Tag Archives: monster cereals

Spooned & Spotted: Monster Cereal Mask Boxes!

CSH1ZlTWsAE7YSNNo time for a cheesy opening line: the monster cereal mask boxes are here! I can’t possibly mask my excitement!

Okay, I guess there was time for just one.

While the rest of us have been on a scary scavenger hunt (scare-venger hunt?) for the past two months, looking for the promised Walmart-exclusive, glow-in-the-dark masks on boxes of Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, General Mills very sneakily decided to put them on the backs of non-monster cereals!

Stunned by this news, I quickly learned that GM have even updated their earlier blog post with this picture confirmation.12074975_895208750557697_5210404237571895701_n

That’s right, this is a trick and a treat all wrapped up in one. But we can forgive them, because Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy actually get to join in on the fun! As the picture above shows, in order to collect every monster’s detached cardboard visage, you’ll have to buy a family-sized version of 5 different General Mills cereals at Walmart. Frute Brute graces Cookie Crisp (an intentional reference to Chip the Wolf?), Yummy Mummy is on Lucky Charms, Count Chocula is on Cocoa Puffs (which tastes a lot like the Count’s cereal), Boo Berry is on Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Franken Berry is on Reese’s Puffs.12087087_955813281149302_7153979240774261524_o copy

In short: worth it. So worth it!

These are actually different than the Chocula and Boo masks released in Canada that we mentioned earlier, so if you want every single monster box from this season, you’re looking at a lofty 13 boxes! What an appropriate number.

Many thanks (more than 13 thanks) to Matt from Dinosaur Dracula, The Monster Cereals Army, and Mike H. for providing the photos! It’s this kind of wild goose ghost chase that makes the season feel so much more exciting and adventurous. If you’d like to see your picture or thoughts featured on a “Spooned & Spotted” post, click yourself right on over to our submissions page, or just email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

Spooned & Spotted: Monster Cereal Mania!

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A gorgeous sight, isn’t it?

As the season of spooks is only just over a week away from its triumphant climax, our much-beloved monster cereals have left their marshmallowy mark in stores everywhere.

Judging by this photo from Spooned & Spotted regular Marc P., which he captioned “Ahhh. Heaven finally,” most people should have no trouble finding Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry this time around. But as the 31st approaches, this is a friendly reminder to stock up while you can.

I’m hoping to have enough to last me at least through Groundhog Day…2017.

But despite this, it seems no one has been able to find the cut-out mask boxes that are reportedly Walmart exclusives. Mask boxes have been seen in Canada, but nothing in the U.S. as of yet. If you have seen these mythical masks, please let us know via the comments or our submission page! You could’ve stumbled on a real cereal unicorn!

In other monster cereal news, General Mills just released an entire podcast about them! From interviews with the box designers to a guest appearance by the voice of Count Chocula himself, the podcast even features recorded responses from monster cereal fans who called into General Mills’ hotline to profess their love.

You can check that podcast out here. Need one more good reason to listen?

Yours truly makes an appearance as one of those aforementioned fans!

Thanks again to Marc for the photo! If you’d like to see your picture or thoughts featured on a “Spooned & Spotted” post, click yourself right on over to our submissions page, or just email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

Review: Count Chocula Treats Cereal Bars

IMG_3995Have you ever thought, “Gee, I love Count Chocula, but eating a bowl of it with milk in the middle of rush hour traffic sure is a hassle! I wish it were considerably more…rectangular!”

Well then it’s time to trick-or-treat yourself, because Count Chocula Treats have returned to save your morning commute from milk spills caused by unexpected brake-slamming.

Earlier this month, I mistakenly predicted that Count Chocula Treats would be a Canadian exclusive this season. While my neighbors to the north may still be the only ones getting Treats with orange chocolate, the cereal bars have finally made their way to American shelves.

What took you so long, Count? I guess when you’re an ageless, blood-sucking entity, you tend to lose track of time. Continue reading

Review: Franken Berry Cereal (2015)

IMG_3914Tired of Count Chocula stealing the spotlight with his toothy grin, Franken Berry shoves the cloaked, cocoa narcissist aside. 

“That’s the last straw,” he bellows. “It’s time for strawberries to run this show!”

