Count Chocula, Frankenberry & Boo Berry "Cereal Flexis" (General Mills, 1979)
I was a 70's sugar cereal kid, and while my taste buds have progressed somewhat, I continue to unabashedly enjoy the Monster Cereals. Every October when they get stocked in previously un-Monster Cereal friendly outlets I end up picking up a complete set or two, and trust me when I say that those boxes contain nothing but marshmallow dust within a day at most. The whole classic monster angle is a killer hook of course, but I also love super-crazy sweetness, the over the top celebrity impersonations given to the characters, and all the cool product tie-ins over the years (that glow in the dark Fruit Brute light switch sticker I put up at age 7 seemed to stay affixed in my bedroom forever).
All of which brings us to these flexis. Freed from the constraints of their 30 second TV spots (often a high point of 1970's Saturday morning commercial viewing), they coulda been pretty great really. Hey even the titles, while obviously not playing up the whole "scary" angle, seem somewhat promising, right? Right? Well while I still think that in spots these (nearly 5 minute!) stories feel horribly endless, I guess for cheapjack flexi cereal giveaways they're not ALL bad. Still (and this is breaking my heart to type), imagine if instead of going "Disco" they'd managed to go "Punk" instead? So many oportunities! So much potential greatness squandered! Ah well, there's still that catchy "Monster Mania" tune to be thankful for, years down the road I STILL find myself (apropos of nothing at all) singing it in my head.
While I'm knee-deep in all things Monster Cereal, here's the ad introducing Count Chocula & Frankenberry -- still the most popular flavors! Pity the poor Fruity Yummy Mummy, cursed to spend eternity in his pyramid of solitude & fruity loneliness.
posted by Jason at 8/19/2006 02:13:00 PM
27 Comments:
I remember this commercial! Cool stuff Jason!
8/19/2006 4:12 PM
Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy never get any love.
Boo Berry is always the hardest one to find. Maybe because he's stoned?
As usual great schtuff
8/19/2006 5:03 PM
I played the Hell out of these things when I was little and had forgotten all about them! Awesome blast from the past!
8/19/2006 7:06 PM
Funny you should mention COunt Chocula Goes To Hollywood jason. I just won it on ebay, and will share it soon. Thanks for these shares to add to my collection.
Dave
8/19/2006 7:57 PM
Nice to have your comments to read again, Jason! Thanks for again for the sharity.
Max the drunken severed head
8/20/2006 1:10 AM
I've been looking for a decent quality copy of these for years...thank you!
8/20/2006 5:18 AM
Welcome back Jason. I can't wait to download all the new posts. Thank you for all the work you've done.
Erick
Monsterama2000
8/20/2006 8:57 AM
Thanks everyone, it's great to be back. Awesome news about the Count Chocula flexi Dave; can't wait to hear it!
8/20/2006 10:05 AM
Great Stuff as always jason ......and welcome back.
8/20/2006 10:13 AM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
8/21/2006 10:07 AM
Will have Count Chocula on my blog and web page soon Jason. Right now I'm working on the Parade Records "House Of Terror" Recordings.
8/21/2006 10:08 AM
Hey Dave, were you going to make your copy downloadable or were you just going to have it as an audio stream? I was just wondering because I found my copy of "Count Chocula Goes to Hollywood" as well. If it's OK I'll make it available to download on my blog and even link to your audio stream of it if people just want to listen to it.
Tony at Way Out Junk
8/22/2006 9:41 PM
Tony - I was just getting ready to post my Chocula In Hollywood copy on my blog. It will only be as a stream yes. If you can get a clear copy I may just forgo even posting mine. It sucks. I couldn't get it to play the first minute or so without skipping numerous times. I kind of got little bits and pieces here and there, and spliced them into some semblance of a track with my Sound Recorder. even then there is so much hiss and background noise I couldn't cut it all out. Needless to say I wrote the guy I got it from on ebay, and asked for a refund. He listed it as MINT. The thing has so many wrinkles in it i don't think any turntable would be able to play it.
8/25/2006 9:19 PM
Tony - glad to see you posted the Hollywood copy on your blog. Thanks.
Dave
8/26/2006 10:26 AM
I have the Count Chocula and Frankenberry "Wacky Wobbler" bobble heads! My wife has made me choose between my monsters collection or my robots collection, so I've been slowly selling off all of my monster toys on eBay, but I still have my Bobbleheads!
Let me know if you are interested in them. eekthecat@hush-removethis-mail.com
Eek! The Cat
9/05/2006 1:16 PM
This is Great! I love the Monsters Go Disco.
9/21/2006 7:21 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyNsFcdDFqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wRYNaqQKXU
Check out these 2 links if you all are MONSTER cereal fans. They are amazing edits of old commercials in the form of a movie trailer...check it out...
countchoculatte@gmail.com
10/01/2006 12:18 PM
We are trying to figure out what was the wolf cereal's name? It was only around for a short time.
10/20/2006 5:06 PM
What is the name of the wolf cereal that was only around for a very short time.
10/20/2006 5:07 PM
Fruit Brute!
10/20/2006 5:20 PM
Say, can you repost the audio of the first two records? They are dead links now. Thanks!
12/14/2006 9:54 AM
Yes, what is going on with the files here? Nov. 3 was when the last post about the server problems was and that it shouldn't take too long to fix...and it's going on two months later. Try using Megaupload or another hosting service to get these up again.
12/28/2006 2:53 PM
I thought the wolf cereal was called wolfenberry, or smething like that.it was my fav!!
1/06/2008 8:12 PM
Fruit Brute (1974) is a werewolf. He was discontinued in 1982. A Fruit Brute box shows up occasionally in Quentin Tarantino movies. It appeared in Pulp Fiction (a scene in which Vincent calls Lance on his cell phone, Lance is eating a bowl of Fruit Brute), and Reservoir Dogs (in Mr. Orange's apartment).
There was also a Mummy He was also available as "Fruity Yummy Mummy" from 1988 to 1990. Fruity Yummy Mummy was self-described as an "artificial fruit flavor frosted cereal with vanilla flavor marshmallows". Technically, Yummy Mummy was not classified as a "Monster Cereal" by General Mills.
1/11/2008 10:17 PM
Hey, I like DISCO! Thanks for sharing these.
1/22/2008 6:27 AM
Jason, I loved all those Monster Cereals as a kid, too. As an adult, though, I read the ingredients and cringed a little, though. Have you read that stuff lately? If you are lazy and don't want to read, I did make a YouTube video highlighting all the ingredients of Count Chocula (with a little humor in there, too). Feel free to click my name to go to the video and check it out, and if you find it interesting, feel free to tweet it or whatever you kids do nowadays.
10/24/2011 6:53 PM
wasnt there a Wolf n Berry
9/24/2013 8:07 PM
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