The Kellogg's Pep Pin

Friday, October 24, 2014
Overcast, raining and cooler

The Kellogg's Pep Pin

   A regular reader to my blog commented that he's starting to collect Kellogg's Pep pins. He comically wrote that he liked my post on Mr. Max Berry's penny toys, but his pocketbook was budgeted for less-expensive collectibles.  So he's started to collect Kellogg's Pep Pins. I thanked him for the comment, but I had no idea whatsoever what a Kellogg's Pep Pin was! Naturally, I did an immediate search and found the answer. My next step was to venture over to Liveauctioneers, find out if any had been sold or were to be sold, and then check which of the fine auctioneers who help me out might have sold them.

 Sure enough, Morphy Actions has sold them in one auction, and so I had my second post of the day ready. I'm looking to reach my 1000th post, so why wait, when I can add more posts and hit the milestone. Of course, I won't "pad" my blog just for the sake of hitting the 1000 mark, but if I can add an extra post in a day, why not?

Please click here to visit this fine American Auction Company

  Among the many fine auctioneers that have helped me out on my journey seeking interesting toys to write about, Mr. Dan Morphy was one of the first.  His company is located in  Adamstown, Pennsylvania, (USA), and is well-known in the auction community. He recently purchased Victoria Casino Antiques, another fine company that also have helped me out. They are located in LAs Vegas, Nevada, (USA).

It turns out that Kellogg's Pep Pins used to be inside an American breakfast cereal from Kellogg's called Pep. These were small lithographed images on a 3/4" ( 19 mm) pin that children would wear on their hats or shirts, and eventually collect them. The images were of comic book and newspaper characters of the time.At one time American and Canadian cereal manufacturers used to include "free" things inside cereal boxes. I can remember the sinking submarine. You load up the interior of the plastic submarine with baking soda, and somehow the sub would first sink , then rise, as the baking soda created oxygen bubbles and thus caused it to surface!

Of course, having been born in 1948, I never saw a box of Pep cereal. Perhaps it wasn't sold in Canada or it stopped being produced. But those pins are great, and I wouldn't have minded eating boxes and boxes of cereal to get those free pins!

 After you found the pin inside the box (before your other brothers and sisters had a chance), you also could read the back of the box with the comic's. That got you excited enough to polish off a couple of bowls of cereal, so your mother could restock the pantry with more cereal.

The "bad guys" or villains in 1945 were not as bad as today's super bad guys. 

Superman could easily deal with them. Today, you need a whole set of superheroes like the X-Men!

Most of the characters from the comic books and newspapers are no longer around, but I do remember in the 1950's having seen them in the newspapers.  I just had an idea for a future blog post - see if there are period newspaper character dolls that were in fact made!

The young collector below must have ratine a lot of cereal in his time!

Not only were there lithographed comic book characters, 

but there were common expressions of the time, that also are no longer around.

It's always great to receive comments from readers, and who would have known

 that it would lead me to find a unique post about Kellogg's Pep Pins.

The answer to the question about the penny toys:

The latest post had the more expensive starting bid prices.

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you my be, 

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com