Even More Glasses with Character

Way way back in 2011 and 2012, I wrote about some Pepsi character glasses I'd found.  Back then, I was paying a quarter a piece.  Those days are long gone.  I actually don't see the character glasses too often at sales and when I do, it's only one or two priced at $10 each.

Last month, I hit the motherlode of Pepsi character glasses at an estate sale.  I wish I'd gotten a photo of the glasses as they were staged at the sale as they were stacked up to 5 glasses high with duplicates. I almost went into catatonic shock.

While they were priced at $7/glass (which is still less than you pay in antique malls), there were some bargains (and one downright steal) in the mix.

I ended up with these.

Leftovers Day 27 -- Home is Where the Heart Is

I found this set of Libby bar glasses earlier this year.  I loved the motif. They're entitled "Home is Where the Heart Is" and is a look at homes through the ages.  From African native...

Days of Santa Day - Dairy Queen Santa Glasses

I recall this design from some glasses my grandparents had when I was little, but I don't believe theirs were marked Dairy Queen.

Twin Kongs

I put the King Kong glass I found here along with another I found at another sale recently up for sale on eBay this past weekend.

I was contacted Sunday by a potential buyer who said he wanted to purchase the glasses as a door-prize at a 9/11 movie memorial service today.  I was a little hesitant and thought it was more than a little disrespectful, so I asked him for more details.  He responded fairly quickly:

I host/program a monthly film series at a theater in Brooklyn that is based around the history of Times Square movie houses - each month we feature a different theater from the old 42nd St - we do a presentation on the theater's history and then show a movie that premiered in that particular theater.. our Sept date happened to fall on the 11th and some of the people who I do the shows with felt like they might want to skip it - take the month off - because it is still a hard thing for many to deal with and think about - I know so many people who are still reticent to even visit the memorial..But I thought it would be better to do it - to celebrate the buildings with something appropriate instead of focusing on a theater this time and do a presentation on the buildings as seen through film - they were so iconic to me even as a child before I had moved here - and King Kong was one of the movies that made them so - I had the poster on my bedroom door all through growing up. And it was very nice that we got a lot of positive reaction from people when we announced we were doing it - I felt it was the right choice - something I knew I'd like to see myself on this occasion - and we've put together a 30 minute presentation on the history of the buildings as seen through the movies that featured them...    

We're putting together some good prizes for the raffle drawing we do after every screening - including some nice books on the the towers - and the glasses I think will be the most coveted of them - I remember having all of them when I was young - somehow the one Twin Towers one was the only one that made it through the years that I still have.

As horrible as that event was, we all heal in different ways and I decided it would be an honor to contribute to this event.  I did check today and the glasses were delivered in time.

On the off-chance anyone is in New York today, maybe you can attend.  You can read about the event here.

Today's Garage Sale Finds

Today I'm going to forgo my usual posting of individual finds and give a complete picture of one sale I attended this morning. It will give you an idea of the diversity of things you can find at a single sale and a reminder that vintage items can still be found out there.

The phone rang at 7:00 a.m. this morning.  It was my mother-in-law.  Usually the combination of those two things would mean something bad happened.  But in this case, she had news of a garage sale across from her house in Lemay.  It's an older neighborhood and the family had been in the house for many years, so it sounded promising.

My wife and I headed over and while she visited with her parents, I crossed the street to the sale.

The first thing I spotted was a Mego Farrah Fawcett doll.

I'm Cuckoo for Thermo-Serv!

I went to the annual Gramond subdivision garage sale this past week.  It was pretty much a bust.  Participation seems to be dropping in neighborhood sales as was evidenced by this and the Canterleigh Estates sale a few weeks back.  But I didn't come away empty-handed.  I did find this Sonny the Cuckoo Cocoa Puffs Thermo-serv mug for one thin dime.

I'm pretty sure it's vintage and features Sonny in his original striped shirt.

Essentially, these mugs are simply clear plastic, watertight (usually) mugs with a paper insert.  Be warned, they sometimes leak, so take care when washing.  Considering their proliferation, there's remarkably little information about Thermo-serv on the internet.  I think most people have had a Thermo-serv mug in their homes at one time or another.  Those featuring beer labels are probably the most common.  In fact, I have a standing order from a friend to grab any beer-themed Thermo-serv mugs I come across.  Even the Farrah cup I found a few weeks back was a Thermo-serv.  Searching the internet, I found no other examples of the Cocoa Puffs mug or any other cereal-themed Thermo-serv mugs.  Anyone seen one of these before?

A Major(s) Find

I found this Thermo-serv mug featuring Farrah Fawcett Majors from 1977 for 50 cents at an estate sale this past weekend.

Square Bear Don't Care

I found this 1971 Hanna Barbera Square Bear mug for a quarter at a garage sale yesterday.

Square Bear is from the awkwardly-named show "Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!" a show which I was never particularly fond.  It was a little before my time and by the time I did see it, was very dated.

It's not worth a lot, so it will get added to my collection of character glasses.

More Glasses with Character

I picked up some more vintage Pepsi character glasses at an estate sale last Saturday.   These were a little more than I like to pay at $2 per glass, but a lot less than they charge in the antique stores and not ones I see too often.

Porky Pig, of course.

Modeled after Edgar Bergen's Mortimer Snerd Beaky Buzzard first appeared in the short "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid."

A nice Woody Woodpecker glass with some good color.

Glasses with Character

When I was little, my sister and I would have sleepovers with my oldest sister.  Due to the age difference, she was more like an aunt to us.  On those occasions, we would always go out to lunch somewhere.  We didn't eat out much when I was a kid, even at McDonald's, so anything was a treat.  My sister would always ask whether we wanted to go to Pizza Hut or Taco Bell.  This was around 1975 and both were new to St. Louis.  They also both happened to stand right next to each at the intersection of Weber and Gravois roads.  Pizza Hut is still there, but Taco Bell's recognizable structure has been converted into a Chinese restaurant.

No matter how much hinting my oldest sister would make toward Taco Bell, we always chose Pizza Hut.  It was around this time, Pizza Hut had a promotion with Pepsi for giveaway glasses with Warner Bros. characters on them.  I recall getting Henery Hawk and my sister getting Petnuia Pig -- 2 third tier characters from the Warner's roster.  I didn't even know who Henery Hawk was -- still too young to appreciate Foghorn Leghorn, I was a dyed-in-the-wool Bugs Bunny fan.

I had that glass for years, but it finally broke a few years ago.  This past summer, I came across 2 of these glasses, and one just happened to be Henery.  I paid a quarter each for these.