General Mills Retro Cereal Design Review & Giveaway

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I grew up eating General Mills Cereals, including Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, and Trix.  I was excited to see the new “Retro” designs on selected varieties of General Mills Cereals.  When I opened the package, I had an immediately flashback to my childhood as I checked out the “Retro” designs.  I loved them, as I’m sure many adults my age will!

Can you tell the difference between the “Retro” design and the newer designs?

(1) Retro – Honey Pot / Current – Honey Wand
(2) General Mills logo
(3) Honey bees outfit
(4) Cereal bowl
(5) Honey bee’s antennas
(6) Honey bee’s wings

 (1) General Mills logo
(2) Cereal bowl
(3) Box background (O’s versus plain yellow)
(4) Number of O’s dotting the i in Cheerios
(5) Heart (for “heart healthy”)

(1) General Mills logo
(2) Cereal bowl
(3) Lucky’s scarf
(4) Toadstool and flowers
(5) Lucky’s rosy cheeks are gone
(6) Hair color from brown to red
(7) Rainbow swirl around “Lucky Charms”

(1) General Mills logo
(2) Letter colors
(3) “toast” logo gone on new package
(4) “new” mascot on new package
(5) New background swirls (not lines)

(1) General Mills logo
(2) Rabbit’s nose from gray to pink
(3) Trix writing has yellow, new shade of green
(4) Rabbit’s eyes/eyebrows

These “Retro” packages will be available at Target stores nationwide from February 14th through March 7th.  Target stores will carry five limited-edition General Mills cereal boxes featuring fun “Retro” package designs and premium offers from the 60s and 80s.

We were very happy to work with you last October on our Mr. Men and Big G cereals promotion.  We hope you enjoyed it, as did your readers. We wanted to reach out again and share with you another special promotion General Mills is running for a limited time and would love to preview it with you before it goes live. 
 
MY THOUGHTS

I loved the “Retro” package designs.  It was definitely fun for me and brought back many childhood memories with General Mills Cereals.  The cereals are still great and my kids can enjoy the look of the packages I did growing up.

GIVEAWAY

5 lucky readers will win special prize packages

– 1 of the 5 will win a Grand Prize Package will win an Atari Game Console, as well as 5 “Retro” Designed Packages of Cereal, a Retro-designed T-Shirt, and a $10 Target gift card!!
-4 of the 5 will win a package including the 5 “Retro” Designed Packages of Cereal, a Retro-designed T-Shirt, and a $10 Target gift card.

 WIN IT

Tell me in a comment a special memory you have of a favorite cereal promotion or a special prize you won from a promotion.  Do you still have the prize?

EXTRA ENTRIES:

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RULES:

– Contest will close at 11:59 p.m. PST on Thursday, February 25th, 2010! Any entries after this time will be deleted!
– Contest open to U.S. residents only.

I received a package including cereal and a retro-designed t-shirt from General Mills to facilitate this review.  All opinions expressed in this post are 100% mine.

542 thoughts on “General Mills Retro Cereal Design Review & Giveaway”

  1. littlepurpleroom

    I am a bit weirded out by admitting this but, I actually cut out the record off the back of the Honeycomb box back in the late sixties and played it. The song ? “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies.

    I also went in search of the “Specially marked box” of Freakies back in the early 70’s that had the “Freakmobile” inside. I was a little Freak and rather proud of it. Still am.

    However, Quisp was my favorite cereal for quite awhile. I always felt a special connection with the E.T on the front of the box.

    Reply
  3. Sharon

    Wow–those vintage boxes do bring back the memories!! One of my favorites was when Mary Lou Retton was on the Wheaties box. I loved watching her in the Olympics and remember eating my bowl of cereal and looking at her picture on the front–wishing I could do gymnastics like she did!!

    Reply
  18. Teresa

    I don’t remember really winning anything, just choosing the cereal that had a guaranteed prize inside, lol and no I don’t have any of them
    mstlee2000 @ hotmail.com

    Reply
  23. Rachel DeMille

    I don’t remember what cereal it was, but I got some kind of foreign coin…I think I still have it somewhere….it was special to me, now I wonder what the promotion really was all about it! Back then I just cared that I got money (I think I was 4, so that was my first money…I didn’t care if I couldn’t spend it)!

