9 Forgotten Short-Lived Cereals of the ‘80s and ‘90s

Cereal has been a staple breakfast food for kids for decades. The '80s and '90s saw some incredible cereals, and as long as your parents weren't overly health-conscious, you got to partake in the sugary goodness each morning. But some of our favorite cereals didn't last.

There are a variety of reasons a cereal might be discontinued, though the most common is that it doesn't make enough profit for the companies producing it. Even when a cereal is pretty popular, if it doesn't meet certain quotas, it gets pulled from the shelves.

These 9 cereals from the '80s and '90s tasted so good; it's a shame that their time was cut short.

S'mores Crunch (1982-1988)
Smurf Berry Crunch (1983-1987)
Nerds Cereal (1985-1986)
Rocky Road Cereal (1986-1989)
Ice Cream Cones Cereal (1987-1989)
Dino Pebbles (1990-1993)
Cinnamon Mini Buns (1991-1993)
Sprinkle Spangles (1993-1994)
Hidden Treasures (1993-1995)

S'mores Crunch (1982-1988)

S'mores Crunch was like a levelled-up version of Golden Grahams. It had similar graham cracker pieces, but these were dusted with chocolate powder, and mini marshmallows were added to the mix. S'mores Crunch had a decent run of six years on the market from 1982 to 1988, and was briefly revived in the '90s before being discontinued permanently. General Mills made both S'mores Crunch and Golden Grahams, so the question is, who decided plain graham cracker cereal was better than a s'mores one?

Smurf Berry Crunch (1983-1987)

Smurf Berry Crunch was a delicious, fruit-flavored cereal themed around the animated series, The Smurfs. It was a great Saturday morning in the '80s if you were munching on this cereal while watching the little blue creatures. But Post, the company that made Smurf Berry Crunch, replaced it with Smurf Magic Berries in 1987 because of alleged reports that the cereal caused your stool to be Smurf blue. The replacement had fewer food dyes, but the damage was done, and it was discontinued soon after.

Nerds Cereal (1985-1986)

If you wished you could have actual candy for breakfast, Nerds Cereal was the next best thing. The gimmick behind this cereal was, just like a box of Nerds candy, it had two separate flavors in each box. You could get orange and cherry or strawberry and grape. It was a fun idea, but the company behind it, Ralston, didn't see enough demand for the cereal and discontinued it after only one year.

Rocky Road Cereal (1986-1989)

Maybe instead of candy for breakfast, you wanted ice cream. Convincing your parents would be difficult, but a good compromise could have been Rocky Road Cereal. It was made of sweetened corn and marshmallows that were dipped in chocolate. It also contained nuts, though the type of nuts was never specified because it was the '80s and they didn't have to disclose things like that. For lovers of Rocky Road ice cream, this cereal was a great breakfast treat, but it only lasted for three years.

Ice Cream Cones Cereal (1987-1989)

What if you do want ice cream for breakfast, but you're not a Rocky Road fan? Well, General Mills answered that with Ice Cream Cones Cereal. It came in three different flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate chip. There were ice cream scoop pieces and cone-shaped pieces. You could even put a scoop piece on a cone piece and have your own mini ice cream cone. The cereal was discontinued after two years, but did make a brief comeback in 2003.

Dino Pebbles (1990-1993)

Do kids today even know who Dino is? If they haven't seen The Flintstones cartoon, they still see Fred and Barney on the boxes of Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles. But poor Dino got the short end of the stick! Dino Pebbles were vanilla-flavored rice cereal with brightly colored dinosaur marshmallows. While the other Pebbles cereals are still going strong, Dino Pebbles were pulled after three years. Where's the respect for the Flintstones' family pet?

Cinnamon Mini Buns (1991-1993)

A soft, gooey cinnamon roll sounds like a fantastic breakfast until you learn just how laborious making cinnamon rolls can be. Kellogg's gave us a pretty decent replacement in Cinnamon Mini Buns. This cereal was packed with cinnamon-sugar flavor, second only to an actual Cinnabon cinnamon roll. In fact, Kellogg's relaunched this cereal in 2010 after partnering with Cinnabon, but it was discontinued a second time in 2018. It's one of the most petitioned cereals to make a comeback, so it's strange that it was taken away in the first place.

Sprinkle Spangles (1993-1994)

If your favorite flavor of cookie is a sugar cookie, then Sprinkle Spangles was the cereal for you. The star-shaped cereal pieces tasted like sugar cookies and were covered in sprinkles. Some people felt the taste was too sweet, but others say it was one of the best cereals of their childhood. Those in the too-sweet camp are most likely the reason it was removed from shelves after one year.

Hidden Treasures (1993-1995)

Hidden Treasures was promoted with the tagline, "things aren't always what they seem." Most of the cereal pieces were just sweetened corn, but every once in a while, you would find one filled with fruit-flavored icing. The icing came in three flavors: orange, cherry, and grape. You didn't actually buy this cereal for the taste so much as for the game of trying to find the pieces hiding fruity treasures. Hidden Treasures only lasted for two years before General Mills discontinued it.