Crater Critter back where he belongs...
I'm fortunate enough to own complete sets of Crater Critters, Neptune and his Sea-bed Serenaders, and Sooty giveaways, individually included in packets of Kellogg's breakfast cereals back in the early '70s. In the UK there were only 8 Sea-bed Serenader figures, though in Australia there were 15, which is the number in my collection.
However, my replacement Sooty figure wasn't grey like the first one I owned, so I made it my mission to track down one in that particular colour. (You can see it here.) Likewise, my Bugsy Backbone figure wasn't the original light green* of the one I had as an 11 or 12 year old, so I added that to my list of 'must haves'.
Glad to say, therefore, that I managed to get a same-colour replacement on eBay a few days ago and it turned up this afternoon, so I thought you might like to see a piccie-wiccie of it. If so, that's it at the top of the post; if not, that's still it at the top of the post. (So there!)
The Critters were made by an Australian company called R&L and given away (in Oz) with Kellogg's cereals in 1968, and again in 1972. The '68 releases all had different alliterative names, like Kingly Critter, Kindly Critter, Creepy Critter, etc. At some point they were also known as Critter Creatures, but I'm unsure in what year and in which country, though it was an English-speaking one. In the UK, they were issued in 1970 and were called Crater Critters and had names like King, Lunartic, and Bugsy Backbone, these being the same aforementioned trio. Japan also had 8 figures, but two of them were different - though one was also called Lunartic.
Any of you Crivs collect any of the cereal giveaways? If so, which were your favourites?
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(*Under certain lighting conditions I'm slightly colour-blind and thought it was yellow until a school pal told me it was green. I could see it was green right away when it arrived earlier today, but now, looking at it across the room on top of my sideboard, it once again looks yellow. Hey, maybe it's a chameleon crater critter?)
20 comments:
Yep I remember the crater critters . I had a couple of sets back in the past. Them were the days.
Indeed, LH. And they seem like only recent days to me. If I remember rightly, it was a near neighbour called George Cooper who told me my Bugsy was green (lime green he said) when I went in for him on the way to school. (Had Bugsy with me.)
Growing up my Mom only bought unsweetened cereal, so I was unaware of these at the time. Then about 3 years ago I stumbled on a set of 8 at a garage sale. Kingly Critter had only lost one on his points. I also got 22 different Toolie Birds and a set of Daffy Dogs at the same sale. I didn't spend more than 2 dollars for all of them.
That's a great price you got them for. If you look them up on ebay, you'll see that some of the asking prices can be extremely high for individual figures.
This seems to ring a bell. Did you know they have stopped including toys in cereal? Too bad.
On the other hand they have stopped using Ronald McDonald and that’s a good thing . He creeped me out.
Yeah, I was never a Ron McDon fan - good riddance. Have they stopped including giveaways in cereals? I must check to see if it's the same in the UK.
Does your Kingly Critter have the full crown ? Rare to see the full crown.
He only has three of the four prongs on his crown, LH, which is almost just as rare as having the full four.
After much searching I found two survivors Clever Critter and Happy Hippy Seahorse. Check my profile photo .
Great wee things, aren't they? I've also got some Kellogg's Magic Roundabout figures in my collection.
Don't remember Magic Roundabout but remember vegetable sport with Runner bean and a carrot and onion. Great days.
Nabisco also did Magic Roundabout figures, but I think they might have been slightly different. Sellers seem to get them confused on ebay, so you've got to know what you're looking for before you buy. I think I have a mixture of the two.
You definitely put me in crater Critter mode as I have located a few more . Check my photo.
Nice. What colour is your Bugsy Backbone? Another three and you've got the full set - aside from the extra two in the Japanese series. They only had eight, but two were different, though one of the new ones was called Lunartic, same as an old one.
The Bugsy I have now is orange. My original set going back 50 plus years was all grey .Do you have the two Japanese critters.?
Unfortunately, no. However, I've seen them. If you Google-Search Crater Critters, you'll get a few options - one of them shows the two Japanese ones.
Ok I will check this out đź‘Ť
Let me know what you think of them once you've had a look, LH.
Lunatic and Jodrall Jim replaced Kindly Critter and Curly Critter .That's a weird one. You would have thought a set of eight moulds would have been used. Or Maybe someone got their moulds mixed. They would be rarities I would suspect. I never even realised crater critters were also distributed in Mexico of all places.
I think you've got that a litte mixed up, LH. Kindly Critter and Curly Critter were the alternative names of Lunartic and Jodrell Jim, perhaps when they were first released, perhaps in another country. However, the figures were the same despite the different names. In Japan, they were called Merry Aliens, and Lunartic and Jodrell Jim were replaced with two different figures, though one of them 'stole' Lunartic's name.
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