It seems as though every Happy Meal toy is a promotional tool used to get children to beg their parents to see the latest computer animated theatrical release or buy them the latest Mattel ™ toys. However, it wasn’t always like this. McDonald’s use to come up with their own ideas all the time so that kids would be sold on their love for Ronald McDonald and his friends at an early age.

The best promotion by far had nothing to do with Ronald and the gang. Instead, it had to do with transforming things, which was an inevitable recipe for success for toys in the 1980s. McDonald’s released Changeables, a series of robots disguised as your favorite McDonald’s meals. Sure, like all Happy Meal toys, they weren’t QUITE as good as their expensive, branded counterparts, but for FREE toys, they were amazing. We hadn’t seen anything quite like them. A hot cakes box and a French fry container transforming into robots?

Courtesy of neogaf.com

Who would have thought that you could have food containers transforming into awesome robots?

The Japanese. That’s who.

Yes, if you grew up in Japan in the mid-1980s, you had us Americans beat by a couple of years when it came to the transforming food objects market. That’s because if you grew up in Japan, you might have owned Telecoma toys!

This amazing artwork let's you know about the eternal food war going on in Japanese supermarkets.

These toys, affectionately known by American collectors as “Canned Food Fighters,” take containers of popular branded foods and meals in Japan and turn them into an army of food fightin’ warriors! Unlike Food Fighters, which definitely took their inspiration from the American military, Telecoma figures were more akin to Kinnikuman or M.U.S.C.L.E., where a wide variety of characters settled their differences in a stadium for mealtime dominance!

What I love about the toys is that they actually use real food products on their labels. When McDonald’s made Changeables, they didn’t have to worry about licensing their own food. With Telecoma, this was more like Computer Warriors using a Pepsi can in their toy line or Monster in my Pocket featuring Tony the Tiger, except on a much grander scale. The Pepsi can is certainly the most recognizable design for us Americans.

While most of what I write about it something that I know quite a bit about and feel the need to get the info out on the Internet, I can’t say that I know a whole lot about Telecoma other than they exist. My collection is rather small, and all of it has come courtesy of a series of Japanese online auctions. I learned about the line through the Little Rubber Guys message board and decided I would see what was out there.

These characters all resemble cans...

...and these are more bowl-based characters.

Two of the sets that I have fall into the “keshi” or little rubber guy category. I’m guessing one boxed set is one faction and the other contains the guys they fight with or something. They are packaged very similarly to most kinkeshi lines of the era. I don’t know if these two boxed sets represent a complete set of figures or not, but it must put me pretty darned close.

The third boxed set I own is a deluxe set of sorts. In addition to containing a handful of the kinkeshi figures, it also contains two of the transforming figures that are very similar to the way McDonald’s constructed its Changeables line.

These figures came in the above boxed set.

There is a whole line of these figures numbering almost as many as the keshi line, and I have seen a transforming shopping cart vehicle, which as you can imagine is amazing. This deluxe set comes with a wrestling ring, which is not quite as amazing as a transforming shopping cart.

Now, some of you might say, “Wait a second, Ben, I’m pretty sure I had these figures as a kid, and I never lived in Japan!” And you know what? You’re absolutely right.

Though I own one of these, this image comes from dinosaurdracula.com!

This is a card that would have been placed in a grocery store vending machine. As you can plainly see, the designs of these characters come right from Telecoma. Several collectors have documented finding these figures in a wide variety of colors, and a few of them have found examples with the stickers still attached, which feature more recognizable American food brands on them. Sadly, I have not stumbled upon any examples of Telecoma knock-offs at any flea markets in the couple of years that I’ve been on the lookout for them, but they are definitely out there.

While Telecoma has a much richer universe than the McDonald’s Changeables, it’s funny to see how East and West developed what is essentially the same idea. Throw in Food Fighters to the mix, and there’s no question that kids will never get tired of playing with their food.

