Dr Pepper Summer

I got home from work on Thursday and there was a package on my front porch.  I knew what it was and couldn't wait to open it.

A fellow can collector and I have been trying to track down the newest Dr Pepper can designs.  I found a couple of different ones in my area, but he had more success.  So he offered to send a bottom-opened can of each to me (the ones I had were top-opened).  

So I opened the box and checked out each can.  As a bonus, there was a Dr Thunder design I didn't have yet.

As in the business world, networking also helps in the hobby world.  Especially in a hobby such as this where different parts of the country, and world, have can designs unique to their area.  I've also received many cool cans from Canada from a collector up there.  

So it's a good idea to build a contact list of traders.  You never know where that can you so desperately need may show up.

Thanks again, G!!!

A Plastic Monster

Someone I know is currently on a trip to Dallas, TX.  It was a nice surprise this afternoon to get a text saying they had picked up this Monster can for me.  And the cool thing is... it's plastic.

I had heard someone mention plastic cans recently but I haven't seen any in local stores.  I checked the Monster website and this is their Hydro line.  The site says Hydro is "non-carbonated, lightly sweetened with natural flavors to make it thirst quenching and easy drinking."  In other words, energy water.

It currently comes in three flavors: Tropical Thunder, Manic Melon, and Mean Green (the can that's headed my way).

My only other experience with plastic cans was a set of experimental New York Seltzer plastic cans from 1987.  The set was my first can purchase on eBay and can be read about here.

Chasing Rabbits

For some reason, there has been an overabundance of rabbits in my neighbor in the last few months.  I can be outside for thirty minutes and easily see a dozen rabbits come and go.  And if I sit real still, I could almost reach out and catch one.

This reminds me an energy drink I found at Big Lots several months back called Chasing Rabbits.  Of course I had to buy it for its novel name.  I have yet to open it and try it, but tropical citrus sounds pretty good.

Speaking of chasing rabbits, I found a picture online of something that might help catch one...

Father's Day Coce-Cola

A few weeks ago my kids gave me this interesting Coca-Cola can as part of my Father's Day gift.

What makes it so interesting?  Not the fact that it has an all-chrome lid.  Not the fact that "Coca" is misspelled.  Not the fact that it has white "bubbles" all over the can.  Not the fact that it must be an import since it has Asian text on it.

What made it interesting is it's a little pencil sharpener that's only 2" long.  Haha.  Not many calories in this one!

Happy Independence Day

HAPPY

INDEPENDENCE

DAY

The Can from the River

Last weekend I spent a couple of days at a local convention.  While there I decided to visit a statue that overlooks one of the rivers.  It was one of those local touristy things I had never done.

A few months ago we had a lot of rain.  It was historic flooding that almost prevented me from even being able to get to work.  But all the waters returned to their normal levels and most places were quickly cleaned up of all the silt, mud, and driftwood.  But not the site of this statue.

Above is a pic showing some of the trees and silt still along the riverbank.  The park service has mostly cleared the concrete walkway to the statue so people can get to it, but the statue still has some muddy patches and some logs in the way.

Along the walkway I noticed a few crushed, muddy cans out in the dirt but they were all beer cans.  Until I saw this one.  I walked out to it and found a Sunkist can.  And it was a design that didn't look familiar to me.

So I loosed it from the dirt and took a pic of it.  Its outside was muddy, but I could wash it.  The inside was about 75% packed with dirt and silt, but I could clean that out.  And the can was dented, which I've had success with repairing.  So I brought the can home.

Cleaning the outside was easy.  I used the hose outside to clean it off.  The caked dirt inside was a little tougher.  I would fill the can about halfway and swish the can for 10-15 seconds to loosen some of the dirt and then pour out the mud.  It was slowly chiseling away at the dirt.  After about twenty of these "cleansings", the inside was clean.  I brought the can inside and used an old toothbrush to scrub off the remaining dirt from the outside and my special tool to pop out the dents from the inside and the result is a new can for my collection.

It isn't one of the better-looking cans in my collection, but it has one of the better stories.

The Freezer Didn't Fix It

dents on front of can

new rip on back of can

When I got to work last Monday, a coworker said he found a can for me but it was dented up.  At first glance I thought this was an alcoholic drink, but it's a sparkling juice beverage from Italy.  In fact, my only other can from Italy is another Sanpellegrino can.

