Cereal boxes – from 2016 Open House “Cabinets of Wonder” ephemera collection at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. This collection is entitled ‘Breakfast is Good for You’. The collector is identified as ‘IS’ and their occupation: Cleaner.

IS claims: “I started collecting a lot of things that I found in the kitchen when I was a boy – matchbox covers, footy cards and toys’ and trade cards from breakfast cereals and cards from packets of tea. I have just kept collecting. I spend my weekends trading cards and have become an expert in the area.”

Another collector: ‘ASH’ has entitled his exhibit “When Cereal Companies Cared about Kids”. He is a curator. A popular culture website advises that there was a time when cereal manufacturers wanted to make breakfast fun not healthy. In this golden age almost every box of cereal contained a little plastic game, toy or gadget. The kitchen table became a playground. it was  a weekly variation on the annual coins in the Christmas pudding. Was there more time to linger over breakfast? Did cereal companies really care about kids or did they just want kids to pester for their toys and so their cereal?

The Crater Critters were made in Australia by Rosenhaim and Lippmann. They were distributed worldwide inside Kellogg’s cereal boxes in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were 8 critters in the full set and were inspired-lunatic artistry.

• Perhaps these are examples of Snap, Crackle & Pop Art