The Demise of the Cereal Box Toy

Jacob loves Kinder-eggs and collecting the little kinder toys, he enjoys putting the toy together and has a little box full of them - he doesn't actually eat the chocolate, he passes that on to Summer to eat, and as she is too little for the toys, she doesn't complain she much prefer eating the chocolate anyhow.

But for those of us who grew up in the 70's, 80's, 90's (I believe even further back) you will remember the cereal box toys that came in most cereal boxes. Where did they go?

  
I had a trip down memory lane with my brother over Christmas, we talked about Cereal box toys, how we used to collect them, and how much fun they were, especially the reflectors for the bicycle spokes, we both had our bike wheels full of them.  My parents would make us take it in turn as to when we got the toy, me one box, my brother the next and so on. I remember ramming our arm elbow deep into the newly opened box of cereal, at my mother's dismay, trying to fish out the toy.Unfortunately I also remember a few sibling disagreements over a few toys or swaps. We would swap them with your school mates and so on..

Now a days you won't find a single box that offers a toy inside a cereal box any more, and I feel this is a shame, as like the Kinder-eggs or McDonald's toys, they brought joy and memories to me as a child - Cereal wasn't just cereal, it had an added extra bonus of a little toy, cereal was fun!

I was curious as to why the cereal box toys are now a thing of the past; perhaps it was an extra cost companies didn't want to absorb, or a health and safety issue? So I contacted both the two major manufacturers and asked for feedback.

Nestle said: Didn't reply sadly.

Kellogg's said: Thank you for your interest in Kellogg’s promotions. You were right in observing
that we phased out most of our in-pack inserts a few years ago, as did many
other cereal companies.
We found that many of our inserts were reaching consumers were not interested in
the promotion itself, and therefore wide-spread wastage was occurring. We found
that ordering the items via the internet is an easy and quick way of avoiding
this problem, with the added benefit that many people, particularly children,
like to receive items in the post.
We would like to thank you for your interest, and hope you continue to enjoy our
products and promotions for many years to come.

Personally I was a little disappointed in the feedback I received, to save tokens after multiple purchases and send off for the toy, but then you have to pay P&P and in all honesty how many of us do this and doesn't it take some of the fun out of it? My children would much rather the item in the box instead of having to wait days for it to be delivered - where is the fun in that. 

Considering how successful the toys are in the McDonald's Happy Meals, or the toys in Kinder-eggs are, it seems such a shame the cereal manufacturers stopped. 

Do you miss the cereal box toy? What was your favorite item out of a cereal box?