Brazilian Sticker Album - Editôra Vecchi

Lotario Vecchi and his brother Arturo founded Editôra Vecchi in Rio de Janeiro in 1913 after relocating from Italy.  Lotario returned to Italy and later founded Edisioni Lampo in 1939, leaving Arturo to run Vecchi.  The company originally focused on women’s novels (one can assume this means romance novels) but in 1929 began publishing comic books, for which the company would become famous.  The range of titles was large, reprinting content from famous comics around the world including Tex from Italy, Mad Magazine from the US, Smurfs from Belgium, and numerous Gold Key, Fawcett, and Charlton comic books.  From the late 1940s through at least the 1970s the company also created a range of sticker books on a wide array of topics, including Disney.  The company suffered financial problems in the early 1980s, forcing the company to close in 1983.

Os Livros de Ouro da Juventude #16 - Alice no Pais das Maravilhas

Vecchi printed an Alice in Wonderland sticker book, essentially a Portuguese version of the Italian Lampo sticker book which had been published in 1952 (we'll see that one in a future post).  There were at least two printings of this Brazilian version, one in the late summer of 1958 (dated July, August, September), the other in the winter of 1959 (dated January, February, March).  The book has the same format as the Italian, including all art, with 32 pages holding 240 stickers, each page separated by a velum sheet.  The album itself could be purchased for Cr$5, with stickers sold for Cr$5 per 15, although they could be purchased in quantities of 15, 30, or 45 stickers at a time.

The art is pretty nice on this book, with the weird brown line art on the pages being only slightly bizarre.

Interstitial art in these stickers book, no matter which country, tend to be a little weird, likely because that art was done in-house, whereas the primary art on the cover and stickers was likely done by the studio or at least the officially sanctioned artists for that country or region.

The individual stickers have text on the back describing the scene and providing the number so they could be properly placed in the book.

Happy 2020! And Boy Has It Been Hectic!

So I'm only 6 weeks late on my New Year's post, but I have an excuse.  Well, part of one anyway.  We had a major SNAFU here at the Wonderland blog, or more accurately in the Tulgey Wood.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, we had a pipe burst and flooded the Tulgey Wood! 

Fortunately we got off pretty easy since Wendy was home at the time and was able to get people out to start correcting things almost immediately.  Losses have been - not minor - but not tragic by any means.  It has just been a real pain and reconstruction has only just begun.  We'll see how we fare once it is all said and done.

But, to leave you on a better note, here is a lovely picture of the cover of the sticker album that goes with the wrapper that is this year's banner.  Post to follow...eventually.

Royal Stars of Wonderland Card Album

Wow, something I thought I'd never find.  You may recall this post from 2009 on the Royal Pudding premium cards that appeared on the backs of the boxes.  Each box bore one of sixteen different images from the film (I still need five - hint hint), and also on the back was an advertisement to send away for a collectible album in which to store your fantastic cards.  This is that album.  Woohoo!

 I confess, I was expecting something a little more impressive, but I guess I shouldn't have done.  After all, Royal made MANY different 'Stars' sets, and I'm sure it was way more efficient to create a single album that could contain any set.

The album contains 8 pages with very thin plastic envelopes, holding a total of sixteen cards.  Now if I could just find the remaining cards ....

1963 Topps Temporary Tattoos

In 1963 Topps made a series of Disney character temporary tattoos that were printed on the inside of the wrapper of individual pieces of bubble gum, kinda like Bazooka bubble gum comic strips.  Oddly, the name of the gum was Tatoo Bubble Gum [sic] - I guess they felt that purposefully misspelling the word tattoo would prevent kids from getting real ones later in life.  We know these are from 1963 because the wrapper advertises the new Disney feature Summer Magic.

Currently I only have a March Hare tatoo, and it is amazing that even this one survived - after all why would you as a kid buy tattoo bubble gum if you weren't going to use the tattoo?  But I know there was at least an Alice and a Mad Hatter as well.  How do I know this?

Because I was fortunate enough to purchase the original art for all three of these tatoos from the Topps archive.  And tiny pieces of art they are too.

For more information on these Topps Tatoos, check out the amazing Topps Archive Blog (which I don't think is affiliated with the Topps Archive).

Italian Ferrero Premium Cards

Italian chocolatier Ferrero, best known in this country for those yummy balls of chocolate hazelnut goodness wrapped in gold foil, created a set of premium cards in the 1950s featuring LOTS of Disney characters.  Here we see three Alice characters:  Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the March Hare.

