WHITE CASTLE'S HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT BAG WITH OREO TREATS

Hey, it's the Castleburger Dudes and they want to wish everyone a safe Halloween...or at least they did on the bottom of this plastic trick or treat bag from 1994. This was White Castle's kid's meal during the Halloween season of that year. What makes this kid's meal so special is that it included a mini-package of Halloween Oreos. Oreos began their Halloween tradition only three years earlier, so it's neat to see an example of one of their earlier Halloween packages.

Also, inside this 21 year old kid's meal is an Oreo bendy! Our bendy is proudly lifting up the Oreo Halloween Treats pack! Way to go Bendy Oreo! You are one strong Castleburger Dude!

1979 HALLOWEEN RONALD MCDONALD COMIC STRIP

(Click the strip for a closer look!)

BURGER CHEF TRICK OR TREAT BAG FROM THE LATE 1970'S

This poor Burger Chef bag never saw any trick or treating action back in the day. It was never carried by a Frankenstein masked child. It never was filled with peanut butter kisses and miniature candy bars. Instead this poor bag was never handed out at the local Burger Chef. It stayed inside a dark box along with its unloved and unused brothers and sister bags for more than thirty years. The Fun Burger with the witch hat might be smiling, but down deep this bag has a long and lonely frown.

Well, here's to you unloved Burger Chef Trick or Treat bag from the late 1970's! This is your day to turn that hidden frown upside down because now you can be seen and celebrated during this Halloween countdown. Just think of all the people who will now get to see you. Yes, you’ll give them such a smile as they remember back to their childhoods when they carried a similar bag or one just like you on Halloween night.

Feel free to help cheer up this sad and lonely Burger Chef bag by wishing it a Happy Halloween!

"IT'S FINGER LICKIN' GOOD" - 70 YRS OF KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN

All this week Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants have been celebrating the 70th anniversary of Colonel Sanders’ famous original recipe. Harland Sanders, (he didn’t become a Colonel until 1935 or '36), first served his chicken with eleven herbs and spices in 1930 at his gas station in Corbin, Kentucky. It wasn’t until the 1950's when the Colonel started to sell his chicken to be served in restaurants across the nation. Eventually, in 1952 the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain was born and the first restaurant was in Salt Lake City.

Yesterday, the first lady and I decided to celebrate with a bucket of chicken. As a fan of any retro style packaging, I got a thrill that our chicken was served in this 70th anniversary replica bucket.

Here’s a photo of an original bucket from the 1960's. Boy, the size and price of the bucket, sure have changed.

If you’re in the Christmas spirit click here and here for a vintage holiday bucket. For people in the Halloween spirit click here and here for a vintage Jack O’ Lantern bucket.

The first bucket appeared in 1957. Did you know that Wendy’s founder, Dave Thomas came up with the chicken bucket? Yep! He also suggested it spin outside on the sign! The famous chicken bucket has become an important piece of popular culture. I have almost 5000 images in my flickr archive and my most popular photo is of a KFC chicken bucket. The photo below is closing in on 30,000 hits! Crazy man, crazy!

You know chicks dig the bucket, dontcha? Also, The Price Is (always) Right for a chicken bucket!

My pal Allen of Roadside Pictures has a nice archive of Kentucky Fried Chicken items here.

Also, check these photos out from Through Joanne’s eye here and here. So lucky that she met the Colonel!

I MET GRIMACE & THE GANG

You might remember from last year that I missed out on meeting Grimace live and in person at our local McDonalds. I documented the missed opportunity with a Polaroid photo that you can see here.

Fast forward to this year and rewind just a couple of days ago as Grimace once again visited our McDonalds and this time he brought a couple of his pals. I almost missed their arrival, but thanks to my friend Tim for his enthusiastic phone call letting us know that the Beatles, uh McDonaldland characters were in town waving at traffic.

The first lady and I hopped in our jalopy and we zoomed to McDonalds!

First we said hi to Grimace. “Hi Grimace!”


Since we didn’t have any hamburgers on us, it was safe to greet Hamburgler. “Hi Hamburgler!”


Next we visited with Birdie the Early Bird. “Hi Birdie!”


We also visited with the mascot handler and he said that the Grimace and Birdie costumes were vintage. Since I never met any of the McDonaldland mascots as a kid, hearing that the costumes were vintage really made it that much more cooler!

Oh yeah, there was one more mascot that tagged along, but he wasn’t part of McDonaldland.


Don’t tell the Tyson Chicken, but really we were kind of scared of him.

VINTAGE A&W RESTAURANT IN BOONVILLE, MISSOURI

Everyone pile into the Neato Time Machine and let’s all go to A&W circa 1972!

Heck, you don’t even need a time machine to visit a classic A&W all you need, is a set of wheels that will get you to Boonville, Missouri. On Ashley Road you’ll find an important remnant from the early 1970's.


If you’re like me and have any interest in vintage architecture and roadside history you’ll have a hard time parking your car. You’ll probably park crooked while you stare at that magnificent “hat” style A&W building with its original sign. Don’t worry - that’s what I did!

Oh yes, it gets even better once you walk inside.


The first thing you’ll see is a fireplace. A fireplace in a fast food restaurant? You betcha! That was standard in most A&W restaurants from the early 1970's. I can’t wait to go back in the winter because they still use the blasted thing!!

After you order your Papa Burger, fries and a ice cold frosty mug of root beer you can sit in one of the original two-toned booths and gaze at the faux Tiffany style lights complete with A&W logo.




