Snack foods, instant meals, cereals, and drinks tend to come and go, but the ones we remember from childhood seem to stick with us. Children of the 1970s and 1980s had a veritable smorgasbord of ill-conceived and nutritionally suspicious fare to enjoy, and still miss their unusual packaging, unique smells, off-the-wall flavors, and the sheer insanity that went into conceptualizing them. Here are the discontinued foods we miss the most.
Space Food Sticks
These weren’t just snacks — they were a taste of the future. Pillsbury developed Space Food Sticks under contract with the U.S. aerospace program, and early versions traveled with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon in 1969.
More flavors were launched on Earth and were a hit as they felt light-years cooler than regular old granola bars. Available in chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel, they had a soft, chewy texture that felt a little space-agey but totally delicious. Every bite felt like you were preparing for your next NASA mission.
They vanished by the 1980s, but not before cementing their place in the snack hall of fame for kids who dreamed of being astronauts.
Mug-O-Lunch
Betty Crocker rolled out hot dishes made in a mug in 1976. “My wife’s a magician,” says the happy husband who gets the macaroni and cheese version in a cup. Modern microwave versions make this seem less impressive.
Reggie! Bar
Yankees legend Reggie Jackson was so popular that Standard Brands made a candy bar and named it after him, which fans used to throw when Jackson was at bat. This mid- to late-1970s confection had milk chocolate, peanuts, and gooey caramel, similar to the Baby Ruth bar.
Swanson TV dinners
A turkey or fried chicken frozen TV dinner encased in foil was where it was at in the 1970s. You had to perform surgery to extricate the peas and carrots baked into the fruit cobbler that lay between the potatoes and the veggies. These were a staple dinner for Friday nights ahead of “The Brady Bunch.”
Baron Von Redberry
In 1972, it was safe for Baron Von Redberry, a WWI German pilot who flew around spreading his berry-flavored oat cereal with berry marshmallows in a General Mills concoction that turned milk into fruit punch.
Redberry’s catchphrase was “Baron Von Redberry is der berry goodest!” while pilot Sir Grapefellow, with his own fruit cereal, replied: “Tally ho! Sir Grapefellow is the grapest!”
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Fruit Brute Cereal
The era was off the charts for sugar consumption at breakfast. General Mills introduced this “fruit flavor frosted cereal + marshmallow bits” in 1974 with a werewolf mascot on the box. Quentin Tarantino sometimes plants this retired cereal as a prop in movies. Fruit Brute was briefly resurrected by General Mills in 2013 and again in 2022, but hasn’t been seen since.
Marathon Bar
This 1970s treat was a long braid of caramel covered in chocolate, thin and very long — proven by the ruler graphic printed on the back of the wrapper. With a name suggested by the decade’s fad of running and jogging but Old West-style marketing, it was tasty but confusing.
Hi-C Ecto Coolers
This memorable beverage was launched as a cross-promotion with the movie “Ghostbusters” in 1989, when Hi-C rebooted its classic Citrus Cooler as a bright-green drink featuring the film’s Slimer character.
It briefly came back in honor of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” which debuted in November 2021, but is no longer available. Good news, though: Fans figured out how to make their own dupe using Tampico Citrus Punch and Minute Maid Lemonade.
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Keebler Fudge Magic Middles
Neither the chocolate fudge cream inside a shortbread cookie nor versions with peanut butter or chocolate chip crusts survived. But the 1980s fave gets rumored returns and tantalizing dead links from Walmart and Amazon.
Fruit Corners Fruit Wrinkles
If you were a kid in the ’80s, there’s a good chance you had a pouch of Fruit Wrinkles tucked into your lunchbox. These chewy, bite-sized fruit nuggets were like tiny candy raisins, except way more fun. Available in wild fruity flavors, they were easy to snack on and a little too easy to finish in one sitting. Fruit Roll-Ups eventually stole their spotlight, and Fruit Wrinkles quietly disappeared. But true fans still remember those colorful packets and the satisfying chew of each little wrinkle.
Jell-O Pudding Pops
Once a beloved treat of the ’70s and ’80s, Pudding Pops were a freezer aisle favorite that blended the creamy texture of pudding with the chill of a popsicle. Initially launched by Jell-O, these iconic frozen snacks came in classic flavors like chocolate, vanilla, and swirl. Their rich, smooth taste made them a go-to summer indulgence, often associated with nostalgic TV commercials.
