Action Toys
Inside Rice Krinkles boxes, Post offered what they called an "Action Toy." The toy was a small plastic football figure inside a paper package. The figure was either an unassembled kicker or passer connected to a plastic tree. Three footballs were included with each figure. When assembled, with the help of a rubber band or wire spring that was also in the package, the footballs could be propelled. There was a hole in one side of the ball that could be placed onto a small peg fashioned onto the passer's hand and kicker's foot. Pressing a trigger at the base of the figure allowed for release of the football after it had been placed in a cocked position.
Action Toys that used a wire instead of a rubber band as the method of propulsion had a wire bent at a 90° angle and placed against pegs in the back of each Action Toy. In the spot where the wire was angled, it makes a loop around the circular pivot point behind the passer's shoulder and the kicker's hip in order to hold it securely. See the pictures below. Since the Action Toys were distributed by Post in both 1962 and 1963, maybe the wire was used in 1963 rather than the rubber band that was known to be used in 1962. Any collector with additional information is invited to send an e-mail.
Post used a character named So-Hi to advertise Rice Krinkles. In this 1963 commercial, So-Hi demonstrates how the passer and kicker worked. Action Toys were also included with Rice Krinkles in 1963. The figures were various colors, including white, cream, red, blue, green and yellow.
In February 2021, a white Action Toy passer still on the sprue was sold by Hake's Auctions. Included with the Action Toy was an unused Canadian 12 oz. Grape Nuts Flakes flat box from the archives of cereal premium producers Sam and Gordon Gold. The father (Sam) and son (Gordon) team whose overlapping careers spanned roughly six decades, ran various businesses that designed and manufactured thousands of cereal premiums for companies such as Post's parent company, General Foods.
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| Rubber band package | Rubber band package front | Rubber band package back | Wire package |
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| Passer front | Passer wire back | Passer rubber band back | Passer on sprue front view |
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| Kicker rubber band front | Kicker rubber band back | Wire kicker front | Wire kicker back |
