Pouring out a bowl of Cheerios for my wee girl this morning, and was suddenly struck with the thought that there seem to be no cereals on the market today that give away free toys like they used to in 'the olden days'. There's been a bit of pot smoked since I were but a nipper, thus I've lost the fond memories of what my favoured and prized toys were at the time. Surely some of the more clean living amongst you could nominate your own memories to jog mine. Please? Also, why is this concept no longer realised? If anything, it must be Health and Safety, or cost reduction.
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Who recalls toys in cereal packets?
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Posted 2 years ago #
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In the late 50's/early 60's I remember 'deep sea divers' in cereal packets. They were blue tadpoley things with a hole in the centre. Place some bicarbonate of soda (an everyday household item at the time!)in the hole, drop into a screw top bottle filled with water. Unsrewing/screwing the bottle top made the diver rise and fall. Hours of amusement! As a 4yr old, it seemed it was obviously due to pressure differentials. To my teenage uncles,it was magic!
Posted 2 years ago # -
H&S = choke hazard = no more. Sad.
Posted 2 years ago # -
They have them in France.
I'm sad to say but, for the kids, the highlight of our skiing holidays is having cereal with toys in.
Posted 2 years ago # -
They still have them in Spain, too.
More than H&S I suspect it's cost cutting, the law on children's toys is probably EU based; the toys my kids find in the packs are certainly big enough not to be a choking hazard.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Shrinky-dinks(sp) in Shreddies in the early 80's!
It was a piece of clear plastic with a picture on it that you had to colour in using the supplied crayons then bake it in the oven and it shrank lol
Posted 2 years ago # -
I remember getting a plastic oil rig kit from collect Kellogs Frosties tokens I think. Times moved on since an oil rig was considered an appropriate gift for a child
Posted 2 years ago # -
Frosties used to give away tony the tiger bicycle reflectors to fit on your spokes
Posted 2 years ago # -
I have fond memories of plastic jungle animals in my cornflakes.
Incidentally in The Good Life, before they went self sufficient, Tom Good's job was as a draftsman designing the plastic toys for cereal packets.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I seem to remember holograms in shredies, me thinks.? And I remember the oil rig.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I recently has to throw away a Kellogs Frosties radio I saved vouchers for as a kid.
Is anyone here old enough to remember them?
btw, if anyone has a working one they don't want, please give me a shout - taThe fishing rods though they did I think lasted me a year if that
Posted 2 years ago # -
I saved tokens from Frosties & got sent a toy 'tony the tiger' car. It was a proper die-cast car; black with orange stripes.
Trampus - the diving things you mentione with bicarb of soda - Kellogs did submarines & little boats of them as well, late 80's, I think. The submarine initially sunk, but collected bubbles from the bicarb until it flotaed to the surface. Once on the surface the bubbles burst and it sank again.
The boat had channels that guided bubbles out of the back & pushed the boat along. Great!Posted 2 years ago # -
And can anyone remember 'tuppences' in Christmas Puddings? Hell they even put one in the puddings at the school I went to! Somehow I doubt anyone anywhere does that now....
Posted 2 years ago # -
I remember a deep sea diver with a length of plastic tube attached that you had to blow into - it was crap, as I recall.
Posted 2 years ago # -
"And can anyone remember 'tuppences' in Christmas Puddings? Hell they even put one in the puddings at the school I went to! Somehow I doubt anyone anywhere does that now...."
Due to the fact that 'tuppence' means a ladies front bottom where I live, I am currently sniggering like a nine year old schoolboy.
Posted 2 years ago # -
yes and i bet my sisters still got them all and never plays with them
Posted 2 years ago # -
Antigee - Tuppences?
Posted 2 years ago # -
I got an Airfix model oil rig by saving vouchers from cereal packets.
and a harrier jump jet as well, I think, another time.
It helped having a brother and 2 sisters to force feed cornflakes to whilst the tokens were being included on the packets...
Posted 2 years ago # -
not being quite so old....................
oldest one I can remember was a rice krispies radio, I remember it because my parents told me I was going into hospital for a little while, next thing I knew the ned of my little fella was missing, very confusing for a 6yr old, and frikin painfull if i remember!
once got about 40 power rangers figures in one box of frosties
and a car that you pulled back, and it went, but when it hit a wall it reversed, turned, hit the wall backwards, then went off again
I thought it was to stop rubbish cereal being advertised to kids? In which case why is the "happy meal" still going?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Oh yes. And small packets of salt in blue greaseproof paper inside packets of crisps...
