Toy prizes- where have they gone?

Remember when cereal boxes used to come with cool prizes?  Now they seem to be either watches, CDs, or some mail order merchandise.  Where have all the cool prizes gone?

I'd love to see the "toy and candy" snacks seen in Japan.  You'd get a little plastic figure on one end and a packet of gum or chocolate balls on the other.  It made the snack seem more permanent.  You could display your figure as a sort of trophy for eating that snack.  All forms of licensed kid friendly anime make their way as snacks, or at least rice toppings. 

As cool as getting toys with your candy is, I don't know how well it'd fly in the US.  They can't even sell Kinder Surprises with toys in them there, because kids might choke or something. Feh.  I await the day when some dumb kid tries to eat the figurine, chokes, and it all goes to hell.