Random Collection Piece #9

Throughout the years of being a Ninja Turtle fan, my collection has been growing.  Every year I get something new that joins the collection.  Growing since 1989, I have over 500 Ninja Turtle toys out of package and over 300 in package, as well as books, animation cels, original comic art, scripts and so much more.  To cover all of this on Cowabunga Corner is not something I really think I can do.  Though I get a lot of questions about my collection, so I figured I could do random stories weekly to share one item in my collection.

This week’s item is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Toxic Ooze candy.  In the United States, this candy was sold at Hot Topic stores, though this one was not sold in the United States.  This last fall, my friend from Sweden, Slash, came to visit us and she gave me this as a gift.  She found it at a small candy shop in Sweden.

While the candy, the toy topper and images are all the same on this packaging as the US ones, the wording is different.  Small changes like on the US version the top says “Artificially Flavored”, this one from Sweden just says “Flavour”.  The biggest difference between the two packaging though is the color.  The US one is clear plastic with green candy inside, the sticker that has the image on it has a green background.  Though the Swedish one has white plastic was covered with orange, even the sticker with the main image and info for the front has an orange background.  So it stands out when sitting near my US collection of this candy.

For the purpose of having this in the collection, I have not done a taste test to see if the two candies taste alike.  I’m assuming that they would.  With the 4Kids logo on the back, I assume these were designed before the Viacom buy out.  Following that you can find the 2009 year marked on it.  The Swedish packaging has a best by date which was October 31st, 2011.  Slash tells me that she bought it earlier in 2011.  I know I would still see the TMNT candy at Hot Topic in 2011 too, so not too surprising.

The toys on the top of both the US and the Sweden version look the same, from coloring to size.  Even the bright orange cap that the toy sits on are the same for both versions.  So the only difference is the packaging below it.  This is the only one of the set I got from Sweden and I find it really cool!  Thanks Slash!

Anyone else have the Toxic Ooze candy from other countries?  If so, please tell us which country and what differences you see in our comment section below!  As always comments and questions are welcomed!