BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!

Subject: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Splott Man
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 09:58 AM

It's true


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4276553.stm

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: *Laura*
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 10:05 AM

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
But the tube is half the fun! More than half the fun! The smarties are an afterthought! It's so nice to hold! And the suspense of what letter is on the top if so exciting!
Oh dear oh dear oh dear - these are sad times we have come to. :-(
xLx

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 11:07 AM

HOW DARE THEY!
I am going to write to my MP.
This is outrageous!

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Crystal
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 11:10 AM

Apparently one reason was to make it easier for parents to dole out fewer smarties to toddlers who will get high on the sugar.

Oh but wait, the artificial colourings in the smarties will have the little dears rocketing off the walls anyway!

Madness, or an excuse to hike the price massivly?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 11:43 AM

here in Canada, they come in a box, we don't get the tube or the new hex *sniff sniff*

Smarties Box

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 11:46 AM

I was given a tube of Smarties for a program I did at Cambridge! How dare they!! Have they no sense of tradition? Of history?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: el_punkoid_nouveau
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 12:47 PM

Bloody Swiss interlopers! Smarties have always come in a round tube - great fun blasting the cap off!

No - they are bean counters, and don't care about the traditional side of a sweet - or what the consumers really want!

I say Boycott Nestles!

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 12:50 PM

When you eat your Smarties
Do you eat the red ones last/
Do you suck them very slowly,
Or crunch them very fast?
Eat that candy and milk chocolate
But tell me when I ask ...
When you eat your Smarties
Do you eat the red one last?

No tubes in Canada but the empty boxes make an excellent buzz noise when you blow through 'em.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 01:42 PM

In the 'sue you sue me' age we live in, do you think the manufacturers are a little wary of the impending law suits following kids choking on the lids?

Having said that, of course I saved the reds until last, excellent pretend lipstick, then the tube on the ground and WALLOP with the side of your hand to shoot the lid to who knows where...mmmmm you'll have your eye out with one of them, another lawsuit?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Cluin
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 02:24 PM

Smarties in Canada are a totally different animal than the ones that come in a tube. Here, they are candy-covered chocolate which taste better than M&Ms.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Cluin
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 02:24 PM

Waitaminnit!...

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 02:29 PM

You'd think market forces ought to ensure that someone starts producing Smarty clones in tubes.

Mind you when Kit-Kat abolished the old foil and paper packing, and wrecked things, noone seems to have come up with a replacement.

Market forces are greatly overrated. They always seem to work the wrong way round, driving out all kinds of good things, and blanding up everything.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 02:54 PM

Still come in foil here in Canada, McGrath ... how are they packaged in the UK?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: skipy
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 03:11 PM

I have a scar in the roof of my mouth where ( some 40+ years ago!)the sharp edge of a smartie lid gouged a grove! I had the tube in my mouth top end first and a "friend" rammed it in! A box would have been less painful!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: gnu
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 03:11 PM

Yeah! The poor kids' Kazoo! I'd forgotten about that "buzz". And M&M reminds me of the "Emniem" thread a couple of years ago... that was blast.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Cluin
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 03:14 PM

I dropped a tube right after my morning coffee.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: gnu
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 03:27 PM

Found it... (a COUPLE of years ago? Try 4 years. And my spelling - Emniem ? Barkeep.... more glue.) :

Subject: RE: Eminem Rules
From: gnu - PM
Date: 10 May 01 - 02:51 PM

I prefer Smarties. But then, I'm a Canuck. Haven't had any in over thirty years, but I remember that the empty box could be used like a Kazoo (sp ?).

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 05:10 PM

If you'd had a box in your mouth, instead of a tube, surely it would have had sharp edges, and hurt even more, skipy.
..........................

Kit Kat is wrapped in plastic now, and since that happened its sales have slumped. Serve the bastards right Here's a site with a piece about that:

"...When Nestlé stopped foil wrapping their KitKat and slipped them into plastic sachets instead it was a bit of a disaster. It was said that it was done so that we could enjoy our KitKats even fresher, but I think you would find it hard to find a gone off KitKat...

The foil was integral to what KitKats were all about...We liked how we could run our thumb nails down the groove between the fingers. We liked how we could run our finger tips over the top to reveal the cursive KitKat logo cut in the chocolate. We even liked how we could roll it up in to little foil balls and bat them around with our fingers, or make little sculptures..."

Maybe someone could start importing properly packed Kit Kat from Canada...

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: skipy
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 08:50 AM

I could carry out an experiment with a smartie box - but I haven't got any friends!

Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: *Laura*
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 08:53 AM

going to have to stock up on tubes of smarties. buy a multipack or something.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 08:54 AM

Aw, Skipy...here! * hands a box of smarties over*


I'm goignt o stock up on tubes of smarties, then keep the tubes and when the new packaging is introduced...i'll just transfer the smarties...   Am i taking this too seriously??!!?!!?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST,12string stan
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 03:07 PM

when i was but a young lad, my friends and i made, "the worlds biggest smartie tube" for a local child group project ( i was 10)
we collected over a period, 50 perfect, undented, (but emptied!) tubes, and with "the help of a responsible adult" removed caps and ends, add a few squeezes of superglue, and pop a cap on the top. Ta da!!
However, the story saddens. with great care we took it to the community centre, and laid it on the ground, and ran in to get the club leaders, leaving it unattended, thus returned to see it cartwheeling down the main street, in a gust of wind, and left battered, crushed and separated. The top was still on though. I cried.

ah memories. all this re packaging crap serves one purpose only. to make us feel bloody old
So Nestle, i say to you, on behalf of us all TTHHRUUPPPPT 2U

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Raedwulf
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 03:34 PM

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh! Nononononononono!!! Tell me it ain't true!!! (OK, I know it is, but at least allow me a temporary illusion)

Well done, Nestle, I shall never eat another Smartie (to be fair I can't remember when I ate the last one, but even so... Steenkin' heretics!!).

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: SharonA
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 03:55 PM

Here in the US, Smarties are an entirely different candy: small, tablet-shaped but concave instead of convex, in pastel colors, and with nothing but clear cellophane for packaging. They come in stacks of 10 or 12 candies wrapped in the cellophane with each end of the wrap twisted, so that you can pull on the two ends like a "cracker" until all the candy pops out and rolls all over the place.

Here's a picture from the Smarties (US) website www.smartiesstore.com: http://store1.yimg.com/I/yhst-58653162205018_1831_81581

But I sympathize with those of you mourning the demise of the packaging for your version of Smarties. Sometimes I think they pick the focus groups for these things the way they pick juries: not to eliminate bias but to predestine the group's decision.

I'm still upset that Hershey took away the almonds from the tops of the 5th Avenue bars. And don't even get me started about when the makers of Starbursts stopped making the lime ones!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: John O'L
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 03:56 PM

"Smarties in Canada are a totally different animal than the ones that come in a tube. Here, they are candy-covered chocolate which taste better than M&Ms." - Cluin

That's what smarties are in Australia too.
So what are these things that come in a 68-year-old tube?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Raedwulf
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 04:07 PM

Starbursts? Do you mean Opal Fruits (& don't ask about the Marathon turning into a Snickers... :grrrrrrrrrrr:)?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: SharonA
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 04:21 PM

Raedwulf; I didn't know what Opal Fruits were until you mentioned the name, but having looked it up I see that the two are indeed the same candy... with one glaring difference! Here is a page with a picture of Starbursts US (note the absence of lime):

http://www.oldtimecandy.com/starburst.htm

...and here's a BBC News article with a picture of Starbursts UK (formerly Opal Fruits) (which shows a lime candy! Wahhhh!!):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/77273.stm

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: skipy
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 04:44 PM

o/k this is what we do:- we keep quiet about this & slowly purchase tubes of smaties until our spare rooms are full. Never buy more than two tubes at a time, never visit the same shop more than once a fortnight, vary your days and routes, never make eye contact with anyone in any of the shops, never joke or cause anything to make you stand out from the rest of the customers. When the smarty eaters are desperate we can sell our tubes on "Ebay" releasing only one a week!
Skipy.
I think I have been eating the blue ones!, I'll get my whelk & hit it with a spatula.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Raedwulf
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 05:24 PM

Sad but true, Sharon! Most of these sweets were created for the UK market, & now they rename them to match the Continental/US version. I'm vaguely surprised that the venerable Twix hasn't yet been re-christened Raider in honour of our European neighbours...

:(

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 12:47 AM

This is Jan speaking, Ron's sponogomous mouse:



I am truly appalled that Nestle's has dared to change Smarties behind my back just because I've moved to the US.

This must be remedied before my annual visit.


I have already instructed my UK contacts to buy every tube of Smarties they can lay their hands on, in every corner shop, in every corner of the UK, north to south, east to west, and especially in Wiltshire.

If this fails, I intend to buy out Nestles.

Have no fear, the round Smarties tube will never be allowed to die.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST,Moki
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 03:38 AM

GUEST Randi would use it.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: *Laura*
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 07:31 AM

Time to take action!