Posted 2 years ago # -
I had a modest collection of tiny plastic commercial aircraft kits out of cornflakes, and bicarb divers.
I think maybe kids just have much, much higher expectations today and the prospect of getting something so fundamentally naff just isn't much of an inducement to buy a particular brand of cereal now. 20-odd years back it was genuinely exciting to have a new toy, even a really pathetic one.
Posted 2 years ago # -
earliest i can remember was an iron on transfer of kevin Keegan chesting a ball in Liverpool kit. They ended up on my pyjammas. Also had native american plastic busts and small palstic hot rod cars.
and PG Tips used to give away card series to collect in a little annual. Had one on planes and dinosaurs.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Yeah they used to be inside with the cereal which was best, then they started putting them at the bottom of the box outside of the cereal, then they disappeared altogether!
Posted 2 years ago # -
Errr... spokey dokeys of course!
Posted 2 years ago # -
Slightly (massively) OT, but does anyone remember the furore a few Xmases ago when some joker at a cracker factoryreplaced the jokes with messages readind, "you are a fat c***"? And other suchlike sentiments.
I know it's childish but I fell about laughing....
Posted 2 years ago # -
they've only stopped in the last few years - I certainly remember my kids gettting the occasional cereal packet toy and my eldest is 10
I think it stopped when they stopped advertising kids cereals on TV - as mentioned above I'm not sure how happy meals are able to keep doing it
Posted 2 years ago # -
i remember the various spokey dokeys/ reflectors etc from cereals, i was gutted to find that when i got my first bike (a raleigh bmx) that it had plastic wheels, ergo i couldnt fit the spokey dokeys. crap times
Posted 2 years ago # -
I particularly liked the toy soldiers with crappy plastic parachutes.
Posted 2 years ago # -
(a raleigh bmx)
I believe you mean a Raleigh Mag Burner...Posted 2 years ago # -
I dimly remember cut-out-and-assemble Star Trek ships (and a bridge scene) on the back of Weetabix (I think) when I was very small, plus the standard plastic tat and things from a variety of other cereal packets. I certainly remember the colour in and shrink in the oven things - I had one of VINcent, from The Black Hole.
Camping in Wales in 2004 I got a Puss In Boots (from Shrek) plastic thing out of a box of Sugar Puffs.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Frosties used to give away tony the tiger bicycle reflectors to fit on your spokes
I have a cornflakes chicken reflector in my front wheel! It's rad to the max
Posted 2 years ago # -
arouind the same time as the bike reflectors there were rad bike stickers and spokey dokeys!
why so much bike stuff - was it around 92 (boardman barcelona)?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Those rubber diaphram looking things that you inverted and placed on the floor, then they jumped up.
Posted 2 years ago # -
its all bloomin cd's these days, thats all you will get.
bloomin t'internet, it will never catch on!Posted 2 years ago # -
"Luminous Spooks - glow in the dark" !!!
Innocent childhood days!
Posted 2 years ago # -
"Luminous Spooks - glow in the dark" !!!
Innocent childhood days!
Posted 2 years ago # -
Star Wars (or maybe Empire Strikes Back?) transfers inside Shreddies (I think), with a scene on the back of the pack for you to complete. Caused major fights in my house...
EDIT: Should have realised there'd be a site out there: Star Wars transfers
Posted 2 years ago # -
When Kinder eggs first came out they had really cool toys. Little cars and bikes with friction engines that you had to assemble. Brilliant so they were.
Posted 2 years ago # -
user-removed - Member
Slightly (massively) OT, but does anyone remember the furore a few Xmases ago when some joker at a cracker factoryreplaced the jokes with messages readind, "you are a fat c***"? And other suchlike sentiments.
I hadn't heard that, but it IS funny.
Thanks for the chuckle...
Posted 2 years ago # -
who recalls toy in cereal? I guess that would either be the manufacturer or trading standards but I don't think many were that dangerous.
Posted 2 years ago #
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