Fruit Of The Month - #13: Trix Funny Fruity Stickers

Here's my Fruit Of The Month post for May 2011.

Right now, on a cereal aisle near you, you can get Trix cereal with these Funny Fruity Stickers inside. There's a wacky assorted bunch of fruit characters to collect -- lemon, orange, watermelon, banana and more!

To me this is an old-school promotion. I love the totally generic premiums like we used to get back in the '70s. They're not promoting a movie or a TV show. It's just good goofy fun, the way it should be.

There are four different sticker sheets, each with three sections. Here's the first one I got, showing the three sections separately here.







Here's the cereal box:

Remember Garfield cereal?

Amongst my collection of cereal premiums was the Garfield sticker sheet below. It was still sealed in the package along with this interesting coupon.

I do not remember a Garfield cereal from Quaker Oats, but this indicates that it was on the market at least in 1985. The coupon expired in May 1985.

We can see that the cereal came in both raspberry and blueberry flavors. There must have been two different styles of cereal boxes, likely very colorful and similar to the illustration on the coupon.

Instinctively, I wonder how the taste of blueberry Garfield compared to monster cereal staple Boo Berry, but alas, I will never know.

This one is still a mystery to me. Perhaps it was a test market, was otherwise short-lived or it was ubiquitous and I just missed it. Does anyone remember a Garfield cereal from Quaker Oats?

Sugar Crisp Cereal - 1960s

One of my all-time favorite product mascots is none other than Sugar Bear, the wise-cracking, super-cool, anthropomorphic bear from Post Cereal fame.

Though the cereal has changed names over the years from Sugar Crisp to Super Sugar Crisp to Super Golden Crisp to finally just Golden Crisp, Sugar Bear has been keeping it cool on the breakfast table since 1963.

Here's an unused wrapper that would have gone on a single-serving cereal box between 1966 and 1968.

"Can't get enough of that Sugar Crisp!"

National Waffle Day 2009!

Today, August 24, is National Waffle Day in the United States! This celebrates the day in 1869 that Cornelius Swarthout patented the first U.S. waffle iron -- 140 years ago!

Be sure to enjoy some waffles today in celebration of Mr. Swarthout's contribution to the American breakfast table! Here are a couple of items I pulled out to share today.

First is this vintage Eggo Nutri-Grain waffles box from 1985:

And here's an Eggo Cereal box from Kellogg's earlier this year, 2009:

Lastly, here's an old Eggo Waffles commercial which appears to be from the late 1970s or early 1980s. It was posted to YouTube by Thessair.

Golden Crisp / Night At The Museum Promotion

Post Cereal had a nice promotion this year in conjunction with the Night At The Museum movie. Some really cool cereal boxes were produced, like this one from Golden Crisp. I saved one from Honey-Comb and Fruity Pebbles, too.

They didn't do anything special on the box backs. They've used this same back in recent years.

Happy New Year from Sugar Bear!

I want to convey Happy New Year wishes to everyone for a great 2009!

- May your terrariums grow in new and glorious ways.

- May your cereal stay crunchy in milk, despite forces intent on making life soggy.

- May you always save 10 cents before the offer expires. It's a "limited time only", so make the most of it!

This box of Post Super Sugar Crisp is from early in 1975 and features the classic Terrariums offer. Kids from the '70s may have fond memories of these very curious cereal prizes which were given away on four different occasions during the decade.

Follow the simple instructions and watch them grow!

Saturday Commercial Break #15: Alpha Bits Cereal

It's the last Saturday in 2008. As we clean up the aftermath of Christmas and begin looking forward to 2009, let's take a look back about 30 years ago. This week's Commercial Break celebrates the imagination of kids, with a gentle assist from Post Alpha Bits cereal. This was uploaded to YouTube by michend2003.

Jean LaFoote's Pirate Kit

Yarrr!! Today be ye official "Talk Like A Pirate Day". Visit ye official website if ye dare:

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Here's my favorite pirate, Jean LaFoote, from Cap'n Crunch cereal fame. This pirate kit was from the 1970s. You, too, could dress up like a pirate with a fake mustache and golden earring! Good luck swiping cereal from Cap'n Crunch. It never worked for LaFoote.

Happy looting, everybody!

Saturday Commercial Break #12: Cookie Crisp Cereal

Sorry that I took a few weeks off from Saturday Commercial Breaks. Now I'm back.

Here's a fun animated commercial from the early 1980s. It's Cookie Jarvis, the wizard, and the Cookie Crook promoting Ralston-Purina's Cookie Crisp cereal. Ah, cookies for breakfast...!

Feel free to post a comment and share your memories of Cookie Crisp cereal. I ate this a few times, but cookie cereal just wasn't right for me. But I did enjoy old Cookie Jarvis.

Saturday Commercial Break #9: Trix Cereal

Here's a fun commercial for Trix cereal by General Mills in 1978. The Silly Rabbit is scheming, once again to get a bowl of that fruity goodness!

They were giving away great Marvel Super Hero stickers in this promotion.

This commercial was uploaded to YouTube by Antifrodis.

Saturday Commercial Break #5: Frosted Flakes

For today's commercial break, let's enjoy an oldie from Kelloggs Frosted Flakes cereal, starring Tony the Tiger. Tony was voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who gave us one of the most recognizable commercial slogans -- They'rrrre Grrrrreat!

This commercial appears to be from the 1960s and was uploaded to YouTube by Freenbean.

Saturday Commercial Break #1: Cocoa Krispies

Hey blogfriends! I'm starting a new weekly series today called Saturday Commercial Break.