    Reply

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  64. Nadine L

    My favorite prize was a set of paints in Frankenberry. It was actually a cardboard paper with paints on it, it came with a paper coloring book page of frankenberry, Count Chocula or Boo Berry. I don’t still have it, I painted those pictures right away.
    iheartsweeping@aol.com

    Reply
  69. Timbo

    I was one of the only kids on my block that actually received a decoder ring from a box of Cracker Jack’s. While not strictly cereal, one of my fondest memories was receiving that from a box of Cracker Jacks 😀

    Reply
  80. SANDY

    haha with the first one- I remember the records too, but I think my favorite were the cars they had with the characters when the kids were young- yep still have a few somewhere

    Reply
  90. Steph

    I never was able to get the prizes growing up, I had a sister and brother who always got to them first. I remember what a treat it was having sugar cereal at my grandparents house since my parents wouldn’t let us have it at home. Loved Lucky Charms.

    Reply
  98. Eileen Burke

    I don’t remember what cereal it was, but one of them was giving away wonder woman rings in their box when I was a kid and I was so thrilled to get one!!!

    Reply
  105. Jill L

    Don’t have any special memories of any of the prizes or toys. I do remember loving sitting there reading the back of the boxes.

    Reply
  108. Patricia

    I do remember getting a decoder ring and I was disappointed in it. I think it might have been for chocolate milk. I cant remember.

    Reply
  113. addrienne mertens

    i dont recall any promotions…i do remember Cookie Crisp way back in 1980 was my favorite then, hard to believe its still being sold.

    Reply
  114. Kelly

    I remember sometime in the mid-80’s, Trix was giving away a Trix rabbit stuffed animal if you sent in a certain number of UPC codes and some money. I wanted that rabbit like you would not believe, but my parents wouldn’t buy Trix! For whatever reason, they didn’t see the logic in buying boxes just to cut off the UPC code and throwing away the cereal. 😉 LOL.

    Reply
  115. Jessica

    I cant really recall but I remember there used to be a cereal something about treasure boxes that had fruit flavors inside….I loved it and then they stopped making it!

    Reply
  117. Shelley Johnson

    I can’t remember a specific prize but I remember the excitement about finding those prizes. It really made my mornings!! They should really put some fun things in adult cereals 🙂

    Reply
  118. Jennifer Short

    When I was litte Honeycomb cereal had mini state licence plates in their cereal. I saved enough boxtops to send for all 50 and loved them. Unfortunately I don’t have them, they got thrown out years ago. I should check ebay to see if anyone has that for sale, I’d love a set!

    Reply
  120. Deb

    I remember puting cheerios on a string and hanging it in a tree for the birds to eat. It didn’t work so well on rainy days. 🙂

    Reply
  145. michele

    Than kyou for the giveaway. I remember the little toy prizes inside of the boxes. While, I don’t remember the prizes, I do remember that we would bicker over who would get them, lol.

    Reply
  149. Snowflake07 (Audra)

    My Mom would never let me send off for prizes. I do remember choosing cereals based on what toy was in the box. I suppose we all did that. 🙂
    Just last year I actually saved codes for a cereal promotion to get my s-son a Guitar Hero t-shirt. He thought I was pretty awesome for getting it for him, since it wasn’t something you could go out and buy. He still wears the shirt a lot.

    Reply
  156. Karen Pochodowicz

    I honestly don’t remember much in the way of cereal prizes. I seem to recall that I mostly ended up with hot wheels type cars in them.

    Reply
  160. Cheryl

    I don’t remember any special prizes in the cereal, but I do remember fighting over them with my brother! My mom used to have to keep track of who got the prize in the last box to keep it fair.

    Reply
  163. deb c

    I don’t have any memories of cereal promotions or prizes, my mom always bought healthy puffed rice or shredded wheat and they didn’t put prizes in those.
    thank for the chance.

    Reply
  164. Marcia Goss

    I remember getting Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars in boxes of cereal. My son and my husband would argue over who got the car!

