In recent weeks, fans have been receiving many of the cool mail-in premiums they sent away for when Kellogg's new Star Wars promotion started appearing on store shelves in April. What many may not realize, however, is that Kellogg has a long-standing relationship with Star Wars that goes as far back as 1980, when The Empire Strikes Back was just hitting theaters for the first time.

Don't remember seeing any Empire Strikes Back promotions touted on the back your Corn Flakes box? Well you wouldn't, unless you lived in Australia. Kellogg's first foray into that galaxy far, far away occurred exclusively in the land down under with a promotion that lavished eight unique cut-out masks on the back of 500g and 750g Corn Flakes boxes. Extremely difficult to find even in Australia, these rare examples of early Star Wars cereal box art are hotly sought after by a growing set of collectors who have an appreciation for the early promotional breakfast tie-ins.

"I got into collecting Star Wars cereal items because it was so challenging," says Star Wars super-collector Gus Lopez. "People generally save books, trading cards, toys, records, or posters, but almost no one saved cereal boxes from 25 years ago."

Lopez and others have amassed a comprehensive checklist of various Star Wars cereal boxes, premiums, and displays from around the world at his Star Wars Collector's Archive website. The number of Star Wars-related breakfast items showcased there is truly staggering, revealing that having Star Wars for breakfast is truly an international pastime.

For Return of the Jedi, Kellogg returned to Australia for a promotion that included 15 round Jedi Name Decoder Game pieces, with neighbor New Zealand chiming in with a set of 12 square stickers. These, in addition to two sets of Ewoks card premiums from 1984, represent the most challenging Kellogg's in-pack premiums to track down for today's collectors.

Fortunately, 1984 was the year Kellogg brought Star Wars to North American cereal lovers in a product wholly devoted to the Star Wars breakfast enthusiast. C-3PO's, a crunchy honey-sweetened cereal in the shape of figure-eights, launched in the year that Star Wars began to wane from the public spotlight, and was heartily welcomed by fans who still enjoyed waking up to Star Wars every morning. Three different promotions were offered in and on the boxes of this short-lived cereal (C-3PO's had their on-shelf memories wiped by 1985), including a set of six cut-out masks, three "Rebel Rockets," ten Stick'R trading cards, and a mail away offer for a quartet of random Kenner Micro Collection figures.

Canada also took part in the C-3PO's promotion, and featured some unique attributes that distinguished it from the U.S. series. Only four cut-out masks were available there, but there were double the number of trading cards (the U.S. promotion featured a sticker on the trading card). And to peak collector's interest, there's even a rare size C-3PO's box that's exclusive to Canada, which features a subtle variation to boot.

"Kellogg issued a small (individual size) C-3PO's cereal box as part of a multipack," explains Lopez. "These boxes are extremely hard to come by and after I came across two, I noticed there was a small variation in the printing where one had a dagger on the front and the other did not. I think most collectors would not care about something like this, but for me this was an exciting find as the small-size is one of my favorites."

Kellogg took a decade-long hiatus from Star Wars after C-3PO's left market shelves, re-emerging with an exclusive Froot Loops promotion in 1995 that offered the first mail-away figure in the new Kenner Star Wars action figure line: Han Solo as a Stormtrooper. Also available through an offer on Apple Jacks boxes was an exclusive comic book, as well as a "Making of Star Wars" video mail in offer on Corn Pops. The video, also available in Canada, was the first time the 1977 documentary had been available to the public since the early '80s.

Over the next couple of years, Kellogg's Star Wars promotions would return to Canada once more, offering a series of Shadows of the Empire cut-out cards in 1996 and a set of three Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition lenticular box fronts in 1997. With the release of The Phantom Menace in 1999, however, Kellogg's would take Star Wars to Europe with a multi-promotional campaign.

Over a dozen countries throughout Europe carried Episode I Kellogg promotions, the broadest being a series of ten mini-bust statues of various characters featured in the The Phantom Menace. An obscure set of 6 transparent Episode I "crystals" was a regional exclusive available to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, with distribution a bit wider for a series of six Star Wars spoons featuring character depictions molded into the handles. This idea would be re-invented for the Saber Spoon promotion recently offered inside Kellogg's Revenge of the Sith cereal boxes.

For Attack of the Clones, again Kellogg would offer promotions throughout Europe, most notably a set of six figural statues exclusive to the northern regions of the continent. Strangely, Darth Vader was included among the set of Episode II characters, even though he was not featured in the film.

Canada again received some very nice exclusives for the Kellogg's Attack of the Clones campaign, including a set of six Episode II Rubik's Cubes featuring the faces of both prequel and original trilogy characters on each. Available in jumbo boxes was an Episode II poster book which mapped out the various character connections throughout the saga, and what probably amounts to the largest in-pack Star Wars cereal premium offered to date: an over-the-head fully dimensional plastic clone trooper mask. The mask was only available bundled with a multi-packs of Kellogg's cereal or as a mail-in offer, and remains one of the most noteworthy Star Wars cereal premium promotions to hit the breakfast bonus landscape in quite awhile.

That is, until Kellogg's returned to the U.S. and abroad this year with a global Star Wars campaign that has outshined all others. Cookie jars, plates, Saber Spoons, snack bowls and more are all making their way to collectors everywhere, bringing Star Wars back to the breakfast table in a big way.

"The Episode 3 Star Wars cereal promotion by Kellogg seems to be bringing Star Wars cereal collecting to new levels," says Lopez. "I have heard so many collectors express interest in the Crispix R2-D2 bowls and the Saber Spoons, and as a result the Star Wars cereal collecting area attracts even more interested collectors into this exciting space."

Even after a quarter-century, Kellogg's is still pouring out the fun at breakfast with great Star Wars premium collectibles.