New Template

I'm testing out the new beta templates and design features here on Blogger. So far so good. The beta allows for much more horizontal space than before -- something that always bugged me.

I love the collapsible archive index over on the right side.

I'll be posting some more fun stuff again very soon.

Oh, and here's my new waffle symbol [:::]

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.

Save Fruit Pie The Magician!

Fruit Pie The Magician has been removed from the Hostess Fruit Pie wrappers. This is really a shame.

Fruit Pie The Magician was created in 1973 by artist Don Duga to represent Hostess Fruit Pies. Hostess snack cakes had some great characters back in the '70s like Twinkie The Kid, King Ding Dong, Captain Cup Cake, Chief Big Wheels and more. Together, those characters made some memorable commercials.

Here's one of the last salvaged Fruit Pie wrappers with the Magician himself on it.


Check out the website to Save Fruit Pie The Magician. Maybe we can complain enough to get Hostess to bring him back.

As of 2006, the new Fruit Pie wrappers have a new design, and have just lost their magic.

Here's a t-shirt iron-on from 1981.




















More talk about Hostess characters coming in the future...

Punchy from Hawaiian Punch

"How about a nice Hawaiian Punch?" --- A question that has been asked since the 1960s when Punchy hit the commercial airwaves pitching for Hawaiian Punch fruit drink.

I think it was always more of a statement than a question, because when he said that phrase, you knew the poor tourist sap was going to get popped.

Good times!

The Hawaiian Punch brand has been around for over 40 years. I believe Punchy arrived in the mid to late 1960s, and he's been around ever since -- appearing on commercials, powdered drink packets, drink cans and assorted premiums.

The "tourist", whose answer to the famous question was always "Sure!", was named either Oaf or Opie. (I've heard both). Anyway his main function was to take the beating from Punchy. I think the tourist has been gone since the 1980s, or so, when some sensitive types probably complained about the violence.

Hawaiian punch came in several different forms (juice, powder, flavor crystals) and flavors (regular, cherry, grape, lemonade, pineapple, etc.) over the years. Pictured above is an original animation cel introducing the pineapple flavor. Of course in the regular, traditional flavor of Hawaiian Punch "you taste seven kinds of fruit..." according to the old jingle.


Several premiums were given away over the years from Hawaiian Punch. Here are a few that I've seen:

• Hawaiian Punch Board Game (1978)
• Popsicle Molds (1970s)
  
• Wristwatch (at least 3 different ones)
• Punchy-shaped drinking cup (1980s?)
• Yo-Yo (1990s)
• Beach Towels
• Frisbee
• Punchy Radio (1970s)
  
• Figural Punchy Keychains (1990s)
• Pogs (1980s?)
• Mr. Mixit Drink Dispenser (1970s)
• Canned Wizzer Top (1970s)
• Greeting Cards (1987)
  
• Birthday Party Book (1976)
• Plush Punchy Dolls (2 different: 1969, 1985?)
  

Here are a few more pictures:



The yellow Punchy figure above is a super-cool hard-plastic game piece that came with the 1978 board game. They came in 4 different colors (yellow, pink, orange and blue) to represent the different flavors at that time. I wonder if the figures were given away separately in addition to coming in the board game. Who knows?

Well, Punchy is alive and well today, and even has his own official website. Keep on punchin'! (Official Hawaiian Punch Website)

The Cheetos Mouse

The Cheetos Mouse made the scene around 1967, pitching for Cheetos chips. Actually they don't call them chips, rather "cheese flavored snacks", but we all know what they are. Anyway, they were called "Chee-tos" then (with a dash), and came in crunchy or baked puffs.

The Cheetos Mouse was a rather sophisticated, well-spoken mouse, who yearned for the crunch of his beloved Chee-tos.


In 1973 Cheetos gave away the wonderful pencil topper Mouse premiums in six-packs of single-serving bags. They came in several colors, shown here in green. This was the last in a series of pencil toppers from Frito-Lay (makers of Cheetos), following The Frito Bandito, The Fritos Muncha Bunch and W.C. Frito.

Yes, Cheetos -- "The cheese that goes CRUNCH".


Here's an actual commercial cel from the "Hail Chee-sar" Caesar spoof commercial.












There's a vintage commercial you can see on-line at RetroJunk.com. Very cool.

Here are a few premiums that I've spotted here and there. In addition to the pencil topper, there was a plush Mouse, several different packets of vegetable or flower seeds (yes, really), and an odd Cheesy Rider belt buckle of unknown origin -- perhaps an in-house item.

There were also box panels to color, from the six-pack tray. I have one, and need to scan it in someday.

As far as I can tell, the Cheetos Mouse disappeared in the late 1970s. Frito-Lay created Chester Cheetah in 1986 to represent Cheetos, and he's been there ever since.