The post Telecoma Canned Food Fighters by Takara (Yet More Mealtime Combat) appeared first on The Collector Gene.

When most people start collecting little rubber and plastic figures, part of their reasoning for buying tiny toys often stems from the fact that these collections don’t take up a lot of space. You can fit hundreds of tiny figures in a shoe box if you want to, and they don’t take up a lot of shelf space if you choose to display them (and why wouldn’t you!). Beyond their ability to occupy very little space, most little figure toy lines have dozens if not hundreds of designs to collect, as well as tons of color variations. They also tend to come in all sorts of wacky and wonderful character designs, which make little rubber figure collecting very popular with both kids and adults.

One of the more popular little rubber figure lines from my childhood was Monster in my Pocket. They came out in 1990, and found success all over the world. The line consisted of a bunch of small, solid colored rubber monsters based on popular monsters from international folklore and popular culture. Everything from Frankenstein’s Monster to Baba Yaga are represented in the line. If you don’t remember Monster in my Pocket yourself or you want to know more, here is a quick pictorial crash course on the line.

A Sampling of Series 1 Monster in my Pockets.

A Sampling of Series 2 Monster in my Pockets

A Sampling of Super Scary Monster in my Pockets

U.K. Kellogg’s Sports Monsters in my Pocket

A Sampling of Monster in My Pocket Wrestlers

Now that you have met some of the Monster in my Pocket gang, I can get to the main focus of this article. Clearly I have spent a little bit of time collecting Monster in my Pocket. The photos above represent a small fraction of my collection. Monster in my Pocket were made by Matchbox and were sold in retail stores everywhere in the country. They were popular and cheap to produce, so they naturally found their way into promotional tie-ins with restaurants and food products. Most of the Monster in my Pocket figures that were produced for product tie-ins were Series 1 figures cast in different colors than the red, green, yellow, and purple seen above. Many were produced in Series 2 neon colors, with occasional oddities in slightly different shades of bright colors, or a dark forest green color.

Monsters in strange colors.  These Monster in my Pockets were packaged with food tie-ins and other Monster in My Pocket products other than the main figure lines.

Monster in my Pocket had an American cereal tie in with Nabisco Frosted Wheat Squares. They also had a promotion with Bob’s Big Boy.

The tie in that is really the point of this article is a promotion run with Spaghetti-O’s. Every kid loves Spaghetti-O’s, and what could be better than getting a free toy with your purchase? Of course they didn’t put a Monster in my Pocket in the actual can of Spaghetti-O’s. That would make a mess. You had to mail away to get them. Since kids are impatient, and Spaghetti-O’s needed to get you excited to have to wait to receive your toys, they had to find a big way to get kids attention. Behold the inflatable Spaghetti-O’s Monster that is the size of an actual child!

This inflatable display is based on a Series 2 monster design, Dryad. I wouldn’t call this figure the obvious character choice that kids could relate to, but it kind of looks like it could be made out of spaghetti when you color it red-orange like this, so I am going to go along with Spaghetti-O’s decision making process on this one.

When this 4ft tall pile of inflatable awesomeness found its way onto eBay several years ago I made it my mission to make him mine. In a collection that could otherwise fit in a shoe box, he is certainly a stand out. I have always liked store displays, and when I can find a display based on something I specifically collect it becomes a must own for my collection. I only wish that my local super market had had one of these guys on display when I was a kid. I am pretty sure a Monster in my Pocket taller than I was would have made my day. It sure made my day when I found one as an adult.

The post Spaghetti-O’s Monster in my Pocket Display: One Monster That Won’t Fit In Your Pocket… appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Being there two days also gave us lots of time to check out what the other dealers had to sell as well.  When we are selling I get in what I call a “selling mode” which means I’m not much in a “buying mode”.  Nevertheless, I wasn’t about to come home empty handed.

