Discontinued Lunchables That Should Make A Comeback

In 1988, food for children was revolutionized when Lunchables hit the shelves. Sold in a yellow cardboard box with a protein, a carb, a drink, and a sweet, these little snack items made feeding kids easier than ever. And the best part? Kids loved them. Seemingly every child in America has had a Lunchable, and the food is still just as popular now as they were when it debuted. Per The Atlantic, in 2017, the brand sold $1.36 billion worth of Lunchables.

Throughout its three-decades-long tenure, Lunchables has offered dozens of different meals. Never afraid to try something new, the company's efforts haven't always been successful, and many Lunchables have been discontinued.

Some bygone Lunchables were a little gross and weird, but some were really tasty, and many fans were genuinely confused and upset when they were discontinued. Though we doubt Oscar Mayer is going to do as we ask and revive these meals, consider this our formal ask. Here are the discontinued Lunchables that totally need to be brought back.

First in our list of Lunchables we'd like to be resurrected, we have the All Star Burgers and All Star Hot Dogs. These little wonders came in separate packages, one with burgers and another with hot dogs, but were often marketed together. In the late '90s, when the All-Star Burgers and All-Star Hot Dogs were introduced, Oscar Mayer employed its signature claymation for the commercial, featuring a hungry kid scoffing at his dad's idea of having egg salad for lunch. "Dad, we need an all-star lunch!" the kid said.

The All Star Burgers came with two patties and two buns, the All Star Hot Dogs included three dogs and three buns, and each package contained a full-sized can of soda. Though the All Star packages probably weren't too healthy, as most Lunchables in the late '90s weren't, they sure were fun to eat.

Not everyone gave the All-Star Burgers and All-Star Hot Dogs a great review, though. Per The Baltimore Sun, one 5-year-old girl said the burgers, "Did not taste real good." We're assuming other similar reactions were the impetus for the All Star's retirement. Sadly there aren't burgers of any kind available in Lunchable form anymore, but you can still purchase Lunchables Mini Hot Dogs.

The late '90s and early aughts were replete with kids' snacks that were as fun as they were unhealthy, including Lunchables Fun Snacks. Fun Snacks was a special line of Lunchables that wasn't meant to be a full meal, but rather a tasty little snack that you eat in a similar fashion to their heartier counterparts — by assembling the food yourself.

Lunchables Fun Snacks came in a variety of options, including the Chips Ahoy! Soft Cookie 'n Frosting, as a collaboration with the famous cookie company. Included in this package were a large chocolate chip cookie, white frosting, and sprinkles. The package also came with an instrument meant for spreading the frosting, which Oscar Mayer needs to reinstate in all Lunchables with spreadable food.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone was a fan of this Fun Snack. Lunchables hasn't entirely replaced the Fun Snacks line, but there is a dessert or candy in almost every package.

Another delicious Lunchables Fun Snacks that we desperately miss is s'mores. And we have to say, this particularly Fun Snacks was a great idea – it's hard to package s'mores as a snack, particularly in a typical Lunchable. Instead of trying to do too much, Oscar Mayer gave s'mores its own moment to shine.

The package came with graham crackers, marshmallow frosting, and mini chocolate chips. S'mores Fun Snacks also included the spreading tool, and we'll once again ask the powers that be to include them in the Lunchables produced today.

Lunchables are universally loved by kids for many reasons, one of them likely being that consumers are able to customize their food. Eaters of this tasty snack were able to spread as much white frosting as they wanted and sprinkle as many chocolate chips as possible, making for a loaded and delicious s'more. As a Taquitos reviewer pointed out, "It's not in the same league as the s'mores that you made over the campfire as a kid, but it's not bad."

It's hard to say why these are no longer available, but there is a suitable alternative – Lunchables S'mores Dippers. The frosting and chocolate chips are still included, but instead of a graham cracker, there's a graham dipping stick.

Lunchables also included Fudge Brownie in its Fun Snacks collection, and this was introduced to consumers with an enticing commercial. The advertisement, of course, featured a claymation family with an inventive child who has the most fun when assembling a Lunchable.

Fudge Brownie Fun Snacks came with a gooey fudge brownie, chocolate fudge frosting, and, as expected, colorful sprinkles. The entire snack was like a Cosmic Brownie you had to make yourself.