Given the numbers on the back, one can assume that there were at least 3 more Alice characters in the set, probably more.  I do know that number 38 is Flower from Bambi, so there probably aren't any more Alice characters earlier in the series, but the next number I know for sure is 48 (Bongo).

And, of course, there are variations.  Sigh.

Gorman's Brand Bread End Seal Label Fill-In Picture

A recent discovery, yet another local bakery participating in the Alice bread end seal promotion previously discussed in these posts.

Gorman's Bakery was located in Central Falls, RI.  This makes a total of four different bakeries that I am aware of that participated in this promotion.  I wonder how many more there were?

Skylark Brand Bread End Seal Label Comic Advertisement and Picture

Imagine my surprise when I came across this newspaper comic ad for the exact same bread label promotion as the NBC one, this time not only with the fill-in picture included in the ad, but for yet another different brand of bread!

Skylark was apparently the Safeway store brand of bread. This now makes a total of three bakeries that carried this promotion that I am aware of. I wonder how many other regional bakeries participated? I'll probably never know for sure.

But most importantly, this ad has something that the previous ad does not: a comic strip on the back. Why is this important you may ask? Because comic strips are all dated.

The back contains the full Sunday strip for a Red Ryder comic strip. And it does indeed have a date. Sunday, March 2nd. That would place this ad in 1952. Wow.

That is VERY late for an Alice promotion. At least for a successful one. Perhaps this is why the labels are so hard to find? By spring of 1952 Alice was pretty much gone from the theaters, and was considered a "less than successful Disney release" (ahem). Any promotion occurring so late in the game was most likely doomed to failure.

NBC Bread End Seal Label Fill-In Picture

And here we have it, a completely filled in NBC Bread Fill-In Picture. Somebody back in the day had a lot of patience and a steady hand; some of those corners are really tight.

This is what one looks like not filled in. But the best part is on the back.

I have never read anything quite so horrifying as the ad copy on the back of this thing. It reads like some sort of gruesome fairy tale. "Hey kids, here's our anthropomorphic whole grain friend about to be crushed to death and baked in a commercial oven. Zingo!"

Just last week I discovered a variant of this fill-in picture, for the Schmidt's Blue Ribbon brand. Schmidt's is a regional bakery out of Baltimore, MD that is still in business today. In fact, according to their (very outdated) website, they are the largest independent bakery in the mid-Atlantic. I am particularly fond of their potato-based hamburger buns (yum!).


This item is available in the Wonderland Bazaar.

NBC Bread End Seal Label Fill-In Picture Comic Advertisement

The primary goal of any promotional campaign is to sell more stuff. When you are targeting children, what better place to advertise than in the Sunday comics?

This is an advertisement for the Alice series of end seals on NBC bread, as printed in the comics pages. I never knew that Nabisco also baked bread. When I first got this I was hoping there was a comic strip or something other than another ad on the back side of this, so I could date it. But alas, such was not the case, no date to be had.

NBC Bread End Seal Label - White Rabbit

Last but not least we have the White Rabbit, looking particularly excited in this rendering, perhaps he's finally ahead of schedule.


This item is available in the Wonderland Bazaar.

NBC Bread End Seal Label - Walrus

The Walrus with his trusty stogey and cane, a more shiftless character on a bread label I've never seen.

NBC Bread End Seal Label - Tweedledee & Tweedledum

As with most items, the Tweedle twins share a label. Perhaps they were once Siamese twins, and don't like to be apart?

NBC Bread End Seal Label - Queen of Hearts

Looking surprisingly good natured here, the Queen is a particularly tough label to find.

NBC Bread End Seal Label - March Hare

Jerry Colona would be proud, the March Hare even looks like him!


This item is available in the Wonderland Bazaar.

NBC Bread End Seal Label - Mad Hatter

Mad Hatter's looking more testy than mad in this pose, perhaps his tea was off.

NBC Bread End Seal Label - King of Hearts

And the king (hooray!).

NBC Bread End Seal Label - Dodo

Aside from the Goebels, when have you ever seen a Dodo?

NBC Bread End Seal Label - Cheshire Cat

Finally, a vintage item with the Cheshire Cat! You would've thought there'd be more stuff with him on it...

NBC Bread End Seal Label - Carpenter

Next up is the carpenter, getting ready to ply his trade and whip up a Seafood shack.


This item is available in the Wonderland Bazaar.

NBC Bread End Seal Label - Card Painter

Continuing the NBC label series we have the Card Painter. I must say this is a very odd character to feature, there are several other characters I would have thought would warranted inclusion before a card, like the Caterpillar or the Dormouse.