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 called a sprue. 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 football 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 spring 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 spring was angled, it made 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.
In his 2025 book titled "Cereal & Gelatin: The 1955 Through 1964 Post Cereal and Jell-O Gelatin Sports Promotions (Volume One)", author Dave Worley presents information that demonstrates that wire springs were first used to propel the football for both the passer and kicker. The spring was packaged inside a small cellophane bag and then packed inside Rice Krinkles boxes along with the Action Toy. After 20,000 wire springs were used initially, it was determined that flaws in the toy manufacturer's packing machine caused the wire springs to protrude or even work their way out of the packaging and into the cereal inside the box. The remedy for this safety issue was to use a rubber band as the new method of propulsion for Action Toys packed into Rice Krinkles boxes for the rest of the 1962 Post cereal football promotion.
Apparently, Post had a hefty supply of Action Toys left over after the 1962 promotion ended resulting in 1963 offers of packed in Action Toys on Sugar Sparkled Rice Krinkles, formerly Sugar Coated Rice Krinkles in 1962, and a mail-in offer on Sugar Sparkled Corn Flakes, previously Sugar Coated Corn Flakes in 1962. According to Dave Worley's book, Post deemed the wire springs as safe to be used for the mail-in offer because they were not packed in Sugar Sparkled Corn Flakes boxes and thus there was no possibility of the wires infiltrating the cereal. The Sugar Sparkled Rice Krinkles boxes contained rubber band propelled Action Toys. It's possible that the Action Toys acquired via the mail-in offer reverted to rubber band propelled versions if the supply of wire spring propulsion toys was exhausted. However, a box acquired in 2024 with a June 1964 mailing label still attached from Spotts mailing service in Minneapolis, Minnesota who handled mailing of the Action Toys for Post contains both the passer and kicker with wire springs.
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 | Kicker on sprue front view |
