Whatever happend to those cool prizes in cereal boxes?

edited March 2010 in General Chat
Now they are all shitty. I remember they had some kind of sticky octopus thing that crawls down the wall. Now all I get is ants and cockroaches. And they never stay where you want them too. Plus they taste like crap.

Comments

  • edited November 2004
    2 words, law suites. You would not believe how many small appendixes went flying for that one.
  • edited November 2004
    Whatever happend to all the cool stuff they used to put in game boxes ?

    Maps, glowing stones, leather pouches, microscopic space fleets, napkins, magazines with 20 pages of fabricated content...

    Now all we get is a lo-res pdf file burried somewhere in the depth on the cd and a promotion for AOL
  • edited November 2004
    Whatever happend to all the cool stuff they used to put in game boxes ?

    Maps, glowing stones, leather pouches, microscopic space fleets, napkins, magazines with 20 pages of fabricated content...

    Now all we get is a lo-res pdf file burried somewhere in the depth on the cd and a promotion for AOL

    I think I have alot of those magazines with advetisements for other games in them. doubt you'd be able to get the games any more but I'm sure I can shio them off to Telltale and they can add them to the boxes and it would be like old times.

    Hey that would be quite funny if we opend the boxes to find advertisements for UltimaUnderworld or something in the box.
  • edited November 2004
    I bought a box of cereals (I shall leave Kellogg's unnamed) once for a free game inside. I was naive and thought that "Free Game - Desperados!" and no sign of the word "demo" would mean that the game indeed was full version.

    Now me and a couple of my friends have a habit to address all the complaints to that unnamed company.
  • edited November 2004
    Whatever happend to all the cool stuff they used to put in game boxes ?

    Maps, glowing stones, leather pouches, microscopic space fleets, napkins, magazines with 20 pages of fabricated content...

    Now all we get is a lo-res pdf file burried somewhere in the depth on the cd and a promotion for AOL
    I agree!

    In my eyes the coolest thing you could get was from a Leasure Suit Larry box - anyone remember the scratch'n'sniff LSL "smellblaster"? ...well, THAT was cool and original!!!

    Or the comicstrip story big "And you think your life sucks!" poster the underworld newspaper in the Litil Divil box.

    Or the yelly babies you got with the Lemmings 3D (actually i didn't, but that's probably because the jelly babies were limited to US or something as stupid as that)

    ...anyway ...yea! Cool gifts with games rock!!! ...not much of a cereal fan, though
  • edited November 2004
    What does this have to do with anything?

    Anyway, the answer is Money.
  • edited November 2004
    I bought some Coco Pops a month or two back, because it had an hour long compilation of classic Looney Tunes cartoons on DVD.

    The kids love it, and it's too big for them to swallow.

    Ace!
  • edited November 2004
    I think I once got a free copy of Tony Hawk Pro something or other. The cereal companies would only do it these days if they got the copies of the game for free.
  • edited March 2010
    Yeah, I agree. They suck.
  • edited March 2010
    Thats a pretty epic bump!
    Anyway, i don't eat cereal anymore, so i couldn't really say. However, i hat how everything has gone all healthy now. I don't want Wholegrain Wheeto's! I liked them fine before!

    Which reminds me, i'm hungry...
  • edited March 2010
    Once I was on vacation in the US in 1995, I tried American cereal. It was sweet! It even make the milk sweet! That was gross.
    Then our American friends made rice crispie squares for all four of us kids thinking we'd like it for some reason, and there was a lot of throwing up involved. Just thinking of how sweet it was makes me gag right now, I'm surprised we didn't all develop diabetes on the spot.
    No fond memories of cereal-related food there.

    But I really like muesli. Which doesn't come with toys. And oatmeal is nice if you make it yourself.
  • edited March 2010
    I developed a milk allergy in my early teens, and cereal isn't quite the same dry. Some dry cereal is good, but I just have a cereal bar for breakfast these days.

    Haha, I remember when I was a kid my friends and I all got excited about cereal box prizes. We'd swap them if we got doubles, and we bragged if we got a whole set of something, or the prize that everyone wanted. Good times, good times. :D

    I also loved the souvenirs we got in game boxes, as mentioned on this thread... wow, a few years ago apparently. XD That was cool too.
  • edited March 2010
    Scrawffler wrote: »
    I developed a milk allergy in my early teens, and cereal isn't quite the same dry. Some dry cereal is good, but I just have a cereal bar for breakfast these days.

    Haha, I remember when I was a kid my friends and I all got excited about cereal box prizes. We'd swap them if we got doubles, and we bragged if we got a whole set of something, or the prize that everyone wanted. Good times, good times. :D

    I also loved the souvenirs we got in game boxes, as mentioned on this thread... wow, a few years ago apparently. XD That was cool too.

    I have a milk allergy too. You can have non-dairy milk (soy, almond, rice, oats...coconut, I guess), or another drink. For instance in my family everyone but me always had their cereal with tea (which isn't because they're allergic to milk, since I'm the only one in my family who is. They just like it better that way). I assume coffee might work as well, although I personally don't like having it in a hot drink because it gets soggy. I rather like it with juice (usually orange or apple, but sometimes cranberry or... anything, really. You just need to make sure it goes well with the cereal).
    I also know someone who has it with water, but honestly, I think that's really gross.
    Also, my husband only has cereal with yogurt because he finds it too soggy when it's in a liquid. Of course yogurt is also milky, but I'm thinking any other type of creamy thing that's not dairy could probably work, like dessert creams and stuff.

    But I also like snacking on cereals without anything anything to them, I have to admit.
  • edited March 2010
    The US seems to have a ridiculous amount of sweet cereal, and they all seem to have pop culture assimilated mascots. As far as I know, the only American sugar sugar sugar cereal we have in Australia is Froot Loops. I tried some when I was little, and it was sugary in a way that breakfast cereal should not be. It must have made an impression on me, since just looking at a picture brings back memories of the taste, but I didn't like it all.

