Cap'N Crunch's Captain Canuck Cereal

Back in 2021 I saw a limited edition Canadian version of Cap'N Crunch cereal called Cap'N Crunch's Canuck Crunch. But to me, something was wrong, it's called Canuck Crunch, but there on the front of the box was the old Cap'n Crunch. Shouldn't this box have Captain Canuck on the front!? So, I took it upon myself to correct this mistake. And here you have the real 'faux' Cap'N Crunch's Canuck Crunch. And of course on the back of the box you can cut out your Captain Canuck membership card, and somewhere deep down inside  the cereal box you can find one of four Captain Canuck mini figures... Or at least you could if this really existed!

RIP Cereal Mascots (1932-2011)

Here is a great article from the June 13, 2011 issue of Canadian Business magazine about the death of cereal mascots. On a recent trip to the grocery store, I picked up some great boxes to add to my collection, including Cap N Crunch, Cookie Crisp and Coco Puffs. I have been collecting cereal boxes adorned with cartoon characters for over 20 years now and will surely miss them in my local grocery store cereal isles. [click article to enlarge]

 

Retro Cap'n Crunch

Not sure how I missed this, but apparently The Quaker Oats Company released Retro Cap'n Crunch boxes this past summer. Although I am a huge fan of sugary cereal box art, I don't spend too much time looking in the cereal isle anymore as there really hasn't been many new boxes worth adding to my collection over the past number of years. Here in my area, we only get the regular Cap'n Crunch. I used to have to travel down across the boarder into the US to pickup my Peanut Butter Crunch which was my favorite, along with what ever goofy new concoctions they would come up with such as Vanilla Crunch and Volcano Crunch. I'll be sure to have a look next time I visit the grocery store, but I won't hold my breath, as I am sure us Canadians will get hosed and miss out on there awesome looking retro boxes of sugary cereal.

Kellogg's Eet and Ern

I noticed this ad in a copy of Disney Adventures magazine from 2000. I am a big cereal box collector and watch tons of kids TV, and therefore see a lot of ads for kids cereals, and I only vaguely remember this advertising campaign. I tried logging into their web site www.eetandern.com, but apparently Kellogg's didn't bother to keep the domain name, as the url is now just some lame link farm. As I said, I really don't remember this campaign, but I do like the two characters Eet and Ern.

Squirly Puffs Cereal

Here is an ad for some video game web site, but that's not important. What's important, is that there are some great 'fictional' cereals on the selves of the store in their ad.
There are; Fruity Kitty Pebbles, Okay, Honey Buzz, Honey and Nut Oatsy Dotes, Mallow Yellows, Shredded Shreds, and my favorite Squirly Puffs... they're crazy good!
(*If you haven't figured it out yet, click on any of the images to make them larger!)

Morning Funnies Cereal

My 3 year old son has been really getting into superheros recently. This past weekend we attended the Emerald City ComicCon in Seattle, WA and had a blast! My son entered the costume contest as Batman. He also got some used Batman action figures, and a ton of comic books out of the 25 cent boxes, including all his favorites; Batman, Iron Man, Spider Man etc. We have been having lots of fun reading though all the comics, and as an added bonus, I am finding lots of great ads, including this full page ad I found in the Batman, issue #432 from April 1989.
It's an ad for a kids breakfast cereal called "Morning Funnies" and from the box artwork in the ad, it looks like the box featured lots of famous comic strip characters such as Dennis the Mennis, Marvin, Hagar, Beetle Bailey, etc., but the cereal looked to be pretty generic looking little happy faces.
The box looked very interesting, as it had a flap on the back that opened like a comic book to revel more comics to read while sitting eating your Morning Funnies.
Back in 1989 I was already a big cereal box collector, and was always on the lookout for new boxes to add to my collection. I don't recall ever seeing this cereal, but since its been almost 20 years, maybe I did see it, but didn't like it enough for it to leave a lasting impression.
In any event, I would love to add one of these boxes to my collection. At least now, I have the ad - that is, if my son will let me have this comic from his collection.

Flake Magazine

I have previously posted about my cereal box addiction, but here is some proof of how addicted to cereal box collecting I was. Back in 1993, I had a subscription to Flake Magazine, the Breakfast Nostalgia Magazine. That's right, an entire magazine dedicated to cereal and the boxes they come in!
For me, cereal box collecting started innocently enough. I was buying many breakfast cereals with cartoon characters on the boxes, and I started keeping the ones I especially liked the looks of. Some time in the late 80's the cereal manufacturers started going crazy creating new cereals to tie in with new movies, TV shows etc. A trip to the supper market cereal isle and you would be inundated with all kinds of amazing boxes filled with some pretty amazing looking stuff - not good tasting most of the time, just amazing looking!
I used to pick up all the new and cool looking cereal boxes and when I got them home, I would carefully open the bottom of the boxes and take out the bag of cereal to give to my mom who would give them to the food bank. I wasn't gonna eat that stuff, and I figured that some poor kid might be thrilled to get the chance to eat some florescent blue and pink cereal filled with crunchy marshmellows. Better them than me!
Two of the silliest cereal boxes I own are: Urkelos (Steve "Did I do that?" Urkel from the 1991 TV sitcom Family Matters) which was basically a two colour Froot Loops, and Mr. T Cereal which was pretty much Cap'n Crunch.
My favorite tasting kids cereals of all time were 1984's Strawberry Shortcake Cereal and Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter... mmmm, my mouth is salivating just thing about them!

