Ken Stuart
Shadow Hills, CA

NOW WITH CAMELS!

Indian Head Brand Animal Crackers has extended their menagerie by introducing camels into their already wildly popular line-up of lions, tigers, bears, and other critters. To celebrate their new beast, Indian Head has introduced a new limited-edition box design, as shown in the images on this page. The new package incorporates elements common to many brands of crackers, but has the unique feature of being constructed entirely of stained glass.

Within the new box work-up, we find eight different animals cast of solid lead. Except for the camel, these castings (according to inside sources), were developed by pressing plastic kiddy zoo animals into a substance known as Sculpey (a polymer clay), which was then baked in an oven to harden it. Scrap lead came was obtained from a local stained glass store and melted and poured into the Sculpey moulds, after which the animal casts were tapped out. The resulting lead figures were then hand-painted to match older cracker-box designs.

Only three bright-colored opaque glasses make up the new box, which is 13x12x5 inches, and the animal casts hold to them by means of a layer of clear silicone. The top side of the box has a hinge on one short edge, of course, to allow access to goodies inside. A bright red faux jewel facilitates opening the lid (to which it is glued) as shown in the demonstration photo, when one has the late-night munchies.

The Indian Head logo, as usual, consists of a bit of rubbed copper sheet overlay and brass filigree with a coating of black patina. (Some have pointed out that the Indian's headdress resembles an angel's wing if not for the Indian's head itself.) Reverting to old technologies, the box and brand labels are applied through custom-designed laser-printed decals.

Sources report that the box developer required about three full working days to execute this special package. All-in-all, this reporter looks forward to finding the new crackers in the local supermarket and usual convenience store chains. Here's hoping the tigers don't get the camels before we do!