Four Red Cans

Here are some new cans from the last couple of weeks.  What do they have in common?

It's my first Clear American brand can.  And also my first Bubly.  But the peach Nehi and strawberry Fanta are new designs of cans cans I already had.

And that's about it.  Red cans. 

Stranger Cans

I just got two Limited Edition Coca-Cola cans based on the Netflix series Stranger Things.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it takes place in the 1980's.  So for this tie-in promotion, the red Coke can is actually the formula for New Coke which debuted in 1985.  If you missed out the first time around, now's your chance to taste the updated flavor that rocked the cola world!!!

The back of the red can even states "Original Taste" at the top, referring to the "1985 Limited Edition" printed on the front of the can.  For more info on the series and the promo, you can scan the bottle icon on the back of the can.

The Coca-Cola Zero can is really cool because when stood upright it shows the usual logo with the red circle behind the text, but when the can is turned upside down it shows a scene of dead trees and everything dark and dreary... just like the Upside-Down in the show.









I've seen season one of the series, but now need to catch up since season three just came out earlier this month.  Whether you're a fan of the show or a fan of collectible cans, these are definitely worth tracking down for your collection.

Dr Pepper Ten Commandments

Last week at church someone brought a can of Dr Pepper Ten to me and said he noticed it looked different.  It looked a little different to me too, so I took a pic of it in the pew and would investigate later when I had the can back at my house...










Back home I was able to check my can collection website and I found a pic of the TEN can I got in 2011.

Can from 2019

Can from 2011

Yes, there is a difference.  The original TEN can had maroon swirls behind the Dr Pepper logo and the print near the bottom of the can was maroon.  This new can has gray behind the Dr Pepper logo, the same gray as the rest of the can.  And the lettering near the bottom of the can is white.

When did this change happen?  Was it a while ago and we just noticed it?  Or is it truly a brand new design?  I could probably Google it and I find out but I'm going to leave this one a mystery...

Orange is the New Can

Orange can #1 - Clemson orange soda

The Clemson Tigers are a football team from Clemson University in South Carolina.  One side of the can shows they were the 1982 Orange Bowl Champions.

The other side of the can shows their perfect 12-0 season from 1981.















Orange can #2 - Whistle orange soda

Whistle is the brand of orange soda from the larger brand Vess.  This is the 75th anniversary special edition can from 1991.














Orange can #3 - Orangette orange soda

This is a modern-day can of Walmart orange soda.  Notice Walmart's star icon on the side of the can.

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day in the USA

Which means it's time to feature this week's new red, white, and blue cans!

RED = A couple of weeks ago I did a post about tall Coke cans I recently got.  None of them were just the standard, plain Coca-Cola can.  But now, I have one of those too.

WHITE = A Sprite Zero Sugar can found me this week.  So now it resides in a box in my basement.

BLUE = There was a big commotion about the St. Louis Blues recently and this commemorative Pepsi can explains why... they are the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions.  Ok.

Have a safe and happy July 4th.  And 5th and 6th, ad nauseam...

Parade Water

My daughter played with her school band in a parade this afternoon.  There were several organizations in the parade handing out cold bottled water, perfect for temperatures in the 90's.  But what I didn't expect was a float stacked with cases and cases of canned water to be handed out to the parade-goers.  The cans weren't cold, but I didn't get one for my thirst, I got one for my can collection!

Canned Water 4 Kids, that's the "brand."  It uses the logo cW4k.  I've never seen anything like this before.  It's also a .org website.

Bright colors, nice design, a good message.  Just what my collection needs.

I didn't open the can at the parade, it was brought home to be bottom-opened and drained.  But there were a handful of other people who had brought their opened/emptied cans to me for my collection.  It's nice to have others on the lookout too.

Drink up!  And stay hydrated!

Tall Cokes

Three 16 oz Coca-Cola cans found me this week.  The first was a St. Louis Cardinals can someone saw at a store and bought for me.

I'm not sure if this is leftover from last year's baseball season or if it's a new can for this year.  But either way it's a can I didn't have yet.

And the other two cans were from someone who has access to the PX on a military base.  They said there were about a dozen different designs of these USO Coca-Cola cans.  They didn't know if I had them or not so they just got these two for me.  I definitely don't have these, so they may get some of the other designs for me the next time they're there.

I also say Thank You to all who have served or currently serve.  And less importantly, a thank you to all who help add to my can collection.