Each Saturday I will highlight a classic TV commercial, transporting us all back to Saturday mornings filled with bowls of Super Sugar Crisp cereal, Hong Kong Phooey cartoons and Incredible Hulk pajamas. [ Insert your own cereal, cartoon and pajama type for the full effect! ]

As always, I welcome your comments and memories you wish to share.

[ These commercials will all be embedded from YouTube and should display if you've got Flash installed in your browser. Click the play button and ZING, off you go! ]

On with the show... this is it!


Saturday Commercial Break #1: Cocoa Krispies

Here's a commercial from the late 1970s featuring Tusk Tusk the elephant, trumpeting the wholesome goodness of Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies cereal. This was uploaded to YouTube by lloydbentman.

Enjoy the commercial break, and please post a comment with your Cocoa Krispies memories or your opinion of this commercial. Stay tuned for next week!

Honeycomb Creeping Monsters

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything new to the blog in a while. I've got plenty of ideas that I'm working on, and hope to have some more detailed posts again soon.

For now, here's a super cool Honeycomb cereal box with the Creeping Monsters promotion from late 1976 (expires August 1977). I have one of the two monsters, shown below.

Kellogg's Bike Stickers 1977

Here's a Sugar Smacks cereal box from 1977, featuring Dig'em the frog on the front and the Cartoon Bike Sticker premiums on back.

And here are half of the premiums from this set.

H.R. Pufnstuf Cereal Promo

Here's a Froot Loops cereal box back and side panel from 1970. It features Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf and the free fun rings that came inside. The side panel has the mail-away offer for a Freddy the Flute instrument.

Too bad it's not a complete box, but I'm not really complaining...

Trix Cereal Bicentennial

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Today we'll celebrate our Independence Day with a look back at our bicentennial year of 1976.

This is a Trix cereal box from General Mills from 1976 with that Silly Rabbit on front. In line with the celebration we were treated to the Revolutionary Hero Badge stickers. Collect all 4!

And here are two of the four stickers from the set.

Let's all be thankful today (and always) for the freedoms we have in this great country. God bless the U.S.A.

Honeycomb Hideout - 1976

Kids from the 1970s will remember this box front with the smiling Honeycomb kid. This box of Post Honeycomb cereal was from late in 1976 with an expiration date of June 1977.

The featured premium is for Super Lite-Up Stickers, which most of us promptly stuck to our wall or door, only to upset our parents.

On the back side of the box we get a rare glimpse of the kids-only Honeycomb Hideout.

[ click to see larger pictures ]

Stretch Monster Cereal?

I made this fantasy cereal box in honor of Stretch Monster Week over at Neato Coolville. Be sure to check out his blog and join in the fun!

Big Yella from Corn Pops

Yee-haa! The man with the big yellow hat is "Big Yella", the cool cowboy from Kelloggs Sugar Corn Pops cereal.

For a relatively brief stint, Big Yella rustled up some tasty Sugar Corn Pops for kids of all ages. He was featured on the boxes and premiums from 1977 to 1980. Before Big Yella, there was a "live", unanimated cowboy character. After Big Yella in 1980 we were treated to Poppy the Porcupine for a few years.

The box pictured here is from late in 1977 and features the True West trading card premiums.

I have not been able to locate copies of any TV commercials with Big Yella, though I do remember them from the time. If anyone knows of some, please let me know!

Big Yella was created by the Leo Burnett advertising agency, who created many memorable commercial characters back then. I was fortunate enough to acquire an original piece of artwork of Big Yella. This drawing was done by Bill Mackley for "Jean" -- and I believe that both of them worked at Leo Burnett. This is one of several that I acquired -- the others being different characters created by that agency, all done for Jean. I can only guess that Jean was leaving the company and Bill gave these as a parting gift.




















Cereal premiums featuring Big Yella are out there, and relatively in short supply it seems. Here's an incomplete list of prizes that I have or have seen:

• "Bull Dozer Bike" Sticker
• Notebook Tab Divider Stickers
• Beach Ball
• School Subjects Paper Bookmarks (at least 8 different)
• Drinking Glass
• Heat Transfer Glitter Iron-On
• School Bus Pencil Box (with other Kellogg's characters)
• Big Puzzles (at least 3 different, with other Kellogg's characters)
• "I like everything Big & Yella" Poster
• Music Poster (with Dig'em the frog)
• Rub-Ons (at least 3 different, with other Kellogg's characters; Canadian)
• Window Cling-On "Sticker" (2 different)
  
• Yo-Yo
• Light Switch Sticker
  
• "Best Looking Of The Lot" Sticker
• Bike Reflector (Stick Up For Breakfast promotion)
  
• Tube Socks
• T-Shirt (mail-away offer)
  
• Bendy Figure

In my opinion, one of the best cereal prizes ever is this wonderful bendy figure of Big Yella.





Probably the oddest Big Yella prize has to be this pair of tube socks, which must have been a mail-away item.
Big Yella rode off into the sunset in 1980 and hasn't been heard from since. Happy Trails, Big Yella! We miss you.

Cocoa Freakies Box sold for HOW much??

I recently spotted a super cool, highly prized and very rare 1973 Cocoa Freakies cereal box on eBay.

It was way out of my price range, but fun to watch it fetch $1,302! Yes that's one-THOUSAND-three-hundred and two dollars.

Here's a link to the auction on eBay (eBay removes them after 90 days) . Cocoa Freakies auction.

The box shows all the Freakies characters gathered around their tree. Hamhose is inspecting a piece of cereal before eating it. Boss Moss sits in the middle of the tree watching over everything. Cowmumble is reaching out to pick some cereal from the tree, but I'm guessing she's about to fall. Great characters!