While you’re gawking around be sure to notice the vintage record covers that line the top of the wall. Of course they were new when the restaurant opened, but now they’re retro!


Remember to save room for dessert. Most will go for a root beer float and that is a good choice but at this A&W they serve something special that I’d never had before - a root beer twist ice cream cone. Heavens to Murgatroyd, it’s the best ice cream cone I’ve had in ages. Unlike the wimpy cones at McDonald’s or other fast food joints this one fills the cone and is tall and full of flavor. Plus the cone is fresh and crisp!

Even though Boonville is home to some important Missouri history and a popular “moat” casino the main draw should be this classic A&W.

Kudos to the owners of this roadside treasure for keeping the restaurant intact and original. Please never change and keep on serving those Root Beer twist ice cream cones!!

GRIMACE WAS HERE

Grimace was at my local McDonald's and I missed him. You know, I've met a lot of neat people in my life, but I've never had the chance to meet the great purple milkshake lover, Grimace. Too bad I was out of town last Saturday because I guarantee you I would've been in line with all the eight year olds waiting to have my picture taken with him.

Luckily, I had my Polaroid camera in the car to at least document his arrival. I wonder how the bake sale did? Did they sell apple & cherry pies and McDonaldland cookies?

KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN TRICK OR TREAT BUCKET

Forget the Jack O’Lantern buckets, skip the trick or treat bags and ditch those tacky pillow cases ‘cause I’m going trick or treating with my vintage 1980's Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket!

Now I just need to make myself a Colonel Sanders costume.


I can picture some little trick or treater holding out this Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket and instead of candy they get a bunch of greasy fried chicken! It's finger lickin' good!

DIENER SPACE CREATURES/ALIENS

I guess most of us have our little quirks and one of my quirks tends to be more on the compulsive side. This so called quirk has to do with a set of 2 inch tall space creature erasers or if you prefer, space aliens. Anyway, they were made by Diener Industries the leader in eraser toys.

It all started innocently enough back in 1980 at the local McDonald’s. The Happy Meal was still fairly new and usually the prize inside was just ok, but nothing to write home about.


This all changed as one day hiding under my cheeseburger and fries inside that happiest of boxes I discovered a green bat creature. He was made like those silly Happy Meal robots that were prizes a few months earlier, but he was more durable and with much better detail. This bat-guy had a familiar look to him and I knew I had seen him before. It finally dawned on me that he was just like Man-Bat that unfortunate character out of the Batman comics.


Of course I wanted more and I wanted to complete the whole set. After a few weeks of multiple visits to McDonaldland and trading with friends I finally got a complete set. Ever since then whenever I see one for sale in a thrift shop, flea market or toy show, I just have to pick it up. The cool thing and probably the reason that I adore these so much is because they were based, inspired or even ripped off of various monsters from movies or television


Now let’s take a closer look at each one.


Veined Cranium Creature - design based after the Martians in the 1957 movie Invasion of the Saucer Men.


Tree Trunk Monster - design based after the aliens in the 1958 movie I Married a Monster from Outer Space.


Gil Face Creature - design based after an alien named Ikar from the 1964 television series The Outer Limits in the episode Keeper of the Purple Twilight.


Lizard Man - design based after Ray Harryhausen’s creation the Ymir from the 1957 movie 20 Million Miles to Earth.


Insectman - design based after the Fly from the 1958 movie The Fly.


Vampire Bat Creature - design based after the Batman comic book character Man-Bat.


Winged Amphibian Creature - design based after the creature in the 1966 movie Destination Inner Space.


Horned Cyclops - I’m guessing this one might be an amalgam of different cyclops. Pictured is the Ray Harryhausen’s Cyclops from The 7 th Voyage of Sinbad, the Lost In Space Cyclops and the Siamese Cyclops from The Three Stooges Meet Hercules.


Besides the different characters in the set there are also five different original colors to collect. They came in yellow, green, blue, orange and brown.


Another variation is the eraser material which is hard, normal and soft.


Besides being “Space Aliens” prizes in Happy Meal boxes, Diener also sold them in carded packages as Space Creatures.


Apparently they were also found in gumball machines made of a slick rubbery material with an added suction cup. The quality is poor and the molds were probably made from the actual erasers. I’ve only found four of these and I’m not sure if the other ones from the set were made.


Fairly recently in the past few years, they’ve been spotted in bright day glow colors.

I’ll continue to rescue/collect these little guys until I’m 110 years old or until a massive pile of space creatures fall on me. If anyone has any info, photos or advertising relating to these, I would love to hear about it.

CHUCK E. CHEESE'S PIZZA TIME THEATRE

Smile America say Chuck E. Cheese!




The next three were uploaded by cec0011. The first one is a 60 second spot, the second is a franchise promo and the third is a 10 minute Chuck E. character costume training video.

1982 ATARI MCDONALD'S GAME CARD

Since my brother and I were such crazed Atari nuts as kids, we made our parents take us to McDonald's back in '82 all the time, so we could play this Atari promotion game. Here's one of the original game pieces.

GOODY BAG OF STUFF

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #12

I always like it when antique dealers put a random mix of stuff in a bag or jar and sell it. My old boss at the antique store used to make up some nifty bags of old stuff and call it a "goody bag".

Well, just a couple of weeks ago I found a fun "goody bag" with some fun items inside at a flea market. Take a look!

1968 SAN ANTONIO WORLD'S FAIR FLOAT AT THE ROSE PARADE