Lotte Big Bubble Pretty Lady Gum!!

I recently came across my vintage 1980s, I wanna say late 70s Lotte Big Bubble Pretty Lady Gum stash!!! As kids, my sister Lita and I would walk to the local Mom and Pop stores in our village, one in particular, we called, "Stead's Store". The owners were my relative's on my Father's side, and the store was named after the wife, Ester Duenas Flores. Her nickname was Auntie "Stead". I may have spelled that wrong. My Uncle Alfred was her husband, and a former Senator, you can find more info on him here.

Her store was where we found the Lotte Big Bubble gum packs. Lita and I would walk their or ride our bikes, get a couple of packs and come home and play with them. One of the last times, I ever found these packs, I kept the wrappers, and one of the cards. I placed them inside a small folder and was sure they were destroyed by a typhoon that flooded the rivers close by my parents home, and it flooded into the village, so water came into our basement, back in the 90s. If you recall, I spoke about a set I bought from a seller in Japan, here in this post.

When I relocated from Ohio, back to Guam. I was sure the folder was lost. But to my surprise, they were safely tucked away. Fast forward to last night, I took the folder out and sure enough, inside, were my set of Pretty Lady bubble gum packages and one lone set unused inside!! What?!! Yup!

Look at them!! OMG, they are still pristine, and haven't faded or aged at all. I was pretty shocked. I must have kept the other doll cards somewhere, perhaps in an album or something? I'll have to search through my stuff. But, if you noticed, these are manufactured in South Korea and not Japan. So, I looked up the history of Lotte and found out this info. here. Big Bubble was just one of the company's many gum choices for children in the 70s and 80s. I believe on Guam, kids were fortunate because we had many of the Asian snacks and candies were brought in by local companies.

Back to the gum packs, inside the pack you got a large pink covered in powder flat piece of gum, thus the name 'Big Bubble'. You could chew on the gum, while you played with the little anime cardboard dolly inside. She was modestly dressed in a camisole or undies and top, in off white. There was a transfer sheet with various style Fashions of the time, and cute extras like an apple, flowers, hat or purse. All you had to do, was take the transfer sheet and place it onto the paper doll, rub the transfer sheet with a coin, so the decal of the fashion would stay on the doll and 'TADA"! Your little paper doll was dressed in something fashionable. Now, of course depending on your placing of the fashion, can determine whether or not it was properly put on the doll. LOL And if you are trying to redo it or take it off, you couldn't, and it was not wise either. Because, it ended up just being messing and you'd have to scratch it all off if you could. Ugh. So, of course, it took a few tries and the buying of more packs too. If you tried to collect them all, sometimes that was impossible too, because many kids got them and they'd usually sell out.

Inside, the pack I didn't use this set above, and saved it for reference. Still nice and bright too! Whoa! I'm sure there were other doll styles, I've seen a short bob hairstyle girl. I wonder if they are still sold somewhere today? I've tried to see if they still sell in Japan, but nothing has turned up. Darn. Next, I received this lovely Rushton yawning bunny with bottle from Alaska. She needed a good wash and I added a navy blue satin bow with daisies. She did come with this cute baby bottle. Quite different, she has a pink elastic on her right hand to hold her bottle. I will be adding her to my Etsy shop next week. She's well loved and just freakin' adorable!!

Last, I took out the cute pink doll with pink fur hair. She is quite unique almost alien like too. She now sits in my display cabinet making friends. I also bought these lovely cute animal inspired ribbons from Etsy. Just look at those cute meyercord type animals! Can't wait to use this on my plushies!! You can find a set for yourself at PrettyPinkLemonade on Etsy!

The Gum Packets are SOLD OUT!!

 

Thank you for reading! ~ ggsdolls