    Reply
  174. denise

    I do not think I can remember any one in particular. I used to try to get my mother to buy them because of the toys in them, but she would not. Recently, my kids have loved the books in the Cheerios promotion.

    denise_22315 at yahoo dot com

    Reply
  182. Deborah Wellenstein

    My only memories of cereal promotions are digging for the prize in the box, and getting cereal all over the floor! No, I don’t have any of the prizes any more-too bad, some are fetching a pretty tidy sum on ebay! Thanks!

    Reply
  183. Kristin Harris

    I really don’t remember the prizes from cereal boxes. I was more into the cereal than anything else. I preferred the prizes from happy meals.

    Reply
  186. Theresa

    My favorite prize was always the baking soda powered submarines. I don’t have one, but if I did I would take it for a spin in the kitchen sink!

    Reply
  201. Lucy Schwartz

    What’s with the retro PR trend? Old is old! And my mommy didn’t let me eat packaged cereal at least the sugar kind.. So get nostalgic on that. I’m not bitter am I? And the $10. Target card is my goal.

    Reply
  202. Jacob

    My favorite promotion was for free movie tickets to select theaters. Movies can be so expensive so I really enjoyed that!!

    Reply
  212. Rosanne

    I got a calculator once from a Captain Crunch promotion that I had over 10 years and just got rid of recently as it stopped working

    Reply
  225. The Gosfam

    I do remember getting some fun prizes as a kid, but I can’t remember which cereals. I love eating cereal and always have. One of my fave cereals was Honey Nut Cheerios–I always loved the Bee. Prizes weren’t important to me.

    Reply
  235. Ellen Ring

    When I was growing up my mom fixed us breakfast every morning. We never had cold cereal & the few times we did have a cereal it was either oatmeal or cream of Wheat. So I never got any prizes.

    Reply
  239. Sarah Hirsch

    I don’t remember any cereal prizes from when I was a kid, but I did order my daughter a Barbie watch by sending in cereal box UPCs.

    Reply
  247. Jennifer M

    I remember the endless dig for prizes, but I don’t remember many of the actual prizes! A couple of little game/activity books that I liked…

    Reply
  253. Wendy M

    I remember getting iron on decals that my mom ironed on the top of a sheet. I loved when those sheets were on my bed.
    wmmahaney(at)att(dot)net

    Reply
  256. Cynthia R

    I don’t remember any particular cereal box giveaway, pretty sad huh. Mostly got small stuff like stickers, small plastic figurines either from the latest movie or from the cereal box character itself.

    Reply
  262. Stephanie Coldwell

    I never entered any cereal promotions. I always wanted to but I was either told no or it took alot to get the prize lol But when I have kids I’ll let them so they can have those memories! 🙂 Thanks!!

    Reply
  270. Paula Hafner

    I don’t remember the cereal but I do remember the prize. It was a little terrarium. It was the 70’s so they were popular. It was clear plastic and it came with seed and a sponge. You wet the sponge, sprinkled on the seeds and put it in the window to grow. I had several of them. When the plant would die my Mom would give me bird seeds to grow. I loved those things 🙂

    Reply
  294. Ani

    I am not that old, but I can’t remember specifics that far. I remember eating lots of Honey Nut Cheerios and vague memories of digging for stuff in the cereal boxes, but I can’t think of what we got out of there. I must have been too in to my food!

    Reply
  310. Rachel C

    Does anybody remember King Vitamin cereal? They used to have masks on the back that you could cut out and my siblings and I used to fight over them. Fun times…

    Reply
  319. Tari Lawson

    Honestly, I don’t remember any specific prizes. I do remember sticking our arms all the way down in the box searching for the prize. Once the prize was found, it would be nearly impossible to get the box to close again :).

    Reply
  320. tree

    i remember always trying to draw Tony the Tiger from (frosted flakes) i think they had a contest for the best drawing. i never won, but i remember drawing it many times always wanting to win. i don’t remember what the prize was. 🙂 Thanks for the chance!

    enchantedtree(At)hotmail.com

    Reply
  334. Leah Juarez

    Oh my gosh, I hadn’t even remembered this memory until this giveaway! Lol…When I was maybe 7 or 8 my siblings and I got a little container of “goop” or “gak” – whatever you call it, in a box of cereal. My mother was so angry with us, we got it everywhere! The carpet the bed sheets…If that stuff ever comes out again in cereal boxes or whatever, you better believe that stuff is going to be hidden from my kids! hehe…

    Reply
  335. mike s.

