Tuesday, October 24, 2006

FLEER’S MR. BONES CANDY

“Hey kids, meet Mr. Bones! You'll find just a pile of bones in a coffin until you put the pieces together and wha-la, instant little friend. If you get that sweet tooth you can always gnaw away on one of his many fruit flavored parts. Mr. Bones can be such a swell and sweet pal!”


Mr. Bones was a fun candy, but I remember how frustrating it was when the coffin didn’t have all the pieces, because half the fun was putting him together before you ate him. You would open that plastic coffin with the real little hinges and often times the skull was missing. “Bring me the head of Mr. Bones!”

Somehow I managed to save a complete Mr. Bones and many years have past since he’s been out of his coffin. “So how about saying hello to all the fine folks out there?” “Hello to all the fine folks out there.” “Ok wiseguy get back into your coffin before someone eats you.”

For kicks, I’ve included two modern and fun coffin candy containers. Both of these came from Target and the purple one came out last year and the red one is from this year. With the purple one you get to dig the skeleton out of candy dirt and the red one vibrates when you pull on the skeleton’s leg. Hopefully Target will keep adding to this series every Halloween.


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, despite the many Mr. Bones I've eaten, that's the first time I've seen him assembled. I was ALWAYS missing peices.

John Rozum said...

Oh! You got my hopes up. I haven't seen a Mr. Bones in years, and I though maybe they were actually still available.

Oh, well. I'd been fortunate enough to have had all the bones in all three of the Mr. Bones coffins I had. I didn't realize they were shorted usually.

Anonymous said...

I've never seen a fully assembled Mr. Bones before either. I don't think I ever even tried to put one together- ate 'em too fast!

The complete Mr. Bones is a bit odd looking and if he were included in some sort of a Halloween Skeleton Countdown or something of the sort, I'd have to say- Cause of death- Run over by steamroller.

Shawn Robare said...

Man that plasitc coffin sure brings back memories. I think mine was purple and I kept spare toy weapons in it after I inhaled the candy.

Chad Kerychuk said...

I'm not sure when they ceased production, but I recall them, or at least something similar here in Canada back in the 80's.

Got a chance to visit Target this year and though some of the store is hit and miss, there is a lot of really neat stuff, with a lot of thought put into the design of products and packaging.

Very good blog. I've been enjoying it for a while and will add it to my blog listing on my blogs.

Cheers!

Todd Franklin said...

Kirk - You and me both. I had to Frankenstein this one out of two coffins.

John - I wish they would produce Mr. Bones again. Sorry to get your hopes up.

Steven - Steamroller! Funny, funny!!

Shawn - Yeah, they made a bunch of colors and good resourceful thinking! The coffin would be a perfect container for Star Wars or Joe weapons.

Chad - Thanks for the comment and glad you've been enjoying the blog. You have some great blogs and I'm a big Pixar fan so I'll be adding your blog to my links too! Thanks again!!

Joe said...

Correct me if I'm wrong but did they not produce a Trashcan version of this as well? Where the candy was trash of some sort?

Todd Franklin said...

Joe - They sure did. Fleer put it out.

Anonymous said...

Actually Topps put out Trash Can Candy. I should know, my dad designed Trash Can Candy, Mr. Bones, Fireplug Candy, Light Bulb Gum, and a few others.
It's very heart warming to see web sites like this one talking fondly of my dad's work.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with yioutta..it is nice to read such nice things about work my father has done. This should make his day!! Thank You!!

Todd Franklin said...

Wow, big thanks for both of your comments and big thanks to your dad for designing these candy items. A whole generation has fond memories of his candy. If you would like to share any of your dad's stories or how he was inspired to create Mr. Bones etc. feel free to email or add to the comments. Thanks again!!!

goody basset said...

I loved MR BONES!!!
i drove a plymouth sattelite and had all of the different colored coffins lined up on my dashboard for as long as i had the car.

i never put one together...always ate them up...wish i had taken a picture...

maybe if enough folks request it mr bones will come back from the candy grave...

anyone remember the orange candy harmonica's made out of wax...with the witch flying by the moon on the front...out around halloween

Anonymous said...

There's a similar product called "Scary Skeletons" out. Found it as I was looking for Mr.Bones.