Saturday, December 31, 2011

Jones Halloween Cans - Year 4 - 2008

Jones Soda, known for its unique soda flavors, started releasing Halloween-themed 8 oz cans in 2005.  They released four flavors each year until 2009.

In October 2008 Jones released, through Target, four 8oz Halloween soda cans that came in four packs. The flavors were paired with classic movie monsters for each flavor. Buried Pomegranate was Count Dracula, Candy Corn was the Wolf-Man, Lemon Drop Dead was the Mummy and Spooookiwi was Frankenstein's monster.

2008 Jones Halloween cans

Friday, December 30, 2011

Big Lots Again

We happened to pass a Big Lots store this evening and I suggested we run in to look for those post-Christmas sales.  I went straight to the cans to see what they had to offer...


And that's what I found.  Not a bad haul.  I can always count on Big Lots to have some discontinued cans that I don't have. 

Oh, I never did look for any post-Christmas sales!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Current Excitement: The Netherlands

Several weeks ago a collector from the Netherlands contacted me through my main collection site and offered sixty cans from there if I could ship sixty current cans from the USA.  My sub-collection of doubles finally paid off! 


I shipped the box of USA cans a couple of weeks ago.  He had shipped his box before that.  So I am expecting the package to get here in the next week or so (although I'm not real sure how long it takes to get from there to here).  I will definitely post a pic of the cans when they come in!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Jones Halloween Cans - Year 3 - 2007

Jones Soda, known for its unique soda flavors, started releasing Halloween-themed 8 oz cans in 2005.  They released four flavors each year until 2009.

The Halloween edition mini-cans returned in October 2007 featuring new flavor Sour Lemon Drop Dead along with returning flavors Candy Corn, Gruesome Grape and Strawberry S'lime.


2007 Jones Halloween cans

Sunday, December 18, 2011

What A Teas!

Yesterday we traveled a short distance to attend a family Christmas party.  A new area, a new city, I was on the lookout for new brands.  We stopped at a Quik Trip after the party and this rather large, friendly-looking lady in a green dress kept staring at me from the shelf of the drinks cooler.  Sweet Leaf tea.


We probably have these closer to home, but I've never seen them.  So I bought all six flavors.  We're not big tea drinkers at our house, but we'll be giving these a try.  Merry Christmas to me.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Jones Halloween Cans - Year 2 - 2006

Jones Soda, known for its unique soda flavors, started releasing Halloween-themed 8 oz cans in 2005.  They released four flavors each year until 2009.

The Halloween cans were available again in 2006 with the return of Berried Alive (formerly Scary Berry Lemonade) and Candy Corn and the new Gruesome Grape (a renamed version of their regular flavor, MF Grape) and Spider Cider, of which I don't have the can yet.

2006 Jones Halloween cans

The Spider Cider I don't have

Monday, December 12, 2011

My First Trade

I reported last week that I made my first trade.  Someone saw a can in my collection that they needed, so I traded it for some of his doubles.  The package came in today and this is what I got.

Attack of the clones

The above batch of cans is to help kick-start my Dr Pepper and Mtn Dew clone collections.


This other batch is some of the unwanted extras that came with other cans he bought.

In all, I got 78 cans in the trade.  If I could do a few more trades like this I will reach 2,000 cans well before my April 2012 goal.

A big THANKS goes out to G!!!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Jones Halloween Cans - Year 1 - 2005

Jones Soda, known for its unique soda flavors, started releasing Halloween-themed 8 oz cans in 2005.  They released four flavors each year until 2009.

In 2005, Jones released Halloween Limited Edition 8 oz. can 4-packs exclusively through Target. The four flavors included two renamed flavors (Scary Berry Lemonade and Strawberry Slime) as well as two originals (Candy Corn and Caramel Apple).

2005 Jones Halloween flavors

Friday, December 9, 2011

My New Goal

On April 11, 2011, I started my can collection.  As of this post, I have 1,494 cans.  In four months, my collection will be one year old.  My goal is to have

2,000

cans by April 11, 2012.  Definitely doable.  And I think I'll reach this goal with time to spare.

Now where is that 1,495th can???

April 11, 2012 update - The counter sits at 1924 today.  It doesn't look like I made the goal, but theoretically I did.  During the last year there were two shipments of cans that had problems in transit and I didn't receive all the cans I should have.  In one shipment, I lost 17 cans and in the other 63!  So:

1924 + 17 + 63 = 2004

It should have happened kids, but it didn't. 

* Click here to see the current can count *

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Can Watch: Capture the Flag

Back in February of this year, Diet Coke teamed up with The Heart Truth to launch "Capture the Flag", a national program to raise awareness for women's heart health programs.  For the campaign, Diet Coke added The Heart Truth's red dress symbol to its Diet Coke cans along with a big red heart.  There were four different can designs.

The two I have

I have two of the four designs.  The first one I have shows a figure holding a large white flag with the red heart on it.  The other can shows a figure standing next to the red heart.

The two I need

One of the designs I don't have shows a figure lifting the red heart over its head.  The other shows the figure standing on top of the red heart with a ladder leaning against the heart.

I've seen many of these cans this year but they've always been the same two designs.  So I will continue to watch for the other two designs. 

* The picture of the cans I don't have came from the internet.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Skipper Has Set Sail

I have plenty of doubles to trade.  But today, for the first time, I shipped a can from my main collection.


The person I traded with needed this can for his collection of Dr Pepper clones, so I was more than glad to give up a can to help a fellow collector.  In return, I will be receiving several of his doubles that I don't have.  We both walked away happy from this trade.

The can I traded was a Cragmont - The Skipper


Farewell, Skipper!

December 12 update - Today I got the package with the cans I received in the Skipper trade.  Click here for the post.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

3D Cans from Japan

Back in July, I bought some cans from Japan.  In the listing it said some of the cans were 3D.  I couldn't wait to see what that meant. 

It's hard to get the total effect in a picture, but you can see that the sides of the can have a diamond-dimpled texture which makes for interesting reflections at the right angles.

The downside to the "3D" effect is that the can feels a bit thinner and is more susceptible to dents.

 


This particular can is the Kirin brand of Chu-Hi, an alcoholic drink often canned and sold in convenience stores and vending machines.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Dragon Ball Z

I got this can in a lot I bought on eBay.  And I don't know what it is.

Dragon Ball Z (front)
Obviously, the character on the can is from the anime show Dragon Ball Z.  At first I thought the 50/50 meant it was a half & half flavor, but upon Googling Gotenks (which I originally thought was the brand of the drink), I found this:

Gotenks is the powerful result of Trunks and Goten using the Fusion Dance, and the first fusion character to be seen in the Dragon Ball manga and the Dragon Ball Z anime. 

Of course!  What was I thinking?  Gotenks is a character.  On the side of the can it says "Helsi, all famous TV characters," so now I'm assuming Helsi is the brand.  But nowhere on the can is there a clue as to what kind of drink or flavor it is.  The back of the can isn't any help either, it's written in Japanese.

Dragon Ball Z (back)
 I'm not sure if this is part of a larger set or just a one-off collector can.  So I'm going to leave this on my Japanese shelf as a novelty item.