The Whitman/Golden Character Boxes

Whitman Publishing Company was also known as Golden Books and Western Publishing Company. They were known for their character crayon boxes. They did them in several different types. They had front-tuck paper boxes and hard clear plastic cases first, then colored plastic cases and later went to hanger tab boxes. In between there they did some larger crayons in boxes as well. The sum of them all makes for a long collecting process. Who knows, there may even be more still to discover out there.

Back in the 2010s, the company that held the archive for their crayons, sold all the crayon boxes from that archive. It really added to the known examples of their product catalog. Let’s look at what is known.

Front-Tuck Boxes

These were the first type of character crayon containers they did. They were 16-color sized and some contained unique crayon names based on the licensed character set. The Atom Ant box is an early box and rare. This box came from their archive, and I haven’t seen another, but they aren’t really, really old so hopefully more will turn up over time. The Bozo the Clown box is another archive box that surfaced during their sell out. It is both rare and highly desirable. The Bugs Bunny came from the archives. It seems like I’ve seen one of these before but not as clean as this one obviously. Still a rarer early box. The Flipper box shows up every so often. I would consider it slightly scarce but no unattainable. I hadn’t seen this Golden box in the early tuck version for many years but then several showed up right after that. It is a bit tough to find but not too hard. Scribbler boxes should be fairly easy to acquire in either version. There is even a 6-color box. The Superman box does show up every so often. It is desirable though and so while they don’t go for a lot of money, they do get bids on eBay. This Tom and Jerry came from the archive and I have never seen another.

Clear Hard Plastic Containers

These were the next type of character crayon containers they did. They were 16-color sized and clear lift up containers with some containing unique crayon names based on the licensed character set.

Their Barbie boxes come in many different types. Their hard clear plastic version is easy to obtain. The Biskitts box is pretty obscure. It rarely surfaces. The Bugs Bunny and Friends is an easy box to acquire. Captain Power only shows up occasionally. It can be found but it might take you time. Dino Riders is another that only shows up occasionally. Duck Tales is one of the more common ones to find. These should be readily available given time. Go Bots is one of the toughest clear boxes to obtain. I have only seen a few surface. Looney Tunes is a fairly common one to obtain. The orange version of Master of the Universe is easy to obtain. The red version of Masters of the Universe is much harder to find than the orange version. The green Mickey Mouse box is one of the easiest to find. The Moon Dreamers is very difficult to find. I hadn’t seen one for over 14 years and then one surfaced. Who knows how long before more show up. The Pac-Man one is still very popular to collect although it does show up on occasion. Pound Puppies is one of the only examples where there is a Canadian version available too. The USA version has no French and is much easier to find. This Pound Puppies is a Canadian Version with French on it as well. It is difficult to find. The Princess Power is fairly difficult to find but they do turn up on occasion. The Purr-Tenders is one of the toughest of the clear containers. One didn’t show up for the first 17 years that I collected. Years ago, the Rainbow Brite was very rare but then a few showed up in later years. I see it on occasion. This should be reasonable to find over time. The Sesame Street box is one of the more common ones to find. Shirt Tales is very scarce. It has only shown up a few times over the last 20 years. The Snoopy and Friends is a fairly common one to acquire. Sport Goofy is scarce, but not too difficult. You should be able to find one over time.

Colored Hard Plastic Cases

They followed the clear containers with more of a book opening case done in various colors. These were also 16-color sized.

The 101 Dalmatians is a bit scarce. One only surfaces every few years. The Aladdin one is very easy to find. There are a couple of Barbie examples. This one is relatively easy to acquire. The second Barbie version I call the “doll like picture” one. It should be easy to find. The third Barbie version I call the “big hair” one. It should be easy to find. Beauty and the Beast should be not too difficult to acquire over time. The Berenstain Bears is not a common one to find. They only show up from time to time. The Bugs Bunny with the white case is easy to acquire. The one with the green case is too. The Darkwing Duck one is a bit obscure, but they show up. The Duck Tales one is easy to obtain. The Chip & Dale one is difficult to find. They only surface on occasion. The GI Joe one is easy to find. Goofy is a bit harder to obtain. They eventually show up but you might have to wait a while. This should be easy to find. It certainly was years ago but I have noticed less of them lately. There are two variations of Lisa Frank. This one is by far easier than the other one although it can still be hard to find. This version of Lisa Frank is very tough to find. I have personally seen only one show up before. The Little Golden Book Land is obscure. They eventually surface but you might have to wait a bit. The Mickey Mouse one is easy to find. Pinocchio is another one that is difficult to obtain. I would say it is scarce. This is one of the most difficult to find. I hadn’t seen one appear for 20 years. This is somewhat easy to obtain. They show up with some regularity. This used to be really easy to find. I’m not sure if that is still the case or not. The Sesame Street box is pretty easy to find. The Tale Spin box is a bit harder to find. I don’t see them surface very often. The Tiny Toon is easy to find.

The 8-color Giant Boxes

They also did a few larger sized crayon boxes in an 8-color assortment. Some of them were older than the hard plastic cases, some came after.

The Bambi Giant is one of the older boxes and is somewhat easy to find but you might have to wait a bit. The Disney Giant box is easy to get. This was a variation that came from the archive and has a hanger tab. I have only seen this one. The Bugs Bunny ones are another two from the Archive, but I have seen this from time to time. The Little Critter box is very difficult to find. You can go for a decade without seeing one. The Mary Poppins is an older box and not too difficult to obtain. The Mickey Mouse is a bit obscure but they do show up. The Rainbow Brite Giant box is very difficult to find. They don’t come up very often. This Superman Giant came from the Archive. I have only seen a couple of others in the Giant version. The Sesame Street Giant is rare. I saw one in 2022 and hadn’t seen one in the last 10 years.

The Hanger Tab Boxes

They followed the colored containers with traditional hanger top boxes. They were the last kind before the company went out of business. These were also 16-color or 24-color sized.

The 101 Dalmatians is easy to obtain. The Adventures of Batmen & Robin used to be easy to find but it is much scarcer lately. The first Aladdin is easy to obtain. The second Aladdin is also easy to obtain. The Animaniacs one is scarce. They only appear occasionally. The Barbie Forever box should be relatively easy to obtain. The Beauty and the Beast box used to be a bit difficult to find. Not sure if that is still the case. The Bugs Bunny came from the Archive and I have never seen another one. The Cinderella used to be common but lately I haven’t seen one appear for several years. This Lion King should be easy to obtain. The Lisa Frank is easy to obtain. There are two Poky and Friend versions. This blue one is very difficult to find. The green one is very difficult to find too. The Precious Moments box is also difficult to find. Just like the Cinderella, this Snow White was easy to obtain many years ago but now I haven’t seen it for years. The other Snow White version is also difficult to find. Spider-Man is easy to find. Underdog is a bit obscure but it does surface from time to time.

There you have it. If more turn up, I’ll update this composite along with the company overview. They did do more of the clear plastic and hanger tab boxes under their general Whitman name but I didn’t focus on those as they weren’t character-based examples. However, several of their Whitman clear case sets had both crayons and coloring books in a wide container which are highly collectible. I also chose not to include their character crayon-by-number sets or other non-standard box examples as there are a number of them. You can find these under the company overview. All in all, these make a great mini-collection that will keep you looking for some time. Some are tough but none are impossible.