Cereal Box

I've not come across any examples of the box so far and have even checked with the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising - see Links. However, we're incredibly lucky to have a picture of the Haunted Manor artwork from the back of the box. We also have a very good idea of what the rest looked like, based on pictures of other Sugar Puffs boxes from around the same time, memories and the comic advert for the Luminous Spooks.

A. BACK OF PACK

Haunted Manor Artwork

The first picture below is from the back of the pack. It came from Peter Watson, who kindly contacted me in response to a letter from Kim in the December 2008 edition of Plastic Warrior magazine, asking for help in getting further information about the Luminous Spooks. Peter made a high quality colour photocopy of the Haunted Manor picture, which I then scanned.

For comparison, next to it/below it, is the Haunted Manor scene from the advert in my copy of TV 21 comic.

9/2025 ***

A few comments about the two representations of the Haunted Manor:

the cutting line on the right banister rail is present in both versions,
the overall shapes of key features are quite close, but they don't all align at the same time, indicating that one was copied (traced?) in outline, in sections, from the other,
present in the packet artwork, but not the comic ad, above the windows, there is a skull and antlers covered in cobwebs,
similarly, there is an oak chest (quite distinctive and presumably painted from a real object) behind the broken banister rail,
also in the packet artwork, some of the Spooks illuminate the walls, windows or door.

***

Although in general the second picture is less detailed, there is one feature not present on the cereal packet, as Stewart points out: Did you see in your scan that there is a hole in the landing ? As Alf is directly beneath, is he the ghost of whoever fell through ? There are lots of tales waiting to be told there. Every Spook has their own story.

(And I'd thought that the object above Alf was some strange light fitting!)

Why go to the trouble of making two pictures, though? Some thoughts from Stewart on this: comics have deadlines too. The artwork for a full-page ad might have had to be submitted weeks ahead. So the poor Promos Team have to get an advert in before they have been given copy of the box art. "What do we send ? How about this rough cut for the box art ? It's near enough, send it. What's next ? Peephole theatre. What do we do with that ?" And so on...

So I think deadlines, and the fact this was never expected to be remembered a year later, let alone decades, are the reason for all the scrappiness we now see. I have one other theory that may say more about my attitudes than those of my imagined Promo Crew. Maybe someone said, if the Manor is going to be in the advert, let's not use the full artwork. That rough draft will do. This is about selling boxes of cereal so if they want to build the model, they mustn't be able to make it out of the advert. (Of course we know better.)

Reconstruction of back

Steve L. recalls the artwork taking up the full width of the box, with no border, but not the full height. That was Peter's conclusion too after checking the dimensions with a modern box. Perhaps above the haunted manor artwork was a promotional panel, as in the comic advert (after all the Blow Football box also had a large promotional panel on the back), like this:

Following the discovery of the Luminous Fish packet, I now suspect the 'Free in Sugar Puffs Luminous Spook' graphic above would have been smaller, freeing up space for some of the information we can see from the comic advert, such as the names of the Spooks, there being 8 to collect, how to have fun spookifying friends and parents and perhaps something about the competition too. I'd expect much of the text to be the same as in the comic advert too.

B. FRONT OF PACK

Sugar Puffs Artwork

Coming from 1965, the packet would have had the same bear-on-a-train artwork that you'll see elsewhere on this site, i.e. the Peephole Theatre (1963), Luminous Fish (1964) and the Farm Animal (1966) promotions.

Front Promotional Panel

Steve L. remembers the front had a black panel, full width at the bottom, extending up to about the bottom of the funnel on the train. It said: Free inside! Luminous spook with 2 pupils in the 2 ohs of spook to look like eyes. The words LUMINOUS SPOOK, with no exclamation mark afterwards, was in white and filled most of this panel. The style of these 2 words were very similar if not identical to the same 2 words in the comic advert. The outline of each letter was heavily dotted to make it look hazy, again like the comic advert , again in white. The words FREE INSIDE! were well over to the left and above. They were much smaller than LUMINOUS SPOOK, in contrast to the comic advert, where FREE is bigger.

