Hidden Treasures

Hidden Treasures launched from General Mills in 1993 with a genuinely novel gimmick baked into every box. The pieces were sweetened corn squares in cherry, orange, and grape, and they all looked the same on the outside — but only some of them hid a burst of fruity filling inside, while the rest were hollow. The mascot was a robot named H.T. who presided over the guessing game.

The appeal was the suspense: you couldn't tell a loaded square from an empty one until you bit down, which turned an ordinary bowl into a small game of chance. It was clever, but it was also a short-lived experiment — Hidden Treasures barely lasted a couple of years, disappearing by the mid-90s alongside its stablemate Sprinkle Spangles.

For the kids who ate it, the memory is that specific little thrill of the crunch and the maybe — the split-second before you knew whether this particular square was carrying its treasure or came up empty.