It’s that time of year again. Time for the return of the ultimate trio of monster cereals.

Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry, of course.

I was at Target today and snapped the picture above of a Count Chocula box. It was part of a display, near the checkout, of the three General Mills monster cereals.

Talk about your impulse buy aimed at 30-, 40- and 50-somethings.

Although there are plenty of indications General Mills makes the three cereals year-round, they seem to show up on store shelves every fall.

General Mills’ own website makes the connection to the fall release of the cereals:

Remember the excitement of autumn back in your childhood years?

Fall brought pumpkins, falling leaves, and a fun holiday when you could morph into anything you desired. With a mental image of the character selected, you devised a brilliant Halloween costume idea. There were parties, caramel apples, and chewy peanut butter kisses, and breakfast.

Monster breakfasts.

Count Chocula and Franken Berry were introduced not for Halloween, though, but in March 1971. Boo Berry, a ghostly figure, came along in December 1972.

General Mills doesn’t say so, but the cereals were almost certainly intended to capitalize on the rebirth of interest, beginning in the late 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, of the classic Universal Studios monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy.

That interest had been kicked off by the release to television of the “Shock Theater” package of 30s and 40s Universal horror classics.

While I was fond of the cereals, I don’t remember some of the spin-offs and freebies. Like a record, “Monster Adventures in Outer Space,” that must have been included in cereal boxes.

Anyone else remember the two discontinued monster cereals? I can’t say that I remember either Fruit Brute or  Fruity Yummy Mummy.

They were introduced at a later date and didn’t have a long shelf life. Pun intended.

The monster images changed somewhat over the years. Above is an earlier Count Chocula image.

One thing that hasn’t changed? The monster cereals are “part of this nutritious breakfast!”