Saturday, November 17, 2012

Remember Chu Bops ? Record albums with bubble gum inside !!

Remember Chu Bops !?! I remember these little prizes at every cash register when I was  kid. I had a ton of these, mostly the metal bands, RUSH, Judas Priest, Kiss, and the other bands just got used for their gum :)
 
Produced in the early 80's, these replica album covers were a snapshot of the biggest hits of the day. Made by a company named Amurol, they were the perfect price to be an easy impulse purchase if you were good by the time you reached the registers. At 29 cents you were likely to get a few !
 
There was some serious diversity in the bands that were represented and it makes for interesting collections from this line. On the front was the album cover. The back was either an advertisement from Chu Bops or the lyrics from a song from the album. They each were numbered for collectors on the back of each album in the top right corner.
 
Inside was a 3x3 miniature bubble gum album ! It was very detailed and looked like a little pink record album. I remember thinking it would work on a record player but quickly realized that the hole in the middle was to small, so I just ate it :)
 
Here are some I was able to score:

Two different kinds of backer and bubble gum albums !


Unfortunately mine are cracked, they get very brittle, but you can see that there are two different specimens. One was more detailed with grooves that were plainly visible, the other was grooved but smoother. Didn't matter too much, they were made to be eaten, but after seeing these things some 30 years later, its damn cool !

Groovy..


Smooooth.....

 
A better picture of the grooves.
 
 
The two different style of backers, advertizement and lyrics.

 
My favorite band is represented here: RUSH with their 1980 album "Permanent Waves."

 
Close up of the lyric sheet.


I also have these two: Foghat and Robert Palmer. Not my favorites but they came in the lot.


What little kid didn't want a bubble gum record with a miniature album cover of an early 1980's band? I know I loved em ! Being as I was already into heavy metal at the time (I know... I was only 8 !), the metal bands were kept intact for the most part. The others were used in play. They made good representations of stolen artwork so that when Cobra robbed a museum, GI Joe could rescue the priceless works !! Since they were cheap and represented bands I didn't care about, they could get ripped, burned or shot full of holes and I wouldn't care ! I could use them as props ! Its a cool product for playing or eating !!!

25 comments:

  1. Never heard of these. Never seen em. I would have been all over them when I was a rebellious youth!

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    1. They are quite the bit of nostalgia! I have those two extra I mentioned in the post. You're welcome to em if you send me your address.

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  2. Ok i so remember these and you are right i would get a few of these every time we stopped at the store as a kid.

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    1. I can still picture the display! I can't believe the price. How did they produce then so cheap? Nowadays it would cost a few bux for em.

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  3. I totally remember these! Wow, what a flashback. I think I had a Police one, and I know I wad a Men At Work one. Jeeze, you really pulled up an old dusty memory for me. Awesome!

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    1. Thats great! These are such good little time capsules, I had a bunch of em, but I know that they got wrecked or thrown out quick so I never gave them much thought til recently. Glad I could pull on the memories and shake one loose!!

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  4. OMG! Thank you for this! It proved I'm not crazy, and they DID exist! Blondie's "Heart of Glass" was my favorite!!

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    1. No problem ! The whole set is amazing and they covered quite a range of musical genre :)

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    2. I also remember these but no one ever knows what I'm talking about...you guys are awesome

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    3. I also remember these but no one ever knows what I'm talking about...you guys are awesome

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  5. I remember having Bill Joel's Glass Houses and if memory serves me correctly (I'm 47 now), Pat Benatar's In the Heat of the Night on them... Damn.. What memories... wish I still had them

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    1. Check out eBay if your interested in them, you can get em pretty cheap. Your not much older than me but memories like these are timeless :)

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  6. I grew up blocks away from Amurol (they were on the corner of Chicago Ave and Charles St) in Naperville, IL. They made all kinds of gums and cookie-like treats. They had been at that location for decades and decades. There were Chew Bops packaging here and there mixed in with litter you see in public. Most popular was Permanent Waves and Roxy Music (Avalon?). I had a job interview with them in an office that had "12 gold records on the wall; complete with the matching Chew Bops package, all on red felt nicely framed behind glass. You could knock on the back door and they'd give you a handful of packages of gum. Fond memories!

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  7. My father used to work at the lotte plant in battle creek, MI he brought these home all the time I think different companies made different record gum...I remember Micahel Jackson thriller as one of the covers.....

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    1. I was always looking for the kiss ones. I wanted to keep therefore intact but I couldn't resist eating the gum .....

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  8. OMG you rock! I collected these as a kid too. I used to get two of some of them....some to chew and some to keep unopened. I still have all of them. I kept the jackets from the ones I opened and chewed so I have duplicates. I almost had them all. I even have the Elvis set of 8, and I have kiss, blonde, police, Pat Benetar, Billy Joel, Robert palmer, rush, commodores, abba, blue oyster cult,pat Travers band, get the knack, spinners, Judas Priest, Charlie Daniels band, fog hat, south side johnny and asbury jukes, brothers Johnson, little river band, 6 Rolling Stones albums (a whole set), ARS band (?), and I have a collectors record album put away that I can't access right now very easily that is full with albums I can't remember the names of but I wanna say REO Speedwagon, journey, Styx, genesis, BEE GEES, divo, Van Halen, air supply, Aerosmith, Bad company, Leonard skinnard, cheap trick, Michael jacksons thriller, earth wind and fire, supremes, Joan jet, bob Marley, Steve miller, fleet wood mac, bob jovi, Pearl Jam, the Beatles, Tom petty, me heart....LOL.....I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some....anyways I'm selling them all as one lot if anyone is interested,

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    1. You rock...I wasnt able to get bit a few...

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  9. My dad, Joseph Burck, invented Chu-Bops when he worked at Marvin Glass & Associates.

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  10. I had Abba Super Trouper one

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  11. Yes i remember those.i had reo speedwagon,van halen,rush.

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  12. Yes i remember those.i had reo speedwagon,van halen,rush.

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  13. Just found a set of about 30 in the garbage at a thrift store (don't judge me they were right on top🤣🤣)!!!!!

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  14. I have several of these from back in the day.

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  15. I have several of these.. some unopened

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