Jenny's Crayon Collection: 1990's boxes

Crayola Glow in the Dark Crayola Crayons

Crayola came out with the glow in the dark crayons in 1994. The concept was all thee crayons would glow in the dark. The back of the box says it comes with 7 colors and 1 colorless crayon. All the crayons glow yellow in the dark. The crayons need to be charged by placing it under light for 15 seconds. It is interesting to note that Crayola encouraged secret messages to friends. They said "create surprise message and picture cards for your friends! On the inside, write a message or draw a surprise picture with the colorless crayon." I was so excited to pick up this pack of crayons.

The 1997 box added yellow glowing crayons and also a black outliner.

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1994

1997

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Crayola Pooh Crayons

Crayola came out with the Washable Pooh crayon line in 1995. They all feature characters from Winnie the Pooh. The pictures on the crayons make the most sense when they are vertical. Crayola decided to uniquely name these crayons with fun names; Red Balloon, Huggable Bear Orange, sunshiny Yellow, Springtime Meadow Green, Blustery Blue, Pouncy Purple, Whoo Brown, Storm Cloud Black. These crayons are also labeled as No-Roll crayons with a hexagonal shape.

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16 Count Crayola Crayons including Indian Red: What's Inside the Box

The 16 count box from Crayola has been around since 1910. This box is from 1997. These colors were put in this box as a collection. I bought this box on eBay. I was very disappointed when it came and two colors were broken and were not broken on the listing. I told the seller and they were going to replace the colors, but I guess I didn't get back to them in time (2 weeks) and they said they weren't going to replace them. Guess I will be more careful when I buy on eBay.

I bought it because Indian Red was included in the box and I did not have that color in my collection yet. It is a very important color in Crayola's history and has since been retired.

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Crayola Changeable Crayons: What's Inside the Box

Crayola came out with a series of crayons called Changeables which consisted of 6 crayons that could change color with a color change crayon. Crayola later made OverWriters and Color Switcher markers in the 2000's which did a similar thing with markers. The markers used different ph's to change the color. The crayons probably change in similar ways. The patent is not listed on the back. I will have to find it.

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US Box

Canadian Box

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Crayola True Blue Heroes Crayons: What's Inside the Box

I have been wanting to get my hand on a True Blue crayon for a while now. The True Blue Heroes Crayola Crayons came out in 1997. It was a national contest for kids to nominate a Hero in their lives, write an essay, and color a picture about them. The colors to name appeared in the 64, 96, and 120 crayon boxes. The box I have here are the ultimate winners for the contest. There was also a wooden box that contained the true blue color. I have pictures of all the artwork and essays at the bottom of the post in the booklet section.

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Crayola Techno Brite Crayons and Markers: What's Inside the Box

The Crayola Techno Brite Crayons box came out in 1997. It is very similar the Hot Fluorescent box that came out years earlier, but the names are all centered around technology. On the back it says, "Try these bright high-tech colors for all your high resolution graphics!! (and your pictures too!). The crayon names are so funny, floppy yellow, point & click green, www.purple. They came out when computers were starting to play a major part in everyone's lives, not quite their daily lives yet. I think we had internet, but it was the super slow aol.com. It would take forever to load and would say "You've Got Mail" when you signed in.

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Techno Brite marker pictures in this post by Stacey Hodges.

Crayola also came out with a box of Techno Brite markers. Crayola likes to make boxes of matching crayons and markers. The main difference with the markers is they were called Cool Shades after Techno Brite. The colors contained in the box would later be used for another box of markers. I am unsure what the box is called at the moment, but will research it.

These two boxes were introduced in 1997. I think they were introduced to promote the new Crayola website. The website was developed in late 1996. All the boxes made in 1997 included the text, "For more information including Fun Project Ideas, visit the Crayola INTERNET site at: http://crayola.com". It is so interesting they made the text in red and they also called it INTERNET instead of website and included the http:// instead of www.

I never bought the Crayola Techno Brite crayons when I was a kid. I was in high school by that point and probably worried about high school things. And I did not have a lot of money. I wish I would have bought them though and so many more boxes. There are some truly great boxes that came out around that time. Crayola was experimenting a lot with of different effects with crayons. I picked up this Canada box from a fellow collector who is selling his entire collection. I wish I had the money and the room to buy his whole collection.

16 Count Crayola Pearl Brite Crayons: What's Inside the Box

The Crayola Pearl Brite crayons came out in 1997, one was a 8 count box and other a 16 count box. These crayons are similar to Silver Swirls crayons. They came out at a time when crayola was doing a lot of experimentation. They produce a soft luster on the paper hence the Pearl Brite name. The crayons are all named on an ocean theme with pearl at the end.

I never bought the Crayola Pearl Brite crayons when I was a kid. I was in high school by that point and probably worried about high school things. And I did not have a lot of money. I wish I would have bought them though and so many more boxes. There are some truly great boxes that came out around that time. Crayola was experimenting a lot with of different effects with crayons. I have not found a patent on this box, but they remind me of the Silver Swirl crayons. I picked up this Canada box from a fellow collector who is selling his entire collection. I wish I had the money and the room to buy his whole collection. This is my first international box of crayons. I am excited to have them. The other box comes from Stacy Hodges whose story is very similar to mine. She has a ton of crayons and has been collecting them her whole life.

