Rice Krinkles

Rice Krinkles back panels feature advertising for a "FREE ACTION TOY INSIDE THIS PACKAGE." This is followed by "Collect both Kicker and Passer" and either "FOOTBALL PLAYER-" or "FOOTBALL PLAYER KIT". The information that there were two back panel styles was provided by Ken Marks and the reason for the back panel change is detailed in Dave Worley’s 2025 book, "Cereal & Gelatin: The 1955 Through 1964 Post Cereal and Jell-O Gelatin Sports Promotions (Volume One)". The book presents a General Foods/Post cereal memo dated June 19, 1962 that states that GF/Post’s legal department advised that the word "KIT" should be used on the back of all Rice Krinkles panels. On the initial print run "KIT" was printed on only one of the six different back panels with the other five printed with "PLAYER-", omitting the word "KIT". Also failing to print were the words "Complete instructions for assembly inside package". The memo specifies that the incorrect cartons would be used up but changes would be made to the rotogravure cylinders before printing more cartons.

As detailed on the Action Toys page, the kicker and passer came with either a rubber band or a wire as the method of propulsion. According to the memo, the wires used to propel the kicker’s leg and passer’s arm and, thus, the football, were found to be protruding from some of the Action Toys’ packages after processing by the premium’s supplier (Sam Gold) and before insertion into the Rice Krinkles packages. It appears that the problem with the wire packaging wasn’t the cause for the change in verbiage on the back panels as it precedes the memo’s mention of the problem with the processing of the wire packaging. Apparently, Post’s legal department had already advised that the word "KIT" be printed on all back panels but it was not on the first print run.

However, the memo shows that the problem with packaging of the wires precipitated the switch to using rubber bands as the propulsion method for the rest of the Action Toys. Therefore, it can be stated with confidence that the wires came first and were replaced by the rubber bands.

The "KIT" and "Complete instructions for assembly inside package" verbiage that was to be added to the package back were both printed in black ink. Post cereal packages were normally printed using six rotogravure cylinders with one for each different color—cyan, magenta, yellow, black, a key color that was usually the main color on the front of the box and a clear lacquer coat. In order to add black words to the panel backs, generally a new black cylinder plate would need to be etched. Theoretically, it might be possible to etch the words onto the existing black plate but judging by the results of fixing a white spot on the Alpha-Bits 13 oz. #172 Frank Ryan and #37 Sonny Jurgensen’s Grape Nuts 11 oz. fix of the speakers on the building that aren’t very large and not aesthetically well done, the black verbiage on the Rice Krinkles back panels was done by etching a new cylinder plate which produced clean, sharp lines for the additional words.

However, there is evidence that Post may not have etched a completely new black plate. Every plate etching is slightly different than others using the same photo image. Proof of that is in all the double print cards whether they are from same brand and size or double prints of different cereals such as Alpha-Bits and Crispy Critters. There will be small differences on each etched plate that are shown in the shapes of some letters, the dots that make up parts of periods, dots over the letter i, colons, semicolons and inadvertent black marks in various places on the card that are due to imperfections in the etched plate. If Post had a new black plate etched those black mark and letter changes would have been evident in the second run of Rice Krinkles cards. But there are no changes to any of the cards themselves, just the added verbiage to the back panels.

One possible way that the additional verbiage could have been added to the back panels without changing any of the other black areas on the cards may have been to create a second black plate that contained only the areas where the additional verbiage was required. This seventh cylinder would likely have been placed in line right after the original black plate. The hyphen after the word "PLAYER" was removed and that could have been accomplished by masking that area off of the original black plate. The result would have been a smooth, clean look as is seen on the panels without having to re-etch any of the areas where the cards were located.

Rice Krinkles panels 110, 199, 97, 144 and 173 have some of the same ad details on both the "KIT" and hyphen versions. Under "FOOTBALL PLAYER—" or "FOOTBALL PLAYER KIT" are two indented lines, one over the other that read "The Passer actually passes." and "The Kicker actually kicks." See the examples below. The second line is indented even more than the first line. Panel 16 is not indented but lined up vertically with the "F" in "FOOTBALL". In fact, both lines are vertically plumb. However, they are reversed with "The Kicker actually kicks." on top and "The Passer actually passes." below. Panel 16 is the panel that was correct for the first run of Rice Krinkles boxes. It didn’t need to be changed for the second run as it already used the word "KIT". Panel 16 will have only one back panel version while the other five panels can be found with two different versions of verbiage. See examples below.

Rice Krinkles 10 ounce (RK10)

RK10 panel 110	RK10 panel 199

RK10 panel 97	RK10 panel 144	RK10 panel 173
RK10 panel 16 (KIT)	RK10 panel 110 (KIT)	RK10 panel 199 (KIT)
RK10 panel 97 (KIT)	RK10 panel 144 (KIT)	RK10 panel 173 (KIT)

RK10 front panel	RK10 inside back panel

Brand and Size	Card Numbers	Players	Notes
Rice Krinkles 10 oz.	16, 35, 72, 91	Barnes (E), Carr, Schafrath, Bosley	Light adhesive possible on all cards
RK10	110, 128, 146, 182	Coia, Michaels, Lockett, Rubke	Cream header
	199, 168, 36, 52	Stynchula, Meador, Dean, Lary
	97, 83, 111, 131	Johnson (J), Mutscheller, Ditka, Sandusky (M)
	144, 154, 175, 188	Perkins, Wilson, Hawkins, Anderson
	173, 186, 1, 189	Varrichione, Youso, Currie, Bosseler