This advert from the Wolverhampton Express and Star, dated 5th October 1966, for "Shredded Wheat with Batman Adventures" tells us that the Batman promotion must have been this early, if not earlier.
Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
Here's another completed Shredded Wheat panel for good measure; the owner has very appropriately added the title from his transfer sheet:
And finally, a couple of Shredded Wheat transfers:
As previously mentioned, these sheets are just the Panorama single sheet cut up into six. But it's nice to show the corroborative evidence!
Vita-Brits
Nabisco, being multinational, owned not only Shredded Wheat in the UK but also Vita-Brits in Australia.
Original photo by Chris Leonardas
The pastel blues & oranges of the Shredded Wheat panels suggest the same artwork as that described for the Vita-Brits packets, although it might seem counterintuitive for an Australian cereal packet to feature an American TV show set in London!
Original photo by Pete Marko
When Vita-Brits ran their Letraset Batman promotion, nearly a year-&-a-half later than the UK's (as is shown by Pete Marko's photo, above, of an ad for the Batman packet of Vita-Brits dated February 1968), they used the same artwork for six of the transfer Free Gifts, but commissioned six more transfers as well. "The Bank Robbers" was slightly re-titled "Bank Bandits". Here are two of the new transfers in detail:
Peter Archer doesn't remember creating the artwork for the additional transfers, & on the grounds of style I'm inclined to agree they were someone else's work.
Vita-Brits transfer sheets scans of the other ten sheets in the range of twelve, with their blue backing papers, courtesy of Robert Welk & Daniel King:
Original photos courtesy of Robert Welk & Daniel King
Comparison of Shredded Wheat & Vita-Brits
Vita-Brits transfers measure approximately three inches square, whereas the Shredded Wheat are approximately 5" by 2½". The Shredded Wheat transfers use four spot colours, whereas the Vita-Brits use only three; this meant no white ink, which is why they appear considerably darker (the darkness has been compensated for here, to make these images clearer).
The six Vita-Brits with the same titles as the Shredded Wheat clearly use the same original artwork, but it is slightly reduced in scale. Look at these two examples of the same subject, for size reference:
Original Vita-Brits Renegade Robots scan courtesy of Robert Welk
A detail from each, for more direct comparison:
Vita-Brits Backgrounds
Pete Marko has a couple of packet backs he's kindly shared with us:
Original photo courtesy of Pete Marko
Original photo courtesy of Pete Marko
He's tidied this one up for clarity, & by the way you can see that it does use Peter Archer's original Shredded Wheat artwork just as we conjectured years ago — unlike the packet back above it, which is new.
As a footnote, Weeties (also owned by Nabisco) ran a contemporaneous promotion in Australia, with very similar cereal box artwork, declaring: "There's a different Batman bonus in packets of Vita-Brits too!"
Oh, wait — here it is:
Nabisco Weeties Batman Promotion
Original photo by Chris Leonardas
Original photos by suffolk-stamps
"Seven sets of five cards plus five bonus cards"
— This does, indeed, add up to forty, but the bonus cards are identical, which is why you don't see forty cards above. The bonus is the one marked "Wham! Pow! Bang!".
• Next Page: Tarzan Panorama [1967] →
• ← Previous Page — Batman Panorama & Shredded Wheat
• Next 'Free Gift Transfers with Breakfast Cereals' Page: Shredded Wheat Tarzan [1967] →