What Happened To 9 Breakfast Cereals That Vanished From Your Grocery Store

Saturday morning, the cartoons are on, and a giant box of something sugary sits on the kitchen table with a prize rattling around inside. For plenty of us, that was breakfast. And plenty of those boxes have vanished from the shelf for good.

ME-TV’s list of lost breakfast cereals of the 1960s and 1970s goes through dozens of them, and Wikipedia fills in why some were pulled. Here are nine, and what happened to each.

Sir Grapefellow Was A World War I Flying Ace Who Got Outsold

ME-TV lists Sir Grapefellow in 1972 as a grape cereal with a World War I ace theme. Wikipedia says it was a grape-flavored oat cereal with grape marshmallows, made by General Mills.

It was sold from around 1972 to 1975. Wikipedia says it was discontinued in 1975 because it was outsold by the Monster Cereals, which were marketed every Halloween season.

Baron Von Redberry Was Its Mortal Enemy

This was the rival to Sir Grapefellow, and ME-TV says it was basically Franken Berry, with a box design that earned special praise. Wikipedia describes the Baron as a German World War I pilot, presumably based on the Red Baron.

The cereal was berry-flavored with berry marshmallows, and Wikipedia says it tasted strongly like fruit punch. The mascots bickered, with Redberry calling himself “der berry goodest!” and Grapefellow answering that he was “the grapest!”

Like its rival, it left shelves in 1975.

Quake Lost A TV Vote To Quisp In 1972

Quaker Oats released Quake in 1965, alongside Quisp. According to Wikipedia, it was discontinued after a 1972 TV contest in which children voted on which cereal should stay on the shelves.

Quisp won, and Quake was gone.

Quangaroos Lost The Same Fight In 1976

ME-TV points out that this 1973 cereal was a spin-off of Quisp and Quake, calls the name fun to say and highlights its orange flavor. Wikipedia says it arrived after Quake’s 1969 makeover, when Quake gained a sidekick, Simon the orange kangaroo.

It ended up in a 1976 children’s contest between Quisp and Quangaroos. Quisp won again, and Quangaroos was discontinued.

Freakies Ran From 1972 To 1976, And A 1986 Comeback Flopped

Ralston’s Freakies was a crunchy, light brown, ring-shaped cereal with seven characters used in marketing. Wikipedia says it entered the market in 1972, and it was discontinued in 1976.

ME-TV suggests it was big on Haight-Ashbury, a nod to the counterculture of the 1960s. A 1986 relaunch recast the characters as aliens and changed the cereal to shaped pieces and marshmallows, but Wikipedia calls it short-lived and unsuccessful.

Crazy Cow Turned Milk Into A Chocolate Or Strawberry Drink

This General Mills cereal was produced in the 1970s. Wikipedia says the round, multi-grain pellets were coated with a drink mix powder, and adding milk dissolved the coating and turned the milk into something resembling flavored milk.

It came in chocolate and strawberry, though it contained no actual chocolate or strawberries. The box art showed a smiling, brown-spotted cow wearing a hat and a cowbell, and box backs advertised “free” Star Wars trading cards.

Klondike Pete’s Crunchy Nuggets Was Gone By The Mid-1970s

Nabisco renamed its Rice Honeys cereal as Klondike Pete’s Crunchy Nuggets in 1972 and added a prospector mascot. ME-TV says it was gone by the middle of the decade.

A new name and a new mascot were not enough to keep it in the cart.

Corn Crackos Was Post’s Answer To Rock And Roll

ME-TV lists Corn Crackos in 1967 as Post’s entry into the rock-and-roll craze, with a mop-topped, British bird mascot. It was a fast-moving fad of the time.

Post is a name still found on cereal boxes today, but this particular box went the way of the lava lamp.

Moonstones Looked A Little Like Runts Candy

Ralston made Moonstones in 1976, and ME-TV says it looked akin to Runts candy. Kids who loved colorful shapes may remember it.

It was a Ralston product, from the same company that made Freakies, and both belong to the 1970s cereal rush that ME-TV lists as lost.

ME-TV’s list is full of other boxes worth a smile. It describes Pink Panther Flakes from 1973 as a pink cereal, Wackies from 1965 as a monochromatic Lucky Charms lookalike with shapes named Zot, Glot and Gloop, and Twinkles from 1960 with beautiful mod artwork on a box designed as a storybook.

Boxes like these were designed to grab a child’s eye from across the aisle, with wild colors, funny names and a mascot who seemed to talk right to you. Today they live on mostly in memory and in the occasional faded box top.

Which one did you eat? Odds are good that at least one box on this list sat on your family’s table.

Notice the pattern. Several of these cereals lost out to a rival from the same company or the same shelf, and fun gimmicks were not enough to save them. A bold mascot may win a kid’s attention, but a cereal also has to keep selling.

If you still have a box top, a prize or a bowl from one of these breakfasts, you are holding a real piece of kitchen-table history. Show it to your grandchildren and tell them about the Saturday mornings it came from.

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