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09/14/2003 Entry: "Howlin' Halloween Apple Jacks!"

Spookilicious. Remember when Kellogg's added blue carrots to Apple Jacks? They're at it again, but this time it kinda makes sense. "Howlin' Apple Jacks" is a limited edition spinoff on the original, eliminating the familiar "red Os" and replacing 'em with cinnamon flavored pumpkins. That's right -- full on hard on legitimate Jack O' Lanterns. Spicy Jack O' Lanterns. The cereal aisle is usually the first to get the Halloween treatment; I've already seen Boo Berry creep back up for his yearly oat sew, along with Cocoa Krispies adding marshmallow ghosts to become "Kooky Cocoa Krispies." I guess the lessons learned have something to do with youth's penchant for eating horror. The back of the box features a whole bunch of Halloween jokes and puzzles, all tossed inside what Kellogg's refers to as "Apple Jacks' Ghoulish Graveyard." Unfortunately, I see no answer panel anywhere on the box, so I'll never find out "why the skeleton didn't go to the Halloween dance." Shit on me. For those who need to know everything about a cereal before plopping four bucks down for it, here's a close-up...

Well, there's no denying it -- those are pumpkins. They're also no denying that they're made from something I've never quite experienced before in cereal. The cinnamon pumpkins are almost like hard candies; eating them dry supplies an unexpected chalky crunch not unlike that brought on by those insipid "Smarties" candies. I can't remember the last time I had cereal with milk, so the peculiarities make for a big ol' Halloween negative in my book. Upon closer inspection, it's not so much that the pumpkins are of a different genetic makeup than the Os -- it's just that they're super-concentrated and condensed into these compacted rocks of doom, and my poor teeth were none too pleased with the swap. I'm willing to overlook that in the spirit of the holiday, mostly because they're got holes in their eyes that make them perfect candidates for edible necklace charms.

It's no Count Chocula, but it's always nice to have options.

REPLIES: 46 comments

Perfect. I always liked Apple Jacks... and Halloween.

Chestnuts roasted by Rainbowfeet @ 09/14/2003 06:55 PM EST

They need to have a cool work on the box, like spookalicious, or something, or else it's just not special halloween cereal.

Chestnuts roasted by CalmingEffect @ 09/14/2003 07:04 PM EST

I know why they had blue carrots in Apple Jacks. I mean, it just makes perfect sense. I mean, where in the world do you not see how apples, carrots, jacks and blue are connected? Still don't get it? I'll never tell....

Chestnuts roasted by Tim-E @ 09/14/2003 07:17 PM EST

From what I can read, those pumpkins should have been marshmallow and not rocks. But, at least Kellogg (Perhaps we should term them "Hellogg" to get into the Halloween spirit?) tried something different. Something kinda stupid, but different. Maybe you should break your no-milk rule, Matt? Maybe almighty MILK is the secret ingredient to make it the best cereal ever? Maybe I ramble too much?

Chestnuts roasted by Paul Ortego @ 09/14/2003 07:30 PM EST

Those are awesome. I must have them because you SAY that I need them. I will put them next to my Hulk Hands, Oreos, and Unicron.

Chestnuts roasted by mindsuckr @ 09/14/2003 07:34 PM EST

It'd be funny if they were intended to be marshies, as the end results were so far off that they couldn't even advertise 'em as such on the box. Now that I think about it, they're a lot like stale cereal marshmallows. You may be onto something.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 09/14/2003 07:35 PM EST

nice, pre-stale marshmallows. get em while they exsist kids, that sounds like a recall to me.

Chestnuts roasted by bigcorey @ 09/14/2003 08:25 PM EST

Is it just me or do those pupkins look a lot like misshaped peace signs? Perhaps Kellogs found a old mold out of a failed Woodstock comemertive cerial and usaed that. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mango @ 09/14/2003 08:51 PM EST

There is a guide to creating a boo berry costume over at www.codehulkster.com it's only 7 easy steps. I think Matt would look spiffy as boo berry. SPIFFY!

Chestnuts roasted by Mike @ 09/14/2003 08:52 PM EST

"Why didn't the skeleton go to the Halloween dance?" He didn't have the GUTS to ask out a girl...

Nice to know I'm not the only person on this mad, mad Earth that eats cereal dry. You go, Matt.

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 09/14/2003 09:05 PM EST

I think they had those last year, too. Eating them wet was kind of like eating small chuncks of sponge, only with a faint pumpkin taste.

