Hostess Twinkie Variations

[obcbobd]

Attached are three different variations of Hostess baseball cards from 1977.

Card #46 is a Hostess card of Mark Fidrych. It does not have a black bar at all on the back. I also have about 30-40 full panels from 75-79 and none of them show any black bar

Card #74 of Dick Ruthven is a Hostess Twinkie card, having a large black bar on the bottom. On about ½ of my Twinkee cards a small part of the black bar is also at the top (as shown on the #23 Jim Rice card). Allso note the font size of the letters is considerably smaller than on the Hostess card.
In my collection I have #s of this type 36 39 41 43 44 45 50 59 74 109 112 113 127 131

The mystery to me is card #23 of Jim Rice. I believe it is also a Twinkie card as it has the black bar. It also has the food stain typically found on Twinkie cards. However, it also has a normal font size on its letters.
In my collection I have #s of this type; 21 22 34 all of which have a very small piece of the bar at the bottom and #23 as shown in one of the attachments.

Would you agree that the Rice and Ruthven are Twinkies.

Is the smaller font size a variation? Do only certain numbers (36 and above?) have it? Do some cards have both?

I’d be interested in your comments.

Thanks

Bob

[oaks1912]

Bob.....These cards were issued regionally in individual packages of Twinkies & Cupcakes They also served as packaging reinforcement. As a result most of the cards encountered, now & then, will have noticeable staining on them and will exhibit wear and / or creases. With NONE of the excess paper removed, there are five different sizes / formats for this set....A) 2 1/4 x 4 1/2, B) 3 1/8 x 4 3/16,C) 4 1/2 x 4 1/4, D) 6 x 4, E) 4 1/2 x5 5/8..... It's possible that there are more regional variations in format that exist which I am not familiar with. Hope this helps...Mark

[obcbobd]

Mark,

Thanks for the info. When the cards came out in 75-79 I saved the whole bottoms from boxes of twinkies (my snack of choice). I seem to remember the individual cards for twinkies were wider as twinkies were packaged side by side and longer for cup cakes as they were packaged one on top of each other. However I trimed all those so I have no idea which cards came in which package. I wonder if the cards with the smaller typeset came with a specific brand.

thanks

Bob

[bobc88]

As I recall, one of the sizes (larger than the Twinkies) was packaging for Suzie Qs. At least in the LA area...

Bob C

[Steve D]

I seem to remember panels, I think on "King Dons", that instead of having the cards three-across:

X X X,

the cards were two-across with one below:

X X
X

Does anyone else remember these?


Steve

Edited...yep, just found one on ebay:

[obcbobd]

Here's one from 1977



I don't know if they are from King Dons as I've a full King Don box from 1975 that is 3 across. Also I remember them as Ding Dongs not King Dons

[bobc88]

I think the same product was referred to King Dons in some parts of the country and Ding Dongs in others. I grew up in the LA area and we had Ding Dongs. I believe the 2 & 1 panels were on the packaging of a smaller type of snack. Crumb Cakes, maybe?

[fkw]

Great memories....
I used to have dozens of unfolded (unused) boxes of King Dongs (3 cards across) I got back in the
late 1970s. I never knew what a King Dong was back then and even thought they were an "error" of some kind (I was 12 years old)....... We only had Ding Dongs in NorCal

I have always liked the Hostess cards and can remember going to the stores with Mom and looking through all the Hostess stuff for Garvey, McCovey, etc., same with the Kelloggs cards and also a few years later Granny Goose Potato Chips looking for that short printed 1981 Dave Revering card. Those were fun days