Buy Huck, Buy Often!

H-B Enterprises (Hanna-Barbera Productions by August 1959) didn’t waste any time pushing its brand-new characters in front of the public by means other than animated cartoons. We’ve documented toys, games, dolls, Hallowe’en costumes; all kinds of things (and that doesn’t include comic books and records) after The Huckleberry Hound Show debuted in September 1958. In fact, Huck and Mr. Jinks were featured on the cover of the March 1960 edition of Toys and Novelties magazine. The industry knew they were marketing major domos.

We have another little collection here, mostly from 60 years ago.



Some time ago, we posted this birthday paper plate set from Futura, sold in 1959. This wasn’t the only one the company manufactured.



The biggest disappointment, naturally, is Kapow is now in the lower right-hand corner replacing everyone’s favourite loveable, one-word dog. Pfft. I was in three cartoons. He was in one. Li’l Tom Tom is also added, as Cousin Tex has been tossed out, too. Still included are Iggy and Ziggy the crows, the mosquito that annoyed Huck in Skeeter Trouble and Iddy Biddy Buddy, who later became Yakky Doodle.

Let’s see what else we can find....



Multiple Products of New York 11, New York didn’t know how to spell Mr. Jinks’ name (neither did Bill Hanna in his autobiography, but I digress), but it featured the stars of the Huck show on a drawing set. Just turn the wheel on the side to bring up the character you want in the window, then draw funny stuff on him with the powder pencil. I presume the powder wiped off. This is also from 1959.



These place mats are from the early ‘60s, manufacturer unknown. Yes, Quick Draw is pulling a wagon like a, um, a horse. I don’t know what company made them. Who doesn’t love blue cacti?

May we have a moment of silence for Transogram? The company made all kinds of toys and games you could find in department stores in the 1960s before going bankrupt in 1971. They all featured a little cartoon character with a crown named Transy. Some had the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval or the Parents Magazine guarantee seal, which were almost ubiquitous on children’s products way-back-when.

Transogram got licenses from Hanna-Barbera for a bunch of things. Below is a Juggle Roll game from 1959 or 1960. It’s fairly straight-forward. I can imagine kids getting bored with it after a while, but don’t they with all games? In addition to the star characters on the Huck show, there are also Boo Boo and Li’l Tom Tom. Notice the beams are made of sturdy masonite!

The Estelle Toy Co. of Victor, N.Y. came up with Silly Sun Pix in 1964. It came out with a Magilla Gorilla set, a Flintstones set and a Huck set. It looks like you combined different strips of film to create your own version of the Hanna-Barbera characters and used sunlight or a lamp to view them.



From 1959 comes Karbon Kopee from Wonder-Art of Boston. You could trace on top of panel cartoons of Huck, Jinks, the meeces, Yogi and Boo Boo to create your own carbon copy. Or is that Karbon Kopee? No paints! I wonder if you got a carbon-y mess from this toy. A real movie, free inside? Kind of. You could create a flip book by cutting on the dotted lines around drawings of a hula-hooping Huck.



The Su-Prize Cup was manufactured in 1960 by Ideas, Inc. of Des Moines. This one features Huck; there was a Mr. Jinks one, too. This was for recalcitrant children. Say they don’t want to drink their milk. You place a coin inside the cup, fill it with milk, and when they drink it all, the coin pops out of the bottom.

If you want a closer look at these pictures, you can click on them.