Now, some people might say that Mini Eggs are perfect just the way they are – tiny, sugary ovoids of chocolaty perfection. To those people I say, BLASPHEMY! There is no candy so perfect that marketing executives can’t tweak with the formula to produce a bunch of special editions that nobody really needed, but all of us Candy Addicts are going to snap up by the handfuls anyway. Not that I’m bitter – this is the mindset that gave us Dark Chocolate Mini Eggs, after all. But after you’ve made a perfect candy even MORE perfect with dark chocolate, where do you go from there?

If you’re Cadbury, that place might just involve Pop Rocks – and lots of ‘em.

To a certified Candy Addict, a big bag of Mini Eggs is about as fun as it gets anyway – but kids today have short attention spans, I guess. Hence, the creation of Mini Eggs that literally explode in your mouth.

As far as I could see, these come only in the smallest, single serving-size bag – which, at 32 grams, feels a lot lighter than I remember from previous years. However, the regular and dark Mini Eggs also come in this bag size, so at least everyone’s getting stiffed equally, I guess? The eggs themselves look a little different than regular Mini Eggs – their color’s more intense, and they’re missing those distinctive brown speckles.

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My absolute favorite candy from this year’s All Candy Expo has to be the new Wonka Tinglerz, malted pieces of crisped rice covered in Nestle’s milk chocolate and pumped with a carbon dioxide blast to give them some serious popping power. Tinglerz won’t be hitting stores until September, but I was lucky enough to score a pack at the Expo – in prototype packaging, no less. The real packaging hasn’t been unveiled yet, but we’ll be sure to bring you a picture as soon as we can.

You could easily classify Wonka Tinglerz as a sort of wacky cousin to Nestle’s Buncha Crunch, as both candies are alike in taste and appearance, with one notable exception. While the Tinglerz retain the pellet-like shape and the crispy, milk chocolate taste of Buncha Crunch, the Tinglerz offer an experience that Buncha Crunch can’t match: a popping, fizzing sensation that hits the mouth as the chocolatey bits dissolve.

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Last year, I reviewed the Limited Edition Chocolate Pop Rocks and while quite tasty, my biggest complaint was the lack of candy in that small Pop Rocks envelope. Pop Rocks has decided to solve that problem by releasing a 2.33 oz “Mega Bar” of milk chocolate with Pop Rocks mixed in. It comes in two 3-square pieces and is rather thick – reminds me of a Chunky Bar.

At first crunch, it reminds me of a Nestle Crunch and I was surprised to see just how many Pop Rocks are in it – they weren’t stingy with the Pop Rocks! The milk chocolate tastes good, not super-high quality, but not inferior grade either. Again, it reminds me of a Nestle Crunch. I can’t tell if the Pop Rocks have a flavor or not or if they made special “unflavored” Pop Rocks just for this purpose. Either way, it works.

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Kids tell stories, stories become myth, myth becomes legend. And what else could provide more inspiration than candy? Sit back, relax, and get ready to savor the…

Have you ever wanted to build your own skeleton out of lollipop sticks? Pop Rocks is now giving budding Frankensteins the opportunity to piece plastic bones together into complete skeletal bodies. Strange timing for this new candy to come out (wouldn’t the announcement be better off closer to Halloween?), but the Build Your Own Skeleton Pops should be available by April of 2007.

What I first believed to be edible skeletal (that’s fun to say out loud!) remains turned out to be something different. The lollipop itself is strawberry swirl. The collectible, buildable aspect comes in with the stick. Each stick is actually a bone, and multiple pops must be eaten before you collect enough parts to create an entire skeleton. Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

These unique treats are available in seven different individually wrapped collectible bone styles, skull, rib cage, arms (2), legs (2), and hip, that that snap together into a free-standing 20 inch skeleton play figure. Featuring fact-filled packaging that encourages kids to learn all about the human skeletal system, Build Your Own Skeleton Pops are collectible, fun, delicious and educational.

It’s great that a company has finally figured out a creative use for the stick of a lollipop. I collect them, but I never know what to do with the sticks afterwards and they almost always end up in the recycle bin. Now at least I’d have a creepy-cool skeleton after all that licking. Skeleton Pops will be available in stores starting this April, at $0.99 per bag, or in a larger bag of seven pops for $5.99.

• Build Your own Skeleton Pops Press Release