Crispy Critters

Images of Crispy Critters panels are rare. Because of the lack of panels known within the hobby, the panels shown on this page are creations intended to give viewers a realistic look at Crispy Critters panels. The layout of the headers for large size boxes of Crispy Critters and Alpha-Bits were the same, so these panels are a combination of a modified header and actual individual Crispy Critters cards. The smaller 8 oz. panels feature a real header with true Crispy Critters cards.

The reason that Crispy Critters cards are rare is that the animal-shaped cereal was a new product for Post being test marketed beginning in the spring of 1962. The Battle Creek (Michigan) Enquirer reported on April 29, 1962 that Crispy Critters "is now being test marketed" by Post and that "test market areas were not identified."

Post cereal football cards first began to hit grocery store shelves sometime during the first half of August. An online search of newspapers advertising Crispy Critters in grocery store advertisements shows that the new oat cereal was distributed mainly in western states. California had the most ads by far since it had the most population of the western test market states which also included Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Alaska. Hawaii had an ad at the end of January 1963 that listed Crispy Critters as being available. Whether Crispy Critters was available in the 50th state during the football promotion is subject to speculation. An advertisement for Crispy Critters in Nevada during the baseball promotion was found, so it seems logical that the cereal product would have also been part of the football promotion in that state. No ads were found for Crispy Critters cards in Idaho in 1962 but it seems plausible that, lying between Washington and Montana, Idaho also had some grocery stores selling Critters. Last, and rather curiously, a Biddeford, Maine newspaper showed an advertisement for Crispy Critters during football season.

Of the 103 newspaper advertisements that included Crispy Critters between August 1 and December 31, 1962, eleven were for 13 oz. Crispy Critters—around 10%. Since Crispy Critters was a new product being test marketed in limited areas in 1962 it's fairly easy to see why those cards are so hard for master set collectors to find, with 13 oz. versions being the most difficult of all the Post cereal products to acquire.

Crispy Critters 13 ounce (CC13)

CC13 panel 11	CC13 panel 141	CC13 panel 57	CC13 panel 140

Brand and Size	Card Numbers	Players	Notes
Crispy Critters 13 oz.	11, 30, 49, 67, 86, 105, 123	Ringo, Webster, Glass, Mitchell, Parker, Woodson, Green (BJ)	Adhesive across top of fourth card
CC13	141, 159, 177, 194, 7, 23, 40	Lilly, Childress, Lapham, Dugan, Jordan, Lynch, Retzlaff	Maize header
	57, 73, 79, 102, 116, 127, 172	Ninowski, Smith (JR), Donovan, Smith (J.D.), Morris (J), Lipscomb, Ryan
	140, 151, 165, 185, 191, 3, 18	Howton, Gautt, LoVetere, Triplett, Horner, Forester, Gaiters

Crispy Critters 8 ounce (CC8)

CC8 panel 12	CC8 panel 124	CC8 panel 22	CC8 panel 115

CC8 front panel

Brand and Size	Card Numbers	Players	Notes
Crispy Critters 8oz.	12, 31, 50, 68, 87, 106	Starr, Barnes (BR), Karras, Morrow, Pellington, Atkins	Common borders, no adhesive on cards
CC8	124, 142, 160, 178, 195, 6	Henry, Meredith, Arnett, Mason, Paluck, Hornung	Maize header
	22, 39, 56, 72, 80, 101	Livingston, Peaks, Morrall, Schafrath, Mackey, Owens
	115, 128, 143, 152, 166, 184	Jones, Michaels, Moegle, Hill, Lundy, Tarkenton