One special edition of the Fudge Brownie Fun Snacks featured Spider-Man on the packaging and included red and blue frosting and red and black sprinkles. A Taquitos reviewer was particularly unimpressed with this Lunchables offering, noting, "I think the brownie tasted better with the toppings than it did without, but I'm someone who can really enjoy a good brownie, and I thought that this was nothing great."

Oscar Mayer must've given up on Lunchables brownies altogether because no sweet treat available today even comes close. However, you may be interested in trying Lunchables Dirt Cake – a package of gummy worms, chocolate frosting, and chocolate crumbs.

Lunchables went big with its Fun Snacks collection, and it teamed up with another famous cookie brand — Oreo. We'd love to know why the Oreo Cookies & Frosting Fun Snacks were discontinued because by all accounts it should've been a better version of eating Oreos. The package included Oreo cookies, white frosting, and small chocolate candies. Although it wasn't healthy, it was sure tasty.

We'd love to tell you the saving grace here is that Lunchables still include Oreos, but that unfortunately isn't the case. Instead of opening a Turkey + American Lunchable to find the tasty, classic cookie, buyers will now find what Oscar Mayer describes as a "chocolate sandwich cookie."

This discovery has upset consumers, including former NFL player Ross Tucker. "Just had a near riot at lunch when kids realized they replaced Oreo [with] 'Chocolate Creme Cookie,'" he said in a Tweet. If a former professional football player can't convince the company to bring back real Oreos, who can?

A final Lunchables Fun Snack we'd like to see in grocery stores again is the Marshmallow Crispy Square. This was essentially a Rice Krispies Treat, but you got to add your own marshmallow frosting and sprinkles, making it both messier and more fun to eat.

The Lunchables Marshmallow Crispy Square Fun Snacks must've been wildly unpopular because there's not much information on the snack today. Aside from photos, it's hard to even confirm it once existed. But Marshmallow Crispy Squares are not a Mandela Effect phenomenon; they really were for sale in grocery stores across America years ago.

Further fueling our assumption that this Fun Snack option wasn't a Lunchables hit? There's nothing even remotely close to Marshmallow Crispy Squares today. The only Lunchable that sort of compares is Cookie Dunks, but that's a bit of a stretch. But instead of being upset, we'll take solace in the fact that there are, and always have been, Rice Krispies Treats available for purchase.

Lunchables are appealing for many reasons, but chief among them is their size. It's hard not to love food when everything is small, which is why we loved Lunchables Mini Burgers. This little morsel of happiness included two little patties that could be squished in between two little buns, packages of mustard and ketchup for extra flavor, the classic Lunchables drink (a Capri Sun in fruit punch), and, of course, a candy. It was an entire cookout in one adorable yellow box.

Lunchables marketed its Mini Burgers as ready-to-eat, claiming they didn't require any heat to be consumed. And although that was technically true — you weren't going to die or get sick from consuming it cold — we can't help but wonder if perhaps they would've sold just a little bit better had eaters been encouraged to microwave the Mini Burgers to improve the flavor.

People found a way to improve the taste without using a microwave, though. One reviewer mentioned adding salt and pepper to add flavor, and added that the Reese's Pieces it came with made for "the perfect little snack."

Although Lunchables is still serving breakfast food with its clever Brunchables (more on that in a moment), we'd like to see the Lunchables Waffles make a comeback. Inside the classic yellow cardboard were strips of waffles perfectly portioned for dipping, a packet of maple syrup, a packet of icing, sausage patties, orange juice, and a cereal bar. The box was essentially a breakfast buffet, and it was a real treat.

Not everyone was so taken, though. One reviewer tried the Lunchables Waffles and was unimpressed with, well, everything. "They taste old like they've been stored in a warehouse since World War I. The texture is somewhere between spongy and ratty drapes," they said.

Nowadays we're left with Brunchables, a meal kit that includes a flatbread, sausage, bacon, or ham, cheese, and a mini muffin, and the reviews are far better for these than the Waffles. One reviewer said, "They are so good that you can only buy a certain amount of them." Perhaps Lunchables made the right call with Brunchables, but we'd still be happy to see waffles return in some capacity.

