Words To Live By ('Message' Keychains)

 Keychains can have many uses. They can be used to hold your keys, of course. But as previous posts on this blog have shown, they can also serve other purposes. They can be used to remember a special vacation, or to give you a glimpse of a destination that you've never seen in person. They can be used to remember the special people in your life, either because a certain person gave you the keychain or because something about the keychain makes you think of that person. Keychains can also be used to advertise your interests, your fan loyalties, your heritage or your hometown pride. In other words, keychains can be used to send a message. And that's the topic of today's post - keychains with messages on them.

These keychains have a lot in common with bumper stickers, or the more modern equivalent of bumper stickers - car magnets. Like bumper stickers and car magnets, these keychains have something to say. They can be funny, snarky, or inspirational. They can use humor to get their message across, or they can play it straight. They can also cover a broad range of topics, such as social trends, gender, politics, religion, the list goes on and on. However, the primary purpose of these 'message' keychains seems to be to reflect the keychain owner's personality.

Judging by their identifying marks, the majority of the 'message' keychains in my personal collection have come from the following three companies: Laugh Tracks, Kalan, or RPP Inc. My online research was unable to dig up any information on Laugh Tracks, and the only somewhat relevant reference source I could find for RPP Inc. was a photo archive on a Button Museum website showcasing some 'button' style pins that RPP Inc. produced. Kalan, however, is still in business, specializing in "trendsetting" novelty and gift items.

As I started organizing my keychains by company for photos, I decided to see if I could pick out any patterns in the types of messages used by the different manufacturers. I eventually realized that any patterns I did notice wouldn't necessarily tell me anything, since the only 'message' keychains I have in my collection are ones that fit my personal tastes. This means that my seemingly random sampling of keychains probably wasn't so random after all, and therefore wouldn't necessarily reflect the manufacturers' full product range. Still, I thought it would be fun to see what reoccurring themes might crop up in the types of 'message' keychains I'd collected over the years.

The keychains shown in the photos above are all marked Laugh Tracks. I seem to have more 'message' keychains from Laugh Tracks than I have from Kalan and RPP Inc. combined. Also, I couldn't help noticing that several of these Laugh Tracks keychains have a bit of a feminist bent.

At least half of the keychains in the Kalan product assortment above seem to reflect a rather negative attitude. I'm a bit of a pessimist by nature, so I guess that this shouldn't really surprise me.

As for these RPP Inc. keychains, two of them deal with the subject of shopping, two have messages relating to keys, and the first one in the bottom row is completely random, if you take into account that I've never lived in New York. I found that particular keychain at a discount book store years ago, and I bought it simply because I thought it was funny.

Speaking of shopping, here are some other keychains with shopping related messages. The concept of 'retail therapy' is something that I'm very familiar with.

This next set of 'message' keychains uses a different construction than what I've shown so far. I bought these at a flea market years ago, and I have no idea who made them. But I like the unique way that they're constructed. They're similar to the 'button' style pins that I mentioned earlier in this post, except that instead of pin backs, these keychains have flat metal backs.

I already mentioned in my post on "Hobbies And Fandoms" that I 'dabble in' different types of crafts. The photo below shows some keychains with messages related to crafting.

I'm going to wrap up this post with some random 'message' keychains. These examples should help give you a better idea what sort of variety is available, design-wise

Considering the broad selection of 'message' keychains that have been produced over the years, it seems to me that if there's something you want to say to the world, then chances are there's a keychain to help you say it. So here's one final message for all of you.

Signed, Treesa

Birthday Package From Heathersmoo: 2021

 Heathersmoo from Livejournal, a dedicated keychain collector if there ever was one, kindly sent me a package of keychain goodies for my December birthday. Thanks, Heather! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this post up. I had a lot more prep work to do for this Christmas season compared to last year, since members of my extended family reinstated their annual holiday get-togethers after putting them on hiatus for the past 2 years due to Covid-19. I'm still trying to catch up on all of the projects and other things that got pushed to the back burner during the Christmas rush. So without further ado, let's bring on the keychains.

