Friday Favourites: Pac-Man Cereal

On 03/15/2013 at 09:35 AM by Surfcaster

Mmm, now with more iron.

This is a shameless reblog of a post I wrote a Tumblr a few months back. I'm kind of busy today and I want to make sure I get to my Friday Favourites for the week. I guarantee no one read it on Tumblr, but I thought I'd throw out the disclaimer!

With popular video games branding is inevitable. Depending on how popular a game is, you can at any time find t-shirts, pajamas, notebooks and cell phone protectors that depict your favourite game characters.

One form of branding is, of course, food. In my time I’ve seen many different video game themed fruit snacks, energy drinks, canned pasta, macaroni; all sorts of stuff. My fave growing up was, without a doubt, Pac-Man Cereal.

There were several different video game themed cereals. It makes sense. Kids like video games and cartoons. What do they eat when they watch their Saturday morning caroons? Cereal. So video game companies came out with cartoons based on their beloved franchises, as well as cereal to go with those shows. That way you were never far away from their brands.

There was the Nintendo Cereal System. This was a gimmick Nintendo used in the early days, where all their stuff was branded Nintendo System. There was also the Nintendo Comic System. The aforementioned cereal actually contained two different kinds: one was Super Mario Bros. and the other was The Legend of Zelda.

In all my young life I never once saw a box of Nintendo Cereal System. I don’t know if it didn’t come out in Canada or what. The video game cereal I did see in droves was Pac-Man Cereal.

It was basically just corn-based cereal like Kix, with marshmallows like Lucky Charms. The marshmallows were, of course, shaped like Pac-Man and the ghosts.

The cereal came out in '83 but it was definitely on store shelves until the early '90s. As I recall the particular cereal I had didn’t contain Ms. Pac-Man marshmallows, but from what I’ve read it was relaunched with Ms. Pac-Man in it later.

My enjoyment for this cereal might be nostalgia-fueled. I actually never had it in my parent’s house. Not that we didn’t get sugary cereals or anything like that. I’ve had my share. For some reason my grandparents always bought and stocked their cabin with it. In the summer we’d stay at the cabin with all of our cousins and in the morning that’s what I’d have for breakfast. It’s a fond memory that I still enjoy some 20 years later.

Thanks for reading,
Surf

Aboboisdaman

03/15/2013 at 09:48 AM

That's cool Surf! That box art is great. I never had any video game based cereals. I did however eat some of this way back when...

I always pitied the fool that didn't eat this cereal! Sorry... I had to say it lol.

Surfcaster

03/15/2013 at 09:50 AM

WHY DIDN'T I KNOW THIS EXISTED!?

Jamie Alston Staff Writer

03/15/2013 at 10:32 AM

I think I was slightly too young to remember the Pac-Man cereal, but I definitely remeber the Nintendo Cereal System with Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda themed shapes. Weren't some of the "mushrooms" and "Octorocks" fruit-flavored or marshmallow? I can't remember.

I never had the pleasure of eating the cereal, but I've heard that it didn't taste that great. I wish I knew for myself.

03/15/2013 at 10:36 AM

I wish I could say, but I've never even seen the stuff in person, that I remember. I knew it existed as a kid, but when you're Canadian you get used to not getting all the cool cereals, haha.

Ranger1

03/15/2013 at 11:33 AM

After my time. We didn't eat the super-sweet cereal in our house, anyway. I grew up on home-made granola and oatmeal, and when we did get store-bought cereal, it was usually corn flakes, Cheerios, or Life. And when my mom figured out that it was all the artificial crap in the food we were eating that was causing a lot of my little sister's health problems, we got even less store-bought stuff.

03/15/2013 at 11:36 AM

My parents didn't seem that against sugary cereals, although they did have their limit (I seem to remember Cookie Crisp was not entering our humble abode). I didn't often get cereal, though, because I didn't tend to it. I'd get that toy inside and that'd be it, haha.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

what the heck is a wacky whipper???

