My dad has been involved with the Wizard Gumball business since I was a little girl.

There were some small "toy" gumball machines that dispensed mini gumballs and saved the change inserted, in the bottom to act as a "piggy bank".

My dad asked me to be one of the models on the box.  I got to miss kindergarten and go to Downtown Phoenix and have a photo shoot.

All I remember, is that it felt like I was there ALL DAY LONG (it probably was only a few hours), and there was no food there.  My dad bought a juice from the vending machine and let me have some sips.  And when he asked me to do it again, for another product--I told him I didn't want to.  So my sister Haley did it instead.  That is legitimately all I remember.  My modeling career was brief, ha!

However, it was pretty fun to get phone calls from my aunt and uncle in California saying they saw me on the front of the box perched on a shelf in a toy store.  And I got a lot of gumball machine piggy banks to give to my friends as birthday presents.

While I was recently in Arizona at my parents', I saw the box in the storage room downstairs and decided to snap a few photos.  It always looks better full of colorful gumballs.  Looking closely, I noticed there were a few white gumballs left in the bottom of it.  Apparently I must have pulled out all the colored ones to treat myself and the white ones never got chewed.

And by a fun little twist of chance, the little gas station and country store in our rural town, has a Wizard Gumball machine inside.
So, there I am...on what would now be considered a vintage gumball machine piggy bank.  I'm old!