There must be thousands of varieties of these kitsch-hippie-inspired figurines from W&R Berries Co. How many people were gifted one of these with the sentiment of “World’s Greatest Grandpa”? Judging from how many of these things I see out at the sales, there sure are a lot of “World’s Greatest” folks out there.
Anyway, I have a number of them, some I think from my actual family and some I’ve picked up at various places over the years. You can’t really avoid them. Here are some Romance-Inspired ones just in time for (St.) Valentine’s Day. There are tons more, but these are the ones in my collection. (Check out Parts 2 & 3 to see the others.)
Ah yes, “I love you this much” as in, “I love you enough to buy you a kind of creepy figurine from the gift shop.” I guess this guy also loves you enough to show off his beer belly while wearing a nightgown. :) This one’s dated 1970. I think I bought him back when I was in high school. Somebody loved somebody “this much,” yet nobody loved this figurine. So I bought it. I’m sentimental like that.
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Allee Willis
I never appreciated these hard plastic statues when they were all the rage in the late ’60s and early ’70s, the most popular ones coming from W&R Berries, Paula and American Greeting Cards companies. But through the years I’ve come to appreciate them a lot more as so many of my friends collect them and there’s no arguing that they permeated pop culture with the thud of the Pet Rock and are here with us forever.
“I Love You This Much” was probably the most popular sentiment expressed on these things as there were so many different styles of them. Here, in fact, is a 14″ hulking wood one in our very own beloved Allee Willis Museum Of Kitsch: https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/2010/02/05/i-love-you-this-much/