---

From WWWF Grudge Match:

Look at Halloween, the "devil's holiday." Its a joke! He probably started it like this:

"Well, lets see now...I own the souls of every politician on the planet... I have a controlling interest in most major corporations... I think I finally have enough power to Take Over The World!!!

...But, but I want candy! Especially those little candy corns...how can I get some?

...I know! I'll liquidate some stock and purchase--No no no! Save those stocks for a rainy day! For a rainy day...

...Ah, I can buy some greeting card companies and start hyping a new holiday. I'll call it..."Halloween." ...And I'll encourage little children to don strange costumes and wander the streets at night! Demanding candy and threatening acts of petty vandalism!

YES! Then I'll have all the candy I want!!! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 09/14/2003 09:14 PM EST

Sounds intersting maybe I'll pick up a box of that and Yu-Gi-Oh! cereal.

P.S. I got some $1 Halloween goodies at the Dollar Tree. ^-^

Chestnuts roasted by pikachulover @ 09/14/2003 11:18 PM EST

those rn't peace signs they're mercedes symbols it's a hidden message that the fat cats controlling everything right down to our crappy limited time only cereals

Chestnuts roasted by ibentmywookie @ 09/15/2003 01:49 AM EST

mmmmmm.....Cheese Ritz...*drool*

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 09/15/2003 02:43 AM EST

The skeleton had no body to go to the dance with. One of the old Halloween jokes like "what do ghosts eat?"

Chestnuts roasted by F-13 @ 09/15/2003 06:36 AM EST

Those little orange blobs in the Apple Jacks are making me reminisce about a cereal from my youth (I'm 23) called OJ's. Does anyone remember those? They were little orange balls with cone shaped pieces. I believe they had a cowboy on the box. And, as was so succinctly mentioned above, they did have a flavor that was not quite entirely unlike sponge. Albeit orange flavored sponge, but sponge nevertheless.

Chestnuts roasted by Amy @ 09/15/2003 09:06 AM EST

"unexpected chalky crunch not unlike that brought on by those insipid "Smarties"

what smarties are you talking about? in canada, england and... most other places they're just like chocolate m&m's

Chestnuts roasted by mannik @ 09/15/2003 11:13 AM EST

mmmmm new layout..

Chestnuts roasted by sammy @ 09/15/2003 11:53 AM EST

Mannik,
Matt is referring to "American" smarties - sugar/chalk-like pastel colored wafers. Check out www.smarties.com....

Chestnuts roasted by Creaf @ 09/15/2003 12:56 PM EST

To be honest, the first thing I thought of when I saw those messes of orange cerial . . . plastic turds. Am I the only one?

Chestnuts roasted by inkmage @ 09/15/2003 01:18 PM EST

"Why didn't the skeleton go to the Halloween dance?"

Because he wouldn't come out of the closet.
+++++++++++++++

It's good to see a major cereal conglomerate putting homosexuality back in morning breakfast where it belongs.

Chestnuts roasted by oddbodkins @ 09/15/2003 02:25 PM EST

OJ's huh? Would they happen to have white ford bronco's and a picture of OJ Simpson on the box?

(couldn't resist posting this no matter how few laughs it gets) XD

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 09/15/2003 04:01 PM EST

Speaking of cereal with rocks in them, anyone ever try that Buzz Lightyear cereal? It had some rocks in it, but if you eat around them, it wasn't too bad.

Chestnuts roasted by Tim-E @ 09/15/2003 04:53 PM EST

No, heeloyd, this was well before the OJ Simpson saga, but I knew that someone would make that comment. May as well have been you. I just know how this site is and I wouldn't be surprised if someone came across an archaic box of petrified OJs and posted pics :) This site is my childhood brought back to life!

Chestnuts roasted by Amy @ 09/15/2003 05:34 PM EST

I haven't had Apple Jacks in God knows how long, but I may get some based on this report.

BTW, I hope Matt doesn't object to my blatent plug, but I have something I wanna promote. Anybody here a fan of the online comic "8-Bit Theater" at www.nuklearpower.com ? If so, I think you'll get a kick outta my new online comic, "The Retarded Adventures of Megaman" debuting this Wednesday on www.scotty2naughty.tk .

I urge ya'll to check it out. I think you'll enjoy it. Remember to click on the "Cruiz Control" link on the main page to access it.

Anyway, great site as always, Matt, but when are we getting the "Mac and Me" review?

