Introduction

This is my collection of cereal cars from the 1950's and 1960's. Just click on the buttons at the top to view samples from each year of issue. I got the collecting bug purely by accident when surfing the eBay auction site. Suddenly I saw a little plastic car that looked like the cars that came free inside boxes of Post cereal when I was a child. My collection now consists of several hundred of these little gems. I began researching the history of these toys and found a large group of collectors competing with each other to fill the gaps in their collections. I constructed this site to show off my collection, but to also help others with information about this interesting hobby.

Short History

The concept was that if you placed an inexpensive toy premium into a product that children wouldn't otherwise want, it will sell. Bingo! The craze began. The plastics used to make these premiums went through an evolution and improved in later years. Problems with warpage and fragile pieces breaking gave rise to the low survival rate of the eariler premiums. Metal axles on plastic wheels were later replaced with one piece plastic units due to child safety concerns. The two major producer of these premiums were the F&F Mold and Die Works of Dayton, Ohio (Fiedler & Fiedler) and the John V. Zimmerman Company of St. Louis, Missouri (JVZ Co.).

The main reference source of information for this website was taken from "Free Inside - SCALE MODEL CAR!" by Larry Blodget. Mr. Blodget has informed me that there is a CD version of his book being produced which goes into a deeper realm of these plastic cars.