Cereal Box Models - Card Kits. What's the story?

[Jimarko]

Hi,
I have spotted a few printed card kits in OO/4mm scale by "Cereal Box Models" on eBay but haven't heard of them. Internet search results are pretty slim other than the eBay sales. The kits look interesting, fairly architectural.
Does anyone know the history of "Cereal Box Models", how big a range of kits were made and if they are still available?
TY

Jim

[ELTEL]

Not seen them before.

 

I can however recommend the Scalescenes Kits, there is a large range of kits available as well downloads of items for scratch building.

 

Once you have purchased and downloaded the kit you can make it as many times as you want to.

 

You can also buy from Chrisden Models the  pre cut card for many of the kits.

 

Chrisden Models will be at the Stafford Exhibition over the weekend of 23rd & 24th September.

 

Terry 

[Nearholmer]

Maybe it means the ‘cut out and build’ models that were sometimes printed on cereal boxes ‘in the old days’. I can’t remember any specifics, but I do recall that there were such things.

[Paul H Vigor]

2 hours ago, Jimarko said:

Hi,
I have spotted a few printed card kits in OO/4mm scale by "Cereal Box Models" on eBay but haven't heard of them. Internet search results are pretty slim other than the eBay sales. The kits look interesting, fairly architectural.
Does anyone know the history of "Cereal Box Models", how big a range of kits were made and if they are still available?
TY

Jim

I believe you get printed paper sheets that you stick to sheets of card (one might use cereal box card, or better!)? Like using more exotic brickpaper? They require some more old-school modelling skills - cutting out, not pressing out components, etc.

 

I suspect brick buildings would work OK using this method, but stone buildings may lack surface texture? 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Paul H Vigor
to add information

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Looking on Ebay they have some nice models. The GWR coaling stage looks very interesting. And not too expensive. I would be interested to know of any one has built any of their kits and what they thought.

[Jimarko]

From the reference numbers on the eBay ads, it looks like there were at least seven building kits. They look comprehensive and include printed acetate(?) windows.
Only "CBM5 Abbotsbury Station" seems to have be modelled elsewhere by Gilmour/Mainline.

[brossard]

3 hours ago, ELTEL said:

Not seen them before.

 

I can however recommend the Scalescenes Kits, there is a large range of kits available as well downloads of items for scratch building.

 

Once you have purchased and downloaded the kit you can make it as many times as you want to.

 

You can also buy from Chrisden Models the  pre cut card for many of the kits.

 

Chrisden Models will be at the Stafford Exhibition over the weekend of 23rd & 24th September.

 

Terry 

 

Scalescenes kits are excellent I find.  Building one is akin to scratchbuilding with the painting done for you.  In my case Scalescenes are ideal because I can scale them to 7mm.  I always use high quality card as well as foam core (because "Heavy card" scales to 3.5mm in 7mm and cutting that is exhausting).

 

I hadn't heard of Chrisden and their products look to be useful, although not to me.  Cutting the base layers is very tedious.  I also have to make my own windows and doors, also time consuming.

 

https://www.chrisinden.co.uk/scalesceneskits

 

John

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

Problem with Scalescenes and some others is you need a printer.

 

Most of us ditched them years ago....

 

 

 

Jason

[brossard]

24 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

Problem with Scalescenes and some others is you need a printer.

 

Most of us ditched them years ago....

 

 

 

Jason

 

...and a good quality printer at that.  For me, my printer is an essential modelling tool. 

 

John

[MartinRS]

6 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Maybe it means the ‘cut out and build’ models that were sometimes printed on cereal boxes ‘in the old days’. I can’t remember any specifics, but I do recall that there were such things.

That's what I thought though it looks like Cereal Box Models is a company. Kelloggs produced a model village, either in the late 1940s or the 1980s, depending on who you believe.

 

It gets a mention at philsworkbench.  You can find Jpeg versions of some of the card models at toyconnect.blogspot and the littlehousecards site hosts three png version of the building kits, with recommendations on scaling factors. I'll see if I can find a more permanent site which has been backed-up at the Wayback machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Maybe there were versions at various dates: I certainly wouldn’t remember the 1940s, not having been alive, and the 1980s doesn’t ring a bell. If pressed, I’d say 1960s or early 1970s, but of course it may have been another cereal maker.

[MartinRS]

There is a (or was) a US web site which attempted to list and depict every cereal box variation (including those from the UK) ever produced. I don't have access to the url (if I ever made a note of it) as I'm not using my PC at the moment. I will have a look at the notes on my PC at home later on. My only interest in the site was for links to card building kits. 

[Steamport Southport]

1 hour ago, MartinRS said:

That's what I thought though it looks like Cereal Box Models is a company. Kelloggs produced a model village, either in the late 1940s or the 1980s, depending on who you believe.

 

It gets a mention at philsworkbench.  You can find Jpeg versions of some of the card models at toyconnect.blogspot and the littlehousecards site hosts three png version of the building kits, with recommendations on scaling factors. I'll see if I can find a more permanent site which has been backed-up at the Wayback machine.

