When Ralston Ruled the Cereal Aisle

When kids go to the grocery store these days and browse the cereal aisle, they are treated by scores of colorful boxes and plenty of unique cereals to choose from. There is even a fair amount of licensed character cereals to choose from.

But back in the heyday of kid’s cereal…back when it was still kind of the Wild West when it came to sweetness, colorful designs, characters featured to drive appeal, and prizes included inside, Ralson ruled them all.

Ralston has since gone the way of the dinosaurs, and the corporate giants Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Post are the kings of the day. But back in the ’80s and ’90s, Ralston was a magical cereal that captured our imaginations with the characters it managed to get licenses to and produced cereals for. So below you’ll find highlights of some of their best offerings from the days when Ralston ruled the cereal aisle. Give yourself a point for every one of the cereals below you had as a kid and tell us your score in the comments section at the end.


Donkey Kong Cereal
Donkey Kong Cereal
Gremlins Cereal
Gremlins Cereal
Cabbage Patch Kids Cereal
Cabbage Patch Kids Cereal
Cookie Crisp Cereal
Cookie Crisp Cereal
Donkey Kong Junior Cereal
Donkey Kong Junior Cereal
GI Joe Action Stars Cereal
GI Joe Action Stars Cereal
Freakies Cereal
Freakies Cereal
Rainbow Brite Cereal
Rainbow Brite Cereal
Ghost Busters Cereal
Ghostbusters Cereal
Fruit Islands Cereal
Fruit Islands Cereal
Breakfast With Barbie Cereal
Life With Barbie Cereal
Morning Funnies Cereal
Morning Funnies Cereal
Nerds Cereal
Nerds Cereal
Nintendo Cereal System
Nintendo Cereal System
Batman Cereal
Batman Cereal
Bill and Teds Excellent Cereal
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Cereal
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal
Dinersaurs Cereal
Dinersaurs Cereal
News Kids on the Block Cereal
New Kids on the Block Cereal
Addams Family Cereal
Addams Family Cereal
Urkel-Os Cereal
Urkel-Os Cereal
Batman Returns Cereal
Batman Returns Cereal
WWF Superstars Cereal
WWF Superstars Cereal
Christmas Cookie Crisp Cereal
Christmas Cookie Crisp Cereal

There was a look at all of the cool cereals that Ralston provided us with back in the ’80s and ’90s. Don’t forget to add up all of the ones that you had and put your total in the comments!

More From Geekster

About Mickey Yarber 214 Articles
Editor-in-Chief Sometimes referred to as the Retro Rambler...I was born in the '70s, grew up in the '80s, and came of age in the '90s. I love to share all the fun stuff from those years via my Retro Ramblings column.

5 Comments

  1. I remember trying the following:
    Cabbage Patch Kids and Cookie Crisp are still two of my all time favorite cereals. I even enjoyed them as a snack. Rainbow Brite I think I had once. It wasn’t as good as Smurfberry Crunch. Ghostbusters was my brother’s pick. We took turns selecting the cereals. He picked Batman once too. We both liked Nerds. Never got to try the others. I think when the New Kids cereal came out, I was already into what my brother refers to as my “twigs and berries” era. 😂

Leave a Reply