ChocoLoto Bars: Chocolate and Cash!

 

Sitting in the dining hall of the Satellite we have access to retrieving artifacts from the 80s. Seeing that this Satellite has decided to stall in the 80s I figured just for fun I would sent one of our crew on the hunt for a childhood favorite treat of mine…Lowneys ChocoLoto Bars! Lock in coordinates to 1982 computer…Initiate!

Begin Transmission: 05/18/2016

In 1982, not to sound like an old curmudgeon, but money went a long way on trips to the corner store. If you were fortunate enough to land 2 bucks you were a champ! On visits to my Grandmothers in a desolate rural town called Harcourt that may as well have been my childhood Tatooine, I managed to get the best visits to the corner stores. The town was about a 40 minute drive from the thriving metropolis that I lived in. To be clear any town you lived in, if you didn’t travel much, was always the biggest cause it was the center of your universe as was Clarenville to me..but I digress.

During numerous sleep overs at my Grandparents house I was always spoiled in the sense that I would always be given money almost any time I needed then jump on my bike and drive a very short ways to Holloway’s Grocery which was literally two doors away. I was always treated well by the lady who worked there (Shout Out to Audrey!!) and they always called you by name, which I appreciated as a kid! Being a little bit off the beaten track this store seemed to have older treasures still on the shelves  in 1982 but that was a great thing for me as you would always find that one treat in there that you didn’t expect to find that in hindsight may have been sitting on their shelves from opening day. It was here I gained a great coloring book collection as dictated in a previous article. I loved that store though as I always came away with something great like a Buck Rogers coloring book or the item in question in this article..the Chocoloto Bar!

For those of you who do not remember it was a Bar with a bright green wrapper which featured a mint bar inside that one would liken in today’s world to a Laura Secord Mint Chocolate Bar but its key feature was that inside the wrapper if you peeled it carefully without destroying it you could win prizes! Inside the wrapper you could be alerted to a free giveaway like a T-Shirt..One of the very rare images of that T-Shirts thankfully still exists as per below..

The other prize was MONEY!! Well money wasnt simply placed in the bar wrapper but it was printed on the inside of the wrapper in coins. If I recall you could win 5, 10, and 25 Cents within these wrappers. This was pretty sweet as the bar its self was usually only 30 cents to purchase! You could save them up as well depending on how many bars you would buy you could come off with a good amount of money from these things depending on that appetite..I had little will power and always cashed in my money for candy and other confectionary goodness! One tragedy was he fact that I never won one of the shirts. I do remember loving the taste…the mint chocolate wasnt the norm back. In that time things like Laura Secord was something that the high rollers who lived in the big city would have but for this kid in small town Harcourt NL it was perfection.

Stop by and say hi to Audrey and the gang at Holloways Grocery one of my favorite stores ever as a kid!

Playing outside on my bike with a few kids from the area with your Drink, foil bag Hostess Potato Chips and me with my Chocoloto Bar life was all I needed it to be! So if you ever visit Harcourt and you head to Holloway’s Grocery, ask for a Chocoloto Bar..they wont have any but maybe they will remember old Hero here cleaning them out with my Grandparents coins!! Life is short gang…remember to smell the roses and hold on to the good memories!

Transmission Ended…Time to eat some Chocoloto!

 

 

 

 

 

Flash Transmissions: Hostess Rocks

Flash Transmissions: Sept 9th 2015

Begin Transmission:

I do not have to remind anyone about my love for snacks..more specifically Hostess Potato Chips. In a previous archived post right here on the Satellite I went in detail about the Canadian Potato Chip company that created a national brand for Canadians that is still remembered to this day.

 

Got The Munchies..

 

Remembering Hostess and all their giveaways, mascots and promotions is always fun for me when reflecting on childhood with friends. The original post  (Click here to read The Hostess Potato Chip Story) went into detail on the sticker giveaway promotions inside each bag of tasty chips. I touched on more specifically the WWF giveaway sticker collections which I hunted down vigorously as a kid. The WWF sticker set were not the only collections that Hostess released. There were two lesser known sets that you may or may not remember. One was based on movies (Coming soon!!)..the others were..well read on below!

Hostess Rock Sticker Giveaway. Forgotten Gems..

The Hostess Rock collection were a set of giveaway promotion mini stickers exactly like the WWF sets released previously with the exception that they featured popular music album covers popular in the day!!

