Morning Friends

I would guess that 99 percent of you recognize the images on the boxes above.

These three guys are unsung American heroes, working everyday to provide a tasty breakfast for children as well as fostering an ongoing love of monster icons.

I present you with General Mill’s monster-themed cereals; Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry.

Did you know there were two other fruit flavored cereals in the lineup that are no longer available?

Yup.

Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy used to be part of the gang but have been retired.

Growing up we weren’t privileged to much sweetened cereal so it wasn’t until several years ago I first tasted the sugary goodness of The Count and his friends. I won’t comment on the taste but I do so love the artwork and the characters.

Here’s some more info from the folks at Wikopedia:

“In 1971, the first two cereals in the line were introduced, the still-available Count Chocula and (strawberry flavored) Franken Berry. Boo Berry was released two years later, in 1973, and Fruit Brute appeared a year after that, in 1974. Fruit Brute was discontinued by 1983 and replaced in 1987 by Fruity Yummy Mummy, which also had a short life and was discontinued in 1993[citation needed]. Boo Berry and Franken Berry are sometimes mistakenly thought to be discontinued as well. In reality, their distribution is just much lower and more sporadic than that of the flagship cereal Count Chocula. The best time of the year to find Boo Berry and Franken Berry is around Halloween[citation needed].

Target and Wal-Mart are among the stores that have been known to carry these more scarce cereals during October in time for Halloween. They can be found year-round in the Midwest at Wal-Mart Supercenters and on Amazon.com, and in the Southeast in many stores.

In addition, they have been spotted year-round in some Wal-Mart Supercenters in the East[citation needed].

Somewhat unusual for retired advertising characters, Fruity Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute continue to be seen on the occasional piece of official merchandise: in recent years, both a resin model kit, and a bobblehead doll have been sold in their images[citation needed].

The commercials for the cereals were memorable as it was usually a battle of the monsters when they would tout their own cereals, but would jump in sheer fright when anything interrupted their attempted one-upmanship of one another.”

Much more information regarding these cereals can be found via google but for now I thought it would be nice to give a shout out to these morning friends because when you consider everything going on in the world today, what could be better than starting your day with some Halloween themed friends?