Understandably, Lunchables has gone through many different iterations of its food. While we used to have Maxed Out Lunchables available to us, we now have Lunchables Uploaded, and, in our opinion, Maxed Out was superior.

The Maxed Out Lunchables were a sight to behold. They included all of our favorite foods like pizza, nachos, and chicken strips, they just had far more food inside. The pizza was sold as a deep dish, and the nachos included heaping amounts of tortillas, nacho cheese, and salsa.

So, why did these delicious Lunchables disappear from shelves? Per AdAge, the Maxed Out Lunchables were discontinued due to rising criticism that the brand was contributing to rising cases of childhood obesity.

But don't be too sad. There are still options available that are quite similar to Lunchables Maxed Out. There's Lunchables Deep Dish Pizza with Pepperoni, Lunchables Nachos Grande with Cheese Dip and Salsa, and Lunchables Chicken Dunks.

Lunchables has offered a variety of taco stylings over the past 30 years, but only one of them is worth making a comeback, and that's Lunchables Mini Tacos. This box of the famed kid food included tasty tortillas, seasoned ground beef, cheddar cheese, taco sauce, a Capri Sun, and Nerds candy. They were fun to put together, and they were always far more exciting to bring to school than standard Turkey and Cheddar (though we do love that, too).

But, as noted, Lunchables had other tacos that didn't quite hit the mark. Lunchables also sold the Mess With Your Mouth Tacos as part of its Mess With Your Mouth collection, which included various sour and mystery flavored candies, which children were encouraged to eat right alongside the main meal to, well, mess with their mouths. It was very confusing, and it's easy to see why those didn't last long. And for the record, we are not in favor of Mess With Your Mouth anything making a comeback.

Lunchables still sells a chicken dish – Chicken Dunks – but once upon a time, the company had something even better: Italian Style Chicken. Sure, this meal could be construed as a lazy way to introduce another culture's food, but you can't expect too much from a brand that's built on forcing consumers to assemble the product themselves. Lunchables are the Ikea of food.

We can see why Italian chicken didn't last, though. The only reason it even qualified as Italian is because it included mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce, as well as chocolate pieces in the colors of the Italian flag. Was it authentic Italian food? Of course not. Would we still like to see it return? Yes.

Since it's unlikely that Italian chicken comes back, though, we'll enjoy the Chicken Dunks, a very American meal that includes chicken nuggets, ketchup, Nerds, and a Capri Sun — all the makings of a quintessential Lunchable.

Lunchables has largely walked away from the dessert game and now mostly focuses on meals. It makes sense as almost every Lunchable includes a dessert or candy of some side kind, but we liked the brand's strange, overproduced desserts and wish that one, in particular, would return – Cinnamon Rolls.

The desserts and candies in Lunchables are small, but Lunchables Cinnamon Rolls were big, and they came along with both icing and applesauce, as well as orange juice and a strawberry fruit roll. How lovely does that sound? It's reported that the Lunchables Cinnamon Rolls were discontinued due to low ratings, but we cannot say for sure. We can, however, formally pitch the idea that cinnamon rolls be somehow incorporated into Brunchables.

The remaining Lunchables dessert options include S'mores Dippers, Dirt Cake, and Cookie Dunks. All toothsome options, but nothing will truly replace the gooey decadence that was Lunchables Cinnamon Rolls.

We hate to complain about a bygone pizza product because we're happy that Lunchables Pizza still exists in multiple forms. There's Pizza with Pepperoni, Extra Cheesy Pizza, Pepperoni & Mozzarella, Mozzarella and Pepperoni, Pizza with Pepperoni Kit, Pizza Treatza, Deep Dish Pizza with Pepperoni, and Extra Cheese Pizza Meal Kit. However, the pizza offerings at Lunchables would be complete if it were to bring back Pizza Dunks.

Sure, Pizza Dunks were essentially just breadsticks — the packaging even confirmed that — but they were a lot easier to eat than any of the current pizza Lunchables because we didn't have to spread the sauce around. We simply had to dip. For pizzas today, we have to assemble, which can be inconvenient if you're not eating Lunchables at home. Again, we hate to complain when we're totally able to get our pizza Lunchables fix. We'd just like to enjoy them any time, any place, without using our hands as spatulas.