I was just wondering if anyone else was familiar with these. If you see the links below, you can see some pictures of these Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mini-paint books that came with a promotion in Cookie Crisp cereal back in 1978. On the second link I posted, you can see some pictures from one of the books itself. (Note: As far as I know, the only info on this was just on that one blog page. The rest of the blog gets sexual in nature at times and not everyone may want to see that- just so you know.)
http://nancydrewsleuths.blogspot.com/2009/11/nancy-drew-hardy-boys-cookie-crisp.html
http://victorhodge.blogspot.com/2010/09/cool-nancy-drew-stuff.html
http://hardyboys.bobfinnan.com/hbom.htm
I thought about trying to track them down on Ebay or something, but I don't know if it would really be worth the effort to collect them or not. If I find them for a reasonably cheap price or something, I might grab them up, but I can't see paying a ton of money for these even if they are collectibles. I can't tell if there are actual storylines included with these books or if it's just comprised of pictures to paint. Anyway- it's an interesting little collectible and pretty cool because it's an early pairing of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. :) 8)
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3134/2853568597_1eafb2f9ff_o.jpg) (http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3134/2853568597_1eafb2f9ff_o.jpg)
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3291/2853568589_d3449460f5_o.jpg) (http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3291/2853568589_d3449460f5_o.jpg)
There were 6 of these altogether and here are the titles:
Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys Meet The Mad Scientist
Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys And The Visitors From Tomorrow
Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys And The Eerie Castle
Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys And The Cursed Jewels
Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys And The Secret Cave
Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys And The Sea Monsters
(http://images.cloud.worthpoint.com/wpimages/images/images1/1/0211/11/1_45b08b1b513997b2d83fa0b912ca1014.jpg) (http://images.cloud.worthpoint.com/wpimages/images/images1/1/0211/11/1_45b08b1b513997b2d83fa0b912ca1014.jpg)
I found another picture of some more of these.
(http://static.flickr.com/2225/2451609927_3a22855cd0.jpg) (http://static.flickr.com/2225/2451609927_3a22855cd0.jpg)
As you can see on the Nancy Drew Sleuths page, there were other cereal promotions around the same time period- Lucky Charms had an offer on the back of the cereal box to order the Adventure Activity books that were released for both The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, and Raisin Bran had an offer on the back of the cereal box to order the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mystery Stories books (the Grosset & Dunlap hardbacks, revised text.)
It looks like the Cookie Crisp promotion ran through 1979 at least, according to this blog (http://cerealpriceguide.blogspot.com/2012/09/ralston-cereal.html).
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rr0h_V-cmHQ/Ugumlc3mTcI/AAAAAAAAJfg/WA_48jTN8Ik/s1600/1979ccnd.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rr0h_V-cmHQ/Ugumlc3mTcI/AAAAAAAAJfg/WA_48jTN8Ik/s1600/1979ccnd.jpg)
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5495/11393083206_f0456cc060_b.jpg) (https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5495/11393083206_f0456cc060_b.jpg)
Wow- I didn't know Cookie Crisp had an Oatmeal Cookie version of the cereal at one time. Cool! :) 8)