FOOD

Hobbits are always hungry....hungry for wonderful grocery store premiums. Check these out-everything from cereal cards to painted cookies. Baked Beans? Pizza? Everything but Lembas. 

Frodo and Sam never would have left the corner grocery had they seen these....

Please note, food related items are my very favorite collectible of all. Painfully, I had to whittle 2,000+ photos down by 90% in the interest of space (and sanity). I do not show complete sets. If there's some set in particular you need a photo or closeup of, drop me an email .

Australia Kentucky Fried Chicken Kids' meal box, popcorn chicken boxes. KFC in Australia distributed a truly hideous set of animated busts.
Australia Cadbury's chocolate bars There were a whole series of these wrappers
Australia Cherry Ripe candy bar
Belgium Quick restaraunt chain, similar to a Waffle House, only.....better menu, I'm sure! They did a promo bag and wallet.
Brazil Buzzy One of my favorite Lord of the RIngs items. Foilwrapped packets included a card, and a piece of gum wrapped with a tiny (but brilliantly coloured) mylar sticker. The cards are completely unlike any other LOTR promotion, because of the eyepopping colors. There was even a nice album available to hold the huge sticker collection.
Canada Kentucky Fried Chicken Hungry for the Quest scratch off ticket   French Canadian drinks holder, used at KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut.
Canada Pizza Hut pizza box
Canada, UK, and US Pringles Pringles did an entire series of cannisters, different ones for each country.
Canada Dare cookie company these came with a small sticker in the box. There were three versions.
France Epi cheese stickers and holographic doo-dads. The holograms came packed with little pieces of cheese, in a nut-like case (shown). The 3d lenticular cards have a notch on one side, no idea why. They have brilliant color, and quick "movement".                   I don't know how or with what product the stickers were packed.
France Editions du Chocolat Chocolate Press Kit Maybe issued by Channel 7 TV? The "CDrom" is actually a piece of handmade chocolate, in a gatefold sleeve, to look like the real thing.
France (also in the UK) Nestle Two versions of activity studio type CDroms, green and blue.
France Nestle Cell Phone Rests These pop out and form a cradle to rest your cell phone on. They were cereal box premiums.
France Nestlé Various cereal boxes versions, with a 3d lenticular card insert right on the front of the box.
France Unknown licensee I am guessing that these were a cereal box or similar type promotion. I have never seen these before or since. They seem to be extremely rare, perhaps even prototypes? They are tiny, tiny sticker sheets. Rather than being lenticular, these are true holographs. Colors are bright when tilted into light, at an angle. The stickers are mounted on pieces of cardboard, and wrapped in cellophane packets.
France Auchan snack bag  from department store bistro
France Broussard snack cake company two versions of iron-on decals insert in boxes of brownie snacks. Images are supposed to be backwards, til ironed on.
France Harry's Doo Wap   chocolate chip French snack loaf These came with a series of trading card sheets, which you could cut up. They formed a trading card game.
France Aviko snacks
France Oasis Oasis orange juice did a series of small magnets. I didn't find out til some time later that the magnets are really gamepieces that go with the special, metal folder/gameboard. The game is called STAKS, and may have something to do with Panini, which is a European company printing sticker albums, similar to the Merlin stickers we know and love. This is one of the neatest of the LOTR promotional items. I am very fortunate to have found a gameboard!     The last picture in this group is a huge (about 15 inches tall by about 15 feet or so long) corrugated paper banner, probably given to Oasis retailers.  The image repeats on the banner, so it can be cut to different lengths.
Germany Kelloggs
Hungary Pez / Fun Cards Packs of cards, each came with some strips of Pez candy, and a couple of cards. The final card was the rare "Mystery Card", which pictured Frodo. Many of the collectors lucky enough to have part or all of this set don't even realize there is a mystery card. The red box held several of the smaller packs of cards, and is also marked with a "Megaplex" logo. These may have been a theatre promo?
Italy Panzani Ravioli I don't know much about this promotion. This is the only item I've been able to find.
Japan Bourbon In spite of the rather titillating name, Bourbon is simply a snack food/beverage company in Japan. They had one of the most extensive of the LOTR licenses, and released a large series of cards, buttons, cell phone hang tags, and more. In the interest of space, I cannot picture all of the Bourbon items here, so have chosen a few favorites from each series. This includes water-bottle hang tags with small colorful buttons, a lovely set of trading cards that were packed with chocolates, a cookie tin, stickers, cell phone danges which were packed in boxes of chocolates, and an "activity kit" type CD rom which was packed in a snack box. There is even a wonderful paper Po-Ta-To "cannister".
France and Germany Kelloggs 3d lenticular cards, inserted in cereal boxes. Series were released for FOTR and TTT. Most the cards are in German,  but note that some are also in French. A complete set of the cards forms a trading card game. There is a gameboard, not sure where it came from. Looks like the back of a cereal box, only it's printed on both sides. In addition, there are small punch-out character figures. Again, cereal box type cardboard, but perforated figures wouldn't make sense on a box, would they? There was aso a VHTF boxed set of Two Towers cards. I haven't seen a FOTR set, don't know if one was issued.
Korea Chips of some kind
New Zealand Burger King NZ had an exclusive set of movie postcards.
Poland Nutella drinking glasses See here for the complete Nutella drinking gass collection