    I just found out that Rice Krispies are the same thing as Rice Bubbles, and Rice Bubbles in Australia aren't particularly sweet. At least, I don't think they are. I never liked them that much, but I do remember dumping a teaspoon or two of sugar into a bowl of them at school camp once, which was a mistake. I still remember the way that tasted as well.

    And apparently Coco Pops, the best cereal ever when you're eight, is Cocoa Krispies. Coco Pops are really sweet, but it's basically chocolate milk with soggy bits of puffed rice floating in it, so that's okay.

    I had Nutri-Grain a lot for a while, until my parents stopped buying it for me because it was so full of sugar. It only ever seemed to be advertised as the official food of Sports, implying that it was very good for you. I don't get it.

    And then there's Grinners (or was, it doesn't seem to exist anymore), Crispix, and Crunchy Nut. I'm in favour of sugary cereal as long as they stick to grains and flavours that are commonly used in milk. And even then I'd prefer sugar flavour, if having sugar for breakfast wasn't such a bad idea for me.

    I guess there are a lot of sugary cereals in Australia. All of these are made by Kellogg's, an American company, though. Except for the one that no longer exists.

    I hope you're interested in what sweet cereal was like in Australia, because I didn't really mean to type all that. What I don't remember was any prizes in the boxes.
  • edited March 2010
    Shwoo wrote: »
    I just found out that Rice Krispies are the same thing as Rice Bubbles, and Rice Bubbles in Australia aren't particularly sweet.

    Rice Krispies are good, not too sweet if you don't add any sugar to them.
    Rice Krispies squares are something like a cake, made by melting marshmallows, dumping Rice Krispies in them, and waiting for it to harden. There is a big difference in the amount of sweetness.
  • edited March 2010
    Oh. Like chocolate crackles without the chocolate, and not in a paper cup. Chocolate crackles are made from either Coco Pops, or Rice Bubbles and cocoa. Those are kind of an acquired taste, I think. I could never eat more than one at a time.
  • edited March 2010
    We have that Nesquik cereal here. Imitating Coco Pops but slightly better than Coco Pops. My favorite. Yumyum. I can eat 5 bowls straight in one meal.

    Which reminds me, cereal boxes here rarely contain any toys here. It's that 'sometimes', they come with a CD that has a shitty racing or sports game.
  • edited March 2010
    Now they are all shitty. I remember they had some kind of sticky octopus thing that crawls down the wall. Now all I get is ants and cockroaches. And they never stay where you want them too. Plus they taste like crap.

    I used to like the little submarines you put in your bath, but I don't suppose the average cereal-buying member of the public would have any bicarbonate of soda in their kitchen cupboard any more....:(
  • edited March 2010
    Avistew wrote: »
    Once I was on vacation in the US in 1995, I tried American cereal. It was sweet! It even make the milk sweet! That was gross
    Whenever I make it up to Canada, I always end up consuming mass quantities of Shreddies.

    Who do I have to cajole/bribe/maim to get Post to put them on store shelves here in the States? Grrrr...
  • edited March 2010
    I posted a status on facebook the other day that was worded pretty much identically to this thread's title. I haven't a cereal box with a prize in it for years.
  • edited March 2010
    Avistew wrote: »
    Once I was on vacation in the US in 1995, I tried American cereal. It was sweet! It even make the milk sweet! That was gross.
    Then our American friends made rice crispie squares for all four of us kids thinking we'd like it for some reason, and there was a lot of throwing up involved. Just thinking of how sweet it was makes me gag right now, I'm surprised we didn't all develop diabetes on the spot.
    No fond memories of cereal-related food there.

    Well there is allways things people don't like, and not liking rice crispy treats, that just not right, I mean thats just a good old yummy.

    I've tried cereal from Iraq and Singapore, and to me nothing will compare to a good old bowl of Cinamon Toast Crunch, Or Cocoa pebbles, to each their own.
  • Actually, I poured myself a bowl of sugary cereal last week and a sweet matchbox toy car fell out. I was like "Oh yeah! I remember when I used to find cool stuff in cereal boxes!" I don't remember what brand of cereal I was eating, but it was neat. I guess that's proof it still happens. I also enjoy all the cool word searches and puzzles on the back of the box.

    Side-note: This has to be the craziest bump I've ever seen (over five years)!
  • edited March 2010
    Burn wrote: »
    I think I once got a free copy of Tony Hawk Pro something or other.

    Ha! How strange, that was the very last thing that I remember ever getting from a cereal box! I was just about to mention it in this thread but then I saw that post.
  • edited March 2010
    Forget cereal boxes. Whatever happened to game boxes with cool items or prizes in them like Secret of Monkey Island had with the wheel!? The last one I've seen for years is the Sam and Max: Season One Anniversary Edition box that had a (probably by a computer) signed copy of the Sam and Max Season One print. That stuff is what made games even sweeter!
  • edited March 2010
    Well, over here in good old Australia, they still exist. I still have one of those Star Trek stop watch things from a Saltana Bran box floating around my house somewhere.
  • edited March 2010
    Aye, I remember those little prizes. Back in the day they were the sole reason for buying some random brand, equally sugar loaded as the other (I'm surprised I'm still healthy after all those years of eating that crap). Sometimes I didn't even finish the cereal itself...twas all about the prizes. Very cool prizes.

    Man, I'm all nostalgic now ><
  • edited March 2010
    They always said one in every three boxes. Almost every time I got one of the over two toyless boxes.
  • edited March 2010
    I remember when they grave prizes like these.
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