Kellogg’s Corn Pops: 1951 – 2012..?

An interesting article was posted this past summer at 24/7 Wall St. about brands that are projected to disappear in 2012. Sears, Sony Pictures, Nokia and MySpace are on the list but on a more serious note Kellogg’s Corn Pops made the list as well.

Debuting in 1951 as “Sugar Pops”, the cereal was re-titled ”Sugar Corn Pops” in the late 1970s before finally settling on “Corn Pops” in the 1980s. I remember a few years back they changed the name yet again, this time simply to “Pops” (which I always found strange). Luckily, the cereal was restored to “Corn Pops” after only a few months.

Surprisingly, in the United States alone the cereal had a number of mascots over the years: Woody Woodpecker, Newt the Gnu, Sugar Pops Pete (a prairie dog cowboy), Whippersnapper (a cowboy), Big Yella (another cowboy) Poppy (a female porcupine) and most recently Sweet Toothasaur. Poppy was a mascot during the ’80s yet I have no recollection of her or anything of these other mascots. I can only remember tag-lines such as “Gotta have my Pops!” and “It’s hard to stop when it’s my Pops!” and the use of the JAWS theme in the commercials.

So what’s the reason Corn Pops is in mortal danger? Well, sales are down because people are looking towards healthier cereals and when you’re using BHT (something found in embalming fluid) as an ingredient you can’t really claim to be all that good for anyone to eat. Never mind the fact that everyone knows Corn Pops are covered in sticky, sweet sugary glaze. Falling sales are only half of it though. The price of corn is on the rise and that makes it harder for this brand to turn a profit.

Truthfully, there was nothing in the article that said Corn Pops was definitely going extinct. All the article was saying was that the brand was having a hard time and they were suggesting it’d be a wrap in 2012. Although I don’t eat Corn Pops as much as I did when I was a kid, I still get cravings for it and pick up a box every few months. It’d be a shame to think I could no longer do so come 2012.

So here’s to ya, Corn Pops. I tip my cereal bowl to you and I hope you can somehow find a way to soldier on in a world of raising costs and where people are choosier about what they consume.

Cereals From Beyond: Halloween Limited Edition!

Cereal and Halloween. Isn’t that combination the whole world can rally behind? Let’s all agree that they are two great things that go great together and build from that.

Welcome to a very special Halloween Limited Edition of Cereals From Beyond! Some of these cereals are dragged out from their coffins every year about this time to cash-in on Hallowween, so while they technically may not be dead, they are dead in spirit and that’s good enough to make another Cereals From Beyond entry!

Cap’n Crunch’s Halloween Crunch (Quaker Oats, 2007)

Halloween Crunch has been around for the last couple of years but the box pictured above is the 2010 edition. The cereal ghosts turn the milk GREEN! How they do that?!? I’ve never had Halloween Crunch before but I think I need to see this for myself…

Casper Sugar Chex (Ralston, 1970)

I couldn’t find much info on this cereal but it’s easy to assume this was sweetened Corn Chex. It appears Casper was the cereal’s mascot and so this was not just a seasonal promotion. There’s also a red box but I don’t think there’s an actual difference in the cereal and Casper surrounded by orange looks much more cooler and Halloweeny!

Candy Corn Corn Pops (Kellogg’s, 2001)

Okay, this looks and sounds absolutely disgusting! Looks, I get that candy corn is a great fall and holiday tradition. It’s just a nice color scheme and all, but I hate the stuff! I hate candy corn, I hate mellowcreme harvest and pumpkin mixes… It smells gross and it tastes gross. I can’t imagine Corn Pops (which has never been a favorite of mine) that have a candy corn flavor are all that “special”, despite what the text on the box says.

Even the cereal box itself is absolutely ugly. What’s up with all the fluorescent colors and poorly drawn psychotic scientist? I admit the idea of “Candy Corn Corn Pops” is a very good piece of marketing and was/is probably enough to get people to buy this cereal but design a better box, guys!

Frankberry & Count Chocula Universal Monster Editions (General Mills, early 2000s?)

For the life of me I cannot remember what year these came out. I’m guessing early 2000s but late ’90s is possible as well. This was another example of great marketing — the Monster Cereals teaming up with the Universal Monsters! Great artwork. Hm. That reminds me. I need to pick up some Monster Cereals and watch some of the Universal classics soon!

Halloween Rice Krispies (Kellogg’s, 1980s?)

