Many adults have fond memories of collecting cards from cereal packets, but cards were just the beginning of collecting.
In the 1950s supermarkets were using ‘premiums’ to sell breakfast cereal.
A premium was a small reward placed in the cereal box, as incentive to buy the product. The idea proved popular for both retailer and consumer.
In 1955, the first ‘in box’ cereal premium was simply a balloon.
The following year Kellogg’s Cornflakes added three glass marbles in a plastic bag and in 1957 small tinplate pictures were found in Weeties boxes.
From the late 1950s plastic was used to make ‘cereal toys’.
First designs were basic animals and vehicles, but over the next two decades imagination and innovation governed these little plastic toys.
The ‘Deep Sea Band’ series, released in 1969, was modeled on sea creatures playing musical instruments.
Octopussy Hep Cat, Saxy Salmon and Frantic Fanny Fantail were the names
of a few.
‘Tooly Birds’ (1970) was inspired by common shed tools fashioned into ‘birds’, with names such as Harry Hammer and Muggsie Mallet.
‘Metric Monsters’ (1975) were designed to clip onto a pencil.
Names such as Litre Licker, Julius Celcius and Hairy Hectare were used while Australians were adapting to the new metric system.
“Totem Poles” (1971), ‘Secret Stencils’ (1972) and Whirligigs [bike spoke decorations] (1973) were other popular one piece cereal toys.
The Kellogg series ‘Crater Critters’(1968) was modeled on alien space creatures, influenced by 1960s space exploration – walking on the moon was still a year away. The series was so popular it was re-released in 1972.