What exactly is the Kicks Anomaly?
Kicks Anomaly is a piece of deformed cereal that was discovered in 1990 by a 9-year-old boy. He was eating a popular kids cereal out of a cup (no milk) when he was overwhelmed by a strange desire to look in his hand. Among a dozen or so normal shaped corn-puffed balls was an extraordinary find. Kicks Anomaly had been discovered!
He gave the anomaly to his mom and after about a good week of laughing with friends and family, the anomaly was soon forgotten.
It wasn’t until 2005 when the boy, now a 24-year-old man, was reunited with his childhood discovery. He had graduated college and was moving into his first house when his mom pulled him aside and said she had a very important gift for him.
She gave him a bulky envelope. He carefully tore it open and reached inside. What he retrieved was the anomaly, housed in it’s original toy jewelry box. It was loosely nestled inside the blue base next to a piece of tissue. His mom had saved it for him for over a decade!
He has held on to it ever since...
waiting for the right time to show the world
what he had found so long ago.
The anomaly is a deformed piece of Kix cereal by General Mills. It was discovered by a boy when he was eating cereal out of a cup.
It was found decades ago. The exact date is unknown but consulting with the boy’s mom and older brother, they believe it was discovered between 1989 and 1992. His mom said she remembers that Johnny Carson was hosting the Tonight Show because she had considered writing a letter to the producers about the discovery. The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson had sketches showcasing odd items (i.e. the Potato Chip Lady Prank in 1987) so interviewing a child about the strange object in his cereal wasn’t too unusual. Johnny Carson left the tonight show in 1992.
The dates align with his older brother who remembers being in high school when it was found. His older brother was in high school from 1988 to 1992. This means the boy found it between the ages of 7 and 11, or 1st grade to 5th grade. He remembers being very young when he found the object because he was ashamed to show his parents and thought that he would get in trouble. The boy, brother, and mom all agree it was probably discovered in 1990 at 9 years of age, as a 3rd grader.
Many things had to happen just right for the anomaly to be discovered. One might say the odds are so rare that it must have been Divine Intervention for, not only it’s creation, but also it’s discovery and preservation:
- Somehow the object was formed during the production of the cereal and then packed in the box and shipped for consumption.
- Out of all grocery stores where the brand of cereal was sold, the box of cereal made it to the family’s preferred grocer. It also required that out of all the boxes of cereal at the store, the family picked the Kix brand cereal, and unknowingly grabbed the box that contained the anomaly.
- The boy had the lucky serving which contained the extraordinary item. This is especially true in his household where he had two older brothers. Anyone living in a house full of boys knows how much food is consumed regularly!
- By chance, the boy chose to pour the cereal in a cup and eat from his hand rather than use a bowl with milk and a spoon, the standard way to eat cereal. The reason why the boy did this was because he was watching cartoons from his parents bed… dry cereal out of a cup was a practical choice, less to cleanup if accidentally spilled!
- The mom saved it for over a decade until the boy graduated college and bought a house. Only then did she feel he was mature enough to guard and preserve the rare object.
The boy who discovered it over 30 years ago still owns it. However, it is up for sale. Purchase the gold Kicks Anomaly and the physical anomaly will be transferred to you.
This is a very good question and if you read the STORY page then you already know the answer. The boy presented his discovery to his mom shortly after realizing what he had found. After a week or so he forgot about the physical object. Little did he know his mom kept it in a plastic case with a tissue for over a decade. She gave it back to him in 2005. The boy has kept it throughout his adult life. It now resides at a secure location, and remains in the small plastic case that his mom used over 30 years ago.
The anomaly is around 0.9 inches tall, 0.5 inches in wide, and 0.25 inches thick. The image shows how it compares in color and size to a new piece of Kix cereal. The photo was taken 17 Sep 22.
