Wednesday, June 04, 2008

'Black plastic coffin and badges'



Similiar in a way to the 'Bone Shakers' coffin and candy product that I featured not so long ago, these small black plastic coffins also contained candy/sweets of somekind, can't remember what they were like, all I know is that they were very hard sweets, maybe boneshape? Anyway in each little coffin along with the sweets was a plastic badge which could come either in black on red, black on white, blue on white, or blue on yellow. The examples above show one of the black coffins and the different variations of colours of the characters which include:

from top left to right


Slime monster?

Frankenstein's Monster

Witch

Ghost

Dracula

2 Headed monster

Troll?

Mummy

Viking Ogre?

Hunchback

Headless Skeleton


Not sure of the exact names of some of the characters, just going by what they look like. I have no idea how many different characters there were or how long the coffins/badges were on sale and what sort of packaging they came in. These were available in the shops sometime during the early 1980's.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

Am I a bad person for liking the little mini coffin much more than the badges themselves?

Mr. Karswell said...

Wild! Pretty sure we had something like this here in the US too, the design of these characters is sparking something inside my fading memory vaults... the headless skeleton in particular seems very familiar.

Paul said...

Of course not Ursa, it is quite a cute coffin.

Karswell I can understand that there was probally something like this in America, these sort of things kids seem to love.

Anonymous said...

this is so the best website i've seen in ages. everything i was into as an 11 year old is here. think the badge-coffin-sweets were called SPOOKY CHEWS? And I am sure I had a red headless horseman in my set. Well done whoever had this collection – wanna sell it?! Right, geeking out now, bye bye **
e

Anonymous said...

this is the best site ever. i was obsessed with these and horror top trumps. I'm sure that the coffin sweets were called Spooky Chews. Respect for having a collection of them (I'll swap you for something?!) – I had a red and white headless horseman, my pride and joy....
cool cool cool

Paul said...

Hi
Thank you for the kind comments, I am glad that you are enjoying the site and it is bringing back fond memories for you.
Spooky Chews does sound a little familiar. If I or anyone comes across some more of these badges I'll let you know here in the comments section. Ebay is sometimes a good place to maybe find these sort of things. Its just the matter of knowing what to put in the search, I think I tried Horror badges, or spooky badges when I came across some.
All the best

Anonymous said...

Wow, brilliant! I buried my pet goldfish in one of the coffins! And they were definately called Spooky Chews! I love that there's other people who remember these!

Paul said...

Hi
I really love that idea of burying your goldfish in one of the black coffins, I wonder if others have done this kind of thing. There could be hundreds of these little black coffins buried all over with the remains of Goldfish, grasshoppers, flies, bees,spiders etc and you have to remember that the coffins will be still intact as maybe the creatures inside, all mummified.
Thanks for the confirmation on the name of the sweets.

Paul said...

I just remembered that I have a small metal box which looks a little like a casket and inside I have the skeleton of a very small bat that I found back in the 1980's
in of all places a village graveyard.

Richard said...

Great memories! Not sure you got the name right (spooky chews) but I can't remember the name either. lol

I had a collection of these badges and I remember saving one of the coffins. No idea where the hell they are now......but I will pop over to my mums and go through her attic to see if I can find any of them. Yep it was the early 80's. 83 and earlier as I remember I was in Junior School when I was going mad buying them.
I always thought the troll was actually a Werewolf? Maybe I am wrong but at the time it was a werewolf to me.

If I find them I will try to post a pic or something.
Rich

Paul said...

Hi Richard
I agree the Troll does look like a Werewolf. Any other pictures of the badges would be great to see, thank you.

Anonymous said...

I buried my goldfish in one of these. best sweet of the 80's

Paul said...

Fantastic, perfect for a goldfish.

Anonymous said...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12456473@N05/5400730272/

Here's the packet.

slugbait76 said...

Paul,

Cheers for this blog! Would you be interested in selling the badges you have?

Paul said...

Hi Slugbait76
Sorry but I don't really want to sell the badges at the moment but if I come across any I'll certainly let you know.
Can anyone help with getting any of these badges?

Brian Artillery said...

Somewhere, in my garden, there is one of those little coffins, containing the remains of a dead frog. I actually dug out a little burial chamber, about six inches long for it. The garden has been altered a lot since then. I only used to get them for the coffins. Good, morbid fun.