Well 30 years later, I still say: "Hail Chee-sar!" to the king of cheesy snacks.

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!

Kellogg's 100th Anniversary Website

I recently discovered that Kellogg's is celebrating 100 years in the cereal business. Over the years, Kellogg's has brought us such great characters and cereals as:

• Tony The Tiger (Frosted Flakes)
• Dig'em (frog from Sugar Smacks)
• Shelly The Turtle (Corny-Snaps)
• Big Yella (cartoon cowboy from Sugar Corn Pops)
• Toucan Sam (Froot Loops)
• Bixby Beaver (Crunchy Loggs)
• Blu Gnu (Kellogg's Kombos)
  
• ...and many, many more!
  

I was so excited to find that they have a special 100th Anniversary website that is filled with timeline, history, picture gallery and even cell phone ringtones. Here's a link to the site: Kellogg's 100th Anniversary.

The best part of the site is the gallery, which is filled with images from the Kellogg's archives. If you click on gallery pictures, you can get larger images and a text description. Very fun to see and read about some of the older characters.

TIP: On that site, click on a gallery image which opens the picture in a new window. Then click the Enlarge Image link to get a larger version. You can then right-click and save a copy of the picture. Stayed up way too late the other day downloading pictures for my archive.

Anyway, I really encourage you to check it out. Here are a few pictures I found on the site.



1974 poster celebrating the Chinese Year of The Tiger











Here's the bizarre Kream Krunch cereal from 1965














... and a 1970s Pop Tarts ad with Milton The Toaster.










The most interesting fact I found was about Kellogg's OKs and Froot Loops. Turns out that Froot Loops was created after OKs were discontinued. They needed to use the same equipment which made ring-shaped cereal, so they created those delicious fruity Froot Loops. I do still enjoy a bowl of Froot Loops every now and then.

Baron Von Redberry Cereal

Here's the follow-up to the previous post. Baron Von Redberry was the counterpart to Sir Grapefellow -- dueling World War One ace pilots for General Mills in the early 1970s.

The great Baron was German. "Achtung!" he would say (German for "warning!"), and "I'm der berry goodest!", as an answer to Sir Grapefellow's "I'm the grapest!"

The box here is from 1972 and shows the mail-away poster offer, collect all four.

I don't remember eating Redberry cereal like I did Sir Grapefellow, but it appears to have been similar to Frankenberry.

See the Sir Grapefellow blog post for a list of premiums, which includes Baron Von Redberry.

If you know of other premiums, TV commercials, or have anything else to share, please post a reply. I want this to be an open forum for cereal fans to share information.

Here are some iron-on patches of the good Baron.

Lastly, here's a newspaper ad from 1973.

Sir Grapefellow Cereal

Tally-ho! Who remembers Sir Grapefellow cereal? Here is a box from around 1972 or so.

Yes, GRAPE flavored cereal! This royal treat hit store shelves around 1972. Sir Grapefellow was a pilot and starred opposite of his foe, Baron Von Redberry. Both cereals were marketed together.

As you can see from the box, Sir Grapefellow enjoyed giving us the "OK" sign to let us know that everything would be OK. With the "Sir" title and the "Tally-Ho" phrase, we can safely assume he was British.

Nothing says "cool" better than a scarf and aviator goggles! Where have you gone, Sir Grapefellow?

I do remember eating this cereal, and it was very yummy. I can still remember the grape flavored marshmallows especially.

There were a number of cereal premiums given away insides boxes of Sir Grapefellow and Baron Von Redberry cereals. Here's a list of what I've been able to find.

• at least 4 different square iron-on patches
• at least 2 different round iron-on patches
  
• balsa wood glider planes (mail-away)
• Grapefellow's balloon-powered "Air Car" (3 different colors)
  
• magic blow pipe and ball
• coloring posters with crayons (mail-away, 4 different)
  
• plastic planes with foam wings
• propeller planes (box back cut-out)
  

If you know of other prizes, please post a comment and share your information!

I cannot recall any specific TV commercials for these cereals. I've purchased a few cereal commercial videos from eBay, but haven't seen any yet. If you're aware of any available, or just want to share memories of these, please post a comment.

Here are a few premiums from Sir Grapefellow which I spotted on eBay. (I'll post some Baron Von Redberry prizes in a future blog post).

Waffle Whiffer Profile Pic

Here's my new blogger profile picture. I've attempted to convert the two Waffle Whiffer commercials from VHS tape to digital format MPEG. There are some bugs to work out for the process, but the result is some nice screenshots from the commercials, such as this one.

This picture just about says it all. The waffles are baked to golden brown perfection, popping out fresh from the toaster. A dazed looking Wallace is completely mesmerized by the smell.