Halloween Treats

Today, you don't associate Welch's with candy, but Welch's was a confection leader with products like Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies, Junior Mints, Pom Poms, and many more that have been bought and sold—and have come and gone. These 1960s store ads really set the mood for a fun night of Trick or Treating!

Stark Candies made some very iconic candy boxes in the 1970s. This is one of my favorites that I bought for only 35¢ when it came out. I can't recall what candy was actually in the box, so I filled it with candy corn. You can't go too far wrong with candy corn at Halloween!

This bag of Scary Worms by Mayfair Candies look like something out of the 1970s, but they were bought new in 1998. And yes, SCARY WORMS! Mayfair is giving ample warning to the faint of heart. And, of course, scary candy only gets scarier after it's been sitting around for over 20 years and rigor mortis has set in to these rubbery gummy worms!

Palmer Chocolates knew what the kids wanted when it came to Halloween treats in the 1980s. They wanted to... WOLF IT DOWN! RAH–OOOOOOOO!!!! And if you preferred to nibble, you could take a VAMPBITE! But watch out for that dripping blood on the vampire bat's fang!

Candy filled sticks were a popular Halloween treat for many decades. These, by the E. Rosen Company of Pawtucket, Rhode Island are probably from the 1970s. I love the simple stylized characters; the main reason kids wanted this candy. Let's face it—these candy balls were not exactly the greatest treat in candy history.

Founded in 1912, E. Rosen was known for it's highly collectible and creative plastic candy containers. In 1998, the company was sold to Sherwood Brands who appear to no longer manufacture any of the original E. Rosen products.

I can't put an exact date on these E. Rosen candy containers, but they are most likely from the late 1980s or 1990s, making them one of the last products produced by the company.

When you want Halloween candy, who ya' gonna call?! GHOST BUSTERS! Just make sure it's "The REAL Ghostbusters." You don't want any of that phony Ghostbusters candy, now do you? This package by Alma Confections is from 1989 with the mail-in offer ending on December 31, 1990. From what I've seen on line, this appears to fall under the category of "hard to find."

In 1974, Filmation had a live action Saturday morning TV show called "Ghostbusters" starring "F-Troop's" Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch.

When Columbia Pictures made their blockbuster "Ghostbusters" feature film in 1984, they had to obtain the rights to the title from Filmation. However, Filmation still owned the rights to the title for other purposes, and they decided to cash in on the success of the movie in 1986 by creating a "Ghostbusters" cartoon. Columbia also had plans to create a "Ghostbusters" cartoon at the same time, so they had to resort to calling their cartoon "The Real Ghostbusters." Confused? Don't worry about it. Just eat some candy!

BOOooOOooOO.... I'M SCARED! It's BUBU LUBU! Riconino's original packaging from the late 1980s and early 1990s for this Mexican candy bar was a collector's dream! A simple, bold classic ghost made this candy intriguing and mysterious. Sadly, his days on this earth were numbered.

By 2004, Ricolino turned our lovable ghost into a snowman with gloves and a scarf. To be fair, he is still technically a ghost, but let's face it—he's a snowman. This decision was probably in response to the fact that many people like to freeze the bar and then eat it. And like many things today, we can't have too much fun, so now the snowman-ghost has been retired and replaced with a health conscious strawberry and a picture of the candy bar. All I have to say is--BOOOOOOOOOO!

Alma Confectionery of Scotland struck gold when they released Skull Crushers, a milk flavored candy with a strawberry fondant filling that oozed like BLOOD when you bit into them. First released in 1982, Skull Crushers turned Alma into a candy empire. So, if Jaw Breakers don't intimidate you enough... try crushing your skull!