Tis the season.. for retro sweets!

I dig this time of year when multitudes of sweets start hitting the shelves. This is especially the case with retro goodies!  Here are some of the great items I've spotted over the last couple of weeks..

Something about this time of year gets folks nostalgic for collectors tins, and there appears to be no shortage of great tins this holiday season..

M&M's Tin with retro art

 Very nice Whitman's Sampler Tin

 Two of my all time favorite candies..

RED HOTS and BOSTON BAKED BEANS!

Great looking Nestle' Tins

Double or TRIPLE your pleasure and fun..

with these great Wrigley's tins!

"Famous Amos" cookie tin,
with great classic Disney art

I just discovered that a store in my town called Michael's has a dedicated Retro candy section.  99% of the candy they sell, are brands of candy I used to enjoy as a kid.  Pictured on this shelf are Life Savers, Necco wafers, Fruit Stripe gum, Pop Rocks, and Cinnamon toothpicks.

I used to love Gold Mine bubble gum.  The pieces of chewing gum resembled little gold nuggets freshly panned from a river.  After they were all gone, I'd keep the miniature gunny sacks and use them to hold army men, coins, different types of candy, and all kinds of other stuff that a 10 year old boy tends to carry around.  Wax Lips still appear to be popular to this day, as the display box was nearly empty.

Hot Tamales and Mike & Ike candies

Hot Tamales and Mike & Ike are both made by the "Just Born" candy company.  I probably ate my weight in these things during the 70's and 80's.  Depicted on the retro boxes above are the original 50's box art.  The design I remember most as a kid however, was the Hot Tamale box with the little Mexican boy known as "The Hot Tamale kid".  If I'm not mistaken, they even had merchandising in the form of toys or dolls of "The Kid".  I believe I read somewhere that this design (much like the Frito Bandito) was deemed as being politically incorrect, and therefore was discontinued.

Just Born also had several other versions of candy that looked similar to Hot Tamales, only in different colors and flavors.  For instance, one variety was called "Cool Kids", a green colored spearmint candy that featured Eskimo children on the box art.  Another was "Jolly Joes", which were purple in color, and featured a clown playing a banjo on the boxes. Then you had "Root-T-Toot", a Root Beer flavored candy with a cute looking tug boat character that graced the boxes.  Finally.. there was "Jack and Jill" Just Born's answer to Hershey's "Good and Plenty" licorice candy.  I'd so love for every one of these flavors along with the old box art to be re-released.. even if only for a short time.  

Tootsie Roll banks

It's nice to see Tootsie Roll banks still available after all of these years.  However.. it obvious that they've shrunk in size.  I remember these banks being almost double the height they are nowadays.

Tootsie Pop Drops

I used to really love Tootsie Pop Drops as a kid.  I haven't seen them for sale in a very long time, but it appears they've released a special edition peppermint flavor for the holidays.

So that's some of the retro candy I've spotted thus far, early on in this holiday season.  If I come across any more items that strike a retro chord with me, I'll make sure to write about them here.