Ribenaland Magic Picture (1969)
"Magic Pictures" was a phrase Letraset employed quite often around 1969, before they became firmly committed to "Action Transfers" & after having tried out — & eventually abandoned — "Instant Pictures".
Here's the outside of the label, which wrapped around the neck of a bottle of Ribena. And below you can read the inside:
I've left the staple in while scanning for added authenticity; see how the transfer was attached (scanned before I removed the sheet):
And finally the sheet (with staple holes). As you'll have read, there would have been nine of these characters (or "shapes", as they referred to them), but the background to which they should be applied was a five shilling mailaway item — which seems quite expensive. This might explain why we've never seen one…
The offer closed on the 31st August, 1969.
It's surprisingly hard to find any references to Ribena's "Ribenaland", although I believe it still exists in principle. The only info I could find from the relevant period were these two rather poor-quality images; firstly, six separate little jigsaws which (as you can see) could be placed together to make a single panorama. Unfortunately, it isn't actually a myriorama, even though it looks as if it nearly could have been; that would have been nice!
I don't have a date for these puzzles; I was just told "70s".
_medicamania_130114.jpg)
Secondly, there was a promotion similar to the Letraset one, two years afterwards in August 1971, for free badges attached to the wrapper labels. This advert comes from the Strait Times of Malaysia. There's no sign of the above frog, & the character design looks quite different.
I don't think we're very likely to come across the background for our Letraset characters, but perhaps one or two more of the "shapes" will turn up one day!
UPDATE:
From the Daily Mirror for Friday the 17th April 1969 comes this full-page ad:
Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
So at last we can not only see all nine of the transfer figures, but also we have a firm date by which the promotion must have first appeared.
(Apologies for the picture quality; now that we know where to look, I'm hoping to upgrade it eventually!)
• Next "Food Promotions" Page: Magic Moon-Trek Kit →
← Free Gift Transfers in Food Promotions