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: *Laura*
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 07:32 AM

ahh crap - my clicky doesn't work! well I can't make it work anyway.
:-( :-( :-( :-( :-(
what'd I do wrong!?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: *Laura*
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 08:06 AM

I can't do it - so if anyone can make clickys and would like to - here is the thing anyway -

www.petitiononline.com/ktscttr/petition.html

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Layah
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 08:29 AM

The confusion I've had since this thread began has finally been explained! I kept thinking "Smarties...tubes?...chocolate?" Now SharonA has explained, smarties in the US are different. I thought they were these little chalky things that came in a clear plastic wrapping. The only time I've ever eaten them is when I used to get gajillions of them at Holloween, so I thought maybe I was remembering something wrong. Being in the UK I think I'd better go out and buy myself some smarties before the packaging changes to I can experience this wonderful sounding smarties tube.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST,Alastair Campbell
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 01:01 PM

I agree - it is out of order!

I have setup a petition - please sign it, link to it and blog about it.

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/5908.html

Tell everyone you know and then let's get some publicity.

Alastair.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Peace
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 03:58 PM

Laura's Link

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: *Laura*
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 04:03 PM

thanks brucie!

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Peace
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 05:25 PM

Welcome.

It bothered me much more, frankly, when HP Sauce changed its label. That was a real kick in the stones. Kinda makes ya feel like nothin's sacred anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 03:23 PM

"Cette sauce de haute qualité est un mélange des..." sorry I digress.
Personally I have never eaten an Opal Fruit since their demise. And what about Spangles then?

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 04:21 PM

okay, it sounds like the Smarties in the US are the same as what we would call "Rockets" in Canada.... especially once it was mentioned that you get a bunch of them at Halloween...



So, to summarize:

1) Smarties UK, Canada, Oz -- Candy coated milk chocolate similar to M&M's... UK had em packed in tubes, Canada in boxes, UK in ???
2) Smarties USA -- concave candies in clear cellophane wrapper, stacked together... you can pull the wrapper ends like a Christmas Cracker to unwrap
3) Smarties USA & Rockets from Canada -- separated at birth? YES!!


and here is the proof!

... someone else will need to explain Opal Fruit, Spangles, et al.

Brian

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST,*Laura*
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 05:03 PM

I suppose we should be grateful they aren't changing the name of Smarties too. Opal Fruits just aren't the same now they're Starburst.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Peace
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 05:04 PM

Right. "Here, have some Brilliants."

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST,*Laura*
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 05:15 PM

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: annamill
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 05:50 PM

I've been deprived. I've never had a Smartie.

In NY, USA, they tried to give a bagged version of our SACRED "Cracker Jacks" at Yankee Stadium. New Yorkers would have none of it and quite a fuss was made and finally Yankee Stadium went back to the "Box of Cracker Jacks". You don' mess wit NewYawkas. 'Specially their Yankees!

They'd have to change the sacred song

"Take me out to the ballgame",
"Take me out to the crowd",
"buy me some peanuts and bagged caramel popcorn"....

Nope, just doesn't work..

Here it is as it should be:

(im a red sox fan myself, shhh)

Point is, if enough fuss is made you CAN change it back. Write a letter! Scream at your local store! Stop buying the smartasses, sorry smarties!

STANDUP AND FIGHT! DON'T ALLOW IT!

Luv, Annamill

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: annamill
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 05:57 PM

Sorry. Forget the link.

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: Cluin
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 09:27 PM

Stand up and fight against Error 400!

I'm not having it, I tell you!

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: GUEST,Antsan61
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 08:01 AM

Hey, Anyone seen the Ad at the bottom of this page?

"New & used Nestle Smarties"

Used????????????????

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: MBSLynne
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 09:46 AM

A bit of Smartie nostalgia here......

They were my favourite sweet when I was little and as my nickname had been Lulu since I was a baby, the family thought it really spooky when the Smarties adverts started saying "Buy some for Lulu!" at the end. I, of course, thought it was the right and proper working of a wonderful world.

I remeber when they changed the lids from metal ones that fitted over the tube to the plastic coloured ones we now have. I also remember standing with my Mum in the local Co-op with a tube of Smarties in my hand...I was about 5. I stood there shaking the tube because it made a good sound, when suddenly, the lid flew off and my Smarties went everywhere....my Mum hurried me out of the shop after buying another tube, embarassed because a man standing near us had his trouser turn-ups full of Smarties and didn't know!

We used to have our grocery order delivered on Thursday evening every week, just as "The Flintstones" came on. There was always a tube of Smarties each for my sister and I and for years Smarties and the Flinstones were mixed together in my mind.

I managed without Smartie tubes after we emigrated to Australia, where they came in boxes, but it was never the same....

And I always save the orange ones till last!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Smarties to drop the tube!!
From: skipy
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 10:24 AM

As we speak, on Ebay there is for sale a wispa bar & a caramel bar in weird stuff, about 2 hours left.
£4.99 or buy it now £9.99!

Skipy