I ended up purchasing this copper lustre pitcher from a fellow dealer for twenty dollars.  It was the second day of the show and he dropped the price from thirty dollars to move it along.  I liked the hand painted decoration on both sides of what appears to be a mother teaching her daughter how to write.  Perhaps it’s supposed to be the Bronte sisters.  I don’t really know but it’s always nice to speculate.

Copper Lustre was made in the Staffordshire district of England from about 1820 to about 1860 when it fell out of fashion.  A lot of it was shipped to the United States at that time so it isn’t unusual to find a piece or two at your local flea market or antique shop.  Unfortunately it seems to have fallen out of fashion with modern collectors as well.  Consequently when you do find it these days it’s really cheap, which is kind of sad.

So why did I buy something that nobody else seems to be buying right now?  First, I like it.  Second, it was cheap.  Third, it can only go up over time.  Fourth, think of the history it represents.

The piece I bought was probably made in a factory at the very earliest stages of the Industrial Revolution.  Perhaps the person who decorated it lived in a cottage with a thatched roof.  Queen Victoria may not have even been Queen when it was made.  It would have been shipped by horse and wagon to a nearby port where it would have been loaded onto a sailing ship and sent to a still young America.  The twenty dollar bill I purchased it with had the picture of Andrew Jackson on it, who could have been our President at the time it was made.  The great westward expansion and Civil War were still to come and slavery had yet to be abolished.

Somehow this little pitcher survived all that in its one hundred and seventy or eighty years without any chips or cracks.  Why wouldn’t I buy it!

There was a saying back in the sixties that went “Do your own thing”.  There is an opportunity out there right now to buy true antiques at affordable prices.  I doubt it will be around forever.

The post Copper Lustre Pitcher – Really Old and Really Cheap appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Before writing about the Now and Then Second Hand Store in Orange, CA, I left off with a blog about Abilene, KS.  We visited a few other antique malls in Kansas and made some purchases, but I’m going to jump to the state of Colorado.

Florence, CO: We had never heard of Florence, Colorado, but we picked up a little booklet that listed Colorado antique shops, and we noticed that it billed itself as the antique center of the state.  When we looked at the map, we realized that it would be within a few miles of our planned route.  Naturally, we made that slight detour, and we’re glad we did.  Not only were there multiple shops to check out, but we happened to visit on a Friday, the first day of an antique street fair.  Below are photos of a few of the things we found.

The larger doll pictured is a 1940’s composition Madame Alexander doll in what appears to be her original clothes.  She cost $5 at the street fair, a real bargain.  The smaller doll is an inexpensive hard plastic doll from the 1950’s.  Normally, I wouldn’t buy a doll like her, but she’s dressed in a really nicely detailed felt cowgirl outfit, so I look upon her as an appropriate souvenir of our trip.  Discounted 40%, she ended up costing about $9.

Jim has been doing very well finding political items on this trip.  Florence came through for him.  He bought a very nice Benjamin Harrison pin in porcelain with a metal border, dated 1888, for $75.

Leadville, CO: This old mining town is at the highest elevation of any town in the U.S., and we were flying high with some of our purchases.  The very first shop we went into was the winner.  It was an old hardware store that retained all of its original fixtures, so the atmosphere alone was worth soaking up.  We walked out with two pieces that we liked a lot and felt were reasonably priced.

This cardboard sign advertising KC Baking Powder has some condition problems and likely had something else hanging from it, but we love the image of the baker and we will find a place for it in our kitchen.  Best of all, it only cost $25.

As those who know us know, we love to decorate for Christmas, and we love our Christmas tree with genuine Victorian/turn-of-the-century ornaments.  I was hoping to find something to add to our collection, and Leadville came through.  Pictured is a beautiful blown glass, hand-painted little girl’s head ornament.  According to the shop owners, it came out of a local estate.

Virginia City, NV: Once again, an old Western mining town came through for us.  Tourism is what’s keeping Virginia City alive.  Mixed in with the bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops are several antique shops.  We checked them all.  At the last one, Jim was very happy to find three nice political/advertising pinback buttons priced at $35 for all three.  Best of all, he doesn’t already have any of them!

