Although I don't remember the monster shapes, I know the sticky-sweet liquid you're talking about. In my day it came in wax miniature Coca-Cola shaped bottles. I think you could buy individual "bottles" for 2 cents, but if you had a fortune to spend you could buy a miniature six-pack in a little cardboard carrier for a dime. You'd bite the top off of the bottle, drink the "juice" inside, then chew the wax to get the last remnants of flavor. The "juice" came in different colors, but I don't remember there being any significant difference in taste.

There was a little shop about a block from my grade school in Chicago - we just called it "the school store". I think about 90% of their business came from kids stopping by on their way to or from school. They sold necessities like pens, pencils and notebook paper, but most of their trade was in "penny candy" - although I have to admit that by my time (the early 1960's) most of it was actually 2 cents a piece. There were wax lips and teeth, licorice in various shapes and colors, Bazooka Bubble Gum, Mary Janes (which were sort of like Bit o'Honey), Red Hot Dollars, Jawbreakers, Sweet-Tarts, Lik'm Aid, and those sugar-candy buttons that came attached to a strip of paper - it was impossible to eat them without ingesting as much paper as candy. All the candy was in a case, and you'd have to point out what you wanted to the proprietor: "Two of those, one of these, two of those, two of these - oops, sorry, I've only got twelve cents - better put one of those back".

The whole process would never pass muster today. The guy behind the counter never wore gloves and most of the candy was unwrapped, yet I don't remember any kid ever getting sick - unless he just ate too much of it.