Harvey Merchandise

One of the bizarre things about being a Harvey Comics fan is the wide array of merchandise that's available, but unlike characters such as Mickey Mouse or Snoopy, merchandise featuring Harvey characters like Casper or Richie Rich is relatively rare, in comparison.

Take for example the above item. I have never seen a Casper cookie jar. This was made in the 50s by American Bisque and many other cookie jars were made with Baby Huey, Herman & Katnip, etc. The H&K one is especially rare as one recently sold for over $14,000 in auction!

The interesting thing also about Harvey character collecting is the peaks and valleys about when merchandise appeared. There was a definite peak in the late 50s / early 60s when "Matty's Funday Funnies" and "The New Casper Cartoon Show" appeared. Then another peak in the mid-70s when Harvey seemed to align themselves with a number of organizations like the Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, UNICEF, Apollo 16, etc.
A third peak happened in the early 80s, when a number of items with Richie Rich appeared and yet another peak happened in the mid-90s featuring the remodeled Casper after the movie and TV cartoon series.

At every time, these items were done in limited quantities and most are difficult to find. Probably the easiest piece of Harvey merchandise to find is the Casper board game, as it actually remained in print for over 20 years.

Anyway, it's fun to collect and you never know what you might find next...