Ooh, yay!! I'm excited for you! I hope you love them! I'd be interested in hearing how they are and how they compare to your memory of the original Altoids kind, if you happen think of it once you've tried them.
Also, totally agreed about it being a cool project by that candy store! They've got lots of cool projects where they remake old candies. Sometimes they track down the old/original equipment and everything. It is super neat!!
Altoids have been around since, like, 1790. Barkleys have been around since 1996. This is the first I've heard of them, and that's likely because Altoids as a brand is almost as ubiquitous as the brand Velcro.
I read that some folks find them to be much stronger, so I'll have to look for some as well!
Altoids as a name have been around a long time, but they have been just candy ever since Mars bought them. They aren't even made or marketed in the UK anymore.