I tried to recreate the 'eyes for Os' using the Os from the graphic in the comic advert, but these are too narrow. Puzzling over this, I looked at the eyes on the train and had a possible eureka! moment. Could it have been done this way instead? The eyes could be those of someone being 'spooked', rather than of a spook!

Looking at the front promotion panels from the Farm Animals and Luminous Fish packets, I wonder if in addition there was a picture or two of a Spook, saying 'Actual Size' or '8 to collect', as well as a reference to the Haunted Manor model?

C. SIDES OF PACK

Spooky Story Contest

A short story involving each Spook was on the side of the box, but with the names of the Spooks having been replaced by numbers in brackets. The name of the appropriate Spook had to be matched to each number. There were 100 Ingersoll luminous watches to be won.

The story seems to have gone something like this (see also Spook Alley):

It was a dark eerie night.

The wind howled round the towers of the old manor (or perhaps: The wind howled round the old house as the light started to fade).

(Bertie) fluttered by, his haunting cry echoing through the woods.

..."As (George) struck twelve. Midnight. The witching hour when mortals are asleep and spirits start their games".

..."There was a sudden rush (or gust?) of wind as through the window swept (Winnie) followed by (Whitie)"

and ended:

(Alf) who appeared from who-knows-where. All night long they revelled there, but when the cock crowed the first light of dawn, they were all gone.

The comic advert for the Dalek competition gives a good indication of the type of information that would have been provided. As well as the story, there would have been:

- some form of inducement to enter with pictures of the prizes (as with the comic advert)

- instructions

- an entry form (likely listing the Spooks, with a box by each one for entering the appropriate number from 1 to 8). Perhaps, as with the Luminous Fish promotion, this was on the packet top instead.

- terms and conditions.

3D Manor Instructions

Steve L. remembers these as being at the side, not the back of the box (that was also the case with the peephole theatre promotion).

Steve Moore drew this splendid diagram of the construction of the Haunted Manor. The instructions on the box would have conveyed similar information. The text suspend your witch/bat/apparition is quoted from memory.

(Given the proportions of the artwork, the dashed line shown across the top of the packet would have likely been at the back of the packet, towards the top, instead.)

9/2025: Of course, in order to build this, the bottom strip of the upstairs wall becomes the floor of the gallery! As Quaker made pretty decent 3D models for some of their other cereal packets of that period, I can only assume that the so-called '3D' feature was a late decision made after the artwork had been completed. Or perhaps it was to save space for whatever else was there on the back of the box? See Steve L.'s build for his vision of how the 3D Haunted Manor would have looked had Quaker done this properly!

Stewart comments:

Regarding Steve's note that the doorway was possibly cut out, that was definitely the case as I remember doing so, which I would not have done if it was not in the instructions. It would have been cut along the top and down the two sides as far as the top of the handrail, and then along the sloping line of the handrail. That would enable Alf to be suspended from a thread attached behind the top of the doorway. The spaces between the balusters in front of Alf were not cut out as part of the instructions, in keeping with the simplicity of the model, and it would not have detracted from the look of it, even though part of Alf would not be seen.

'Spooky' Steve tells me:

It was definitely meant to be 3d i remember destroying several boxes before getting it right and only then with dads help. I think the instructions started.......Cut down sides of box to start of bannister. Cut along bannister to top of stairs.........That was the only cutting and it was shown by solid lines. You can see them clearly on the site image especially if you enlarge it. the remaining 2 lines are fold lines and are shown as dotted lines. The first runs along the very top of the stairs and go between the 2 bannisters in line with the very bottom of tillys dress where its most noticeable. The second and final fold line is far less obvious. I was certain it was below the first but no its above it and runs pretty much in line with the top of the wooden chest below the 2 windows occupied by winnie and bertie. Just fold these 2 lines and its job done......

Usual Information

Contents, weight etc. If the story contest and instructions had been squeezed onto one panel, then the other may have looked something like this, again, taken from the Peephole Theatre:

(By contrast, the Farm Animal promotion has just half of one panel with this information, the rest being taken up with the model).

D. ENDS OF PACK

Perhaps there was a reference to the Luminous Spooks here as well? (Promotion name was on the Peephole Theatre and Farm Animal end panels).

Perhaps, as with the Luminous Fish promotion, the competition form was on the packet top.