Flix Candy is hatching some new novelty licensed Peeps products for Easter 2007. Peeps Easter Eggs are translucent pastel eggs that open to reveal miniature Peeps chick- and bunny-shaped marshmallow-flavored candies in assorted pastel colors. The egg also stores a colorful sheet of Peeps stickers.

Also introduced to the Flix Candy Peeps line are Peeps Lollipop Rings. Perfect for sharing, the two-pack set includes two rings with edible chick-shaped lollipops in a yellow marshmallow flavor and a pink strawberry cream flavor.

Peeps Pop Slider is a sliding sucker with a collectible character toy on top. The Peeps toy can be easily removed to reveal the 12-gram blue raspberry, marshmallow or strawberry cream flavored lollipop underneath. Slide the character back down to preserve the rest of the candy for later.

A colorful, shrink-wrapped basket with a suggested retail price of 99 cents holds three 15-gram lollipops each covered with a psychedelically-decorated Easter egg. The plastic egg opens easily to expose a lollipop that comes complete with a bubble gum center. Each egg closes easily to allow for later lollipop licking. A case contains two 12-count cartons.

Responding to the continuing demand for sugar-free products, the Peeps brand will celebrate Easter 2007 with the rollout of Sugar-Free Peeps Chicks. Sweetened with Splenda, Sugar-Free Peeps Chicks come in three-count packages and have a suggested retail price of 99 cents. They are available in a 24-count display-ready case and a 72-count floorstand display.  

A family of egg heads is a good thing when it’s Ford Gum’s latest Easter treat and boasts a suggested retail price of just 99 cents.  The “family” is comprised of three large plastic eggs packed in a clear Easter egg carton. The ears on each Bunny Egg Head may be popped off, revealing a pour-spout, from which flavorful candy powder (40 grams) may be poured into waiting hands and/or mouths. The Egg Head Family comes packed two 12-count cartons per case.

Gorgeous is the brand name for these new hand-decorated jelly eggs, but it’s an apt descriptor for the colorful, attractive candies as well. A 12-piece, 4.2-ounce package has a suggested retail price of $1.99.

Just in time for Easter and St. Patrick’s Day, marshmallow Peeps will be available in a new color — green. Five-, 10-, and 15-count trays with suggested retail prices of 59 cents, 99 cents and $1.19 respectively will be offered.

This air-filled PVC egg shows off a fun Easter plush item and a generous supply of jelly beans inside. The suggested retail price is $4.99 to $5.99.

A new player in the confections category, Brand Castle LLC, is targeting candy buyers with its new Crafty Cooking Kits, including two geared to the Easter/spring season. The Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats Kits allow the user to easily create the popular cereal-based treats in shapes including bunnies, bugs, baseballs and more and then adorn them with colorful icings and jelly beans. With the Crayola Spring Rainbow Cookie Kit, cookie/craft lovers can create sugar cookies in shapes such as bunnies and bumblebees; 24 ounces of sugar cookie mix and red, blue and yellow powders for decorating them are included in the kit. The kits have a suggested retail price of $3.99 and ship in  9-count case packs, as well as in a 48-kit floorstand (24 of each variety) and a PDQ shipper that contains 12 Rainbow and 13 Rice Krispies kits.

New from Just Born are Marshmallow Peeps Cocoa Bunnies. The new cocoa-flavored bunnies will be packaged in eight-count packages that carry a suggested retail price of 99 cents and are available in a 24-count display-ready case.

Marketers at Galerie give new meaning to the term “filled eggs.” Last year the company introduced several themed varieties of colorful plastic eggs filled with an assortment of wrapped, branded candies. The concept is designed to eliminate the “assembly” process that traditionally goes into readying plastic eggs for Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets, explains Allen Middleton, Galerie sales manager for mass channels.

The items performed very strongly among the mass channel retailers who stocked them for the 2006 Easter season, racking up sell-through rates in the high 90s range, according to Middleton.

This year Galerie will continue to offer 16-count Egg Safari, Surfing for Eggs and All-Star Eggs — all with a suggested retail price of $5.99. In addition, the company is unveiling a 45-count plastic bucket of pre-filled Racing Eggs. The candy inside the eggs includes jelly beans, Bubble King bubble gum and Lemonheads. The suggested retail price range is from $9.99 to $12.99.