I saved my favorite cereal box out of this batch for last! Again, I can’t find much info in regards to the year of these things. This looks like it was from maybe the early or mid ’80s and I have a vague recollection of eating them. Or maybe I’m remembering eating Rice Krispies with orange food coloring… Nevertheless this is an awesome piece of cereal box art and you can’t go wrong with orange Rice Krispies!

How could we forget Jell-O 1-2-3?

… I know I almost did.

Sadly, I could not find a commercial (not much info is out there at all, really) but believe me when I tell you that Jell-O 1-2-3 was… kinda okay? I think..? Oh well, who cares? It’s Jell-O and it’s from 1980s and that’s all you need to know to say you wish you had a giant bowl of it sitting in front of you right now!

Here’s the idea behind this concoction: you mix up your Jell-O and let it sit and as it sits it magically separates into not one, not two but three (oh… I get it! 1-2-3!!!!) layers of Jell-O goodness. Going by memory and from the look of the box, the first layer is basically foam, which I remember thinking to be really weird. Think fruit-flavored shaving cream. The second layer is more of a mousse. Think Yoplait’s Whips! line of light & fluffy yogurt. Then the bottom layer is the traditional jiggly Jell-O gelatin. Think gelatin.

People like to add weird stuff on top of Jell-O (and even inside it), but I’ve always thought any gelatin can and should stand (wiggle) on its own. The mix of foam, mousse and gelatin made for a culture clash of textures in my mouth. Nothing wrong with the flavors at all (orange and strawberry) but it was just too many textures and consistencies at once. I would’ve eaten Jell-O Instant Mousse. I would have eaten Jell-O Instant Foam. I just don’t think they matched up well alongside Jell-O gelatin.

Star Wars and Peanuts Fruit Snacks !!!

“Kids Classics” is right! Though I love them, I don’t pay much attention to fruit snacks these days but when I saw boxes of Star Wars and Peanuts fruit snacks I had to have them. They called out to me and I don’t know why, but I just got a nostalgic feeling when I saw them. The Peanuts box especially looks like something you might see from the 1980s. How can you go wrong with a huge picture of Snoopy? Alas, the Star Wars box art is from The Clone Wars cartoon thus forcing you to accept this is modern times. Would’ve been really cool if they put Luke, Han and Vader on that box.

I’m guessing this is some type of budget line of fruit snacks, you only get five pouches but at $1 a box that’s not a bad deal.  This makes me even more nostalgic because alongside low-rent cereal, I remember licensed cheapies like these appearing in dollar stores and Big Lots and whatnot. And hey, one pouch equals 100% of your daily Vitamin C. They are both manufactured by ConAgra Foods (Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice, Kid Cuisine, Slim Jim).

The Star Wars fruit snacks box was kind enough to give us a rundown of the characters but I’m a bit surprised there’s no Obi-Wan or at least Anakin. I guess they wouldn’t make for “fun” shapes though. Here’s a closer look:

Please excuse the sun bursting in the middle of this photo. It was the best of the bunch that I shot. Unfortunately, the box features no roll call of Peanuts characters but from what I can see there’s Linus (w/ blanket), Snoopy, Woodstock, Red Baron Snoopy, Charlie Brown (with catcher’s mitt) and Lucy. On the front of the box, it shows all of these fruit snack shapes minus the Red Baron version of Snoopy. In his place on the box is a dancing Snoopy but I haven’t come across one of those yet.

As for the flavors, I’m thrown off a bit. The Peanuts box lists four flavors: blue raspberry, tropical punch, watermelon and sour apple. The Star Wars lists no flavors but has six different colors. In addition to the four flavors Peanuts has, there is also grape and orange.

Let’s Go Krogering

As a child, I had a weird fixation with grocery stores. I hated shopping, always hated going to the mall, but I LOVED going to the grocery store. Visions of desserts, snacks, comic books, juice boxes, wrestling magazines and CRACKED magazine danced through my head at the thought of going to the grocery store and in Lynchburg, VA, for my family there was no grocery store bigger than KROGER. That’s not to say it was the only store — we had Food World, Harris Teeter (which replaced Food World), Winn Dixie and Food Lion but it was Kroger that was our store of choice.

Kroger was the closest grocery store to our house but proximity wasn’t the only reason for our fondness because my family always seemed to like Kroger brand apple sauce and Kroger’s knockoff of Hamburger Helper (of which the particular kind we used to eat they no longer make). To my knowledge, Kroger doesn’t exist further down south. I never saw one in Florida where I used to live and my parents still do, but when they came to visit us here in Michigan they were positively thrilled that we had a Kroger! Now THAT’S a powerful marketing.

Enjoy these 1980s Kroger commercials!