The Everlasting Gobstopper is a candy from Roald Dahl's 1964children's novelCharlie and the Chocolate Factory that is intended, according to Willy Wonka, its creator, "for children with very little pocket money". It not only changes colors and flavors when sucked on, but also never gets any smaller or disappears. In 1976 the name of the fictional candy was used for a product similar to a normal gobstopper, or jawbreaker. Although only briefly mentioned in the book and its 2005 film adaptation, the 1971 film adaptationWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory used the Everlasting Gobstopper as a plot device in which Wonka's business rival Slugworth attempts to bribe the children visiting the Wonka factory to steal one for him. This is later revealed as a lie; Slugworth is actually Mr. Wilkinson, one of Wonka's workers. The proposal is a test Wonka set up to judge the worthiness of the ticket holders to take over the factory, given to all five children. The actual Everlasting Gobstopper prop used in the Gene Wilder movie was sold for $100,000 to the owners of TV showPawn Stars.
A product called the Everlasting Gobstopper was introduced in 1976 by the Chicago candy company Breaker Confections. Breaker Confections had licensed the "Willy Wonka" name in 1971 so that their candy could be used as merchandising tie-ins for the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which was released the same year. The Willy Wonka Candy Company brand was later bought by Nestlé, and production has been moved to Itasca, Illinois. The everlasting gobstopper is like a normal gobstopper or jawbreaker and is composed of several discrete layers. The layers allow for the color and flavor changing effects described in the book. They are available in a variety of different flavor combinations and usually have a chalky center with a cherry flavor. A version with a chewy center is also available. The everlasting gobstopper product resembles the gobstopper from the book and its 2005 film adaptation far more than the ones in the 1971 film. The version from the 1971 film is a multi-coloured, bumpy, spiky candy and the ones in the book and the 2005 film are round, single-coloured spheres. Unlike the ones from the book and the films, where Willy Wonka says you would break your teeth if you tried to chew a gobstopper, the Nestlé produced gobstoppers are chewable once sucked long enough, and unlike their fictional counterparts they are not "everlasting". Seasonal variants such as "Gobstopper Snowballs" and "Gobstopper Heart-breakers" are available during winter holidays and around the time of Valentine's Day, respectively. An example is the Gobstopper Candy Cane, which is the company’s only non-spherical Gobstopper: the product is modeled after the regular candy canes that are popular during the Christmas season.
