This Week In Candy

This week I came across what I can only describe as the worst gimmick ever for a salty snack.  The snack in question is called Space Raiders, and the gimmick is so over the top and unrelated to sour pickled onion corn puffs that I just had to tell you about it.  I found these among a bunch of other salty snacks, but instantly I was attracted to the giant alien head on the package.  Most salty snacks have photos or illustrations of the ingredients, but these guys decided that an alien theme was the better way to go.  This alone is an interesting gimmick for a salty snack, but it doesn't end there.

On the back of the package there's an illustration of the same alien, but it's a full body shot, and there's some kind of height measurement next to him.  It's as if you'll want to know more about these Space Raiders before you eat their snacks.  The illustration also comes with more details about these creatures, such their species, home planet, habitat, and of course their favorite snack.  Not surprising one of their favorite snacks is Space Raiders Pickled Onion snacks.  All of the other things listed on this package are random words obviously made up to sound "spacey". (You can click on the image next to this text for a better look)

What I don't understand is where did these Space Raiders come from? Is this a TV show, a comic book, anything pre-existing? If not, it seems like a lot of work creating a cheesy fake universe for a salty snack.  I applaud them for going through so much detail, but I'm not really sure how well it melds with a their snacks.  I guess I'll have to try them to be sure...

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at some of our favorite retro treats.  Every day this week we'll give you a new fact about a treat from days gone by.  Fortunately most (if not all) of these treats are still around today.  So why not follow our Instagram feed right now, and learn a little something.  If you don't have Instagram, don't worry, you can also follow Snack Facts on our Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Now it's time to find out if the Pickled Onion Alien snacks are actually worth eating, because they're this week's new review.  You can click here to see what I thought of the snacks themselves. How well does the alien theme work with these, is pickled onion really a tasty flavour, do Space Raiders have good taste in snack foods?

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