 

I absolutely love this puffy, furry, greenish-blue teddy bear keychain. The head and limbs seem to be made from some sort of pleather or textured vinyl material that is stuffed, and the body is one of those faux fur pom-poms that were all the rage for purse accessories a while back. The color is unique and fun for a teddy bear, in a subdued shade that strikes just the right balance between a pale pastel and a vibrant jewel tone. However, my favorite part of the design has to be the facial printing. For some reason the face makes me think of Bearemy, the Build-a-Bear Workshop mascot. I doubt that that resemblance was intentional though. According to the product tag, this bear was "Distributed by Kalan LP".

 

I had a lot of trouble photographing the eyes on this dog head keychain, even though I deliberately placed a white backing sheet behind the black metal to better highlight the details. I think my issues were largely due to overcast weather reducing my lighting. While I don't know enough about dog breeds to say for certain what type of dog this keychain is modeled on, maybe someone reading this post can help to narrow it down for me.

Since this dinosaur is holding half of a heart with the word "Best" on it, I'm assuming that it was part of a 'best friends' keychain set, and that Heather has the matching half. The yellow and orange color scheme reminds me a lot of Cheesasaurus Rex, the 90s era mascot for Kraft Macaroni And Cheese. The raised markings on the back of this keychain identify it as another "Kalan" product, this one made in Bangladesh.

Even though it's the first guitar pick keychain in my collection, I've actually been intrigued by this keychain's concept for a while now. Also, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here before how much 'brand nostalgia' I have for My Little Pony, even though I'm not all that invested in more recent iterations of the franchise. The fact that this keychain is my favorite color, purple, doesn't hurt either.

Lastly, this final keychain is shaped like a silhouette of the United States and patterned like an American flag. I tend to be drawn to country and state silhouette shaped keychains, although I have no idea why. Maybe I should try accumulating enough of these keychains to do some temporary map setups to photograph. That might make for an interesting future project.

There's also an advertisement on the back of this keychain for "Patriot On-Site Services Inc" in Ellenboro, North Carolina. However, I wasn't able to find additional information about the company. The web address listed on the keychain no longer seems to be valid, and online searches got me nowhere. Such is the transitory nature of cyberspace I guess. Internet based resources frequently disappear into the ether, unless we're talking about old social media posts that you actually want buried. Then they hang around forever.

I'd like to thank Heather once again for her gift. I appreciate her generosity in sharing some of her treasured keychains with me, since it's a known fact that once a keychain finds its way into her possession it rarely leaves. So thanks Heather, and I wish you good luck with your keychain hunting in the coming year.

Signed, Treesa

This Is Halloween: 2021

 I originally intended to do a series of posts as a lead-up to Halloween this year. However, with the amount of rain and overcast weather my area has been getting lately, I kept putting off trying to take photos, so the time ended up getting away from me. Still, I did sort of promise Heathersmoo, my keychain collecting email pen-pal, that I would show off the tarot card 'Death' keychain I bought at Spencer's a while back in my 2021 Halloween post. So, here's a quick post wishing my readers a Happy Halloween.

As I said before, this keychain was bought at a store called Spencer's, which specializes in 'edgy' and 'irreverent' novelty items. The original backing card for this keychain stated that it was "distributed by Kalan LP".

As a bonus Halloween 'treat', here's a set of keychains based on that late 90s trend-setting horror film, The Blair Witch Project, a film credited with popularizing the 'found-footage' genre. These keychains were manufactured by Hot Properties! Inc., though I can't remember now what retail store I actually bought them from. I do recall that I got all four of them on clearance, after the initial hype for the film had run its course. I'm pretty sure I hadn't actually seen the movie at the time I bought these, since horror isn't one of my preferred genres, and generally I don't like going to movie theaters anyway. I'd rather wait and borrow films from the public library, so that I can watch them from the comfort of my own home with the volume adjusted to a level I'm more comfortable with and with the ability to pause the action for bathroom breaks.

I think the reason that I picked up these keychains originally was because The Blair Witch Project qualified as what I call a 'pop culture touchstone', to reuse a phrase from one of my previous posts. I like having keychains in my collection that serve as artifacts from a particular time, representing the trends and fads that helped define that point in time. Either that, or I just thought these Blair Witch Project keychains looked cool.

Signed, Treesa