Poland Nutella 3d lenticular hex cards
Poland Lays Heat sensitive dot on the doublesided plastic cards reveals hidden powers in this TCG. There are also winner cards in this series. One side has villains, the other has a hero.        have no idea what product the folded cardboard cards came from. If any one knows, please drop me an email
Poland Star Foods Stickers
Portugal Eurochocolat "Bombons" chocolate bon-bons, with bookmark insert (shown)
Portugal Gallo Olive oil. This is the brochure. I was never able to get a label or bottle, unfortunately. There is a fabulous Lord of the Rings based  TV commercial here.
Portugal Sunny Delight Promo poster. Another item I'd give my eye teeth for a container of.....
Portugal Nestlé
Russia Bubblegum Sorry, I can't translate the names of these companies, so am going to lump them all in one box. The art on a couple of these boxes is just staggeringly beautiful. Most brands packed small stickers, wrapped around the pieces of gum. One brand apparently packed trading cards, but I'm nt sure which brand it was. IMHO, the boxes are far more "worthy" than the cheaply made, poorly printed stickers.
Spain Euro Cola magnets I don't know anything about this promotion, or if there were any other versions of these.
Spain Popitas microwave popcorn each packet of popcorn came with an attractive  sealed trading card. The cards had powers, and formed a trading card game. There was also a promotion to win One Ring versions.
Spain Choco Bolas looks like malt balls, a family favorite. I had the devil of a time keeping folks out of these. Thankfully, they are pretty well petrified by now. The Choco Bolas were packed with small coins, two versions, an antiqued  One Ring version, and a golden Gollum version. These coins are sought after by European collectors. There are only the two versions that I know of.
Spain Risi snack company. Their license was an overwrap on their regular products, offering the chance to win Lord of the Rings contest prizes.
Spain Burger King
Spain Tosta Rica Choco Guay Cuétara "Rich Toast" butter cookies An amazing (and little known outside Spain) promotion. Some of the cookies had Lord of the Rings character art "painted" on their surfaces with food coloring. You could eat Frodo or Aragorn (steady on, boys and girls). Boxes had movie art on the covers, and inside were inserted popup cardboard gamepieces. At some point (I'm guessing box top mail-ins) you could get a special boxed gameboard.
Spain Telepizza Telepizza is a fast food chain in Spain. They had licensing rights for a series of three cool games, including Tic-Tac-Toe , and a couple of others. Here are random selections from their offerings.
Spain Nestle
Sweden Quaker Oats exclusive Merlins stickers also poster inserts. I've only managed to get one poster, but have seen photos of others. The Quaker Oats posters rank up there with the True Confections wrappers for "best licensed product art".
Turkey Lays Cheetos magnet
UK Bassett's trading cards from packets of candy cigarettes. The flip side of each card has a section of  the Map of MIddle Earth. A complete set forms the complete map.
UK Bassett's The guys who make those great multicolored licorices also made neat gümmi Lord of the Rings Candys, including Jelly Rings (ha!) and Fruits of the Shire. These were sold everywhere. Yet another petrified treasure from my Shrine.
UK "I can't Believe it's not Butter!" One of my favorite silly all time promos from one of the all time silliest named products. These came in several sizes. (Kisses to Krystyna for eating so much faux butter for me!)
UK Goodfella's Pizza Frozen pineapple pizza. Tasty as lembas, one would hope.
UK Nestle (also in France) one of 2 promo CD roms, blue and green, with Activity Studio type things on them.
UK HP Baked Beans I always have this visual of orcs, sitting around the fireplace, like in Blazing Saddles.....if ya know what I mean...... The mint condition four pack was the kind gift of the assistant to the product manager at HP. She was so tickled at the thought of a crazy American trying to get a bean can label, she sent the entire pack to me at her own expense. I have truly met some wonderful people during my LOTR adventures. It is one of my prized LOTR possessions. The two odd shaped things are shelf "wobblers". They attach to a supermarket shelf via the adhesive on the narrow end, and wobble in the breeze, to attract shoppers' attention as they walk by.
UK Burger King  tray mat with the infamous "Raspberry Fart" dessert. Burger King in the UK distributed clamshell boxes with small plastic figures, which also included a framed film "cel". Similar figures were distributed elsewhere in Europe, as well as in and Australia.
UK Cadbury's Cadbury's did a series of Easter eggs (one with a color changing mug), and Advent calendars for the UK.
USA True Confections Oversized candybars, wrappers unfurl to reveal a beautiful "mini-poster" on the inside, with art unique to this product line. There are 24 candy bars (2 of each design) to each cigar-box styled display box. The candybars were quite expensive, designed to be sold in theatres and mall type candy stores, but didn't go over well, probably because the chocolate wasn't very tasty. As the company president said (paraphrasing here), "We're selling impulse buys, not good chocolate".   A smaller series was released for Two Towers, and then New Line sued the company into oblivion, for failure to pay licensing fees for Lord of the Rings, Scooby Doo, Spongebob, and other New Line/Warner Bros licenses.
USA True Confections (See above)
USA True Confections Mints Proto-type, never released for sale
USA Burger King Burger King did promos in several countries. The USA included lightup goblets (4 versions), a set of figures that lit up and talked. Images here also include the Kids Meal newspaper, and a couple of in-store displays.
USA Kelloggs Pop-Tarts with CDrom EA game promo           Corn Pops cereal box with game tips   Store display with pad of free posters still attached