Wednesday 19 February 2014

Fun With Huck

All the characters on the Huckleberry Hound show, even minor ones like everyone’s favourite dog Yowp, got a marketing push soon after the programme hit the air in 1958. Affable Huck was the bread-winner until he was usurped by the more aggressive Yogi Bear. Let’s peer around the internet and borrow some snapshots of some of the items a Huck fan 50-plus years ago might have wanted to get their mitts on. You can click on each picture to enlarge it.


Here’s a Huckleberry Hound Cartoon Kit from Colorforms, made in 1960. Colorforms is still around; you can check out their web site HERE if you want to read the history of the company. Other than the meece, the characters on the cover look like they were modified from Bick’s publicity or model sheets. It’s a shame the swimming hole scene wasn’t designed by one of H-B’s background artists of the day. Their work was more attractive than what Colorforms buyers got.



The Huck Hound Fan Club was still going in 1961 when this offer was made to kids (1961-62 was the last season new Huck cartoons were made). Check out more fan clubs stuff at THIS post.



Apparently Dell was more than just a comic book company. It was in the toy business, too. This Huck toy is six inches tall and was advertised in a Chip ‘n’ Dale comic with a cover date of June 1960



I suppose kids don’t play Cowboys and Indians any more. Well, they did when Harvell-Kilgore Sales Corp. of Bolivar, Tennessee made this in the 1960s. In this case, though, the kids might play Huck and Dirty Dalton. Wilma, don’t leave that gun around for Pebbles to play with!


Yeah, I know, this has nothing to do with Huck, other than to point out Hanna-Barbera was marketing characters before the Huck show went on the air. Transogram had a number of erasable picture games in the late ‘50s, including Mickey Mouse and Rin Tin Tin. This is from 1958. Professor Gizmo, Crossbones Jones, a Muni-Mula robot, the pirate parrot (I can’t remember if he had a name in the series) and Pinky the elephant are included on the cover. Transogram had some other games we’ve posted here before, including a Yogi ring-toss and a Snagglepuss Picnic board game featuring that fine cartoon dog Yowp in one of his last appearances.

If anyone has more information about these toys, please leave a note in the comment section.

5 comments:

  1. Top Cat gun? Never saw that one before. Wish they had done a Ricochet Rabbit one.

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  2. Yep, In those days, we played Cowboys and Indians..also Army. I remember the boxes of Kellogg's cereals with the " Huck Hound Club " offer. I think my younger brother may have sent off for a membership. I do remember my brother receiving a " Sugar Pops Pete " pistol and holster from Kelloggs. Boy, those were the days. Thanks for the memories, Yowp.

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  3. I like how the early colorforms have different pieces for each part of the body. That can make for hilarity at the hands of a demented cartoon fan.

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  4. PLEASE NEVER stop this blog!! I love everything that you do and find everything so valuable. I love this blog!

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  5. I'm really charmed by the merchandise, especially when it's a bit off-character. I was able to find a Yogi Bear costume last week on eBait for a good price: when I was a kid in the very early 1970's, I went as Yogi Bear, I had the brown Ben Cooper with Yogi in gold-glitter on the front, it was my oldest brother's from when he was little, and I'm sure I had one of my Dad's old hats, but no mask... Inevitably people would ask me who I was, "I'm Yogi Bear, see, " pointing to my chest. About five years ago, my wife told that story to her friend and later she gave me one of the Yogi-dolls, that they got to give children for Xmas presents, and since they needed to be new, still wrapped, I got it!

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