Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Can it be?
Can it, yet again, be a Tuesday in the second half of a month?
Yes it can.
And all determined followers of this site know that can only manifest itself in one possible direction.
That's the return of the feature in which the topic of debate is left entirely to the determined followers of this site.
I am curious as ever to know just what the grand maelstrom of humanity has on its mind. Therefore, if you have a topic you wish to be discussed, remember to post it in the comments section below and we shall see just what transpires...
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24 comments:
Please, do not let my question be the only question.
What was your favorite “freebie” that you got in a box of cereal or for mailing in 10,000 box tops to something or another?
Charlie’s was a McClaren Chapparal Hotwheel circa 1970. Super nice copper colored, kind of like McLarens color scheme last year in F1.
But I’ll be dog goned if I can remember what we had to send in to get it. Most likely it had to do with cereal boxes, or, perhaps, Hawaiian-punch drink can labels.
There were those Doctor Who badges that came with sugar puffs. We'd keep pestering our num to buy sugar puffs every week. It wasn't until she found four boxes of the the things in the cupboard that she worked out that we had no intention of ever eating them.
Ah, no, sugar smacks (same thing, different name) and it was 1971 https://cerealoffers.com/Kelloggs/Sugar_Smacks/1970s/Dr_Who_Badges/dr_who_badges.html
Clearly, Weetabix Dr.Who cards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPzXT06bf68
Searching, I found Dr.Who cards configured like the 1977 Superheroes card game. I'd have loved these:
https://www.hypnogoria.com/orrible_whotrumps.html
Phillip
I seem to remember having a variation of this question before — but then again, maybe it was at Redartz’ old site. In any case, I certainly don’t mind, it triggers fun memories of a simpler time.
Two “prizes” come to mind : an Archies flexi-record on a box of Super Sugar Crisp (I think the song we had was “Jingle Jangle”) and a tiny plastic replica of Dick Dastardly’s car from WACKY RACES in a box of some kind of cereal (I don’t remember which). As I recall, the Archies record didn’t play very well, but I still thought it was neat.
Boxes of Cracker Jack supposedly contained fairly elaborate toys Way Back When but by the time I was growing up they were much less so. Teeny tiny joke books, or water-soluble “tattoos”, things like that. Nowadays they don’t come with NOTHIN’ — I don’t think they even have peanuts in ‘em, just the caramel corn.
Great, now I’ve got a craving for some Cracker Jacks :D
b.t.
It would have been the free ‘The Black Hole’ poster I got from Wagon Wheels biscuits, but it was spoiled by a massive ‘Wagon Wheels’ logo on it.
So maybe the Flash Gordon cards that came with Weetabix in 1980/81. In 2.35:1 scope ratio!
I did also really like the cyborg stickers that came with prog 2 (or 3?) of 2000AD.
Oh, just remembered something even better. Sometime in my third year at uni (1984-85) I collected enough Smarties lids (or maybe tubes?) to send off with a cheque to get the Smarties Disco Album on vinyl. I still have it upstairs but don't play it these days as the doctor has told me to avoid cheese.
https://withmy50p.wordpress.com/tag/smarties-disco-party-pack/
Tought I'd try listening to a bit of that Smarties album on youtube, dangermash, but didn't get much further than the intro.
"Is there anyone here called Eileen...?"
I think if I had a copy I'd want a heavy prescription for valium from my doctor...
-sean
So Matthew - you too were a Biotronic Man!
It was prog 2 btw. The free gift in 3 was a - Red Alert! - Survival Wallet (although in fairness even that was an improvement on the Space Spinner from prog 1).
https://stevedoescomics.blogspot.com/2015/03/2000ad-march-1977.html
-sean
Yeah. Not sure I could survive the whole album today but it was funny as a 20-year old student.
I reckon the free mask that came with Captain Britain #1. So naff that it was almost a work of art. Only bettered by the costume you could send away for, which turned out to be a single sheet of polythene and two cardboard wrist bands. Obviously I had both…
DW
Ah yes… the plastic records printed on the back (inside ?) of cereal boxes!!!
I too had an ARCHIE and also STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT by SINATRA. But google as I might, I can find no reference to the Frank Sinatra record. Yet, my brother and I have confirmed we did have that, and it came out of a cereal, box or some similar product from the grocery store.
My favourite free gift was probably the Spider-Man iron on transfer that was given away with the second issue of POW! in 1967. As a 7 year old I thought it was the coolest thing ever. The Hulk and Spidey free transfer in issues 1 and 2 respectively of Mighty World of Marvel in 1972 were a close second .
Other free gifts I loved were the Esso England World Cup coins from 1970 ( one coin for every 4 gallons of petrol) despite being Scottish these were fun to collect and it was the first WC I remember being able to watch on TV. There were also the stickers of the top English and Scottish football teams crests/badges again by Esso around 1971.