You had the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Honeymoon Suite, Mick Jagger, Ozzy Osborne and more..Each sticker had a white peel off back that had the name of each sticker on them. You could find these stuck to everything in the 80s like lockers, lunch boxes, exercise books, and everywhere you could imagine.

               Credit for Collection Photos: Jonathan Parsons

These stickers, though fondly remembered by enthusiasts like myself, are kind of like a forgotten afterthought to the general public. Fortunately I always have a photographic memory for such things but sadly could not even find any photographic proof of such a collection. Even super powered Google search failed to generate results. No matter who I discussed these stickers with no one could positively recall these stickers. I was beginning to think I was alone in my fond recollection of this rare set of collectible’s . .that is until month when during a lunch break at work, a general nostalgia conversation with a Co-worker seemed to be generating steam. Usually I carry the load in any retro conversation about 80s Pop Culture but this particular individual was going toe to toe with me in his memories of 80s junk culture like comics, movies and the like.

That is when I broke out the Coup De Gras…Hostess trivia! He easily recalled the WWF sticker collection citing numerous stickers in the collection..I was impressed. Feeling a need to reclaim my status as the company retro specialist I decided it was time to shut this guy’s knowledge down but going to Hostess Rock Sticker land. Surely he would not recall one thing about these…heck Google could not provide a single result..nor could Wikipedia bail any info seekers out. So I went there..

                                 One Of Hostess Rarest Collections

“Do you remember Hostess Rock Sticker Collection?” I triumphantly boasted? With a smile and a grin he responded that not only did he remember them he HAD the entire collection at home!!! Impossible!! Could it be the holy grail of snack giveaways could live in someone’s collection in my city? Not only was he telling the truth the gentlemen took photos of his collection from his families sticker album. I was speechless there they all were in their glory..for once I had been defeated in a game of retro roulette but it was a victory because now the myth of the Hostess Rock Sticker collection was a proven fact!

The collection photos are compliments of my fellow Co-worker, Jonathan Parsons of St Johns Newfoundland Canada in all its glory.
Remember these? Anyone who has a memory or these giveaways or others please drop us a comment below and tell us all about them..

That’s all for now Heroes..join us again soon as The Superhero Satellite takes orbit again..

Transmission Ended..

“Nothing Else Will Do..” The Hostess Potato Chip story!

Well its break time on The SuperHero Satellite. So I have stopped the time travel coordinates in 1994 My team of Heroes and I have gathered in the break hall deep in the center of the Satellites hull. While the Satellite undergoes repairs I thought it would be fun to remember one of the best snack food of the 70s, 80s and early 90s..the Canadian institution known as Hostess Potato chips! So relax with a bottle of New Coke or Crystal Pepsi and have a bag of Hostess chips and tell em Hero sent ya..To my Canadian readers out there who remember these, fondly raise a bag a chips in the air one time for me in memory of this amazing time in snacking history! Before we begin FULL credit for this post goes to my good friends at http://www.retroist.com who posted a great blog post on Hostess earlier this month. Check out their site. I have posted a link to their site and Hostess article at the end of this post! Thanks guys! Now on to some eating memories!

Hostess Potato chips a Canadian Cultural Institution!

The 80s were a time of change in Pop Culture. Music had taken off with the advent of the music video. Video games were entering people’s living rooms in mass numbers thanks in part originally to Atari and Nintendo a little later. Computers were growing, but not yet to the mainstream level they are at in today’s world. Cartoons were on fire. He-Man, Thundercats, Go-Bots, She-Ra, G.I. Joe, you name it..we had it on out TV screens in the 80s. Of course all of these activities were often accompanied by the tradition staples of a kids diet in the 80s, Soda, Candy, and Hostess Potato chips!! Hostess was the main potato chip brand sold in Canada and they were awesome!! For far less than a dollar you could take home one of these paper foil bags of goodness! Hostess had a very clever marketing campaign.

The chips themselves were different than their U.S.counterparts in that the chip was heavier, seemed to have more salt, came in a flashy foil paper bag and came in several flavors that those across the border did not have unless they visited their Canadian neighbors! We had..Ketchup (Red Bag), Sour Cream and Onion (Light Pastel Green Bag), Roast Chicken (Dark Brown Bag), Dill Pickle (Dark Green Bag), Pizza (Tri-coloured Red White and Green Bag), Salt and Vinegar (Golden Yellow Bag), Plain (Blue Bag), Ripple (Darker Blue Bag).

Hostess packed a whallop with their flavors. Sour Creme and Onion was a force to be reckoned with!