    My mom alwasy made us eat generics when I was a kid so it wasn’t until I went away to college when I could buy my own ‘name brand’ (aka delicious) cereals. Hence, no memory of cereal prizes as a kid. Recently, however, I did pick up a Star Trek USB wrist band from a movie tie-in promo from a cereal box. I now wear it every day and keep some photos and music and stuff on it… and a resume… just in case.

    Reply
  336. Debra F

    Oh gee, that was so long ago…I don’t remember the exact prizes, but my husband and I were just talking about this with the kids because they just got a box of cereal that actually had a toy car in the box and we were reminiscing when almost every cereal came with a prize and we had to take turns with our siblings.

    I do remember the Honey Combs commercials really well because they measured the cereal to be 1 inch.

    Reply
  340. Carla

    I loved getting free stuff in the packages like cereal bowls with Teenage Mutant Ninja Cereal and flashlights with The Addams Family cereal. I still have some of the stuff somewhere around the house…

    Reply
  347. Jeremy

    Sometime around 1982 Kix had a promotion for a soccer ball clock if you sent in some UPC codes and some money for shipping and handling. I saved up for the money and sent in the UPC codes and money, but I never got the clock.

    Reply
  350. Jason

    I saved for a long time to get a X-men comic that was offered by collecting the UPCs off of the boxes and shipping and handling. I still have it

    jason(at)allworldautomotive(dot)com

    Reply
  355. scarlette

    I love that there used to be cool bigger prizes when I was younger in the box. Now it just seems like little plastic crap

    Reply
  356. Holly Walker

    I remember when my 18 yr. old was a toddler, Trix had a promotion for a bowl that changes color when you put milk in it and a spoon shaped like the Trix Rabbit. I sent for it and it was his favorite bowl and spoon. 15 yrs. later, I still have that bowl and spoon….is that considered retro, he he!

    Reply
  362. Barbara

    I remember choosing certain cereals just because they had a prize in the box, but I sure don’t remember what any of them were. I remember the dumb stickers and stuff in cracker jack boxes, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. LOL

    Reply
  364. damon

    When I was just a kid I won a coloring contest a a local food store. I don’t have the prize, but I bet my Mom has the piucture SOMEWHERE.

    Reply
  365. denyse

    I can’t think of anything I won in a promotion A LONG TIME AGAO, or a ceral promotion- my memorey is aweful. But I still want to enter…..(PLEASE)

    Reply
  370. Julie Moe

    I don’t remember the exact prizes, but I do remember searching through all of my boxes of Lucky charms to search for them!

    Reply
  374. livingbytheloa

    I don’t remember a specific promotion, but I remember living for grocery shopping day when I was at my great grandmother’s because she would always let me pick the cereal (usually Trix!) and help me dig through the boxes to try to find the prizes or mail off entries to win. It’s one of my favorite childhood memories.

    Reply
  378. susitravl

    I had a fun collection of Cereal Box prizes for a long time, but lost them during a move several years ago. It was a fight to end up with the prizes when you have 3 siblings!

    Reply
  383. Renee G

    I can remember when the cereal boxes had cute little cars in them. (similar to a hot wheels car, or maybe it was a hot wheels car).
    rsgrandinetti@yahoo(dot)com

    Reply
  398. Darcy B

    My most memorable prize–it wasn’t a General Mills cereal–I was about 3 and I got up early so i could have the prize out of a new box of cereal–I was sitting on the floor with my whole arm in the box and my om walked in just as I found the prize and pulled it out of the box—my Mom was screaming at the top of her lungs –because I was holding a huge potato bug—-It was not a prize .

    I think my favorite prize was a spinning top from lucky charms that had a cord you pulled and it was very cool.

    Reply
  403. Amity JohnsonVetere

    I have entered many and won none! I hope this to be a winning memory! Fav. win, non food related would be the Uggs I recently won for my daughter-she finally fits in shoe wise at school 🙂
    no19034770 AT YAHOO DOT COM

    Reply
  410. Sheila Hickmon

    I remember getting Mickey and Minnie mouse little stuffed animals from Golden Grahams (I believe). I collected them like crazy, and I still have them somewhere in my attic!
    Thanks!