Pepsi from Hawaii

A while back, someone told me they had a friend who lives in another state that had a Pepsi can made in Hawaii.  Interesting.  And last week that someone got a package in the mail from their friend.

That someone gave the can to me for my collection.  And sure enough, it says it was made in Hawaii.

At first I thought it may be an older can, but then I noticed at the bottom it says "Retro design."  After a Google search, it seems this was a retro promo can from 2018.  And of course, it was made in Hawaii. 

I'm not sure why the state was printed on it, but it made me wonder if they would ever do a collection with a can made in every state.  And of course that made me think of the 1970's 7-Up "United We Stand" collection and the image of Uncle Sam.

Maybe we could get an Orange Crush set and have the cans build an image of Donald Trump.  Ok, no more politics.

The Innocent One

At first glance these two La Croix cans look the same.  But a closer look reveals the font and color difference of the flavor text. 

Both of these are cran-raspberry flavored sparkling water.  I got the can on the left several months ago.  I got the can on the right earlier this week.  I almost threw the new can away because I knew I had the old one, but I decided to make sure nothing had changed in the design.  And that's when I noticed the change in the flavor text.  Whew, that was a close call.  I almost threw away a whole different design!!!

And then something else caught my eye.  Along the bottom of the new can it lists this:

"0 - calories   0 - sweetener   0 - sodium   =   innocent!"

Haha, my first "innocent" can...

AriZona Alita

My son was drinking one of his favorite drinks yesterday, an AriZona green tea, and I noticed the side of the can... Alita.

Alita: Battle Angel is a sci-fi/thriller movie that released in February 2019.  It looked really good but I didn't get a chance to see it in theaters. 

The can shows a silhouette of Alita in a jump/fight pose and the movie title across the side of the can.  It also says "Only in Theaters" and at the bottom says "Limited Edition - Collectible Can."







After a quick Google search, this is the only can made for the movie, so I finally have a complete series in my collection!!!

Summer and Six Flags

Summer is almost here and in these parts that means it's time to get sunburned from a day at Six Flags!!!

I've started seeing the ads for Six Flags on Coca-Cola cans.  This year one can save $15 on a ticket by taking this can to the gate or save $21 when ordering tickets online.

Either way, many people will enjoy the original taste of an ice cold Coca-Cola as the temperatures heat up outside.  But not me.  I haven't had a Coca-Cola in many years.  I remember feeling it burn all the way down to my stomach.  It has too many calories.  It can clean the acid off the posts of my car battery.

What?  Did I just kill the mood?


6/1/2019 UPDATE

A couple more summer ad cans came to me this week.  The first is another Six Flags discount can, this one on Coke Zero.

And the other is for a local water park, Raging Rivers, on a Pepsi can. 

I suppose it's time to get out and have some fun!!!

Dr. Spider-Man

A new movie, a new soda can movie tie-in.  This one is for the upcoming Spider-Man movie Far From Home.

Someone brought these two cans to me this week.  So I jumped online to see how many there are in the series.  There are five.  But for now these two will have to do.

Each design is for a different flavor, as usual.  The ones I am missing are for Dr Pepper Cherry, Diet Dr Pepper Cherry, and a limited edition flavor called Dr Pepper Dark Berry.  I think I'll put some effort into finding all of them this time.  The limited edition flavor got my attention.

6/1/2019 UPDATE

Another Dr. Spider-Man can found me this week.  It's the limited edition flavor, Dark Berry.

So this is my third of five in the set.

Now, where are those other two cans?

Michigan Coca-Cola

It was time to hit the road for a sweep of local flea markets and antique stores yesterday.  I don't only look for soda cans, I also look for books and board/card games and a few other things. 

The first thing I found was a set of Coca-Cola salt and pepper shakers.  Only about 2" high, their $12 price tag was a bit much for me.

At the same shop I saw a shelf full of cans... beer cans.

Except for one soda can near the upper right corner in the picture.  It was a Coca-Cola can.  And it didn't look like one I had. 

It's made of aluminum and the bottom is different than aluminum cans now.  So this must have been an earlier aluminum can design (around 1979 according to a CanMuseum.com entry). 

But what I haven't figured out yet is the "Michigan" printed around the top of the can.

I'm not sure if it was an entire 50-state set or a special can because it was canned in Detroit or if it was ad-related (although there's nothing else ad-related on the can) or sports related.

There was enough mystery to justify the discounted price from $5 to $2.50.  Now it's been cleaned up and given a new home... in a box in my basement.

