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December 21, 2011
Roly Poly Clown Containers and the Santa-Clown Hybrid
1: “vintage Russian celluloid roly-poly ding clown doll 60s” (via: eBay); 2: a toy from The Canadian Design Resource site; 3: a Weeble clown from Abraracourcix’s Flickr Photostream; 4: roly poly clown from Live Auctioneers
Following up on Monday’s “Mr. Sprinkles” bottles, another point of reference for their weeble-like bottle shape was probably vintage “roly poly” toys of this type. Sometimes used as containers, as with the “Roly Poly Clown Bubble Bath” bottle on right and the antique “Clown Roly Poly Candy Container” below.
But my real agenda, in bringing this up, is that I needed a way to segue from clowns to Christmas, and the roly poly thing seems to provide that. The grouping of roly poly Santas below is from Sushipot.
Left: 1930s tin roly poly Santa (via: Antique Trader); center: reproduction of a 1900s roly poly Santa tobacco tin container (via: Ruby Lane); on right: Celluloid Sata Claus roly poly toy (also via: Ruby Lane)
But Santa Claus and clowns have more in common than just roly poly toys and containers. They both wear unusual outfits, often with similar hats. It was inevitable that the characters would someday be merged:
Depending on who you ask, Santa Clown is either a hilarious or thoroughly terrifying combination of two well known figures: Santa Claus and a Circus Clown.
What is Santa Clown? (via: Info Barrel)
(Santa Clown imagery, after the fold…)
Emmett Kelly Jr. (the famous clown son of Emmett Kelly, Sr.) is pictured in a series of “Spirit of Christmas” collectible figurines (upper left and lower right) potraying Santa as a clown. Clearly this is an Emmet Kelly hobo clown, so there’s a sad sort of dissonance in showing a homeless Santa as the provider of toys & presents.
The figure in the upper right is a life-sized, animatronic singing Santa clown.
The lower left T-shirt design is edging into scary clown territory, but this is, by no means, the scariest version available.
And the Santa’s workshop nutcracker on right is also based on Emmet Kelly Jr.’s Santa-hobo-clown character. (Note the dripping paint cans.)
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
Kudos
Consumer/Culture
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Rob Walker’s Design Observer Blog
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The MKTG Tumblr Site
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Justin Kirkwood's brand fiction site
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The Unconsumption Tumblr Site
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What did you buy today?
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The Church of Stop Shopping
other pack-blogs
links
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The Man Who Moved Manhattan
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Belgian journalist, Tom Ronse's blog
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