Years as old Vending Machine Stock.  These were thought to be the only green trinkets, but more green titles have turned up, including Fink.

So far I have found ten titles in the trinket set. This table shows a breakdown by color. I assume all ten titles were issued in all six colors, but here is what I've seen.

Title red white yellow green blue orange
Band-Ache (Wacky) yes yes yes yes no yes
Canadian Ace Ale yes no yes yes yes no
Corn Flakes yes yes no yes no no
Crisco yes yes yes yes no no
Fink (Wacky) yes yes yes yes yes yes
Heinz Ketchup yes yes yes yes yes yes
Lux Detergent yes yes yes yes no no
Snider's Catsup yes yes yes no no yes
Wheatena no yes yes yes no no
White Rock yes yes yes yes yes yes

The Blister Card below, from the early 1970's, held 6 trinkets.  Made in Hong Kong, they sold for 39 cents as Doll House Groceries. (See FINK inside.)

Four Bags containing mixed Titles were found marked "Made in China".  It seems that  someone was repackaging old stock and selling them as miniatures and craft items around 1980. (See FINK and BAND-ACHE inside.)

Some of the bottles from the earlier charm set had their loops clipped off by craft sellers for redistribution as dollhouse miniatures. Also it was not uncommon for kids to remove the loop themselves (I've seen some bitten off). But this made them a little shorter than the trinket bottles.

SERIES 3 - BOTTLE CHARMS (date unknown, 28 titles)

Another Set of Charms was released, using at least 28 of the 45 Titles.  The Entire Set was comprised of Long-Neck Bottles, which seems rather odd for products like Pancakes and Cereal.  The Previous Sets had different shaped Containers for each Product.

These Bottles are taller than the other sets (see comparison below) and came in a mix of 4 colors -- Green, Amber, Yellow, and Blue

Demented, Breadcrust Hash,  Fink, and Band-Ache are in the Center of the Top Row.

It's not known if These were from the Same Company as the Original Charms, but They used Copies of the same Images.  Notice also that Cheerios and Aunt Jemima have taller labels. Those titles were only used on the taller box shaped charms in earlier series.

BOTTLE COMPARISON

A = 1-1/8 inches tall, Original Supermarket / Wacky Charm Series 1

B = 15/16 inches tall, Same as A, but with the loop cut off.

C = 1 inch tall, Wacky Trinket Series 2

D = 1-1/2 inches tall, Bottle Charm Series 3

OTHER SETS

The trinkets on the left are from the previous set, and the ones on the right were found with items from the early 1990s. Apparently the set was revamped after some legal trademark issues erupted. Here we see Canadian Ace Ale was changed to Condan, and Fink was changed to Tink with a rooster mascot.

Below is an unrelated set of charms, where the makers used real scans of cereal boxes (circa 1985-1987) then changed the letters in the titles. R became P, O became C, and F or L became E, which makes for a lot of gibberish. Kellogg Froot Loops became Rallag Eroot Locps.

Thanks to Mark Best,  Fred Wheaton,  Jeff Allwine, Dave Gross, and The Wacky Packages Gallery

Check out these other Wacky Pack sets -

Old Vending Machine Stickers - 1983 Wacky Packages Collector's Edition

New Vending Machine Stickers - 2004 Wacky Packages Special Edition

2011 Wacky Packages Erasers

email  Rusty@LostWackys.com