Remember Chu Bops !?! I remember these little prizes at every cash register when I was kid. I had a ton of these, mostly the metal bands, RUSH, Judas Priest, Kiss, and the other bands just got used for their gum :)

Produced in the early 80's, these replica album covers were a snapshot of the biggest hits of the day. Made by a company named Amurol, they were the perfect price to be an easy impulse purchase if you were good by the time you reached the registers. At 29 cents you were likely to get a few !

There was some serious diversity in the bands that were represented and it makes for interesting collections from this line. On the front was the album cover. The back was either an advertisement from Chu Bops or the lyrics from a song from the album. They each were numbered for collectors on the back of each album in the top right corner.

Inside was a 3x3 miniature bubble gum album ! It was very detailed and looked like a little pink record album. I remember thinking it would work on a record player but quickly realized that the hole in the middle was to small, so I just ate it :)

Here are some I was able to score:

Two different kinds of backer and bubble gum albums !

Unfortunately mine are cracked, they get very brittle, but you can see that there are two different specimens. One was more detailed with grooves that were plainly visible, the other was grooved but smoother. Didn't matter too much, they were made to be eaten, but after seeing these things some 30 years later, its damn cool !

Groovy..

Smooooth.....

A better picture of the grooves.

The two different style of backers, advertizement and lyrics.

My favorite band is represented here: RUSH with their 1980 album "Permanent Waves."

Close up of the lyric sheet.

I also have these two: Foghat and Robert Palmer. Not my favorites but they came in the lot.

What little kid didn't want a bubble gum record with a miniature album cover of an early 1980's band? I know I loved em ! Being as I was already into heavy metal at the time (I know... I was only 8 !), the metal bands were kept intact for the most part. The others were used in play. They made good representations of stolen artwork so that when Cobra robbed a museum, GI Joe could rescue the priceless works !! Since they were cheap and represented bands I didn't care about, they could get ripped, burned or shot full of holes and I wouldn't care ! I could use them as props ! Its a cool product for playing or eating !!!