The largest button is the most unique.  It pictures Spanish-American War hero Admiral Dewey advertising soap.  There’s also a nice Bryan-Sewall jugate from 1896 and a McKinley Club of NY button.  It isn’t often that you find one of these nice vintage buttons at the average antique mall, let alone three.

We did do a little antiquing in California, principally in Orange, and we did purchase a few things.  However, I have no photos, so we’re going to move on to Arizona.

Prescott, AZ: While staying in Sedona, we took the recommendation of an antique dealer we know and went antiquing in Prescott.  Prescott is a neat town.  It was the original capital of the Arizona Territory, and there’s an interesting museum complex, the Sharlot Hall Museum, to tour.  The downtown business district, which surrounds the courthouse square, is vibrant and alive.  About two blocks of it are devoted to antique shops.  We can’t share Jim’s favorite find yet because it’s still wrapped up in paper in the back of the car, but he was very happy to find an original political cartoon that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in October 1950.  It shows President Truman wearing the “cloak of secrecy” in regard to a meeting with Douglas MacArthur on Wake Island.

The other find we made there was an oyster tin right from our own neck of the woods.

These photos show the front and back of the Captain Jack’s Cape May Oysters tin.  The back mentions the Maurice River, too.  Actually, we like the back better than the front of this tin.  Not only is it in better condition, but the graphics are more interesting.  And we found it in Arizona – how weird!

We didn’t do any antiquing in New Mexico – none!  We did stop briefly in Amarillo, TX, and we did buy a few small items there.  Oklahoma was yielding a handful of small items, too, until we hit a shop in Shawnee, OK at the very end of the day.  We were very pleased with the cardboard standee advertising sign for Remington rifles that we found for $40.

The sign is in overall very good condition for its age.  On the lower left corner, it looks like there might be a tiny “31” and that might indicate that it dates to 1931.  It sure looks like it’s from that time.  What better gift for little boys than a rifle?

North Little Rock, AR: One frustration we’ve been having in particular on the return portion of our trip is encountering “antique” malls that have very few genuine antiques in them.  They have faux antiques and decorator items, but that’s not what we’re looking for.  When we saw an ad for the Twin City Antique Mall that asked the question, “Are you tired of antique malls that don’t have antiques in them?”, we knew that was the place for us – and it was.  We came out with several items that we were very happy about.

Jim has a couple of these Roosevelt Bear plates already, but this was a different one, and it was priced at only $25.  The inscription underneath says, “Teddy and Rosa on their way to the White House.”  Above the bears it says, “We want to see our President Who’s always on the square and whose good rule of living is bear always and forbear.”  It goes without saying that this plate dates to Teddy Roosevelt’s tenure in the White House.

This interesting bisque ashtray and match holder caught our eye.  A cheap souvenir from Galveston, TX, most likely in the 1930’s, it shows a nattily dressed skeleton sitting in an armchair.  It isn’t meant to be a Halloween decoration, but in our house it probably will be.  We thought it was a good buy at $25.

The last thing we bought at Twin City was a cardboard advertising sign for a product called Papsin.  We liked the graphics and the fact that it was hand-painted by a commercial artist from Fort Smith, AR.  He even signed it on the front.

Whew!  That was a lot of catching up to do.  We still have several states left to cover.  One more blog might do it.  Of course, it might not get done until we actually get home.

The post Travel-Log #8: Broad Summary (Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas) – Submitted by Carol on 10/3/12 appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Since the last report, we have seen some fabulous museums.

First, we visited the Truman Presidential Library and Museum and the Truman house in Independence, Missouri on September 11.

