15 Discontinued Cereals We Want Back On Store Shelves

As long as there have been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there has been a sweet, crunchy iteration of it in cereal form. Across four decades, the cereal has changed shape and taste, but the one that has the largest group of fans is the OG 1989 cereal format, complete with theme-shaped marshmallows and "ninja nets," aka cereal pieces that resemble the latticed network of Chex. Like a crossover of Chex and Lucky Charms, the cereal had a kind of salty-sweet thing going for it. If you feel like Chex is a random cereal to shoehorn into the TMNT cereal, it makes more sense when you realize that both cereals were produced by Ralston (now owned by General Mills). 

Over the years, the cereal had the distinction of having pizza-shaped marshmallows (thankfully not pizza-flavored), collectible turtle cereal bowls, and a green honey ooze packet to celebrate the release of the 1991 "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret of the Ooze." Unfortunately, when brought back for both the 2015 and 2023 TMNT movies, the cereal no longer had that Chex and marshmallow magic. Instead, the 2015 version just tasted like a fruity Trix and featured smiling turtle faces, and the 2023 take replaced the Chex for cinnamon apple corn puffs (though the marshmallows were brought back). Sadly, it looks like the old version won't be revived anytime soon.  

One of the funkier entries on the list, General Mills' Hidden Treasures promised a hollow corn cereal that had either a mystery fruit filling (in the form of cherry, grape, and orangeicing) or nothing at all. Its mascot was robot H.T. with a backward cap — very hip for the '90s — who proclaimed Hidden Treasures was his coolest invention yet. The intention was to turn breakfast into a treasure hunt for inquisitive kids, with the surprise working as half the reward. 

That's a hard concept to swallow in our modern age of instant gratification, but it's charming to think there was a time when we wanted to be surprised by our cereal. Though started in 1993, it was discontinued by 1995.  Now fans have to close their eyes and pretend that the jam-filled shredded wheat cereals (like the ones from Kashi and Frosted Mini Wheats) are close enough to the real thing. 

Back in the 1980s, cereal companies looked to cash in on the lucrative link between film releases and themed merchandise. One of the earliest incarnations of this Hollywood-for-breakfast deal was General Mills' E.T. Cereal which debuted two years after the actual film. The design concept was simple, with puffed, crispy cereal shaped to look like "Es" and "Ts." But the flavor was a genius nod to E.T.'s favorite snack, the peanut butter and chocolate-accented Reese's Pieces. 

So what special toy or gift could you get with your E.T. Cereal? Well, some lucky kids got the Grammy Award-Winning Storybook Album recorded by Michael Jackson. On eBay, you can still find vintage E.T. Cereal boxes that feature Michael Jackson holding E.T.'s hand, a true slice of peak '80s culture. Though you can no longer get that iconic E.T.-shaped cereal, you can still get a close taste of it by buying our modern-day Reese's Puffs, a sweet descendent of the original. 

During the heyday of the Space Race, plenty of Astronaut food items got their jumpstart in the market, like the citrus-packed Tang and crunchy freeze-dried ice cream. But before all that, freeze-dried ice cream first had its run in the world of cereal with Kellogg's 1965 Kream Krunch brand. Though its mascot had a blank Cheerio-eyed stare that could haunt a child forever, its concept seemed completely delicious. Available in Orange, Vanilla, and Strawberry flavors, the oat-based cereal had little chunks of freeze-dried ice cream mixed in. 

So why did this brilliant concept become another discontinued brand relegated to the history books? Well, a modern test constructed by Cereal Time TV showed that freeze-dried ice cream turns into a gooey, sticky mess once it hits the milk, ruining its crunchier delights. However, it still tasted good enough for it to be worth a comeback on the cereal aisles.  

Banana isn't a flavor you see often on the cereal aisle, which is one reason why Wackies, also called Banana Wackies in commercials, is so missed. Released way back in 1965, it had banana-flavored marshmallows and a bunch of oat pieces with wacky shapes, hence its name. What qualifies as a wacky shape? On the back, the cereal box offered a key to its bizarre cereal pieces, explaining that an hourglass shape was a Kerblooey, a star shape was a Skedaddle, and that the figure 8 shape was a Bingle, the Martian symbol for "health." Now that's some world-building. 

Admittedly, banana-flavored marshmallows — banana-flavored anything, really — were a hard sell for kids. With the more palatable Lucky Charms on the market, Wackies fell by the wayside and were discontinued only a few years after its debut. Banana cereal fanatics will have to make do with Great Grains Banana Nut Crunch, which gets its banana boom from crisp banana chips. 

This idea was so good, it feels bizarre that it didn't last longer than it did. Introduced by Ralston in 1983, Cracker Jack Cereal looked and tasted much like a cult snack. Packing a caramelly, corny, and malty flavor, this cereal packed quite a sugary punch — not to mention it kept up the Cracker Jack tradition of including plenty of fun prizes. In fact, think of old Cracker Jack Cereal boxes as essentially time capsules for classic '80s toys. One such box had a winning ticket for an Autobot Transformer toy while another offered prizes like a portable AM/FM radio/cassette boombox and a BMX bike. 

Unfortunately, even with its flavor and prize-winning hoke in place, the Cracker Jack Cereal just didn't have the staying power that the original snack had. After a few years, it was pulled from the shelves, and fans went back to dining on candied popcorn rather than popped corn cereal. 

Scooby Doo had plenty of cereal lines over the years, but for fans, there's only one worth the fanfare: Kellogg's 2002 Scooby Doo Cinnamon Marshmallow Cereal. Likened to a twist between Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, it was an instant hit. The cinnamon corn cereal was shaped like bones while the marshmallows came as white ghosts, blue-green mystery machine vans, and Shaggy's eyeless and mouthless face — now that's spooky. Later, they would release another limited edition run of the cereal with Scooby head-shaped marshmallows as well. Still, by the mid-2000s, the cereal disappeared from the shelves. 

When another Scooby Doo cereal returned to the market in 2013, it was a lackluster vanilla bone corn cereal with no marshmallows or cinnamon sugar coating. There are currently plenty of petitions out there trying to resurrect the '02 original, but there's no sign that the cereal powers-that-be will answer the call of the fans. 

According to a Mashed poll, this is the number one cereal that customers wish the cereal companies would bring back, and it's not hard to understand why. Meant to represent miniature cinnamon buns, Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini Buns first popped up in 1991 and made it all the way to 2005 before finally getting the boot. 

Of course, this cereal didn't really disappear. In fact, Kellogg's essentially re-released the same cereal concept twice. First, in the mid-2000s, it offered up Mini Swirlz, which came in Fudge Ripple, Peanut Butter Swirl, and Cinnamon Bun flavors. These spin-offs — pardon the pun — met their end in 2009, only to be replaced, again, by Kellogg's 2010 Cinnabon cereal. The Cinnabon cereal was discontinued in 2018, only to be revived in 2022 ... and dead again by 2024. Luckily, the addictive nature of the cereal has also led to numerous imitations by other brands, like Post's Mini Cinnamon Churro's Cereal and Nature's Path's Rhino Rolls. Let's hope this brand hasn't used up all of its nine lives just yet.