Free Gift Transfers with Breakfast Cereals

Page Thirty-one of Fifty-one pages

Shreddies Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990-1991

This advert in the Beano, 5th January 1991, explains the promotion fully:

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"FREE 2 in 1 Mutagenic Sticker and Transfers INSIDE every Frosted, Original and Coco SHREDDIES Packs"

This 2-in-1 sticker/transfer technology was used previously for the Trio Roland Rat promotion of 1987, & frankly it didn't work then.

You can see the problem for yourself: you're looking at the underside of the transfers, which are backed by opaque card (which the sticker was attached to), rather than transparent plastic; you can't see through the card, so you can't see where you're going to apply your transfers. Guesswork is the last thing you want with transfers, since you don't get a second chance!

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Bottom: with backing tissues still in place; Top: without backing tissue

Now is the time to mention the Acorn logo, which despite denials, must surely signify that Acorn printed these sticker/transfers. We haven't seen this logo often; on the Roland Rat sticker/transfers mentioned above, & on the Katy No.1 Free Gift… that seems about it.

The stickers are fine, however. It's just the "2-in-1" gimmick that doesn't fly.

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There were six sticker/transfers, & four different background scenes on packet backs.

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The packet backs:

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Original photo courtesy of itsonlyrocknroll-ny

Okay — that was a packet front. Here are the backs, all of them courtesy of the ever-helpful Nick Symes:

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"The Dudes' Southside Den"

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"The New York Roof Top Scene"

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"Face to face in the Antique Shop"

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"Open Combat in the streets of New York!" — Scans courtesy of Nick Symes

You could also send off for a FREE 'Mutagenic' glow-in-the-dark poster on which to apply your stickers. I'm not sure describing it as 'FREE' was entirely fair, since you had to enclose eight special tokens & 50p ("for postage and packing").

The special tokens, though; where are these special tokens? Do they mean the Acorn logos? Are they on the top of the box, & not included in Nick's scans? Where are the tokens, Nick?

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Picture Credit: The SPLAT Scan Archives — Nick Symes — itsonlyrocknroll-ny