The Rosenhain and Lippman (R&L) 1968 Crater Critters Cereal Toys were issued twice in Australia .
The set consisted of 8 characters:
- Kingly (King)
- Clever (Glubber / Gloob)
- Cranky (Miss Venus)
- Crawley (Gloob / Glubber)
- Creepy (Bugsy Backbone)
- Curly (Jodrell Jim)
- Kindly (Lunartic)
- Kooky (Upsy Downsy)
The first release was in 1968. Series 1 was only issued in 4 colours of purple, lilac, lime, and orange.
The second series had some moulding variations but the same basic characters and a wider range of colours: purple, lilac, lime, orange as per series 1, and added red, dark green, dark blue, dark brown, Pink, and perhaps some yellow although it was not an officially released colour.
When trying to establish which series but a general rule is that if there are more than one and any of them have the series 2 colours then it is more likely that they are all series 2.
I’ve split my collection into obvious series 1 and series 2 where I am clear on the provenance of the items. The variations in the moulding of series 2 also help distinguish these from the first series.
The series was based on another series from Japan in 1966 with two different characters.
The gallery for the series differences includes some photo’s to help explain the difference in mouldings and colours between series 1 and series of Crater Critters.