They Are The Freakies

These cars are not Hot Wheels™— they're not even die-cast. But a batch of web pages called "My Little Cars" gives me a great excuse to put up pictures of my Freakie stuff!

Freakies™ was a breakfast cereal that existed from 1973-1975. I don't remember the cereal itself, but I remember the Freakies characters. As a kid, I read a lot. And we didn't have the TV on before school, so I probably spent my breakfastimes reading the various Freakie stories on the backs of the boxes.

Those were the days when sugar cereals hyped their sugar-ness, and were packed in boxes that contained a Free Inside prize. Vintage TV commercials call these cars "Freakmobiles." Another contemporary reference refers to them as "Jet Action Freakie Cars." (I do have the rubber bulbs you stick in the back of them and smoosh to provide the jet action.) Whatever you want to call them, they were made in 1974 by Hasbro, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

I could go on and on about the Freakies and their cereal, but I won't. That's what Google is for. Google "Freakies" and you'll find the Creator's website, the wikipedia entry, a few YouTube videos, eBay listings, memorabilia sites... I don't feel a need to copy those things. Besides, Freakies.com is a site worth checking out in its own regard.

Ralston Purina tried to bring Freakies back in 1987, but the marketing department changed everything and made the Freakies all... freaky. The cereal was such a flop that I wasn't even aware it was back on the shelves. In recent years, I've observed a small but steady interest in Freakies. My guess is that kids loved the Freakie characters, the stories, and the prizes, but weren't exactly overwhelmed by the cereal.

Besides the Freakmobiles, other Free Inside prizes included the refrigerator magnets and plastic figures shown above, balloon-powered speedboats, iron-on patches, and little round motivational stickers.