Sunday Cereal Throwback: Ice Cream Cones Cereal

This Sunday I start my first edition of Sunday Cereal Throwback. I want to feature a cereal from the past that isnt made anymore and made a big impression on me. The first cereal that came to mind was General Mills' Ice Cream Cones Cereal. "The General" as I call them, had many amazing cereals in the 80's and 90's and one of the tip top ones was Ice Cream Cones.

It featured little puffed balls that were vanilla or chocolate chip with small graham flavored triangles that resembled the cones. Check the awesome commercial...

Ice Cream Cones made a brief comeback several years ago, but it wasn't the same. Most of the awesome cereals from my childhood wouldn't exist today because they were loaded with sugar!

Prize inside? What, mail in 3 proofs of.....

One of the joys of childhood was scavenging over the cereal isle at the local grocery looking for the perfect cereal.

Not the one with marshmellows.

Not the one with fruity fun shapes.

Not the one with the coolest character on the box showing you how yummy it was.

The box I searched for was the one that contained the best prize inside.

"No, I love Raisin Bran!"

"I promise I will eat it all....."

When you are 10 years old, you will pretty much agree to anything to get what you want.

"Yes, I will clean the garage."

"I have no problem with asparagus, I love the stuff!"

Now getting the prize out, was the challenge. You had some cereal makers who would put the toy outside of the bag and some who (for whatever reason loved to torture children) put it all the way at the bottom of the bag.

Indiana Jones had nothing on me when it came to digging for this treasure. The key was to shake the box to the side and slide your hand down, as not to disturb the cereal itself.

Although, now thinking about it. Would it not have been better to just open the bag from the other end?

It's possible.

Some people ignore this method and go straight to the "pour it all out into a giant bowl" routine. This proved hard for getting the cereal back into the bag and into the box. 

Once the jewel was secured, who cared about the cereal. Who has ever finished a whole box of Kix? We only want the goodies.

Somewhere  along the line the big cereal companies made the choice to cut back on the prizes, or leave them out all together. Opting for the "just send 3 proofs of purchase and $4.95 shipping and handling" route to distribute Saturday morning relics.

Everynow and then, you do see a box with a freebie inside.

Sometimes it's a spoon.

A figurine.

A matchbox car of some sorts.

Most of the time the only thing in the box is a coupon.

Another sad part of my childhood extinct.