The summer of 2002 has been a monumental time for Star Wars cereal collecting. With the release of Attack of the Clones to movie theaters throughout the world, Lucasfilm had arranged cereal licensing deals in almost all of their territories.
Generals Mills was once again the Star Wars cereal licensee for the United States, the first time since the early 1970's when General Mills owned Kenner (the toy licensee that produced the original Star Wars toy line). Star Wars was once again on Cheerios, Trix, Lucky Charms, and Cocoa Puffs, with a variety of mail-away and in-box premiums. The premiums included a mail-away set of three NASCAR die cast race cars, one of four in-pack Kid's movie tickets, a mail away cereal cup and bowl offer with your choice of heroes or villains, a set of four different Star Wars tattoos, and five different light up Star Wars lightsaber pens. The Anakin lightsaber pen in particular was shortpacked and is in far greater demand on the secondary market. These cereal premiums were promoted on multiple brands of General Mills cereals with some brands offering several of the promotions. The list of cereals includes: Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Trix, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Golden Grahams, Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Reese's Puffs, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, Honey Nut Chex, and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, in a variety of sizes. Some of these cereal boxes were only offered in particular regions of the US, for instance, the die cast NASCAR offer was primarily available in the South and Midwest. Ironically, the General Mills cereal boxes available in the US are perhaps the toughest to combine into a complete set from the worldwide offering of Star Wars cereals due to the regional distribution differences.
In addition to a wide array of GM Star Wars cereal boxes, General Mills introduced Star Wars Episode II cereal in two basic box styles with Obi Wan and Jango Fett on the cover and Anakin, Padme, and Count Dooku on the alternate cover. There were also two versions of a special 36.75 oz Episode II cereal that were available at Costco and Sam's Club stores.
Canada is also no stranger to Star Wars cereal tie-ins, with many such promotions throughout the 1990's and earlier, with Kellogg's as the designated licensee. Kellogg introduced a set of six Star Wars character Rubik's cube premiums which were available as a mail away and in-pack offer in several of their boxes. Specially marked boxed of Kellogg's brands with the Rubik's cube offer included Rice Krispies, Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran, Corn Pops, Mini Wheats, Corn Flakes, Marshmallow Froot Loops, and Crispix. Kellogg also featured a mail-away offer for a Clone Trooper mask on the side panels of these cereals.
Similar to the US General Mills promotion, Kellogg also had a (very different) version of Star Wars Episode II cereal featuring a clonetrooper on the front. This cereal was also available in Loblaw's stores with a Clonetrooper mask bundled with two boxes of the cereal, and from the amount of collector interest in this special pack, one would think this is an eBay, not Loblaw's, exclusive. There were also some jumbo size cereals that were only availlable at Costco with a special in-pack poster in boxes of Episode II cereal, Mini Wheats, Corn Pops, and Froot Loops.
Cereal Partners is a worldwide company formed by Nestle and General Mills which uses the the Nestle band name and both General Mills and Nestle cereal brands for worldwide distribution. The Nestle Cereal Partners promotions spanned dozens of countries and led to hundreds of Star Wars cereal box variations. The promotion began in Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines where boxes of Honey Stars, Koko Krunch, Trix, Corn Flakes, Milo, Snowflakes, and Choko Corn Flakes featured a set of six different Star Wars 3D movie cards attached to the fronts of these boxes. In other words, for every cereal brand/size offering these cards, there are six different cereal boxes to collect, one for each of these cards. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Philippines shared the same boxes, although distinct boxes were issued in Taiwan and Thailand. Larger boxes of the same brands with one of seven Star Wars pencil toppers were available in all of these countries as well.
Throughout southern and eastern Europe, Nestle offered different cereals with the same 3D cards in Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, and Slovakia, expanded to additional brands of Nesquik, Cheerios, Apple Minis, Stars, Chocapic, and Estrellitas, which varied from country to country. Although Nestle used the same 3D cards in almost every country in the world, the one exception is Poland where the cards were miniaturized and offered in Nesquik, Chocapic, and Cini-Mini's cereal bags, not boxes.
The Nestle promotion crossed the Atlantic first arriving in Mexico with the familiar 3D cards on boxes of Nesquik, Zucosos, Crunch, Chocapic, and Trix in a variety of sizes (almost 100 variations in all). Several sizes of La Lechera Flakes boxes featured a cut-out Yoda and Clonetrooper mask.
The Central American countries of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Cost Rica, and Honduras and the small Caribbean nations of Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks Island shared a common promotion of Nestle's 3D Star Wars cards on boxes of La Lechera Flakes, Nesquik, Zucosos, and Trix. Since various measurement systems and languages are used within these countries, the boxes are printed in English and Spanish and box sizes listed in ounces and grams.
In South America, the 3D cards were available in boxes of Nesquik, Chocapic, Zucosos, Estrellitas, Milo, and Trix in many shapes and sizes. In Brazil, the promotion was available on boxes of Estrellitas, Snowflakes, Corn Flakes, Snow Flakes Chocolate, and Nescau.
In northern and central Europe, Kellogg issued a cereal promotion similar to theirs for Episode I with small Star Wars statues inside of every box of specially-marked cereals. For Episode II, the Kellogg's offering included one of six small statues with a viewer on the foot of the statue to view the destiny of the character within the saga. These premiums were available in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland in boxes of Frosties, Chocos Frokost, Honni Korn Smacks, Frosties Caramel, Frosties Crunchy Coco, Frosties ZIMT, Smacks, Smacks Choco Tresor, Pops, Froot Loops, Chocos, Choco Krispies, Rice Krispies, and Coco Pops.
For a more complete look at worldwide Star Wars cereal boxes that have been offered since 1977 including the Episode 2 campaign, check out the Comprehensive Star Wars Cereal Box checklist, and for premiums, and store displays consult the companion checklists. With over 1000 Star Wars cereal boxes released throughout the world this summer, this has been the height of Star Wars cereal activity and presents quite a challenge for the cereal collectors attempting to find them all.