In an effort to push out the dents, he had filled the empty can with water and put it in the freezer overnight hoping the ice would expand and push out the dents.  But the freezer didn't fix it!

When we pulled the can out of the freezer, we saw the dents were still there along with a new rip down one side.  The dents were stronger than the flat side, so it was the flat side that expanded and split.

So I let the ice melt and the water drain out.  It had been a good experiment even though it had ultimately failed.  I described a tool my dad gave to me a few years ago and how it had pushed out many dents.  So I brought the can home, used the tool, and now the can looks pretty good... except for the rip on the back side.

The can with the dents removed

But just as I told my coworker, I'd rather have a can with a rip in it than not have one at all.

Addio!

The First Day of Summer

Today is the first day of summer here in the USA.  And as the temperatures climb and the humidity returns, I think these cans say it best:

YETI

A few weeks ago I went to someone's house and saw a strange can sitting on their counter.  I assumed it was an alcoholic drink since I'd never seen a soda can like it before.  They saw I noticed the can and said they had saved it for me.  And then they explained what it was.










This novelty can came with a Yeti cooler they bought (Yeti is the brand of cooler).  I looked the can over and noticed a few things:

First, it's molded as one piece.  The top looks like it has a real pop top but it doesn't, it's one smooth piece of metal.

Second, it says it contains 12 oz of air.  What's sillier than a can of air?  How about a can of sunshine?

Third, The can says it was established in 2006 and founded in Austin, TX.

The back of the can is an advertisement for YETI coolers with the warning "Be Wild Resonsibly."

But what I really like is the "government warning" written on the side of the can:

Carnival Cans

The small town I live in has an annual carnival celebrating various small-town things.  I posted about it back in 2012 and again in 2016.  The rides and clowns and beer tents move in for three days.  And this weekend was just that.

My dad was asked once again to be a security guard during the nights to make sure no troublemakers caused any problems.  During his rounds, he was able to gather up a small pile of cans for me.

They are mostly to recycle since almost all of them are alcoholic beverages, but I did get a couple of Limited Edition Dr. Pepper cans I didn't have yet.

He said this was just a small fraction of the cans he saw, but there is another guy who shows up at 5am to go around and gather them each morning.

New cans

Super Heroes

Looking back at the last several years, DC has released movies based on many of its super heroes; Superman, Suicide Squad, Green Lantern, Batman, and currently Wonder Woman.  In the works are movies for Aquaman, Justice League, Shazam, and more.

So why not tie this into my can collecting hobby?  I present to you...

Batcan

*Not a real can, but funny nonetheless

The New Mountain Frost

The Summit brand version of Mtn Dew has released a new can design.  This post from five years ago shows two of the previous designs.  I noticed a couple of things about this new Mountain Frost.

First is the naming convention.  In 2008, Mountain Dew was changed to Mtn Dew and now Mtn Frost has been changed to Mountain Frost.

Second is the fact that this Dew clone no longer sports the traditional caffeine-packed yellow color.  A round stamp to the lower-right of the logo reads "No Certified Synthetic Colors."  The drink is now clear, as is boldly proclaimed to the upper-left of the logo.

The can was empty when I got it, so I haven't had the chance to taste it yet.  But who needs flavor when you're treated to 50mg of caffeine?  By the way, a real Mtn Dew has 54mg.

Titanfall 2

For Mtn Dew's 2016 Game Fuel campaign, it dropped the long-running Call of Duty franchise and is instead promoting Titanfall 2, even though there was a new Call of Duty that released just a couple of weeks after Titanfall 2 released on October 28.

I've been playing Call of Duty for a while and decided to give Titanfall 2 a try.  What could be better than fighting alongside, and inside, large battling mechs?  Not much.  It's an awesome game.  I've beat the single-player campaign twice so far and have dabbled in some of the multiplayer game modes.  

So I was excited to see this can at work this week.  Game Fuel cans offer special codes that when entered in the game unlock periods of double experience or other in-game goodies.  So I'll grab a few more from work and jump in the game for my rewards.  

