Breaker Confections – Sunmark – U.F.O. Candy container – 1978
This week is a week of celebrations, and one in which I’ve oddly been a day late to acknowledge them. Yesterday was World U.F.O. Day, a day where people are encouraged to search the skies for unidentified flying objects. So today will be the day we celebrate with UFO-related candy packaging.
Today’s title image is one of my all-time favorites and a UFO candy container I distinctly remember enjoying during my own youth. Breaker’s UFO Candy is a classic, and after Breaker/Sunmark became a part of the Wonka family, it would be ressurrected in a small way with Tart N Tiny’s Flying Saucers:
Wonka Tart n Tinys Flying Saucers candy container – 1995 – Courtesy Dan Goodsell
It’s a theme that is a recurring one with candy. During a trip to the UK last year, I picked up this awesome little UFO-related package:
UK – Perfetti Van Melle – Fruit-tella UFO’s – candy package – November 2011
I’m going to round-out with a series of UFO and alien invasion related gum pack wrappers, which I believe date back to the late 1970’s. They might be from the 1980’s, but I don’t think so. Since there is no English text for me to grab hold of, I don’t know what they say – if anyone can decipher who made these and what they’re called, please leave a comment – I’d love to know.
These remind me a small bit of Topps old Mars Attacks trading card set… but I’ll leave it to you to decide what you think of them:
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum pack wrapper – 1970’s 1980’s
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum pack wrapper 2 – 1970’s 1980’s
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum pack wrapper 3 – 1970’s 1980’s
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum pack wrapper 4 – 1970’s 1980’s
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum pack wrapper 5 – 1970’s 1980’s
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum pack wrapper 6 – 1970’s 1980’s
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum pack wrapper 7 – 1970’s 1980’s
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum pack wrapper 8 – 1970’s 1980’s
Those are all of the outer pack wrappers I have for this line. I also have a series of what I believe were the paper wrappers that came wrapped around each stick of gum inside these packs. I’m not 100% sure these should be paired up, but since I found them together, I’m assuming that’s the case.
Japan-maybe – UFO-invasion gum inner stick wrappers – 1970’s 1980’s
And that’s everything for our celebration of World UFO Day.
Tomorrow is July 4th, and here in the United States it’s our Independence Day. That’s a big holiday for us here, and because of that, I’ll be replacing our normal Wacky Wednesdays entry with something that will showcase some great patriotic candy packaging. See you then.
I vaguely recall UFO candies. I was always interested in the candies that came in special containers. You ate the candy, then you still had a toy to play with! I don’t recall what they tasted like. Being from Sunmark, I would venture some kind of sweet tart.
Even though we’re the same age you have a much better memory of candy from the 70s/80s, but now I’m starting to remember a lot more. Had the UFO candy & of course I remember the container a lot more than the candy itself. Keep up the good work.