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The box design is different for the Us and Canada boxes. The Canada box is white, and does not contain a year on the box. It also has the word nacres on the front and French writing on the back. It references www.crayola.com/canada. The crayon wrappings are not colored. The US box contains the specs on the front, and the year on the back. The back is the same color as the front and the crayon wrappers have the same color as the crayon on them.

16 Count Crayola StarBrite Crayons: What's Inside the Box

The Crayola StarBrite crayons are really fun. They do not have color names, but are glittery and sparkly. The back of the box says, they "shine and twinkle like start dust, because we've built the star dust into each crayon". These crayons are so much fun to color with and remind me of the GemTones that were released several years earlier. They are in fact a continuation of the GemTones. They are in the same style family. The GemTones are 52-3216 and so are the StarBrites. I really wish they had named the StarBrite colors, they could have come up with some really creative names.

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96 Count Crayola Limited Edition "Name the New Colors": What's Inside the Box

Crayola first made the 96 Big Box of Crayons in 1992 and introduced the "Name the New Colors" contest. They included a special sleeve with the crayons that said, "For the first time ever we're letting you pick the names and win great prizes in the Crayola 'Name the New Colors' Contest".
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96 Limited Edition "Name the New Colors"

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Crayola Fluorescent Crayons: What's Inside the Box

The Hot Fluorescent 16 count crayon box was probably one of my first boxes of crayons when I was young. As with many boxes from my youth these crayons were magical in my mind. I loved them so much that I lost most of them and the box was destroyed. Luckily I found some more on eBay recently. The crayons are very bright and sometimes hard to see in the light, but they are magical. They are super bright. For this reason Crayola included a black crayon to outline the the colors. It was not the first time these crayons were introduced. This 1990's box was a major change from previous versions of Crayola Fluorescent crayons from the 1970's. The wrappers were changed, colors were renamed and added. Many of the crayons names are around today and included in the higher count crayon boxes. They have been renamed Neon crayons. (Thanks Ed Welter for all the information on these crayons)

I also have recently collected one of the original boxes from the 1970's. These have the name Fluorescent on every crayon wrapper and some very fun names that have been retired. The box specifies that they glow in black light. It is interesting to note on this box there is a style number, but no code number. There is a 2240 number after the style number. They also say 8F crayons. I wonder if Crayola used the same style number for the 8 count boxes at the time, but differentiated these ones with the F.

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16 Count Crayola GemTones Crayons: What's Inside the Box

Why do I love the GemTones? I loved how they sparkled on things when I used them as a kid. I had not seen anything like it before. And they were also named after precious stones, ie Pink Pearl, Rub, Emerald, Rose Quartz. What little girl does not love stones?

GemTones were first released in Canada and then made available in the United States in 1993. During these years Crayola was experimenting with glitter crayons. It is unknown what medium was used for the glitter effect. I still have my box of GemTones from my childhood and bought another box from eBay recently. My box from my childhood is definitely used. The first box did included a regular black crayon. I think Crayola included it to use for outlining the drawings.

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Crayola Silver Swirls: What's Inside the Box

The Silver Swirls box from Crayola is my favorite box ever! The Silver Swirl line started in 1990. I think it was a failed attempt at a glitter crayon. That is what I got from reading the patent. I bought these crayons when I was really young and used them all the time. I loved how shiny and smooth they were on the paper. There was nothing else like it and there has not been anything like it since. Like I said these are my absolute favorite. I really wish Crayola would bring these back.

I think I have figured out why they were sadly taken out of the market. In the patent it mentions a "metal-swirl version of a Crayola® crayon which contains fine particles of aluminum; however, while this type of crayon yields a swirl effect and alters the typical pigment, such a crayon does not impart a glitter effect to a substrate." Were silver swirls the first attempt at glitter crayons? Were they were taken off the market because they contain aluminum?

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Crayola Magic Scent Crayons: What's Inside the Box

The Magic Scent line of crayons is one of my favorites from Crayola. It was one of the first boxes I ever owned. I still have my original box from my childhood. The magic scent line came out in 1993. The 1993 boxes featured outdoor smells and food smells. In 1994 probably due to backlash from parents whose kids ate the crayons they changed the scents to non food items. I personally like the food ones better. They just smell better. I have also found most of the boxes on eBay. I love all the different scents in the boxes, especially Fresh Air. All the boxes are slightly different. The 1993 box has a strawberry and grape on the front, the 1994 16 count box has a rose and a pine tree on the front, and the 8 count box has a strawberry and grape on the front of the box.

How do they work? The US Patent 5039243, fragrance releasing crayons explains it very well. The patent says there are microcapsules on surface of the crayons, and when they the crayon is used to color the microcapsules break and the smell is produced.

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