THE CEREAL PRIZE PROJECT: GROUP 010
(Monster In My Pocket Figures, Animal Rubdowns Set, Mall Discount Card)
#039 - Monster In My Pocket Toys: (Nabisco, Frosted Wheat Squares, 1991)
Additional Images:
Scan of box-back. Side panel. Spooky ad.
I wrote a tribute to the great
Monster In My Pocket collection of the `90s very early on in this site's history, which is my way of saying the article sucks and I've always wanted to pull a do-over. Maybe someday, but this'll suffice for now. Growing up, the cereal prizes that interested us most rarely had to do with Sonny or Lucky or Ice Cream Jones -- we were all about prizes based on
real toys. But since cereal prizes are always produced on the cheap, it's rare to get anything more than a sticker based on a "real" toy, or some other such concession. On occasion, you'd land yourself a Hot Wheels car. It felt good, but this feels even better.
For those who weren't born/can't remember/were trapped in a cave,
Monster In My Pocket was a modestly successful collection of small, rubber creature figures very much akin to the
M.U.S.C.L.E. line of the `80s. And while
M.U.S.C.L.E. is my favorite of the two, there's no denying the latter entry's greater importance. The early `90s was pretty pitiful as far as boys toys went. The Ninja Turtles had already peaked, everything else flailed, and it wasn't before long that people like me had no choice but to focus their efforts on collecting the entire line of
Dick Tracy movie figures. Dick Tracy!
The figures came in vibrant, neon colors, and represented a fun mix of classic monsters, mythological beasts and other creatures made up entirely on the fly. And, rather than simply letting dumb kids determine which were the best and most desirable figures, each was assigned a point value. The lesser, common, stupid monsters were worth five points, and the values increased in increments of five up to the wet dream of any fat twelve-year-old: The 25-pointer. Sold in any which way (four packs, eight packs, ten packs, you name it), the well-detailed little buggers were unlike anything else in toy stores at the time, and I absolutely loved 'em.
Teaming up with Nabisco's Frosted Wheat Squares,
Monster In My Pocket delivered us one seriously supergreat cereal premium -- real
M.I.M.P. figures, just like we'd buy/steal from the store! The figures were exclusive to the cereal promotion, too. Though "Griffin," "Windigo" and pals
were available in the store-bought packages, you couldn't get them in the specific colors shown above. My kingdom for a flamingo pink "Cockatrice." My very balls for a sky blue "Great Beast." He's a 25-pointer, folks.
Even the
back of the box was awesome. For kids of the right sex and age and inclinations, there was no better breakfast reading material than the descriptions of six goofy, valued-by-points monster figures. I love it -- squint really hard and try to read those descriptions, they're fantastic. It's especially surreal to see so much weird monster shit on a
Frosted Wheat Squares box. It ain't a cereal known far and wide for its ability to party.
I sadly lack any of the figures given away in this promotion, so if you were expecting to see any, I'm more sorry than you could possibly imagine. I suspect that the deal succeeded in turning at least a handful of kids into new
Monster In My Pocket fans, but I'm even more sure that it turned hundreds of kids onto Frosted Wheat Squares. It's another one of those win/win/win situations. Oops, one more thing...
The
side panel included a special offer for a discounted "Monster Mountain" playset -- arguably the greatest achievement of the line. The plastic, three-dimensional, volcano-shaped unit was capable of housing 48 figures, and had the company been smart enough to include a bunch
with the playset, I bet it would've sold a lot better. For what it's worth, "Monster Mountain" currently fetches high prices on the collectors' market, so whatever fans of
Monster In My Pocket are left certainly appreciate the majesty of a figure case suitable for wall hangin' action.
A+ on this one.
#040 - Animal Rubdowns Set: (Kellogg's 1988)
Additional Images:
Sealed premium. Instructions.
I really dig it when cereal brands boogie down with animals and nature for no good reason. I'm not sure how the rest of the world felt about these, but how can you beat rubdown transfers of an anus-view rhinoceros and a gorilla threatening to beat a giant parrot to death with a rock? If you don't know what rubdowns are, I encourage you to read my old article on the Star Wars
Presto Magix set -- it's the same deal. You lay the sheet on a piece of paper, scribble over the animals with a pencil, and they magically move from the plastic sheet to whatever you're penciling them over on. Sounds dumb, but for the brief seconds it takes to complete the process, absolutely nothing in the world will matter to you besides getting the raging gorilla to do his stupid parlor trick. Fun little item.
#041 - Mall Discount Card: (Kellogg's, Corn Flakes, 1992)
Additional Images:
Sealed premium. List of participating stores and discounts.
Though essentially nothing more than a coupon book contained within a small slice of cardboard, there's something about this Corn Flakes "Mall Discount Card" that grabs me around the throat and forces me to like it. It's a coded, credit-card style thingy with a
huge list of participating stores printed on the back, each offering varying degrees of discount action. You had five bucks off a twenty-five dollar purchase at Kay Bee, buy-one-get-one-free sundaes at Everything Yogurt -- heck, there's even a discount for CDs at Coconuts, in the glory days before the franchise collapsed under the weight of fewer and fewer people wanting to confirm that they shop at a place called "Coconuts."
--
Matt (6/28/05)
