Yo yo yo!
I haven’t found much of anything new recently – mainly I’ve just been pining over all the damn cars I haven’t yet gotten a hold of – but I did run across something fun at the used toy store. Remember the Halloween themed cereals that General Mills re-issues every Halloween season? Currently the line consists of Boo Berry, Franken Berry, and Count Chocula. A couple of other varieties existed in the past, known as Frute Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy. The latter 2 were the shortest lived of the bunch with Yummy Mummy having a particularly short run. General Mills brings back the big 3 for a couple of months around Halloween each year keeping them fresh in the minds of kids and adults, however, most are oblivious to the other 2 despite a widespread re-release of all 5 flavors as recently as 2013.
So where does Hot Wheels come in? Leave it to Mattel to turn any intellectual property into a killer custom paint job for a vehicle. The aforementioned as well as other General Mills brand cereals were used as the inspiration for at least 2 sets of Hot Wheels Real Riders. It gets a little confusing past there though. Hot Wheels was actually conscious enough to throw in Frute Brute, yet excluded Yummy Mummy. So what’s 4 different cereals. The weird part is that all 4 are represented across the 2 sets of Real Riders, however, only 3 are in each set. The 2013 set contains Frute Brute, Count Chocula, and Boo Berry, while the 2011 set includes Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry. And to top it off, even though Count Chocula and Boo Berry are represented twice each, they’re done on completely different cars with completely different artwork.
The 3 Halloween-cereal-themed cars from the 2011 set.
There’s also one last set I want to quickly mention, and that’s the RedLine Collectors’ release. Three of them – Count Chocula, Boo Berry, and Frute Brute – come in a box shaped like a miniature cereal box with a little “window” to display the vehicle. Franken Berry is a little different though, with a box more like a book. The front cover folds open to reveal the vehicle. I see all four of these pictured together frequently, but with Franken Berry having such different packaging, I’m not sure if they’re all from the same series or not. Regardless, these 4 all fetch a much higher price than the Real Riders.
So what was the point of this half-assed history lesson? I guess I just wanted to point out that my collection is somewhat piecemeal and far from complete and that I am aware that these cars exist in a couple of different forms.
I got lucky and found the 2013 Frute Brute Smokin’ Grille a couple of years back tucked away in a Walmart near the coast. The back of the card made me keenly aware of Count Chocula and Boo Berry but I typically refrain from hunting down these Real Riders on the web as the prices tend to strike me as a little too high. So for a long time, this was the only piece I had. Just the other day I was at the local(ish) used/collectible toy store and I was lucky enough to run across the ol’ 2011 set, with Count Chocula – ’70 Chevelle SS Wagon, Boo Berry – ’29 Ford Pickup, and Franken Berry – Custom ’77 Dodge Van.
Naturally I wouldn’t mind having all the cars, but I am glad to at least have one of each of the cereals available. The artwork is playful and true to the original boxes. Now if only they’d give us Yummy Mummy…but I won’t be holding my breath!
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