Chestnuts roasted by A-wel Cruiz @ 09/15/2003 08:00 PM EST

Here are pictures of the OJ box.

http://theimaginaryworld.com/tic757.jpg

http://theimaginaryworld.com/tic758.jpg

Chestnuts roasted by Garrison @ 09/15/2003 08:02 PM EST

Wow, Garrison, thanks! I knew someone out there would find it. Gawd, I miss the cereal of youth. The cereal that one could reach into and find some pseudo-treasure. They were the times before said treasures were lodged between the bag of cereal and the box, preventing one from actually lodging themselves up to the elbow in cereal in quest. Hell, it was the time before two proofs of purchase and $1.99 would get you a lousy piece of chalk! Don't even get me started on the four to six week wait for the cheap piece of crap. But anyway, I digress. Thank you for the blast of nostalgia. I'm suddenly eight again.

Chestnuts roasted by Amy @ 09/15/2003 10:07 PM EST

hmm well it appears garrison beat me to the punch on the boxes of oj.
i hope some halloween they bring back all the monster cereals( boo berry, franken berry, yummy mummy, and frute brute)
kellogs must be desperate to push apple jacks. maybe they made to many by accident or they realize they really do suck and are gonna kill em off.

Chestnuts roasted by the corinthian @ 09/15/2003 11:27 PM EST

Okay, I just rushed out to buy some of this schtuff, and my local grocer didn't seem to have any in stock! Worse yet, there were only three boxes of blue carrot-supplemented Jacks, and about 20 boxes of the boring old-fashioned variety. Is that normal, or have the blue carrots taken over in most markets? I live in Kansas, and sometimes things don't catch on here as quickly as they should.

In retrospect, I should have nabbed another box of blue carrot Jacks rather than coming home empty-handed.

Chestnuts roasted by Jeffster @ 09/16/2003 01:38 AM EST

hmm....orange juice in the cereal. Some thing just doesnt sound good about putting orange juice in milk.

What ever happened to count chocula! he defines halloween cereal!

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 09/16/2003 02:17 AM EST

Yeah, for the benefit of other Canadians that may not know, American "Smarties" are the baby Aspirin-like (or smaller Fruit Tums-like) roll candies you get at Hallowe'en that are usually sold under the brand name "Rockets" in Canada. Canadian Smarties (actually British... originally from Rowntree, which was swallowed up by Nestl�) are small, colourful candy-coated milk chocolate "pastilles". Canadian Smarties have a boring website. An unofficial, non-American Smarties page.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 09/16/2003 02:53 AM EST

heeloyd--

Yeah, I was wondering why the corinthian didn't mention the Count. :D

Chestnuts roasted by freakachu @ 09/16/2003 02:54 AM EST

"Matt is referring to "American" smarties"

ooohhh. rockets. ahhhhhh.

Chestnuts roasted by maNnik @ 09/16/2003 08:39 AM EST

Hey Matt, on the main page if you click on the Apple Jacks link, it brings you to Jurisprudence. Just thought I'd let you know.

Chestnuts roasted by Diabetic Dinosaur @ 09/16/2003 04:47 PM EST

i didnt mention the count cause i figured he is pretty much a given when it comes to the halloween cerals, and i was tired at 11:37 pm.

Chestnuts roasted by the corinthian @ 09/16/2003 06:35 PM EST

Cereal requires ice cold lowfat milk. And lots of it.

Chestnuts roasted by Bloodcat @ 09/16/2003 08:50 PM EST

orange juice curdles milk. Seperates it out in to curds and whey (aka watery white stuff and snot)

Chestnuts roasted by hoobah @ 09/16/2003 11:22 PM EST

So are the blue carrots actually carrot flavored? I ask because I see this stuff in the store and have trouble with the concept of a blue, carrot shaped, apple jack flavored, corn cereal. This is getting out of hand..

Chestnuts roasted by Shave The Wales @ 09/17/2003 11:24 PM EST

No the "carrots" have no flavor. They dont even taste like the apple jacks, its really quite flavorless.

Chestnuts roasted by the Corinthian @ 09/19/2003 08:15 PM EST

Anybody know wI can find info on Frute Brute and yummy mummy. What was frute brute (I have a friend who swears there used to be a werewolf.) THX.

Chestnuts roasted by DraygonX @ 10/01/2003 11:15 PM EST

Anybody know where I can find info on Frute Brute and yummy mummy. What was frute brute (I have a friend who swears there used to be a werewolf.) THX.

Chestnuts roasted by DraygonX @ 10/01/2003 11:15 PM EST

Fruit Brute was a werewolf.

Saw the original 3 at Target, but no Fruit Brute.

Chestnuts roasted by DrTorch @ 10/17/2003 10:02 AM EST

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Chestnuts roasted by loan signature @ 11/04/2004 06:45 AM EST

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