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March 2000 Index
Character Profile: Tony the Tiger
Frankenstein Cereals
Cereal Review - Quaker Oats Quisp
Reader's Poll - Do you add sugar to your cereal?
Reader's Poll Results - Where do you usually eat your cereal?
What's New in Cereal?
Character Profile: Tony the Tiger
by Topher
 | "They're Gr-r-reat!"
Born in 1951 or 1952, Tony the Tiger was a hit from the start. This strapping 6-foot 6-inch tall Tiger proved more popular than three other characters and quickly earned a permanent place on boxes of Sugar Frosted Flakes. | | Although Kellogg's also introduced Katy the Kangaroo, Elmo the Elephant, and Newt the Gnu to the public as spokescharacters for Sugar Frosted Flakes when the cereal was in its infancy, only Tony and Katy ever made an appearance on a cereal box. However, Tony proved the most popular, and the other three were dropped after only a year. Tony hasn't had to look over his shoulder since 1953.
| | For a while in the 1970's, Tony had an entire family. His son, Tony Jr., became the trademark of Kellogg's Frosted Rice cereal. His wife, "Mrs. Tony", and daughter Antoinette (born 1974) never appeared on cereal boxes. | Tony Tidbits: We understand that Tony the Tiger was called "Tom-Tom the Tiger" in the island nation of Greneda. Kellogg's once issued Banana Frosted Flakes, which included with real banana bits. These short-lived clever-idea flakes apparently had little appeal.
Trivia: Thurl Ravenscroft has been the voice of Tony for almost fifty years. |
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Frankenstein Cereals
by Topher
What do you do when you pour yourself a bowl of cereal and can't quite use up all the cereal left in the box? There's too much there to fit in today's bowl, but you know there is not enough to fill another bowl tomorrow. You can't bring yourself to throw away the remains, but you know you'll never pour them into future bowl because there just isn't enough to make a satisfying breakfast.
If you are like most people, you leave it in the box for your wife or mom to find. When she does find it, she pours it into a rubbermade container along with other remants you've left behind, thereby creating a new combination cereal the kids will refuse to eat.
With this in mind, the major cereal manufacturers occasionally experiment with the mixing of several cereals to produce what they hope will be a new winning combination. Unfortunately, kids are just as excited about these Frankenstein cereals as they are about Mom's creation. |
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In 1990, Kellogg's introduced a chicken-wolf-moose-pig character called Bigg Mixx, who was mascot for a cereal by the same name. The cereal was described as being a combination of all the cereals swept up off the Kellogg's factory floor (figuratively speaking, of course).
While Bigg Mixx (the character) proved more popular than the Bigg Mixx (the cereal), both were shelved by 1992.
| In 1999, Post introduced Post Everyone! "Create A Crunch" Cereal Mixing Kit. It contained separate packages of six cereals: Frosted Alpha Bits, Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, Honeycomb, a blue-colored puffed rice cereal, and granola, plus a package of colored sprinkles and a pack of miniature marshmallows. The idea was to create your own new sugar-infused cereal, and over 100 inedible combinations proved possible. This fun idea didn't last the year.
Do you have success bringing life to a cereal Frankenstein? E-mail us your winning combinations. We'll print them in our next issue.
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Cereal Review
by Donnie Neiswinger
Quaker Oats Quisp
| The front of the box summarizes Quisp as "Crunchy Corn Cereal". The second item in the ingredient list is our old friend sugar, which is a plus, so one need only add milk to create a serving of the most enjoyable load of calories around. Also, for some reason, it's even fun to eat. I highly recommend that everyone have some as soon as humanly possible. You'll never eat plain corn flakes again. | |
The problem is (or rather... was), it's only distributed in a limited number of geographical areas. I drove all the way from my home in Detroit to three supermarkets in the Chicago area a couple years ago to finally find it. I'm not sure what the sales strategy is here, but I suppose the big boys have their reasons. Perhaps it's to make Quisp seem like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or perhaps they are just a bit reluctant or shy to release it everywhere. I find it hard to believe that it's because grocers don't want it. | |
Quaker began selling their still-underestimated Bagged Cereals a few years ago, and the "Sweet Crunch" variety does appear to be an incognito version of Quisp. Maybe it's just the psychological effect of the packaging, but it never seems as good to me. Oh, it's tasty (as is my favorite of the Bagged family - Cinnamon Crunch), and I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone craving the taste of Quisp from buying a bag, but fortunately there's another answer. | |
You can now buy Quisp cereal online!! Yes, that's right. Go to Amazon.com and check the cereal aisle. The only thing that could possibly be interpreted as problematic here is that I tend to buy 3 or 4 boxes at a time to make the mailing worthwhile and then I'm eating Quisp for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next month or so. Hardly what I'd call punishment... | |
So even though I'd still prefer nine or ten dozen mouthfuls of Quake, I couldn't be happier than I will be in a few minutes when I fire up another bowl of Quisp. Somebody go grab me a big spoon!!
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What's New In Cereal?
by Topher
Send Us Your News
Okay, so there are months they go by where we don't discover something new in the cereal isle of our local grocery store. This is one of them. If you notice anything new, or wish to report a new cereal development, please e-mail us. We'll give you credit for your information, or keep it confidential, at your request. Thank you.
News From The Field
Kellogg's has introduced "Honey Frosted Mini-Wheats".
(Courtesy Rick Barr) |
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Reader's Poll Results
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Where do you usually eat your cereal in the morning? |
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At the kitchen/dining room table. | 47% | | |
In front of the TV set. |
37% | | |
Other. |
11% | | |
In the kitchen, while standing. |
05% | | |
In the car. |
00% |
| This is an unscientific survey based upon 19 voluntary responses in our February 2000 Reader's Poll. |
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© 1999 - 2000 Topher All rights reserved.
Disclaimers and Other Legal Stuff
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The Boxtop is a non-commercial publication. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any cereal or company. All of the names, characters, brands, and icons included here are trademarks of their respective parent companies and cannot be used for commercial purposes. Enjoy breakfast and support your favorite characters! |
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Opinions expressed are those of the writer, which like most things having to do with cereal may not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editor, anyone else on the staff, or the world at large. A good sense of humor is appreciated. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through Amazon links. Enjoy. |
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Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from the Editor.
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All information contained herein was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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