9 of the best cereal box toys you might remember from the 70s, 80s, 90s and noughties

• Children today do not know the joy of opening a cereal box and finding a free gift inside
• Almost every box used to come with a freebie, from toy cars and figurines to puzzles and even sunglasses
• We’ve put together a list of some of the best free cereal box toys and other gifts from the 70s, 80s, 90s and noughties

Unless you were an only child, breakfast time could be fiercely competitive back in the day.

That was because of the clamour to be first among your siblings to get the free toys routinely hidden within boxes of cereal.

It all started in the 1950s, with the baking soda-powered submarines found in boxes of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes among the first free gifts to entice youngsters.

It wasn’t long before almost every cereal box came with some sort of free gift, or tokens to collect to claim a toy.

Rather than getting children to eat as much cereal as possible, as some people believed, the makers claimed the aim was to build brand loyalty.

Children came up with various inventive methods to ensure they got the gift, usually sealed in a packet among the actual cereal, as soon as possible.

That included taking the plastic cereal container out of the box and replacing it upside down, or gently massaging the cereal packet to force the free gift to the top.

Sadly the glory days of the free cereal box toy are long gone in the UK.

New legislation on marketing food to children, brought in during the noughties to promote healthy eating, has been blamed for its demise, along with the desire by cereal makers to appear more eco-friendly.

We’ve put together a list of some of the best-loved freebies found in cereal boxes, from Corn Flakes and Sugar Puffs to Coco Pops and Weetabix, during the 70s, 80s, 90s and noughties.

Thanks to the avid cereal box gift collector Nick Symes, the man behind the popular Cerealmad YouTube channel, we’ve been able to share videos of some of them to remind you just how good children back then had it when it came to breakfast time.

Glow-in-the-dark lightsabers

Kellogg’s delighted Star Wars fans by giving away these brilliant glow-in-the-dark lightsabers with an inbuilt maze in 2005.

Even children who weren’t fans of the film franchise had to admit the mini lightsabers, which came in six different colours, were pretty cool.

The toys were only a few inches long and you could pull out the blade and try to guide the tiny ball inside through the maze.

Crystal Maze puzzles

Many children dreamed of being on The Crystal Maze during the 90s, but this was the closest most youngsters got.

Boxes of Sugar Puffs in 1992 came with one of a series of four puzzles inspired by the programme inside.

They corresponded to the four zones on the hit TV show - Aztec, Medieval, Future and Industrial - and were suprisingly tricky to solve, even without the pressure of being locked inside the room should you fail to complete the task within the allotted time.

Weetabix Top Trax Tapes

These weren’t actually toys and they didn’t come in the cereal box, you had to collect coupons and send off for them.

But these mix tapes, containing some of the biggest hits of the day, were hugely popular during the 1980s and are highly sought-after by collectors some 40 years later.

Bike reflectors

These bike reflectors, found in packs of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes during the 1980s and 90s, were among the most practical cereal box gifts ever given away.

They came in the shape of the famous Kellogg’s cockerel, with six different colours available, and slotted easily onto the spokes of your bicycle.

Wrap Around Shades

Nineties children never felt cooler than when slapping on a pair of these wrap around sunglasses which came in blue, green and red.

They were given away in boxes of Kellogg’s Rice Crispies in 1992 and could be conveniently rolled up into a tube when you weren’t wearing them.

Doctor Who characters

Many fans still consider the 70s to be the golden age of Doctor Who, when a generation of children watched the classic sci-fi show from behind their sofas.

Packs of Weetabix back then came with a series of stand-up cardboard figures of The Doctor, his assistant and some of their fiercest enemies, including the Daleks and the Cybermen.

Each box came with four figures plus cut out scenes to assemble, and there were 24 characters to collect in total.

Soda-powered sub, boat and diver

It was Kellogg’s’ baking soda-powered nuclear submarine which kickstarted the craze for cereal box toys back in 1957.

Nearly three decades later, in 1986, revived the simple but incredibly popular idea, this time with the addition of a power boat and a diver.

You filled each of them with bicarbonate of soda, which would propel the boat and cause the diver and submarine to rise and fall when placed in the bath.

Tony Tiger holograms

Children are a bit like magpies, in that they love collecting shiny things.

So it’s little surprise they went made for this set of limited edition Tony Tiger holograms given away with boxes of Frosties in 1989.

There were six different holograms to collect, each featuring Tony in a different pose, and there was a cut-out frame in which to store the holograms.

Squirt rings

This free gift thrilled practical jokers, who were able to give their parents a soaking courtesy of Coco Pops’ Coco Monkey mascot.

Kellogg’s also gave away Simpsons ring squirters in boxes of Frosties at around the same time.

What’s the best free gift you ever got in a box of cereal?

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If this has got you feeling nostalgic, you can find a variety cereal box toys for sale on eBay.