Eat your C3PO's: Fave fad cereals of the '80s
If you were a child of the '80s, like today's guest blogger Jeff Fisher of Raleigh, N.C., Saturday morning was not complete without cartoons and breakfast cereals. Jeff took time out from blow-torching the Crunchberries out of his back molars to provide his list of favorite fad cereals of the '80s and their commercials:
PAC-MAN CEREAL (1983): You can do the Pac-Man! Gobble them up good, or they might gobble you. [Watch commercial]
SMURFBERRY CRUNCH CEREAL (1982): I’m not sure Peyo was intending his beloved cartoons to be pimping a breakfast cereal. Hands down, the best song of all the fad cereal commercials. [Watch commercial]
RAINBOW BRITE CEREAL (1985): This was a pretty tasty cereal. It even made your milk fruity. Glad this cartoon has never been resurrected! [Watch commercial]
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES CEREAL (late '80s): Cowabunga! Forget the pizza, I need me some TMNT cereal to help me fight Shredder and the Foot Clan! [Watch commercial] GHOSTBUSTERS CEREAL (1986): What you gonna crunch? Not this cereal if you’re smart! [Watch commercial]
NINTENDO CEREAL SYSTEM (1988): Not one, but two crappy cereals in this box. The cereal and the name were not nearly as bad as the commercial. [Watch commercial]
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE CEREAL (1983): Was this ever a “berry” part of your nutritious breakfast? [Watch commercial]
C-3PO'S CEREAL (1984): Yes! The Force was strong with you when you ate this cereal. And don’t forget about the R2-D2 mask you could cut out on the back of the box. [Watch commercial]
TEDDY GRAHAMS BREAKFAST BEARS CEREAL (late '80s): The worst song and commercial I could find! This cereal must have lasted about two weeks in the store. [Watch commercial]
BATMAN CEREAL (1989): Aren’t you glad Batman took a break from putting criminals in the Arkham Asylum to deliver his breakfast cereal to us? [Watch commercial]
What other fad cereals do you remember?
Relive the music, movies and culture of the greatest decade ever with Times online editor Steve Spears. A teen during the decade, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to Reaganomics.
E-mail Steve Spears:
Have to 'fess up: I don't remember ANY of these cereals! Then again, I was a teenager in the 80's (graduated HS in '82) so there's not much AT ALL that I remember from that decade (do remember having a whole lot of fun, though, doing stuff I can't mention here ;-)
Posted by: M | May 29, 2009 at 02:46 PM
No love for Gremlins cereal? Also, I miss the foil bags from the Cap'n Crunch cereal.
Posted by: Duck 182 | May 29, 2009 at 02:32 AM
Yeah Mr. T. cereal! I believe there was also a Donkey Kong cereal that I ate.
You can just about google any fad you were into in the 80s and their was a cereal for it.
Fad cereals don't stop today either. We recently bought some discounted High School Musical 3 cereal at our grocery store. Pretty good, too!
Posted by: Jeff Fisher in Raleigh | May 28, 2009 at 08:18 AM
I never had a chance to eat any of these, my mommy wouldn't buy any no matter how much I begged.
Posted by: DerekT | May 28, 2009 at 07:27 AM
What about Mr. T cereal? Made famous in Pee Wee's Big Adventure.
Posted by: Jordi | May 27, 2009 at 11:20 PM
So, what exactly is the difference between the Teddy Grahams cereal and Teddy Grahams themselves? The cereal looks like exactly the same thing, just in a bowl with milk.
Posted by: Andrea | May 27, 2009 at 10:13 PM
PS: I'll bet Huey Lewis was willing to let Ray Parker Jr. slide for stealing the Ghostbusters theme until he heard the cereal jingle.
Posted by: Clark | May 27, 2009 at 07:57 PM
From the pictures on the box, it looks like C-3POs and Ghostbusters are the same cereal, just different colors. Is there a massive storage silo somewhere in Battle Creek where they store all the novelty cereal and then just run it through a food dye sprayer when it's time to change trends?
Posted by: Clark | May 27, 2009 at 07:54 PM
i'm with the dr.,i've never eaten any of those fad cereals. i've never been a fad kinda guy, just give me honeycombs, fruit loops, and frosted flakes and i'm happy.
Posted by: CHAD | May 27, 2009 at 07:31 PM
My fave was Freakies
Boss Moss ruled!
Posted by: Jermo | May 27, 2009 at 06:28 PM
My favorite cereal was Kaboom!!! When I moved to Florida in 1985, you could only find it in Kash n Karry.
Posted by: Spiky Sandy | May 27, 2009 at 04:13 PM
Oh Hell yeah!
I ate C-3P0's
I even had a pair of C-3P0 shoes.
Posted by: Crockett | May 27, 2009 at 04:12 PM
I was a big fan of the rainbow brite cereal. It may have just been because the show. What else would you expect from a five year old...
Posted by: userblue | May 27, 2009 at 04:09 PM
I don't know how it is possible, but I have never eaten ANY of those fad breakfast cereals. Go figure.
Posted by: Dr. Dim | May 27, 2009 at 03:58 PM