Bloops Cereal

To go along with my last post about Kellogg's looking to cut down on their animated cereal pitch men (characters), I thought I would share this really neat creation with you. Its over at the Beehive blog. This guy has created his own cereal character Cap'n Bloop, and even made a mock up of the Bloops cereal box. You can follow along on the web site with the creation and evolution of Cap'n Bloop. If you are an animation/cereal box junkie like I am, you will want to check it out!

Kellogg's sends Tony the Tiger Packing

As reported in the Globe and Mail: Facing threats of lawsuits and dire warnings about childhood obesity, Kellogg Co. has decided to put itself on a diet.
The Company, maker of Pop Tarts and Fruit Loops, said yesterday it's getting out of the business of marketing these and other foods of dubious health value to children.
It also plans to cut the amount of fat, sugar and salt in many of its snacks and cereals.
The decision could mark the beginning of the end of a Saturday morning tradition - cartoon-like ads pitching sugar-laced treats to kids.
Kellogg, along with its Canadian subsidiary, said that by the end of next year all of its products will be reformulated to meet new, tougher health standards or they won't be advertised to children under the age of 12.
The company also vowed to stop ;using cartoon characters, such as Shrek or Tony the Tiger, for products that fall short of the new standard.
Last year, 10 major food and beverage companies promised that at least half their advertising aimed at children under the age of 12 would promote healthier foods and exercise. The companies, including McDonald's and General Mills, also pledged to stop advertising in elementary schools and to cut back on the use of cartoon characters to pitch products. Yesterday's announcement comes in the wake of negotiations with two groups that had threatened to sue Kellogg over its advertising to children.

Idaho Steelheads Crunch

Ok, I love hockey, I love cereal, and I love advertising. So when I received this from a friend in Idaho, I was thrilled with this great new addition to my collection. Its perhaps the coolest looking season ticket holder brochure ever produced! The team is the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL. They have gone with a cereal theme here with a box of Idaho Steeleads Crunch cereal on the front of the brochure. It looks to me like the cereal is Rice Crispies type cereal with little chocolate cookie "pucks" tossed in. I love all the marketing slogans used throughout the brochure: "New and improved ticket plans!", "Tasty offers inside!", "2 scoops of fun per bite!", "23 essential vitamins & benefits!", "Wait... there's more!" and "Part of a complete & balanced entertainment diet!". I absolutely love the "fake" Steelheads Crunch cereal box on the front of this brochure. I once made my own "fake" KISS (the rock band) cereal box... but that's a story for another day.

More cereal please!

Here are a few more of my favorite cereal boxes. The first two are Quaker Oat Life cereal. The first box featuring the Tick, and offered The Tick milkcaps mail-in offer, which sadly I did not cash in on. The second features Steven Spielberg's Animaniacs - which incidentally just showed up on DVD last week. The second two boxes are the Kellogg's Powerpuff Girls cereal and General Mills Pac-Man cereal. I especially liked the Powerpuff Girls cereal which was a "crisp rice cereal with power-packed clusters that fizz in your mouth". Sounds yummy doesn't it! Luckily the Pac-Man cereal was a source of 5 essential nutrients.

Mmmm... Crunchy Marshmallows

Ok, I'm not a big fan of crunchy marshmallows and I don't like my milk to turn funny colors while I am eating my cereal. But, I do love the artwork on kids cereal boxes. I started collecting cereal boxes almost 20 years ago, and at the height of my cereal box collecting, I was adding up to 20 new boxes a month to my collection. I was even a subscriber of Flake Magazine, a print fanzine dedicated to cereal box collecting. You could always count on General Mills and Kellogg's to produce limited edition cereals featuring current hit movies, TV shows, etc. A trip to the cereal isle in any grocery store would always produce a plethora of new, "limited time only" treasures. As a collector, I like to keep the boxes which have the great artwork. The cereal however is a different story. I can't stand most of the stuff inside these boxes - as I said, hard crunchy marshmallows are not something I look forward to at breakfast time. Since I don't eat the cereal, I started opening the boxes as carefully as possible and removing the unopened bags of cereal and then giving them to my mom to drop off at the local food bank. It must be a little strange for some kid who is used to getting food from the food bank and getting nothing but generic corn flakes and Cheerios, to receive a package of mystery cereal with tiny marshmallows or cereal that changes the milk to green sludge!
I have hundreds of great boxes in my collection, and am always on the lookout for something new on the grocery store shelves. The two most recent additions to my collection are the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean cereal, and Pixar Cars cereal.
A few of the kids cereals that I have enjoyed eating over the years are; Strawberry Shortcake, Sugar Crisp, Cap'n Crunch peanut Butter Crunch, and Cookie Crisp.
Pictured above are two General Mills cereals; Count Chocula & Franken Berry, and below are the two newest additions to my collection.