Classic Commercial Sunday - #47 Brady Edition

Here's a nifty little video someone threw together featuring three different commercials staring child actors who later went on to become known as members of The Brady Bunch.

Elephant Tragedy

My wife and I both received text messages today from friends informing us of a fire that had burned down Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum in nearby Orrtanna, PA. Mr. Ed's was a cherished old-school roadside attraction that has been featured in countless books, magazine articles and documentaries about wacky, tacky and off-beat tourist attractions.

My family and I are lucky enough that we had recently made the 35 min. trek out to Mr. Ed's on a beautiful afternoon this past spring. The little shack on the side of Rt. 30 housed thousands upon thousands of elephant items that the owner, Mr. Ed, had collected over the past 40+ years.

In addition to figures and stuffed animals there were old toys, promotion items, jewelry...anything you can imagine with an elephant on it! The collection was originally displayed in two very long rooms, but recently the collection had busted out of the museum and began to line the walls of the shop surrounding the Elephant Museum. In recent years, Mr. Ed also put some work into the outside of the museum where there were many large elephant statues as well as a beautiful fish pond and some neat little paths.

Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum was also home to a wonderful candy shop that sold all sorts of candy for very reasonable prices. All the standards were there, along with tons of hard to find candies and some old fashioned varieties that you just can't find anywhere else. On our most recent trip, my son was delighted to find a maple sugar cake, which we had read about in an old book.

Old fashioned, low-tech family attractions like Mr. Ed's are as common as they used to be...and that's a crying shame! The collection at Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum is truly irreplaceable. Luckily, Mr. Ed has already announced that he plans to rebuild and reopen his elephant mecca very soon. I will miss the original museum, but I also can't wait to see what Mr. Ed has in store for us next!

You can read a newspaper article about the fire: here.

There's also this photo page that I made after my first visit in 2005, which can be viewed by clicking here!

Classic Commercial Sunday - Easter Edition

Happy Easter! Today for Classic Commercial Sunday we present two of the most fondly remembered Easter commercials of all time...

Viva Las Reese Cup!

Yesterday when I was looking for a little something-something to satisfy my sweet tooth I came across this glorious new product sitting on the candy shelves - Reese's Limited Edition Elvis Peanut Butter & Banana Creme cups. First of all, I love products trying to cash in on a dead celebrity. Second, I love Hershey/Reese's Limited Edition products (Pina Colada Almond Joy we miss you!) And I love Banana flavored anything, so what a perfect combination! Anywho, these are certainly tasty little creations worth a try. They kind of do taste like a Peanut Butter and Banana sandwich, of which Elvis was known to down a couple in his day! The candy adds the taste of banana to the popular Reese's Cup flavor. You can definitely taste the banana but it's not too powerful, it mixes well with the Peanut Butter. The new product comes in four different Elvis wrappers if you happen to collect such things. Unfortunately one of the wrappers does not feature 1970's fat Elvis who would have eaten a couple dozen of these Reese's Cups in one sitting!

Japanese Thomas Candy Wrappers

Today we feature these funky little candy wrappers from Thomas the Tank Engine candy made in Japan. I picked up the pack of candy back in March while I was at Walt Disney World. In the Japan pavilion at Epcot there is a large store run by Mitsukoshi, a four-century-old retail company. The stores sells all kinds of stuff like kimonos, housewares, and books but my favorite section is (of course) the food! They have all kinds of wild candy and snack items. My very favorite item (and it's become a tradition to pick some up) is Shrimp Chips! Yummy! Shrimp Chips are like a cross between Andy Capp's Pub Fries and Crinkle Cut french fries, except they taste like shrimp! Good Eats! I also like to pick up some Rice Candy which is also so very good. When we were in Epcot earlier this Spring, I also grabbed some Thomas candy, and something called Hi-Chew which was kind of like Starbrust but way better! I tell you what, if I ever went to Japan I wouldn't sleep in one of those hotels where you lay in a tube, but I would get my candy on...Godzilla style!

More Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Toys

Internet searches for toys based on the Disney Channel preschool series MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE continue to be the number one generator of traffic for this website so now I feel as if it's my duty to provide news on new products in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse line up. I snapped a pic of these new BENDABLE BUDDIES sitting on the shelf at Target. They are basically stuffed animals of Mickey and the gang. They have a wire frame inside that allows you to move their arms and feet and they will stay in place. Not too much unique here except the first chance to get Minnie dressed in her pink outfit from the show. All the other characters pretty much wear their traditional outfits, but Minnie who sports the pink dress and bow instead of her trademark red and white polka dot dress and bow. Perhaps it was easier to animate without the polka dots or perhaps they wanted to make Minnie a little more girlie!?

Mickey's Counting Glove is one of those items that went from first eye-contact to shopping cart in under 3 seconds! When you slide on Mickey's four fingered glove, you'll have to slide two of your fingers into one of Mickey's. You can go around the house and pick up or just touch things and Mickey will count them for you. He counts all the way up to 100 with ya. Or you can play a find it game, where Mickey might ask you to find seven chairs in the house. The glove has no idea if your touching a chair or an aquarium but Mickey counts along with ya and offers encouragement when you reach your goal. The third mode on the glove is Silly Sounds, instead of counting the glove makes silly cartoon sound effects when something is touched or held. Overall, it's a cute little toy even though you only get one glove in the box. They should provide a second, non-counting glove, so you can have two Mickey hands at once!

Not a CLUBHOUSE product, but still fun nonetheless is this giant box of Disney Gummi Favorites we found at BJ's this week. The Mickey Gummi Swirls have been out for a while but now they are in little .9oz bags for quick snacking or lunches. They are pretty tasty little candies with a creamy/fruity taste. The Finding Nemo Gummi Fish are standard fish shaped Gummi Bears but with a nice little squirt of liquid inside each one! Good eats! And of course when you buy them at BJ's, you get 50 little bags in one giant box!