Most kids grew up eating cereal before heading off to school, or while watching their favorite
Saturday morning cartoons, and have very fond memories of the stuff. Unfortunately, cereal
is one of the most frequent victims of discontinuation. As a result, many of the cereals that people
loved growing up are no longer being produced. It’s time to reminisce with 10 discontinued
cereals we miss.
Breakfast with Barbie
As one of the most popular toys of all time, Barbie has appeared in several movies, on
half the T-shirts in the kid’s section of Wal-Mart and even has her own shampoo. As
a marketing tool, the doll is one of the most effective – slap the Barbie logo on anything,
and children everywhere clamber to buy it. Breakfast with Barbie made its debut in 1989,
and, while its Barbie theme made it uber appealing to kids, it also put considerable effort into
pandering to parents. The box listed the cereal’s several health benefits: it was lower in sugar
than most other kid’s cereal, it contained four “wholesome” grains and no artificial
flavors or tropical oils were used. The cereal itself came in various shapes, including hearts,
cars, bows, stars and the letter “B”, with the colors of the pieces including yellow
and several shades of pink. During the “Got Milk?” campaign, Mattel released a Breakfast
with Barbie doll in 1999. While the doll had no official ties to the fruit-flavored cereal,
it would definitely be fun for kids to get to enjoy their favorite breakfast alongside
their favorite doll.
Ice Cream Cones Cereal
Some cereals on this list had long runs and are looked back on with nostalgia by many.
Others were discontinued before they ever really had a chance to make it. Unfortunately,
Ice Cream Cones Cereal falls into the latter category. Introduced and discontinued in 1987,
this cereal had a run shorter than its shelf-life. The pieces of this cereal where shaped like
tiny scoops of ice cream and cones. While the ice cream scoops and the cones were separate,
they actually fit together perfectly to form miniature ice cream cones. The optimal way
to eat this cereal was to ensure that you got a mixture of ice cream and cones with
each mouthful. Ice Cream Cones Cereal’s animated mascot was a man named Ice Cream
Jones, who, instead of driving an ice cream truck, delivered ice cream cones from his
bike. The cereal was revamped in 2003, to honor the 100th anniversary of the ice cream
cone, which is pretty cool, though the anniversary edition is no longer available either. However,
all hope is not lost, as General Mills released Drumstick cereal, which while not similar
in shape or appearance, is said to have a similar taste to the original Ice Cream Cones
Cereal, we'll let you be the judge!
Rocky Road
Keeping with the theme of ice cream inspired cereals, Rocky Road cereal drew its inspiration
from one of the most beloved ice cream flavors of all time. The ice cream originated in 1929
and was named “Rocky Road” with the hopes of bringing some joy to people’s lives after
the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. The ice cream flavor consists
of nuts and marshmallows mixed into chocolate ice cream, and the cereal did a great job
of emulating all the necessary components. Rocky Road cereal was made up of chocolate
and vanilla corn puffs, as well as marshmallows covered in a dusting of a nutty chocolate
coating. On the box was an illustration of the cereal’s mascots: The Rocky Road Breakfast
Band. The band members included a vanilla corn puff named Van, a chocolate corn puff
named Choco and a chocolate-covered marshmallow named Marsha. In the Rocky Road commercials,
the animated band performed the cereal’s jingle, which claimed that “waking up to
Rocky Road makes your breakfast sing.” Rocky Road cereal was a huge hit in the eighties,
but it was pulled from shelves because it contained too much sugar. When you consider
the fact that it was based on an ice cream flavor, it’s not too surprising that it
didn’t exactly make for a healthy, nutritious breakfast. Following that logic, it’s also
not surprising that kids everywhere were very upset when it disappeared from grocery store
shelves. Their parents probably weren’t too broken up about it though.
Smurf Berry Crunch
It seems that the key to a successful cereal is to base it off of a popular movie or TV
show. The Smurfs was a hit cartoon back in the day, and this cereal rode that popularity
to great heights. The cereal first hit shelves in 1983, two years into the TV show’s eight-year
run. In the cartoon, smurfberries are one of the primary sources of nutrition for the
Smurfs. They’re small round berries which are harvested from bushes. While this cereal
doesn’t actually contain smurfberries (due to them being fictional and all), its sweet,
fruity flavors are designed to make it taste like it is. A follow up cereal, Smurf Magic
Berries was released in 1987, and was very similar to Smurf Berry Crunch, except for
the fact that it contained star-shaped marshmallows alongside the berry-flavored cereal. With
the trilogy of Smurfs films released in the past decade garnering decent success, it might
be time to bring this cereal back for round two.
Waffle Crisp
When given the choice between French toast, pancakes, and waffles, everyone in their right
mind would choose the latter option. So, step aside French Toast Crunch and make room for
Waffle Crisp. Waffle Crisp was composed of miniature versions of the breakfast food it
aimed to emulate, in this case, waffles. The corn cereal pieces contain a maple flavoring
in order to maintain the illusion that you’re actually eating waffles drenched in syrup,
instead of settling for cereal. The most recognizable mascot for Waffle Crisp was Waffle Boy, an
anthropomorphic waffle in red sneakers (who bears a suspicious resemblance to the Mini-Wheats
mascot), but his predecessors were far more interesting. Originally, the cereal was advertised
with a group of grandmothers who spent their days making waffles – implying that each
piece of the cereal was a homemade, mini waffle. The wholesome group of grannies seems far
more endearing than Waffle Boy, who is about as generic as cereal mascots get, but that’s
beside the point. Unfortunately, Waffle Crisps were indeed discontinued in 2018. We can already
hear all of you saying that you just saw a box of Waffle Crisps at the store. Well, get
them while they are still there as yes, some stores still have them, as cereal has a very
long shelf life, it appears to just be the final stock being cleared. All of that said,
only time will tell!
