The Retroist » Cereal

Wackies Cereal Commercial (1965)

VicSage — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:00:58 +0000

General Mills released Wackies cereal to store shelves back in 1965 and it vanished from those same shelves in 1966. It might have had something to do with it having banana flavored marshmallow bits. Blech!

[Via] YouTube

A big thank you to Planet-Q over on Flickr for the wonderful box photo you see up top!

Honeycomb Cereal Commercial Featuring Andre The Giant (1980′s)

VicSage — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:00:37 +0000

If the legendary Andre the Giant had shown up at my tree house wanting some of my delicious Honeycomb cereal when I was a kid, I believe I would have shared some of it with him just like the Honeycomb Hideout kids. Maybe he would have given me his autograph as well?

[Via] SrArcade over on YouTube

Cap’n Crunch Costume

Flack — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:00:58 +0000

As part of our moving process, over the past two weeks I’ve had to make several tough decisions on whether I was going to keep, or part with, certain items. Partly because it doesn’t fit and partly because Halloween is right around the corner, this is one of the things I decided to part with: my Cap’n Crunch costume.

I ran across this item several years ago at a garage sale. The costume came in a trunk, and inside the trunk was a hand receipt from the company that made it. I contacted the company years ago and, after working my way through a few people, discovered that it was one of about 20 Cap’n Crunch costumes made for General Mills. Unfortunately the company didn’t have any more information for me than that.

Inside the costume there’s a battery pack belt, which I assume originally powered fans to keep the wearer cool. The costume is very heavy duty and I can see how someone wearing it, especially outside, might overheat quickly.

Unfortunately for me, the costume doesn’t fit. At 6′ tall, I had the twist my head just to get inside the thing. I’m guessing it was made for someone just a few inches shorter than myself. It was probably also made for someone who hasn’t enjoyed as many bowls of delicious Cap’n Crunch cereal over the years …

I’ve never had the costume on display, so for almost a decade the poor captain has been folded up in trunk in my garage. Hopefully the Cap’n's new owner will put him to use and have him sailing the crunchy seas again.

The Empire Holds Milk

Flack — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:00:08 +0000

While packing up the kitchen, I ran across these old Empire Strikes Back mugs from my childhood.

Deka released a series of these mugs back in 1980. I have a set of what I would call “the good guy” mug, which has pictures of Luke, Leia, and Han Solo on them.

Deka released at least two other mugs at the same time. One (the “bad guy” mug) contained pictures of Darth Vader and Boba Fett. The other one had pictures of Chewbacca, R2D2 and C3P0. There was also a matching cereal bowl, but the last time I remember seeing it the dog was drinking water out of it.

Although they don’t have any currently in stock, you can check out pictures of all the various Deka mugs and bowls at CollectorsGalleryOnline.com.

Fruit Wheats

Brian Boone — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:00:41 +0000

With a song this catchy and the side-scrolling format, this really shouldn’t have been a commercial for Fruit Wheats cereal, this should have been the opening sequence to Fruit Wheats, a delightful ‘80s sitcom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCdJMMQw1Mc