03/15/2013 at 11:51 AM

I dunno, but I bet it caused bodily harm.

SanAndreas

03/15/2013 at 11:59 AM

I remember Pac-Man cereal from when I was a kid, and we had it a few times. I guess all the furor over childhood obesity made themed kids' cereals like Pac-Man politically incorrect. Funny, because I was a skinny kid.

03/15/2013 at 11:45 PM

Yeah, I was a skinny kid, too. The excuse then was that it would rot our teeth, haha.

Coolsetzer

03/15/2013 at 12:20 PM

I never knew about the Pac-Man cereal. I knew about the Nintendo cereal, alas, I was a poor kid lol. I did love the Nintendo comics though. They were great!

03/15/2013 at 11:47 PM

I've never seen the comics! I know they existed, though. I do remember the card packs you could get, though.

Nintendo GamePack

03/16/2013 at 01:22 AM

I've never seen those! Coolios. It must have been a Canadian thing.

03/18/2013 at 01:27 PM

They were pretty awesome, wherever they were released. They'd have scratch cards, which were like a game, and then a few stickers. I thought they had gum in them, too, but I don't see it on the package.

Super Step Contributing Writer

03/15/2013 at 03:00 PM

I never saw any of the gaming cereals around, mostly cause I was born in 1990, and by the time I cared, it was probably not on local stores shelves; not even Food Lion (R.I.P.), or Albertson's (R.I.P. Desoto, TX location). I only learned of these themed cereals later on. I did enjoy sugary treats based off cartoons/characters though, for instance I loved me some Fruity Pebbles, Cap'n Crunch, Lucky Charms, you name it back in the day. Now, cause of my diet I mostly eat Mini Wheats, Chex, and Raisin Bran but I cheat every now and again for that sugary high. lol

What I do remember gaming-themed food wise is Sonic-themed Spaghettios. I never had Genesis, but damn did I love those "rings" with some sauce and meatballs. lol Plus they were constantly having contests involving peeling off the can's label to see if you had the right sequence or number of rings for a prize ... I think. In any case, here's a picture

Hmm... they definitely had NOT changed his design until after I stopped eating these. Maybe I was wrong about meatballs, just had cheese sauce for Genesis era, apparently.

03/15/2013 at 11:48 PM

Nice! I remember some Mario-themed canned spaghettis from when I was a kid. I used to go ape for that shit, haha.

V4Viewtiful

03/15/2013 at 08:04 PM

Oh wow, Pac-Mans eating out Ms Pac-Man

Anyway, i remember eating Mario and Sonic icecream from the shops

Mario and Sonic-themed ice cream!? That would've been the ultimate as a kid, haha.

Cary Woodham

03/15/2013 at 10:47 PM

As you may know, I'm a HUGE Pac-Man fan. Always have been, even when I was a little kid. But here's the thing. I never liked sweets that much. Including marshmallows. If I was ever at a friends house and we ate Lucky Charms for breakfast that morning, I'd take out all the marshmallows and just eat the oat bits. So it just KILLED me that my favorite video game character, Pac-Man, was in a cereal that had marshmallows in it!

03/15/2013 at 11:50 PM

Ahh, that would suck, Cary! This cereal was a little different than most marshmallow cereals I've ever had, in that it had this Kix/Corn Pop kind of cereal in it. It didn't even really need the marshmallows, it was already sugary enough!

smartcelt

03/15/2013 at 11:52 PM

I do remember the cereal. My mom said it was pure sugar and wouldn't buy it for me. So I missed out. Now the only wacky stuff they do like that is the singing Justin Bieber toothbrush!

03/15/2013 at 11:55 PM

Ugh, I apologize from the rest of Canada for Justin Bieber.

FAF101

04/03/2013 at 08:51 AM

I love video game themed food! I don't remember much of them unfortunatly T_T I know I did have the Super Mario cereal at one time! But that was when I was very young....they need to start doing it again!

04/03/2013 at 09:08 AM

I know I'd buy it!

PixlBit