Nerds
Nerds are a small rock-like candy that come in boxes separated in two flavors, with the
iconic pairing being grape and strawberry. If you were a kid at any point during the
period of 1983 to present, odds are your childhood was ruled by these little guys. The candy
is so great that in 1985, it was named “Candy of the Year” by the National Candy Wholesaler’s
Association. If you take anything away from this video, let it be that if a candy, movie,
cartoon or toy is successful, the next move is always to slap it on a cereal. And that’s
exactly what happened to Nerds in 1985. Just like the candy, Nerds cereal boxes were divided
to hold two different flavors. The two pairings were orange/cherry and strawberry/grape. You
could opt to eat one at a time, or you could live on the wild side and mix them together.
If you wanted to enjoy both flavors without cross-contamination, you could purchase the
Nerds Cereal Nerd Gate Bowl. The bowl had a division across the middle, so you could
fill each half with its own flavor of cereal. The divider could then be lifted manually
to let milk flow from one side to the other. We’re sad to say that Nerds cereal wasn’t
sold for very long before being discontinued. Luckily, there are still several flavors of
Nerd candy to keep us satisfied.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal
First there were the comic books, then the cartoon. Action figures, video games, movies,
and, you guessed it, a cereal. The crime-fighting turtles named for Italian Renaissance artists
took the world by storm during the eighties and nineties, and from 1989 to 1995, its cereal
was a major hit as well. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cereal was composed of “ninja nets”,
pieces of cereal that were netted in a way that resembles Chex, and marshmallows, which
came in various shapes and colors. Not long after the cereal’s release, they added marshmallows
in the shape of pizza slices – the TMNT’s food of choice. Additionally, several prizes
could be found at the bottom of the box, including mini comic strips and a packet of “green
ooze,” a sugary topping that you could drizzle on your cereal. Interestingly enough, although
this cereal was available throughout the United States, it was very hard to find in Canada.
Canadians weren’t completely deprived, however, as they actually had a TMNT cereal of their
own. The weird thing about that cereal was that all the pieces were ninja-turtle green,
which definitely isn’t the most appetizing color out there. And for those of you thinking
you just saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal at the store, what's being sold now
is a reboot and is a far cry from the original. They look and taste nothing alike, have no
marshmallows, and are just little Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle face shaped cereals...
such a disappointment.
Cröonchy Stars
The Muppet Show was a revolutionary television series of the seventies, and this cereal stars
one of its most popular characters. The Swedish Chef’s skits are always a crowd-pleaser,
and using the character as the mascot for a food item was a genius move. Cröonchy Stars
which of course is described by the Swedish Chef as being "cinnaomonnamony” which, for
those of you not cultured enough to understand his highly sophisticated dialect, means that
it’s deliciously cinnamon-flavored. It actually sounds pretty similar to Cinnamon Toast Crunch
in terms of both flavor and texture. On the back of every cereal box were a variety of
puzzles and games. In keeping with the ridiculous nature of the cereal, many of them were actually
unsolvable. This is both absolutely hilarious and slightly infuriating, but we love it all
the same. Unfortunately, as great as the marketing was, this star-shaped cereal wasn’t a hit.
It was discontinued a year after its 1988 release and made a brief reappearance in 1992
before disappearing permanently. The popularity of the Muppets is timeless, so there’s a
chance that future attempts at creating another Muppet-themed cereal might someday be made.
Sprinkle Spangles
This cereal wasn’t a direct Aladdin product, but it came out at just the right time to
bask in the hype surrounding the Disney movie. The Sprinkle Spangles cereal box depicts a
genie who, other than the fact that he’s purple instead of blue, bears a striking resemblance
to the Aladdin genie character. In the Sprinkle Spangles commercials, the Sprinkle Genie was
voiced by Dom DeLuise, and famous for saying “you wish it, I dish it!”. Released in
the mid-nineties, Sprinkle Spangles was nixed by 1998. Sprinkle Spangles stood out from
the crowd because its pieces, which were shaped like stars with small holes in the middle,
were covered in tiny, colorful sparkles. Sprinkles may be a great draw for the younger crowd,
but the fact that parents might not be so into the idea of their kids consuming them
for breakfast probably contributed to the cereal’s downfall. The sweetened corn puffs
were quite sugary, as is to be expected from any cereal targeting children, but also had
a surprising and enjoyable crunch to them. Though the sprinkle-covered cereal had a short
run, it still made a significant impact.
Pop-Tarts Crunch
The most efficient way to summon nineties children is to say the word “Pop-Tart”
three times in a row. During that decade, this jam-filled pastry was at the height of
popularity, filling the role of breakfast, afternoon-snack and dessert for kids everywhere.
Curious to see how the food item would fare in another form, Kellogg’s decided to concoct
a Pop-Tart cereal. The resulting product was Pop-Tarts Crunch, which was first introduced
in 1994. It was available in frosted strawberry and brown sugar cinnamon, and each piece resembled
a miniature Pop-Tart. Needless to say, the cereal was a hit. No one really knows why
it was discontinued, but we can’t say that anyone was all that happy about the decision.
If this was one of your favorite cereals back in the day, well do we have some news for
you. Pop Tart Crunch is back and feel free to hop in your car and head out to buy a box
of this long-lost cereal. You never know when a discontinued food item from your childhood
might make its return.
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