The thrill of the hunt: a cereal serial

Okay, luck was on my side last night. Last week I bought two huge boxes of cereal, but no toy in either box. The new Star Trek movie premiums are only in one out of every two boxes of certain Australian cereal types, and in large-sized boxes only. Although I still had one and a half uneaten boxes of Sultana Bran (ie. a Raisin Bran analog - but residents of the USA should see the size of Aussie raisins!) in my pantry, it was time to try again.

I trudged off to a different supermarket and found the Star Trek Warp Speed Ball offers on both large Corn Flakes (Game #3) and Sultana Bran (Game #2 again). Both previous cereal boxes came with Game #2 board printed on the back. I just opened both new boxes and scored a blue planet Warp Speed Ball in the Sultana Bran and an orange-ringed planet version in the Corn Flakes. So my score has evened out again and I might even try for the third colour/design.

Essentially, it's a funky little elliptical stopwatch that counts up to 99.9 seconds. You can use it in two modes: as a "Speed Challenger" (set it, throw it, run to it, stop the counter, check the speed of your throw); or as a "Stop Watch" (set it, throw it, run to it, stop the counter and check your running time in seconds). Although the cereal box art makes it look like a solid key chain thingie, it has a printed padded material cover. The movie logo, Starfleet insignia and planet are screen printed. The instructions warn that the included battery is not replaceable.

Game #2 is the "Supermassive Black Hole Game", in which you try to toss the Warp Speed Ball through a small target hole you cut out of the box art. Game #3 is simply a set of score cards to do team relay games with the Warp Speed Ball.

I have so much Kellogg's cereal to eat, it seems rather cruel to try testing my running speed at the moment.