2016 Holiday Cans

I got my first two 2016 holiday cans this week.  The rest are soon to follow...

LASER Focused Energy

Another weekend, another one-day road trip.  This time I headed west and checked out several flea markets and junk shops I've never visited before.  And this is some of what I found:

Did you notice?  They are all beer cans.  I imagine collecting beer cans is different than collecting soda cans.  There are so many more beer cans out there that it's easier to find them, but then it might be harder to find the specific ones you need. 

Finally I stopped at a Big Lots store and found a 5-can set of Laser energy drinks.

Sucky pic

I tried to get a pic of the cans in the trunk and the Big Lots sign in the background, but it didn't quite turn out.  So here's a better pic.

These cans of Laser energy drink claim to be the world's first energy drink without a hint of caffeine!  That's a pretty big claim.  They replaced caffeine with rhodiola.  A quick Google search says rhodiola is a traditional Chinese medicine and Scandinavian herb touted to promote physical and cognitive vitality.  But how does it taste?

This batch of cans contains peach mango tea, fruit punch, orange, "original", and sugar-free "original."

It's too late today for me to try one of these, but I'll check it out the next time we're having a busy day at work and see if I become more focused.  At only $.50 a can, it's worth a shot.

To Be Recycled

My dad rode a stretch of road just outside of town today on his riding lawn mower pulling a small trailer.  He was able to pick up this many cans.  I looked through them to see if there were any I needed for my collection, but they were mostly beer cans.  No luck.

I was recently given a can crusher to tackle the mountain of bags of cans to be recycled in my garage.  I planned on doing a post on that project today but I ended up being gone all day.  

I've had people bringing occasional cans of bags to me for a year or longer and it's about time to cash them in to see if it's worth it.  As soon as I do, I'll post about it.  

Maybe there's money to be made in can collecting after all.  haha

Pennsylvania Dutch

A few months ago I posted about the cans I found at  a nearby Amish store.  My parents went back to that store recently and found some birch beer.

The brand is Pennsylvania Dutch.  The label boasts that this birch beer is made from an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe, hence the brand name.  Doing a Google search, I learned that birch beer is made with herbal extracts usually from... birch bark.  But back in the colonial days it was made with oak bark.

I've never tried birch beer but I'm told it's like sassafras, which I've also never tried.

The label design is so fancy that at first I mistook it as an alcoholic drink.  Beer cans often have great looking labels.

I may have to crack this one open soon.  It looks like it could be a real thirst-quencher on a nice fall day like today.

Birthday Cans

My recent birthday brought a few more cans into the house.  As part of my gift from the kids I got these three AriZona natural energy teas.

If they taste half as good as the labels look, these should be mighty fine.  They could come in handy for those long, late-night gaming sessions or binge-watching newest popular streaming series.

Ecto II

2016 Ecto Cooler

A few years ago I did a post about Ecto Cooler.  It was a Hi-C citrus drink tie-in for the first Ghostbusters movie in 1987.  The can featured Slimer, one of the ghosts from the movie.

With the release of the new Ghostbusters movie earlier this year, Hi-C brought back Ecto Cooler with a new can design and I snagged one.  Of course the can features green slime dripping down over a picture of citrus, but it lacks any images of ghosts this time around.

I thought it appropriate this evening to take a few pictures of the can in an actual cemetery.  Below is a picture of the can sitting at the top of the steps that lead to an old church in the cemetery.  The plaque says the Mt. Zion Church was there from 1892-1961.

What was I doing in a cemetery this evening?  It's almost Halloween.  I was just making the most of a spooky fall evening.

Sunny Addition to the Collection

A day trip across the border to Indiana today proved what I've said many times on this blog:  There are a lot more beer cans out in the wild for sale than soda cans.

A cool American Brewers collection

All beer cans

And it's true, I didn't find any soda cans today that I didn't already have.  But I found a different kind of can that I didn't even know existed...  canned sunshine.

Of course it's gimmicky but every once in a while you have to let loose and go crazy.  So this can of "sunshine" also came with instructions and additional information about its contents.

And the can was even designed to be mailed???  I've never seen that before.

Anyone interested in some fresh farm air from Illinois?  I'm ready to can it.  And I'll even discount bulk orders...