Wonka!

October 31, 2001 5:40 PM

Wonka! We'd be remiss to let halloween pass without a shoutout to one of the best candy companies ever. Very nice Flash work here, too. What's your favorite Wonka candy?
posted by andnbsp (29 comments total)

For the record, I think Oompahs are the best darn bite-sized fruity candy since Skittles.
posted by andnbsp at 5:46 PM on October 31, 2001

Was the movie based on the candy or the other way around? Shrewd marketing either way.

Nerds get my vote.
posted by starduck at 5:51 PM on October 31, 2001

"You, you with the fizzy-lifting drink..."
posted by clavdivs at 5:52 PM on October 31, 2001

Was the movie based on the candy or the other way around?

That question makes me feel either very old or very cynical. Or both.
posted by barkingmoose at 5:53 PM on October 31, 2001

Orange Nerds are The One. Originally they came in the Orange/Cherry dual pack, then they were renamed as elctro-orange and packed with some crappy flavor, and now they seem only available around Halloween in the orange "spooky" Nerds bag (again whith cherry, though black cherry now).

FYI: Nerds, even in the teeny boxes in the sealed plastic bags, do eventuially go stale, alas.
posted by NortonDC at 5:57 PM on October 31, 2001

Are Nerds microscopic Gobstoppers, or are Gobstoppers giant Nerds?
posted by phalkin at 6:01 PM on October 31, 2001

Nerds and Gobstoppers both evolved from a common ancestor which has long ago fallen extinct due to lack of marketability.
posted by marknau at 6:05 PM on October 31, 2001

The candy was based on the movie. There was going to be an actual Wonka Bar on the market. Unfortunately for the candy company though, a problem was discovered with the formula soon before the film was released (something to do with the bar melting after a certain amount of shelf time) and the bar was scrapped. I recommend the bonus features on the Wonka movie DVD.
posted by gluechunk at 6:08 PM on October 31, 2001

Oooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww. That's my cry of pain at the sinking realisation that every sacred memory of my childhood, in this case Roald Dahl books, can be co-opted into the corporate quest for my money.

(I got the same dismal feeling looking at the LOTR action figures in Toyworld on the weekend).

I don't WANT to eat Wonka candy, which can never be the perfection described in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I don't want a Harry Potter spellbook with rules for Quidditch in it. And I don't want some cheap-arse novelty trading on my affection for the original, one and only, platonic literary thingy-wotsit.

Ah well. Since it seems that Dahl wasn't a very nice man, I hope that at least his family are getting rich off this.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:19 PM on October 31, 2001

Spleen: this may make me sad and backwards, but I don't want a Harry Potter anything. The best thing coming is that Harry Potter will blow over as a mass merchandising phenom and this year's Nimbus 2000 will be blown out as a clearance item.
posted by shagoth at 6:23 PM on October 31, 2001

I've always liked Runts, although not the banana ones. Sorta like instant-payoff Gobstoppers--crunching the bit in the middle is always the best part.
posted by darukaru at 6:33 PM on October 31, 2001

"I recommend this book to anyone who likes chocolate and other candy".

But this is a good Dahl jumping-off point, I think.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:08 PM on October 31, 2001

Bugger. The cute review should have been here.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:10 PM on October 31, 2001

The Wonka popping chocolate. God, that shit is good.
posted by animoller at 8:18 PM on October 31, 2001

Gobstoppers. And Runts. But then, place any candy in front of me and I guarantee it will be gone in a flash.

In the case of Harry Potter, I too bemoan the mass merchandising, but boy, do I want a bag of Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
posted by KoPi_42 at 8:39 PM on October 31, 2001

I find Chewy Gobstoppers to be rare, but worth the hunt, round these parts.
posted by kevspace at 8:55 PM on October 31, 2001

I like the lickable wallpaper. The Strawberries taste like strawberries! The Snozzberries taste like Snozzberries!
posted by dogwelder at 8:59 PM on October 31, 2001

Willie Wonka move tie-in materials.

gluechunk, they really did market those bars; I remember buying them (at least, nagging my parents about buying them), though they were flawed as you describe. Interestingly, the same page claims that the movie was only made because Quaker tossed in $3 million in order to promote its new line of candy; backed up here, apparently the movie did come first but it was still Quaker's up-front investment that green-lighted the picture.

Seeing as how it's still one of the most subversively insane children's movies ever, it's a wonder it's so corporate in its creation.
posted by dhartung at 9:18 PM on October 31, 2001

What`s so subversive about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

The nice kid wins?
posted by chiheisen at 10:43 PM on October 31, 2001

What`s so subversive about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

The nice kid wins?

Most adults are portrayed as buffoons in Roald Dahl's books (I used to run a Roald Dahl site), which turns some parents off but makes the books very popular with kids. Also people meet very gruesome ends (or at the very least, have horrible things happen to them) in the books. Dahl's books are frequently challenged in libraries, as a matter of fact.
posted by lia at 11:38 PM on October 31, 2001

Thanks lia.

I had forgotten the bit about the stupid adults and I knew nothing of the library challenges.
posted by chiheisen at 11:44 PM on October 31, 2001

I'm sure I saw a TV show the other day on Roald Dahl's wife, who obviously became rather minted with the success of her husbands work. Consequently she developed a taste of the high-life, became an alcoholic, got hooked on tranqs and had to declare bankruptcy.

That my friends is the reaction to the 'dollar' action.
posted by Frasermoo at 12:38 AM on November 1, 2001

And then there's Sophie Dahl, Roald Dahl's niece. Yum.
posted by MarkC at 4:09 AM on November 1, 2001

My favorite were the lik-m-aid sticks!! Not the actual powder itself, but the sticks. At one point they actually made flavored lik-m-sticks - hadn't seen 'em in years. I still love the sticks!
posted by TuxHeDoh at 5:34 AM on November 1, 2001

My favorite was when I would go to Toys 'R' Us about two years ago and buy Wonka bars for a dollar. They were about the same size as in the movie and were chocolate with graham cracker chunks in them. YUM!! My wife and I were both addicted. I wish they still sold them...
posted by byort at 6:40 AM on November 1, 2001

they still do make wonka bars, with the chocolate and the graham. i had one at work last week.
posted by sugarfish at 9:08 AM on November 1, 2001

Thanks for the info, sugarfish. Consider yourself lucky!
posted by byort at 9:13 AM on November 1, 2001

"Theres no earthly way of knowing
Which direction they are going!
There's no knowing where they're rowing,
Or which way the river is flowing!
Not a speck of light showing,
So the danger must be growing,
For the rowers keep on ROWING
AND THEY'RE CERTAINLY NOT SHOWING
ANY SIGNS THAT THEY ARE SLOWING....

He's balmy.
He's nutty..."

from: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'
posted by clavdivs at 2:29 PM on November 1, 2001

'subversive' is am adjective often applied to Dahl. It's in his avoidance of aspartame happy endings and his outright cruelty to deserving characters, as well as his satire of the adult world as seen through the sometimes crystal clarity of children's eyes. In truth, he's closer to the spirit of the Grimm fairytales, as not bowdlerized by 20th century popular culture.
posted by dhartung at 6:10 PM on November 1, 2001