 

 

 

If you are interested in the cereal boxes and give aways try here. You can waste a few hours!

 

http://cerealoffers.com/home.html

 

 

Shredded Wheat did some when they offered the Grafar Shredded Wheat train in the 1980s. A couple here, ISTR there was a few different buildings.

 

http://cerealoffers.com/Cereal_Partners/Shredded_Wheat/1985-89/N_Gauge_Steam_Engine_-_Carriag/n_gauge_steam_engine_-_carriages.html

 

There was also the Kitmaster kits offer back in the day.

 

http://cerealoffers.com/Cereal_Partners/Shredded_Wheat/1960s/Kitmaster_Locomotive_Models/kitmaster_locomotive_models.html

 

 

Jason

[AY Mod]

43 minutes ago, MartinRS said:

There is a (or was) a US web site which attempted to list and depict every cereal box variation (including those from the UK) ever produced.

 

In a similar vein this is worth grazing - http://cerealoffers.com/home.html

 

I was referred to it when discussing interesting stuff you used get in cereal packets.

 

 

Hornby train set anyone? http://cerealoffers.com/Kelloggs/Cornflakes/1970s/Train_Set_/train_set_.html

[Free At Last]

14 hours ago, AY Mod said:

 

In a similar vein this is worth grazing - http://cerealoffers.com/home.html

 

I was referred to it when discussing interesting stuff you used get in cereal packets.

 

Wow, that took me back over 60 years. It was great being a kid in those days.  I ate cereals for my breakfast, dinner and supper to get those freebies. As soon as a new packet was bought I was rooting through the contents for the free gift or cutting the box up .

The frogmen that went up and down in the lemonade bottle, the submarine that submerged and surfaced using baking soda. I had a wall full of animal heads from the back of Cornflake packets, Shreddies Treasure Maps, Shredded Wheat Moon Rovers, the Rice Krispies Haunted House and luminous ghosts.

I remember sending for a 'Stanley Gibbons' stamp collectors set advertised in one of my comics, 1/- it was, it had a stamp album, magnifying glass, tweezers, trays to soak stamps in for whatever, a bag of mixed stamps and two books of colourful stamps from all over the world. I took them all out and stuck them in the album then got fed up with it and swapped them for something. A while later my mother asked me about it as she had a letter saying quite a bit of money was owing. Well I didn't know what approvals were. She wrote back and said it was their own fault for sending them to a child.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Free At Last

[Bill Radford]

19 hours ago, brossard said:

 

Scalescenes kits are excellent I find.  Building one is akin to scratchbuilding with the painting done for you.  In my case Scalescenes are ideal because I can scale them to 7mm.  I always use high quality card as well as foam core (because "Heavy card" scales to 3.5mm in 7mm and cutting that is exhausting).

 

I hadn't heard of Chrisden and their products look to be useful, although not to me.  Cutting the base layers is very tedious.  I also have to make my own windows and doors, also time consuming.

 

https://www.chrisinden.co.uk/scalesceneskits

 

John

 

 

Was at Stafford show last year and is booked again this year.

[brossard]

4 hours ago, Bill Radford said:

Was at Stafford show last year and is booked again this year.

 

Ah well, there are two things with that:

 

1) I'm in Montreal and

2) I do 7mm

 

John

[41516]

21 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

Shredded Wheat did some when they offered the Grafar Shredded Wheat train in the 1980s. A couple here, ISTR there was a few different buildings.

 

http://cerealoffers.com/Cereal_Partners/Shredded_Wheat/1985-89/N_Gauge_Steam_Engine_-_Carriag/n_gauge_steam_engine_-_carriages.html

 

Thanks to my Gran for eating Shredded Wheat back then, I have these. Looks like I was robbed of getting a brake coach!   I thought I had the other house too, maybe it will turn up one day.  Pretty sure this put me firmly in the 4mm camp, thinking back....

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by 41516

[melmerby]

I remember one of the cereals (Weetabix?) had cut out printed loco and carriage kits on their boxes that you could make into a not very good representation of a train.

[Nearholmer]

Is that Shredded Wheat train actually usable as a “push along’” on N gauge track?
 

If so, I reckon it’s pretty good stuff for a cereal packet offer, better than the pin-badges that seem more than a tad racist in retrospect, which used to be our breakfast collectibles.

[41516]

4 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Is that Shredded Wheat train actually usable as a “push along’” on N gauge track?

 

Yes, metal tyres on the Jinty, plastic wheels on the coaches, not brilliantly free running but good enough to push along and play with.   I remember there was also an article in the Railway Modeller later on about cutting the Jinty down to scale length.  Wonder if any of those are still about?

[RobinofLoxley]

Just came across this thread while doing research. Just to point out the obvious, the 'weight' in g per sq metre of the folding boxboard used for cereal cartons has probably halved in 40 years and many of the physical properties bar those associated with the printed surface maybe even more. I wouldn't use many of today's boards without laminating them