    Reply
  416. Pauline M

    I don’t remember any specific prizes from cereal growing up, however, I do fondly remember fighting my brothers to get them first!

    Reply
  419. Leslie S.

    I honestly do not remember any promotions.I remember fighting with my brothers over the prize in the cereal boxes.My favorite prize from a box of cereal was a coloring changing spoon.Thanks!

    Reply
  422. Becky

    ummm errrr…a special prize?? No but I remember whenever we got cereal..I think we picked them for the prizes first and we would stick our hands in them and fish until we got the ‘prize’…shoot I still buy Cracker Jacks for that reason..hahaha

    Reply
  423. barbara wright

    Oh wow – my memory is awful. I know that many years ago, we were collecting labels from Honeycomb cereal for something, but I can’t remember what it was. I’m sure we don’t have the THING anymore, but we DO still have unopened, way expired boxes of Honeycomb cereal – LOL

    Reply
  429. Amanda S.

    Honestly, I have no memories of any promotions because my mom wouldn’t buy boxed cereal for me! She was all about oatmeal, lol. So, I really deserve this, right? 😉

    Reply
  438. Dave

    My favorite cereal from childhood I remember was called Moonstones, and they had prizes inside the box of little plastic Moon Buggies that wound up with a rubber band. I used to eat the cereal so often that I had quite a fleet of moon buggies. I’m pretty sure I still have them packed away with other boxes of childhood memorabilia. Thank you for the fun give-away.

    Reply
  439. Brittany

    I don’t remember any specific prize when I was a kid but there were 5 of us and I remember fighting over it, no matter what it was.

    Reply
  447. Valeen N

    I remember Quisp cereal with the little alien guy! I loved that cereal. I don’t really remember a prize from a cereal box. There were several brothers and sisters and only one cereal box so lots of strategy would go into play about who would pour the bowl of cereal that contained the prize. Mom wouldn’t let us dig around in the cereal!

    Reply
  458. Justine

    When my kids were young they were into collecting Weebles that were available in the cereals…they were Disney and we tried to get each one we wanted! They do still have these 😀

    Reply
  465. Melanie

    I don’t remember a prize, but I used to love the Cinnamon toast commercials, where they would disprove a scientist, by showing the all the cinnamon on the cereal.

    Reply
  466. Maria Delgado

    Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter cereal had this little wheel that had suction cups on it. I’d throw it all over the place and loved it because it would stick!! As a kid I’d adhear it to my glasses. Yeah, I was a geek.

    No, I don’t still have it.

    🙂

    Reply
  497. Barbara Long

    When I was little I was able to send away for blue shoelaces from a cereal box but I can’t remember the name of the cereal anymore as it hasn’t been made since the 1970’s. I remember being really excited getting them in the mail and replacing my tennis shoe laces as soon as they arrived. Obviously I don’t have them anymore but I still remember them.

    Reply
  498. Sand

    I remember getting those cars that you pull back and they race. Don’t remember the promotion and no longer have the cars.

    Reply
  499. Chrysa

    My favorite prize was a Trix button I sent in for that said the rabbit could also eat Trix and they weren’t just for kids! I know that I still have it someplace.

    Reply
  503. kathy pease

    maybe six months ago or longer not sure general mills had a promotion going and i won a $25 gift card in one box of cereal and a $10 gift card in another box on the same day it was so exciting..but it was just recently a promotion they did 🙂

    Reply
  509. Marie N

    It may sound strange but I don’t remember any particular promotions with the cereals we ate as children or those I have given my children. And they have eaten all of the cereals in this posting. We don’t use a lot of cold cereals…mostly Cheerios, Raisin Bran and occasionally Trix when we feel like eating something on the sweet side. I do remember sending away for cereal bowls from an ad I found on a box once but can’t remember if it was a General Mills product.

    Reply
  519. R Hicks

    I can remember getting prizes out of the cereal boxes but cant recall the exact prizes. I would always go with Mom and pick the cereals with prizes though

    Reply
  532. Charlene Kuser

    General Mills had a promotion for a free baseball with so many UPC’s from their cereal
    boxes.It is a nice baseball and I still have it.

    Reply

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