Hostess had three mascots called Munchies which were multi-colored (Red, Orange, Yellow!) well…Munchies. Many full scale Munchie mascots made the rounds in all parts of Canada at all kinds of grocery stores and major events. You could be you could see a Munchie anywhere! Of course when the Munchies were around, free chips were sure to follow! What I fondly remember most about the Hostess brand, outside of the Munchies, and the fact the chips themselves were amazing..they always had some sort of giveaway inside!! They had baseball stickers, music stickers, Star Trek The Next Generation mini trading cards, and even Movie related stickers and things like Dick Tracy sweepstakes!

Hostess had the BEST giveaways in Chip history..Bar None!

Who knew the folks at Hostess were Trekkies!

The most often revered giveaway were the WWF Wrestlemania wrestling stickers!!  Like video games and music, Pro Wrestling was red hot in the 80s and names like Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Macho Man Randy Savage were all household names.

 

Hostess capitalized on the World Wrestling Federations biggest event WrestleMania, and produced not one, but two full sets of stickers! You could get all of the big names like The Hulkster Hulk Hogan, The Hot Rod Rowdy Roddy Piper, Tito Santana, Don The Rock Muraco, King Kong Bundy and journeymen like Outback Jack and HillBilly Jim!!, etc. Series two featuring Wrestlemania 4 had Tag Teams like The Demolition, The British Bulldogs, and The Rougeau Brothers, Strike Force and The Islanders!!

The stickers were fiercely sought after and it was always a race with my circle of friends to see who completed the set first. Of Course that meant that you had to eat a TON of Hostess Potato Chips! A fair trade in one mans opinion. I had the advantage in the second series as my father happened to be a Soft Drink rep who had friends in the Potato chip market. Yep! One Saturday evening I sifted through two CASES of chips opening every bag (48 in total) and completed my collection well ahead of any of my friends. The elusive British Bulldogs sticker was uncovered on bag number 46!

 

 

Hostess was a Canadian institution and The Munchies were a part of Canadian Pop Culture like Mickey Mouse was to Disney however it would all come to and end when Hostess was purchased by power house Pepsi Co, who bought all existing rights to the company. Hostess had already paired with Frito Lay the U.S . Potato chip juggernaught, and at that time were still known as Hostess /Frito Lay but the brand name Hostess remained front and center. However the Chip market had changed with many house brands being sold by super markets at a far more discounted price, Another serious concern were the rise of several “Boutique” brands like Pringle’s, which took a large chunk out of the Hostess bottom line. In tough times the decision was made to re-brand the product and start fresh.

The Munchies were the Mickey Mouse of Canadian Pop Culture!

Hostess officially became Lays and with that their entire product line was revamped. Some key flavors such as Hickory Sticks, Dill Pickle and Ketchup were retained in certain Canadian markets but the for the most part the Hostess name itself disappeared. The Hostess name is still featured prominently on one particular bag of chips as our lone reminder of the beloved brand. Hickory Sticks are the only remaining Hostess product out there that resembles the original product that carries the Hostess logo!! The legacy of Hostess lives on however in ways that many might find surprising!

If you look closely the Munchies are hidden in places you do not expect. I smile every time I see them!

Not in years has a chip giveaway been such an event but Hostess always brought a level of excitement to the Potato Chip market in Canada. Heck, most of us Canadians know that Hostess was a precursor to the legacy of one of the worlds most famous chip..DORITOS!! Hostess got into the Tortilla market in the mid 80s by releasing Taquito’s. There were exactly two flavors, Nacho Cheese (Which much later became Zesty Cheese) and Taco flavor. Nacho Cheese would later be absorbed by the Frito Lay company and morph into Doritos Zesty Cheese, while the Taco flavor seemed bound to retro obscurity. Doritos themselves in the past two years paid homage to this retro flavor and released a limited edition Taco flavor complete with stylized retro packaging! Safe to say I took full advantage of these while they came back temporarily!

This homage to Hostess Taquitos Taco flavor made me very happy. Guess what they nailed the taste as well. Great work Doritos!

Hostess is fondly remembered by Canadians! Every now and then I will see a Munchie on an old sign or a T-Shirt and smile. Chips will always be around ..but remember..

“When you’ve got the Munchies..Nothing else will do..Hostess Potato Chips!”

Like this post? Why not leave a comment or talk with me directly on Twitter @Charlton_Hero . Join the conversation using #SuperHeroSatellite.

For more Hostess fun and all other retro madness you MUST visit http://www.retroist.com/2013/07/12/remember-hostess-potato-chips/