Despite their popularity, Pudding Pops were discontinued in the early 2000s due to declining sales. While other brands have tried to replicate the magic, none have captured the same creamy nostalgia of the original.
Hershey’s Bar None Candy Bar
Hershey’s Bar None was introduced to the world in 1987 (and in Canada was called a Temptation). Made of milk chocolate-flavored wafers filled with chocolate cream, then covered with crushed peanuts and a coating of milk chocolate, it tried to compete with Twix. The “tame the chocolate beasty” candy fell into oblivion, then was given new life when Iconic Candy reintroduced Bar None in 2019 (though it is currently sold out).
Nabisco Swiss Cheese Crackers
This 1980 snack cracker looked like a piece of Swiss cheese, complete with holes, but America didn’t care. Canada still has access to Christie Swiss Cheese Crackers.
Danka
Toast’em rolled out their own 1970s Danka toaster snacks, which sort of looked like a real pastry. The Toast’ems of today don’t have this continental flair.
PB Max
Peanut butter and chocolate topped a healthy, oat-filled cookie made with whole grains for a Mars confection that was ahead of its time. Now this describes just about every other energy bar out there.
Koogle Peanut Butter Spread
Before seemingly everyone was allergic to peanuts, this spread from the 1970s ruled. It came in a chocolate version — the closest most of us would get to Nutella for a while — and a handful of other flavors, touted as a spread that didn’t make your mouth stick together.
Aspen Soda
The late 1970s was when Pepsi introduced the refreshing apple soda called Aspen. It was eventually revamped and rebranded as Apple Slice, before that brand also disappeared. A “crisp and crystal clear” drink with “just a snap of apple,” Aspen was gone by 1982.
Hostess Chocodiles
The Chocodile was a chocolate-covered Twinkie with a reptilian mascot, Chauncey Crocodile, who claimed “It takes a while to eat a Chocodile.” (It didn’t.) This 1980s cult classic had a 2014 mini reboot when Hostess made it in a tiny fun-size form.
Nabisco Cheese Tid-Bit
Over time, competitors like Goldfish and Cheez-Its have stolen the cheesy goodness thunder, but true fans can move to Canada and return to enjoying what are known as Christie Cheese Bits.
Nintendo Cereal
Gamers may have eaten up Ralston’s Nintendo Cereal System, a box of paired crunchy, colorful cereal that promoted “Super Mario Brothers” and “The Legend of Zelda.” But not enough — it was game over after one year in 1989.
Banana Frosted Flakes
Super sweet Frosted Flakes have never left the cereal shelf, but adding banana flavor seemed to go too far in the early 1980s. This cereal lasted only about three years, though there’s a Banana Creme version back on those shelves now.
Hickory Farms Chocolate Bars
These flavored chocolate bars were at Hickory Farms mall stores all across America in the 1970s. At least there are still some malls and Hickory Farms stores.
Dinky Donuts Cereal
Early 1980s breakfast cereal Dinky Donuts started advertising by playing into the decade’s weird business fetish, featuring kids in suits giving “expert” opinions about Ralston’s cereal made of little doughnuts. Were the kids indicted for insider trading? Dinky Donuts is just one of the many discontinued cereals we wish they’d bring back.
Oreo Big Stuf
Kids from the 1980s could find this oversized treat wrapped in individual plastic packaging. A precursor to the Oreo Mega Stuf, the Big Stuf consisted of one giant Oreo the size of your palm, which stuck around for seven years until it was discontinued in 1991.
More Food Nostalgia From Cheapism
- 17 Discontinued Canned Foods And Drinks That Fans Still Crave — Campbell’s Pepper Pot Soup, Hunt’s Snack Pack Pudding, and other classics that once filled pantries now only live in memory.
- 20 Retro Foods Only Boomers Still Eat — Nostalgia served on a platter: Jell-O salads, liver & onions, and more.
- 12 Discontinued Foods From the ’90s Most People Forgot About — From PB Max to OK Soda and SnackWells, Cheapism rounds up ’90s snacks you’ve probably forgotten—and wish you hadn’t.