Charlie:
The Archies records were printed right onto the back of the Super Sugar Crisp boxes, they weren’t packed inside the box.
I called them “flexi-discs” earlier, but I’m not sure that’s the correct term. For one thing, seeing as they were printed onto a piece of cardboard, they weren’t very flexible. I believe true flexi-discs were made of very thin sheets of acetate or vinyl. I had one of those too — an adaptation of MAD magazine’s parody of ALL IN THE FAMILY which came bound into one of their MAD SUPER SPECIALS.
b.t.
Yeah, thats right b.t. - flexidiscs are made of very thin vinyl.
I believe thats how the Beatles' Christmas fan club records were put out in the 60s. At the start of the 80s there was a magazine in the UK called Flexipop that used to have a free flexidisc with each issue, like 'A.N.T.S.' by Adam & the Ants -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5qIQua4Mc
Flexidiscs sound terrible, although I still have a few somewhere. Like the one that came free with the early Human League 12" 'Dignity of Labour pts 1-4' (thats a very end of the 70s People's Republic of Sheffield title isn't it?) with a recording of the band talking about what they could put on a free flexi. How meta.
Another that might be of interest to some round these parts - from the late 80s - is an early version of a single by the Barmy Army - who we're basically Dub Syndicate producer Adrian Sherwood - called 'Billy Bonds MBE'. No, I'm not sure why I still have it, but anyway... on the off chance DW hasn't heard it -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzWng2hlYc8
-sean
Apropos of nothing, but I was watching TV with my brother the other day. We were watching reruns of the Andy Griffith Show, and he said that Don Knotts looked a lot like Mick Jagger.
And vice versa.
Short skinny guys with bug eyes, full lips and jerky movements.
Unfortunately, we never got to hear Don Knotts doing a cover of "Start Me Up" but with the advent of A.I., I'm holding out hope.
M.P.
I hadn’t but now have. Definitely a work in progress.
DW
Oh yes, the cereal box records! Like b.t., I had an Archies record- and it was the same one he had ("Jingle Jangle"- actually kind of prefer that song to the much more popular "Sugar Sugar"). You had to place a coin on the disc to stop it from getting caught under the pressure of the tonearm.
It wasn't cereal, but I once sent away a bunch of wrappers from Bazooka bubble gum for a camera. The camera turned out to be pretty cheap (what a surprise); plastic and producing only fuzzy, light-leaky pictures. But it was my first camera, and it started me on a lifelong obsession with photography.
Then there were the gas station giveaways- we would go to Gulf stations just to get copies of the Walt Disney magazines they offered. And we'd go to Shell stations when they had the "Shell coin game" thing going- collect coins each visit and fill up a card you could trade in for prizes. Never won a cash prize but did get a set of Brass U.S. Presidents coins...
Around about 1993 I sent off for a free CD but I can't remember which publication was giving it away - possibly the Radio Times. Anyway the CD contained hits by various artists but the only song I can recall is Storm In A Teacup by The Fortunes which was written by Lynsey DePaul. Also around the same time I sent off for a free paperback - DEFINITELY from the Radio Times on this occasion. There were several books on offer and I chose one about a woman who'd lived her whole life on a small farm in Yorkshire which sounds dull but it was very interesting. I recall her explaining that she kept her food in sacks hung from the roof beams so the rats couldn't reach it! And a few years ago SFX magazine gave away a free copy of The Time Machine by HG Wells which I'd never read before (the magazine and the novel were sold as a single item in a plastic bag rather than needing to send off for the novel separately).
Anon, thanks for the topic.
Of the various freebies I recall encountering in my childhood, the only ones that truly impressed me were an iron-on transfer of Tutankhamen's death mask that came with some comic or other, and a pair of cardboard cut-out Mr Spock ears that were on the back of a cereal packet.
RED - you just reminded me how my brother and I, at every gas station, would ask the workers if they had any stickers. It was really cool! We would get those big STP stickers or cherry bomb AC spark plug stickers. My brother and I would stick them to the headboards on our beds
Phillip, I think you've posted a comment meant for this discussion, beneath my latest post about Atlas Comics. I'm just pointing it out in case you think it's disappeared.
https://stevedoescomics.blogspot.com/2025/03/atlasseaboard-march-1975.html?showComment=1742386828549#c2371943605932936121
And last but not least, Charlie hung onto a three-dimensional baseball card that he thinks he got out of a box of cereal, but who knows… Maybe it came out of a loaf of Wonder Bread? But it was of a player named Cleon Jones. I held onto that card for, I don’t know, 15 or 20 years? I barely knew who the guy was! But the price was right! You know what I mean?
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