Vintage Topps & Fleer Candy Containers!

When I was a kid (and I guess this still applies, now that I think about it), I was a sucker for candy containers. In fact, when me and my friends would load up on sugary goodness down at my local drug store after cashing in bags of cans and bottles (a major source of income for me as a kid), I was always the kid that gave the majority of his candy away and then asked his friends for their containers in lieu of them throwing them away. yeah, for me, it was more about the containers; usually those tiny character heads.

But today's post is about two of my all-time favorite candy containers from the early '80s, the classic Topps trashcan and Fleer fire-hydrant...

I've been searching for affordable vintage candy containers for a while now, and I guess everyone else has as well, because these babies are starting to get expensive. I can't even count how many auctions I've lost. But luckily, the collector gods chose to steer me towards these two pieces at the last toy show I attended a few weeks ago (I know, I'm trying to catch up) and I managed to get these for $5 for the pair.

I loved the trashcans as a kid and probably had a bajillion of the them. the candy inside was the typical fruit-tart fare in the shapes of stuff you'd throw away like fish bones and old bottles. I know I had at least a couple of the fire-hydrants as a kid, but for the life of me I can't remember what came inside of them.

 The best part of finding these two pieces is that once I got them home, I opened them up and a fruit-scented cloud of 30 year old sweet-smelling nostalgia wafted out of them.

I'm still trying to find one of the old Mr. Bones candy container coffins, but those babies are proving to be really hard to find. But that and maybe the old mini plastic lunch pail (remember those?) and my collection will be pretty complete.

At least now I have someplace for my action figures to throw away their trash....