1980 :: Twinkies ESB Stickers

'Twinkies' snack cakes are renowned as the quintessential junk food (yet are consumed at a rate of over half a billion per year worldwide). The original, American version is created by Hostess, which is owned by Kansas City-based Interstate Bakeries Corporation - New Zealanders, however, will remember a local version made by General Foods Corp (NZ) Ltd. that, in the early 1980s, one could be forgiven for purchasing as they came with NZ-exclusive Empire Strikes Back collectibles. The set of 6 black-bordered circular stickers are 70mm in diameter (78mm across before they are removed from their square backing), and depict Yoda, Vader, Chewie, Leia, Threepio and Luke.

General Foods Corp was also, at that time, the parent company of Tip-Top Ice-Cream, and hence the Star Wars license used for Twinkies was probably an extension of that used to market their frozen confectionery products (R2-D2 Space Ice ice-blocks, Empire Strikes Back ice-blocks, Return of the Jedi ice-blocks). Indeed, there have even been rumours that the Twinkies stickers were occasionally made available as give-aways with the concurrently available Tip-Top Empire Strikes Back ice-blocks, although we can see in the advertising related to the latter product (image: poster), that that was not the official position.

Twinkie multi-packs added to the list of collectibles by having cut-out cards printed on the packaging. Few such cards or multi-packs are known to still be around. If you can help out with images, drop me an email.

Related article: R2-D2 Space Ice ice-blocks and collectible sticker set.
Related article: Empire Strikes Back ice-blocks and collectible masks.
Related article: Return of the Jedi Ewok stickers.

Matt G