Monster Colors

New Monster cans for my collection this week.

"But these aren't new flavors, don't you already have these?"

"Yes, but the cans I have are older versions with silver tops.  These have colored tops that match the cans' colors.  Variations are just as important to me as a design I don't have.  It's neat to line up the same can to see how its design has changed through the years," says the collector.

"Oh," says the non-collector as they roll their eyes and walk away.

A Small Addition to the Collection

This week I acquired the complete set of four Kool-Aid Sparklers 7.5 oz cans.  There's nothing special or rare about them.  I'm just glad that for once I have ALL of the cans of a series, no matter how small the set is.

These are carbonated versions of Kool-Aid in the common flavors of cherry, grape, orange, and tropical punch.

As a small bonus, this 7.5 oz can of Country Time Sparkling strawberry lemonade also found its way to me.

It's always nice to make a little progress with the collection.

Orange Vanilla Coke

One of my contacts at church brought a couple of cans to me last Sunday.  These are the Orange Vanilla Coke cans.  

These are empty, but he said he'd also bring a full one of each one of these weeks so I can try them. 

One flavor is regular Coca-Cola and the other is Coke Zero.  He preferred the regular one while his wife preferred the Coke Zero version.

The Bible talks about "...my cup overflows."  I wonder if the same goes for cans overflowing.

Where Have They Gone?

It takes work to maintain a website or a blog.  Even just the small posts I write each week can feel like a second job when the week's been crazy.  I've often sat down to relax for a few minutes on the weekend only to realize I hadn't written a can post yet.  So then it's up to find some cans and figure out what to write about.

Early on as my collection grew, I started finding helpful websites full of can images and information.  There were other collectors' blogs showing their cans and telling their stories.  There were clubs, forums, and marketplaces.  I had really jumped into a fun and active hobby.  And I have a folder full of dozens of those websites that I'd visit every week.

A few days ago I found that folder of bookmarks.  I decided to walk down memory lane and visit some of the websites that were instrumental in building my collection and blog and see how they're doing.  More than half of them don't even exist any more.  That was a pretty sad discovery.  There could be just as many, or even more, newer sites out there, but for this post I decided to write about some of the ones I'll miss.

USA Soda
This site was invaluable in finding variations of cans and dates.  At one point the site was down, so I emailed John, the owner, and soon the site was back up.  But now there's a big "Retired" across the front page and none of the image links work.

CanPedia
This was a site similar to CanMuseum, which is still alive and strong.  I dated a lot of cans using the CanPedia, but it currently gives a 500 (Internal Service) Error.

Cans in the Basement
A fellow collector told his story of keeping his cans in the basement.  I enjoyed reading the entries and missed the news/stories after the last post on May 1, 2015.  But I totally understand that life and interests change.

Collecting Soda Cans
This was another blog I enjoyed following.  Its last post was made on October 2, 2014.

rft3
This was a cool blog because it not only covered cans, but it was all about design.  There were interesting cans, signs, etc.  If I remember correctly, he was a bit of a traveler.  I remember seeing sites of other cities featured.

Diamond Coke Cans
To be honest, I barely remember this site, but I know I really liked it at one time because it's in my folder.  Now it's just an internet dead-end.

Larwood Limited
This site was dedicated to antique beer cans and collecting.  I only collect soda cans, but at one time I thought it was useful and neat enough to save it in my bookmarks.

A Guide to Soda Cans
The link to this one is really messed up, it leads to nothing now.  But it's probably a site I used often for can information.

Richard's Can Universe
Another useful site... gone.

The Soda Can Library
Gone.

Mountain Dew Cans
The link doesn't even work now.  Gone.


But there are some websites I bookmarked that are still there.  I plan on doing a post in the future to highlight some of those sites.

I know things change, but all of the sites listed above played a part in my collection and this blog.  And I'm sad to see them gone.

Surge Nitro

In 1999, Coca-Cola brand Surge released a 5-can set promoting WCW Monday Nitro TNT Wrestling.  One of those cans, Booker T, came in a lot I bought a few years ago.




A couple months ago I bought a box of cans at a flea market junk shop and included were three more of the wrestling cans.  So now my count is up to four of the five.

My collection

The wrestlers my cans feature are Booker T, Kevin Nash, Rev Mysterio Jr, and Sting.  The only one I'm missing is Goldberg (picture below courtesy of canmuseum.com).

So watch out Goldberg, your wrestling days may be over, but I'm coming for you...