(UPDATE: Read my review of Monster Mash Cereal!)
And on this day, Mother’s Day 2021, General Mills delivered something beautiful into this world.
Well, sort of. It’s complicated.
First off, we’ve known about the above Monster Mash Cereal—which brings all five iconic Halloween cereal mascots together—for some time now, but it was always shown with placeholder box art featuring Monster renders taken from collectible pins. This raised alarm bells among skeptics, but now thanks to Cerealously reader Mikey H. (seriously: thank you!), we can put all doubts about Monster Mash cereal to a peaceful rest.
See, the stuff is now listed on Instacart, and in addition to featuring this clearly more-finalized box art, this listing gives us a few more hints about the broader Monster Cereal 50th anniversary that prompted this gift of a quintuple feature.
“…the world’s most monster group is back together for a limited-edition cereal, and to record their own version of the greatest monster anthem of all time.”
There’s also a mention of MonsterMashCereal.com, where you can listen to the Monsters cover the actual Monster Mash classic, but the site isn’t live just yet, so you’d better develop some werewolf’s paw-thick finger callouses and start pressing CTRL+R between now and late summer, which is when each year’s Monster Cereals typically get formal announcements.
However, I think the most fun thing to speculate for now is just what this cereal will look like in a bowl. Besides the claim that marshmallow shapes and colors may vary, the lineup at the box’s top suggests a very marbit-heavy cereal with just two ghost pieces. These two appear to be Boo Berry and Franken Berry pieces, with the other Monsters represented by respective marbits.
I’m torn on this: on one hand, it’s smart to leave Chocula ghosts out of the mix, since every other Monster Cereal is fruit forward. But at the same time, I really hope the marbits have unique flavors, otherwise this is just another generic berry cereal with Brute and Mummy painted on for nostalgia value.
Guess there’s nothing left to do but wait and find out. If you need me, I’ll be in a sensory deprivation mausoleum to prime my autumnal appetite.
Looks like we won’t be getting this at all. Several listings have gone up as of yesterday (August being when they said the Monster Mash cereal would drop) featuring all 3 mainstay monster cereals separately bagged but in a single box. Either they’ve pulled a bait and switch or they’re releasing two new formats for Hallowe’en this year, which I doubt.
So it looks like regardless of whether it’s oat or corn based, it’s not even going to happen now.
Can be seen here: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/j1kAAOSwS8dhB04X/s-l1600.jpg
I actually just purchased some, so it is definitely happening.
They already have the cereal and fruit snacks in Sam’s Club here in Tampa and my friend ordered from Walmart online in Ocala. So it’s happening. It’s trickling out but main release is Aug 21st
Shrug. Corned again by General Mills. This will be year three of abstaining from Monster cereals
I’ve taken to eating chocolate Eggo cereal and adding generic marbits. It’s the closest thing I will ever eat again to old Count Chocula. And it is AMAZING. The cereal gets the milk chocolatey enough to cover for the fact the marbits aren’t themselves chocolate flavor. The cereal pieces themselves, at least shape-wise, are almost a dead ringer.
Eric B. above makes a great point, I think Post would be perfectly capable of making a knock off of the monsters that is vastly better.
I hate to say this because I adore the box art and am happy that General Mills is doing something special for the anniversary, but I think we’re all going to be disappointed with this.
Obviously there’s the fact that it’s still got the corn base that makes all the monster cereals taste like faintly-flavored packing material. But it’s also not a “mash” of all the cereals and their respective flavors like people thought. It appears to just be a new cereal with a generic berry flavor and marbits that don’t even seem to represent Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute (they’re both…Frankenberry heads?).
As a concept and a fun nod to monster cereal history it’s great, but it likely won’t be a great *cereal*. Seems kind of a wasted opportunity, no?
Oh, I think you’re 100% right. I’ve had to build a hardened exoskeleton of low expectations when it comes to Monster Cereals. I’m only in it for the culture and aesthetics at this point.
but will they be oat-based, or will it be another frightening halloween season?
Confirmed to be corn-based :c
Haha. I’m never sure what it takes for General Mills to listen to its customers these days. It’s like pulling teeth with them. There are literally probably hundreds, if not, thousands of people that have posted on their public blog asking for them to switch back to the old oat formula cereal pieces and they never listen. And lots of people asked for them to bring back Yummy Mummy and Frute Brute after the 2013 re-release. At least we’re getting this. Wondering if they’ll also bring back Yummy Mummy and Frute Brute individually as well this coming Fall season. I won’t hold breathe though on that one. Would be nice to get a new monster and flavor cereal as well after all of these years. Maybe a witch or bride of Frankenberry character of sorts.
I’m a little surprised that, as far as I can find, you haven’t reviewed any of the Milk Bar items — from their cereal milk ice cream to their cereal based cookies and cakes, I figured that would be right up your alley.
I’ve never actually tried any of the monster cereals, but I might pick some up this year because of you.
Loving the Empty Bowl, I really appreciate your passion for cereal. Thanks for doing this!
Previous replies to this post must be from children that weren’t alive in the 20th century to know the majesty of the original oat-based incarnations of the Monster Cereals. The cereal pieces on this box art appear to be the same corn-based abominations that have blighted the Monster Cereals this entire century! This does not bode well for us EVER getting oat-based Monster Cereals back again.
🙄
Does General Mills even truly understand the cereal enthusiast community?!
🤬🥣🥛
Nah, I remember the oat-based formula from when I was a kid in the 80’s and 90’s. I think for me and probably others posting on this page, it’s more about the novelty of the Monster cereals at this point than anything else. It seems pretty apparent that they’ll never bring back the old oat formula ever again. Between poor cereal sales for the last 2 decades, and thousands of people directly contacting General Mills about how they hate the corn-based version, it seems like General Mills just doesn’t care about the consumer’s preference at all. You’d think they’d get the message by now.
I’ve usually done my part as a consumer for the last 10+ years, notwithstanding the re-releases of Mummy and Brute of 2013, to avoid buying the monster cereals every year they’re brought back into the stores for the Fall season to help send a message that I have no interest in the current version of the monster cereals. I mean even when I bought the re-release of Mummy and Brute back in 2013, I wasn’t blown away by either of them at all. There’s barely any flavor/taste to the cereal pieces and even the marbits aren’t as flavorful as they used to be in the older versions.
Generic Mills is all about mass producing cheap, bland, corn based abominations. It’s the 50th anniversary of the Monster Cereals, made once a year & they still are too tight to make this cereal like it was intended. I’ll never buy these inferior products again if they can’t find the budget to give the fans what they want.
Looks like Christmas comes early this year, in the spirit of Halloween. This is indeed great news for the cold cereal community.
Yeah, this is amazing. I figured the only way we’d get a five monster cereal would be if Post made it as a thumb to the nose at General Mills