The bone shaped sweets/candy that were contained in these little plastic coffins were hard and chalky with not much taste; the bone shaped peices could be fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle to make a one armed, one legged skeleton [of which there is a diagram inside of the coffin lid]. Why on earth the skeleton only had one arm and one leg is a little strange. On top of the lid of the little coloured coffins was the name of the product 'BONE SHAKER' and underneath Candy BonBons. I think that most kids would of bought Bone Shakers essentially just for the coffin. These small shapely coffins came in a number of different colours, Red, orange, blue, green, and yellow [see pic, sorry its not very good] there may of been other colours, but I think these were the only ones. 'Bone Shaker' came out sometime during the 1980's and were made by Swizzels Matlow Ltd of Stockport. Anyone know of any magazine ads for Bone Shaker?
Oh wow I remember these, another 80's tresure, thanks for a great blast from the past.
ReplyDeleteI missed this lot but there was a similar range of black coffins around 1982 which contained a 2D badge of typical scary characters and some unmemorable sweetie.
ReplyDeleteI kept the unbearably cute coffin but the badge of an old witch got lost although it was quite good, in beige with red engraving, if I remember rightly.
lol I had the blue one...
ReplyDeleteAre these related??
ReplyDeletehttp://cgi.ebay.co.uk/horror-sweet-candy-badges-80s-retro-ghost-skeleton_W0QQitemZ330236715091QQihZ014QQcategoryZ60608QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The ebay link is the badges that came in the black plastic coffins.
ReplyDeleteQuite a morbid toy these and the Bone Shakers for children, but still very cool.
Yes, I still have one of those little coffins (an orange one). I missed this too, at Swizzels Matlow you could only purchase ugly candy hearts. What a petty indeed :(
ReplyDeleteWhat did these Ugly candy hearts look like, did they also come in a spooky container?
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!!! I remember these!!!
ReplyDeleteOMG, When did they stop them, I just had a flashback of them and found this site, I must have one somewhere, I loved the coffins but was afraid to open and close them too much and weaken the hinges lol...
ReplyDeleteIts as sad losing these than it is to lose the cardboard smartie tube and sherbert fountain cardboard tube...
Hi Crustybiker
ReplyDeleteNot sure when they actually stopped making these, not even sure when they first came. I know what you mean about those hinges on the coffin lids, bit flimsy. Would of been nice if the lid creaked when you opened it.
I know what you mean about the smarties and Sherbert dip tubes. Did you used to take out the bottom of them and blow through the tube to shoot the lid off?
Just found your blog!
ReplyDeleteInteresting to hear about "Bone Shakers"... here in the U.S. in the '80s they went by the name "Mr. Bones." Do Google search and you'll pull up a ton of images of the candy, coffins, etc. on other blogs.
I still have one of these with the sweets in it. Happy days.
ReplyDeleteI may still have a few of these around the house. I had white, red, green...
ReplyDeleteThese were one of those things you could find every year around Halloween.
FYI, this was in Ohio in the USA.
Me and my sister used these to bury our goldfish when they died. :+)
ReplyDeleteIs there any boxes or pictures of a display box that exist?
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm looking for some vintage sweets boxes from the late 80's early 90's and also some individual bits too. If anyone knows of a boneshaker box full or empty or the individual coffins I'm looking for those and also a garbage pail kids/garbage gang cheap toy box full or empty or the individual figures. I'm willing to pay good money for them so if you have any of that, let me know. Thanks all!
ReplyDelete