Post Cereals frequently featured a really nifty prize in a window box attached to the tops of their popular cereals aimed at kids. One of the best premiums was a plush Flintstones Dino the Dinosaur sold with Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles cereals in 1988.
Dino was available in purple and brown. I remember a sea of purple Dinos on visits to the supermarket. Sometimes kids would rip the prize box off of the cereal. Nasty cheaters!
I had a very difficult time finding the brown version of Dino, which was likely paired with Cocoa Pebbles.
I actually don't remember ever finding the brown version of Dino at the grocery store, but I was able to get one at some point, somehow. I liked brown Dino more, because he was a curiosity to me and because he was tougher to find.
The Dino plush toys are about 4 and a half inches tall and have 1988 Hanna Barbera Productions and Strottman, International, Irvine, CA notations on their tags. They are pretty impressive, especially for cereal prizes!
The purple Dino was also available to order by mail, with two UPC Bar Codes and a check or money order for 50 cents. The offer shown here is from a "Bedrock Gazette" advertising section found in USA Today newspaper on December 2, 1988. This was part of a Pebbles Cereal campaign where kids had to help Fred Flintstone find his missing pet, Dino (he was in Hollyrock!). This particular USA Today section featured the names of children in the Southeastern United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands that assisted Fred with clues for finding Dino (no, my name was not among them).
The Bedrock Gazette also featured a special preview of eraser figures of Fred, Dino and Barney that would be available inside Pebbles Cereals. I still have mine somewhere.
These toys are probably not that difficult to find for sale online these days.
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Nice! I think my son had that Dino! I need to dig out my old school Fruity Pebble premiums someday and do a post on them! I've got all those figures in that advert BTW!
ReplyDeleteHey Darrin! I'd love to see some more of the older prizes (I know you posted some of them on your blog). The prizes in the Pebbles Cereals were among my favorites because they were primarily Flintstones or prehistoric creatures of some sort.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to remember back to when Fred and Wilma first got Dino, wasn't he brown in just that first episode that featured him? Maybe that's why they made both colors...for the hardcore fans.
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!: I don't know, but it does keep with the tradition of making Flintstones toys in colors not seen on the show---lots of vintage Flintstones merchandise is in funky colors or off-model. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI honestly thought those eraser figures were giant Flintstones vitamins at first.
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