Then, we went into Kansas City to see the Steamboat Arabia Museum.  This was a priority on our itinerary, and we’re so glad we saw it.  The Arabia was a steamboat on the Missouri River that sank in 1856.  Everyone on board survived, but the ship’s cargo went to the bottom of the river and stayed there for over 130 years.  The course of the river changed, and the ship ended up underneath a Kansas farm field.  It was excavated in 1988 and yielded an unbelievable treasure – dozens and dozens of boxes and barrels containing all sorts of sundry items for mid-nineteenth century pioneers.  Dishes and utensils, tools, buttons and Indian trade beads, bolts of fabric, hats, and boots, bottles, perfume, and more are all on display in a dizzying array that boggles the mind.

On September 12, we set off across Kansas and reached Abilene by late morning.  Abilene was the boyhood home of Dwight Eisenhower, and his parents’ house, his presidential library, and his museum are all there to tour.

Downtown Abilene is a typical Midwestern business district.  Most of the buildings date to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  Thankfully, many of them are thriving because they’ve been turned into antique shops and malls.  We wish we had had more time to browse through the Abilene shops.  We saw about five or six of them, and got into about three.  (According to one website, there are a dozen shops in the town.)  Mud Creek Antiques and the Downtown Antique Mall were side by side, and we thought both of them were impressive and well worth a visit.  We could have easily spent more than we did, but Jim bought two items that he’s quite pleased with, both at Mud Creek.

One of the first antiques that caught our eye when we walked in was a glass honeycomb fly/wasp catcher.

Made of ribbed glass in a beehive shape with openings at both the top and bottom, the fly catcher, which is about five or six inches in height, has a wire hanger at the top.  It would have been plugged at the top.  We don’t know if something was put inside to attract flies or wasps.  I guess once they got in, they couldn’t figure how to get out.  We thought $18 was a reasonable price for it.

This is what the bottom looks like.  The hole has been drilled out.

The other item that really excited Jim was a cast iron advertising string holder.  It’s the kind of country store item that we rarely see at an affordable price anymore.

This string holder looks like a little footed kettle with a small hole in the bottom.  The ball of string would sit in the opening of the “pot” with the line of string coming out the bottom.  It could have sat on a countertop, but there are also handles on the kettle, so it’s possible that it could have been strung up and hung from an overhead beam or a ceiling.

The neat thing about the string holder is the advertising.  It says “S.S.S. for the Blood” on both sides.  We had never heard of such a product, but it sounded like an early version of Geritol.  Sure enough, once we were able to access the laptop, we googled it and there it was!  S.S.S. for the Blood is a product that was first produced in 1826 and is still available today.  Supposedly, the formula for the blood tonic comes from the Creek Indians.   S.S.S. stands for Swift’s Southern Specific.  Col. Charles Swift was the second person to possess the formula and offer it for sale.  The S.S.S. Company is located in Atlanta, GA and is the oldest non-prescription drug manufacturer in the country.  Often, the fun of antique collecting is doing the research and finding out obscure facts like these.

A string holder like this would probably date to about 1890-1910.  Unfortunately, of course, antiques made of cast iron have often been reproduced.  The classic cast iron beehive string holder certainly has been.  That’s why collectors must proceed with caution when buying items like this.  While Jim had little doubt that this string holder was the real deal, a check of eBay later on in the day showed that at least one string holder of this type has been reproduced.  Numerous examples of a Jaxon Soap cast iron kettle-type string holder could be found on eBay.  Obviously, a genuinely old string holder like that existed and someone unscrupulously copied it.  We will certainly keep an eye out for more S.S.S. for the Blood string holders, but none have shown up on eBay recently, so that’s probably a good sign as to the authenticity of ours.

The post Travel-Log #4: Abilene, Kansas 9/12/12 Submitted by Carol appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Made of inexpensive ceramic, he measures approximately 4 inches in height when put together.  Anthropomorphic moons are really cool, and we have a few more that you may see on this site in the future.

The post Smile: Moon Man Salt and Pepper Shaker appeared first on The Collector Gene.