Now it’s 1958. Small-fry can enjoy the Merry Milkman with An Asterisk, which may suggest that the merriness is conditional, or perhaps must be understood in the context of some ameliorating event.

There’s a cross by the price; when they had to use the cross, it’s because they’d already blown an asterisk on something.

“Sure-fire subjects on pre-numbered canvas.” Hassenfeld Brothers started in 1923, and got the Disney license in ’54. Eventually they decided that the name wasn’t exactly brimming with toy-related joy, but what could they call it?

The HASenfeld BROthers - Henry, Hilal, and Herman - must have come up with something eventually, but research on the matter yields nothing.