Hoppin' Along

Further to last month's post on Hopalong Cassidy's wide range of Topps products way back in 1950 (yup, 75 years ago buckaroos), Friend o' the Archive Lonnie Cummins has sent along some additional details relating to Hoppy Pops.

First up, we have the sixth and final b&w box bottom image for the checklist:

It's very close to the image I've dubbed "Hoppy Gazing" but you can see his gun here, so I'll call this one "Hoppy Gazing - Gun Visible" and update the checklist accordingly:

• Hoppy Gazing
• Hoppy Gazing - Gun Visible *
• Hoppy Atop Topper
• Hoppy Next to Topper With Gun *
• Hoppy in Relaxed Pose *
• Hoppy Pointing Gun In Front of Mountains

You can see the new image has the  "Please note: Every box of Hoppy Wagon Wheel Pops features one of six Hopalong Cassidy portraits and one of six Hoppy Pop Puzzles" statement underneath and I've added an asterisk above to show which pictures have been identified with this description to date. Three have it and three don't and more research is needed to see if they each come both ways.

Lonnie also sent along another puzzle from the interior of the lollipop box and it's in color to boot (sorry):

So puzzle nos. two and six are now known.  It's not at all clear if each comes in blue or other colors were used for some of these. I suspect they could all be blue, though.

A possible alternate box cover was sent along as well by Lonnie:

It's lighter than the perforated box cover shown here last month and way less vivid. I also have an unperforated flat (proof) of the more colorful version:

These are scarce items and the one that's more pastel could either be from late in the production run, when the inks started to fade a little before printing, or even evidence of a reissue.

Considering how popular Hoppy was back in the early Fifties, it's a little strange more isn't known about his Wagon Wheel Pops.