I hope you’re getting berry excited for Halloween, because now that the wonderful month of October is finally in full swing (speaking of which: just look at all the glorious fake skeletons swinging in the breeze!), it’s time to crack open another box of General Mills’ monster cereals, which are back with a bloodthirsty milkthirsty vengeance for the 2015 season. Continue reading

Special: Spooned & Spotted — Count Chocula Treats

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(Edit 10/17: I was wrong! The bars have finally made their way to U.S. shelves, just without orange chocolate. You can read my review by clicking here!)

See those little undead hands making the “👌” emoji?

Well that was the first thing I did upon seeing this image from user Danse Macabre (thanks!). In my earlier review of Franken Berry and Boo Berry Fruit Roll-Ups, I noted how Count Chocula treats—which have been a mainstay on grocery store shelves for several Halloween seasons—seemed to be M.I.A. for 2015.

But fear not, monster cereal fans (or maybe do fear, because they are, you know, monsters), the snack sized cereal bars are alive! The treats combine chocolate cereal pieces, chocolate chips, and marshmallows with a sweet and gooey sugar binding agent to hold them together into a singular mass.

This just makes me think. If I were to bite the end of a Count Chocula Treat into a point, would I be able to pound it through a vampire’s heart like a stake? What an ironic death that would be.

Interestingly, the icing and milky bottom on these bars appears to be an eerie orange this time around, whereas previous editions simply had the Count’s signature brown.

However, there is a catch. At the moment, these bars might be a Canada exclusive! Danse Macabre spotted them at a local Ontario superstore, and other reports have seen them popping up all over the country. Will the Count’s bar-shaped cereal expansion packs reach the U.S. this season?  I think it’s only a matter of time. After all, it’s like the wise Dwight Schrute once said:

“If a vampire-bat was in the U.S. It would make sense for it to come to a ‘sylvania.’ Like Pennsylvania.

If you’d like to see your picture or thoughts featured on a “Spooned & Spotted” post, click yourself right on over to our submissions page, or just email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

Special: Building the Monster Cereal Castle!

IMG_3909As October is less than a week away, it’s prime time for Halloween junkies to start turning their humble offices, kitchens, living rooms, bathrooms, and heck, even doghouses into pumpkin-scented, fog spewing shrines celebrating all things orange, black, and blood red.

And for those who are unsure on where to start, then Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry have the perfect starter kit for you. See, while the common versions of those cereals produced for mass sale have futuristic augmented reality compatibility, the Target exclusive boxes spurn those pesky Millennials and their new-fangled “apps” in favor of something a bit more charmingly old school.

See, by combining the three boxes like a sugar-coated Triforce, you can build Count, Frank, and Boo’s sleek bachelor pad…err, I mean “spooky castle.” But I won’t waste more time with introductions.

Let’s grab some scissors! Continue reading

Review: Frute Brute Cereal (2013)

IMG_3869I’ve been waiting for this moment for 2 years.

Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, “my soul has been waiting for this moment for over 40 years.”

Since Fall has officially begun, I felt it was time to do something big to ring in the Halloween season. And by “ring,” I don’t mean “put 5 plastic spider rings on every finger and pretend to be the world’s lamest horror movie villain.” No, I’m going to eat a box of Frute Brute that I saved from 2013’s revival of the werewolf monster cereal that originally debuted in 1974. Continue reading

Review: Franken Berry and Boo Berry Fruit Roll-Ups

IMG_3857I remember a simpler time. A time we call…elementary school.

Back in those days of yore, the lunchroom took upon its own savage ecosystem, with rivaling table kingdoms each simultaneously isolated in their rituals and customs but also warring and bartering with neighbors. Within each kingdom was a long-developed economy of trade, in which treats brought from home carried value that could only be priced in terms of other foods. And like a real economy, these values were ever-fluctuating.

But there was one processed snack that never deviated in its worthiness as edible currency: Fruit Roll-Ups.

While a plastic baggie of half-crumbled cookies may have been worth 3 pre-packaged fruit cups one day and nothing but stale graham crackers the next (after the crash of the unpredictable schoolyard stock market on Oreos, most likely), Fruit Roll-Ups were the gold standard. They never failed to attract the attention of brown paper bag-toting snack brokers everywhere.

And now? They’re going Halloween! Continue reading