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13 more forgotten cereals from the 1960s
What's up? Buttercups! Plus, Sugar Cones, Cornados, Crispy Critters and more.
Top image: General Mills / Raston Purina / Post
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Froot Loops, Cap'n Crunch, Lucky Charms, Apple Jacks, Life. The Sixties were a golden era for far more than music and television. The decade also delivered some of the greatest cereals of all time. These sugary bowlfuls remain icons today. Cap'n Crunch and Froot Loops are the Stones and Beatles of breakfast.
The grocery stores of the 1960s also offered cult favorites like Quisp, Quake, Kombos and Corn Crackos. We've delved into some of these favorite Saturday morning meals before — but there were far more.
Let's revisit the cereal aisles of the '60s once again for more bygone brands. Do you remember any of these? Which were your favorite?
1. Top 3
1960
Corn, wheat and rice combined to form the "Top 3." (Sorry, bran!) Bugs Bunny served as a mascot, and kids from Make Room for Daddy (Rusty Hamer and Angela Cartwright) appeared in commercials.
Image: Duke University Libraries / archive.org
2. Count Off
1962
Basically, this is just Alpha-Bits with numbers instead of letters, but Post wisely tapped into the wonder of the space race to give it a Mission Control theme.
Image: Post / YouTube
3. Crispy Critters
1962
"The one and only ce-re-al that comes in the shapes of a-ni-mals," sang Linus the Lionhearted, the lion mascot for this favorite. Animal crackers are a favorite of children, so it's a wonder why this similar cereal did not become a lasting classic.
Image: YouTube
4. Buttercups
1965
With its concave honeycomb shape, these floral bites were some of the most beautifully designed cereal in history, and perfect for the Flower Power era. So what was the issue? Perhaps it was because buttercup flowers, though pretty, are bitter and toxic to animals?
Image: General Mills
5. Cap'n Crunch's Ship Shake
1966
While not technically a cereal, Ship Shake branded itself as "liquid cereal" and remains far too fascinating to overlook. The packaging proclaimed itself to be "as good for you as a bowl of oatmeal," though it probably gave consumers the image of drinking a bowl of soggy cereal. The butterscotch variety probably didn't help. It did come with a cool plastic cup, though.
6. Cornados
1966
In 1966, General Mills introduced their Bugles snack chips, which were essentially salted cereal. No wonder the company tried (twice) to turn the things into actual cereal. Though we hope and assume the salt was replaced with sugar.
Image: General Mills
SEE MORE: BYGONE CEREAL OF THE 1980s
Cereal basically turned into candy and video games in the '80s. SEE MORE
7. Mr. Waffles
1966
Ralston Purina, who would later release Waffelos, would first get into the waffle cereal game with this fellow. The box came with hand puppets of Mr. Waffles and his nemesis Harold Evilchap.
Image: scratch-x / eBay
8. Bran Wisps
1967
General Mills found the most polite yet off-putting way of explaining the, er, bowel power of fiber, calling it nature's best "bulk former." That hardly sounds "gentle" or "wispy."
Image: generalmillshistory
9. Diet Frosted Rice Puffs
1967
Larry, the familiar mascot of Quaker Oats, was put on a company-mandated diet in '67. "I feel thinner already," he proclaimed in adds. Though "diet frosted" is rather oxymoronic. Oddly, a few years back, Quaker did actually put Larry on a diet, thinning him up in the logo.
Image: Classic Film / Flickr
10. Sugar Cones
1967
A year later, General Mills again attempted to transform Bugles into breakfast, this time underlining the sugar content. How adorable would it be to put a Kix on top and serve it to a hamster as an ice cream cone?
Image: General Mills
11. CINNA-MUM-M-M
1968
"Cinna-mum-m-m." It just rolls off the tongue. Nabisco's flakes came with almonds or raisins. Part of a mumbler's complete breakfast.
Image: mrbreakfast
12. Clackers
1968
It might be clear by now that name is sometimes everything. "Clackers" sound like something that leads to clattering, shattering teeth, no matter how hard you try to convice folks they are "De Luxe." These crunchy, graham-flavored rings also came with a duck call, which probably did not make groggy parents thrilled at 6am.
Image: General Mills
13. The Great Goodstuff
1969
"Cooks" like magic right in your bowl. Wait… cooks? Why is it cooking? That sounds like chemistry, not magic.
Image: Dan Goodsell / Flickr
SEE MORE: Forgotten cereals of the 1950s
Rewind the clock a bit further for some OKs, Corn Soya, Corn-Fetti and Sugar Jets! READ MORE
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