The Box: 4/10

Meh. That's what I get out of this box. This box does nothing for me. Not to say that it's outright terrible. It's not. But this box is bland. There is no soul to this design. It's like an old, beige Honda Civic: the basic, uninteresting, unoffensive wallpaper of your life. Your eyes overlook such sights in pursuit of the visually interesting. And this box is not visually interesting. But it's got some cool nutrition facts so that's cool.

The Mascot: N/A

The Look: 5/10

It basically looks like dry whole wheat bread. It still looks a little appetizing, though. It has those little specks on the surface that make you wonder, "Ooh, is that cinnamon? Is that brown sugar?" It's probably wholesome grains and all that noise, but one can dream. The ridges provide the main point of visual interest, making one wonder what such a texture will taste like.

The Scent: 8/10

One of the strongest scents of cinnamon and brown sugar I've smelled in a while. There's a little hint of toasted malt as well. This cereal smells amazing and makes me want to plunge right in.

The Taste: 3/10

There's a reason Special K advertises that it satisfies hunger. I'm not really interested in eating this cereal. At first taste, you're hit with this wonderful mix of cinnamon and brown sugar. But before those flavors can spread across your tongue and develop in flavor...something comes over your tongue and removes the majority of the flavor, reducing the cereal pieces to tasteless nothings and taking away your appetite. The pieces are nicely crunchy, but it doesn't have that crunch satisfaction I get from Cap'n Crunch. If Special K wants me to lose weight by eating less, it's working.

The After-milk: 7/10

Creamy and, by retaining all that cinnamon and brown sugar, sweet and satisfying.

Conclusion: 5.4/10

Understanding why this cereal is so unappealing in taste is to understand Special K itself. Special K concerns itself more with providing healthy food for the people than with tasty food. Special K does not appeal to those who choose cereal solely for its taste and we can tell. This cereal quite efficiently took away my desire for it. Thanks for making me healthy. I will never eat you again.

The Box: 7

It is a striking box upon first glance, with its royal purple color serving as a backdrop to the appetizing donut cereal pieces in the foreground. Within the well-known blocky, serifed font of the cereal's title, a semi-cursive font is used for the words "Sprinkled Donut" to elicit the feel of small town, mom-and-pop bakeries. A nice touch. The back is designed with poppy, bright colors and swirling flairs, as if there was a bakery in Alice's Wonderland. On the left side, there are facts about donuts. On the middle-right, a square game with donuts in place of the usual box. It's a pleasant box to look at and it serves the product well. I rate it an seven, however, because I feel like there could be more happening on this box. Whether it be more art and design or activities to keep the diner occupied, this box as it is feels incomplete, or an effort that is "just enough" to get by. Also, as children are the primary demographic for a cereal like this, donut facts and a square game will be interesting for about three minutes, so the youngsters will have to rely on memes and games for entertainment. It's not bad. It's just enough.

The Mascot: 10

He's Cap'n Crunch. He's an absolute icon in the world of cereal. A celebrity by all means, and without the typical drama and beefs that plague non-fictional celebrities. He fights off the evil Jean LaFoote for being French and sails through neighborhoods to crunchatize small children. Look, I have no clue how to talk about Cap'n Crunch crunchatizing small children without making it sound like he's a predator. Crunchatizing is all cool, believe me. And consenual. I might have made it worse now. Nevermind.

The Look: 9

They look like donuts. Straightforward. To clarify, they are beige rings with tiny sprinkles on them. And yet you can still see the familiar brittle texture of Cap'n Crunch on them, which assures the diner of a truly crunchy cereal experience. Again, they look like donuts. And good donuts. But I rate it a nine because I think Cap'n Crunch could have gone one step further and applied some sort of frosting-esque coating on one side of the donuts. Or all sides. I mean, on the cover itself, the good Cap'n is inside a donut with vanilla frosting on the side facing us. So, by staying away from that final step, this cereal gets a nine.

The Scent: 9

I am immediately hit with a strong, sweet scent of vanilla. And when sniffing it a few more times, I get this pastry scent, like a scone or a danish. It smells like a vanilla ice cream cone drowning in a sea of sugar. It is a simple, but absolutely scrumptious scent. If this were an air freshener, this would be in my car always.

The Taste: 9

I definitely taste that strong, sweet vanilla with the hint of pastry as a backdrop. It tastes like a really good donut. It's highly appetizing and highly addictive. The sprinkles give the cereal an extra boost of that pastry sweetness and provide an additional crunchy texture. I have always been a fan of Cap'n Crunch's famous crunchy texture and it certainly works here, for while the taste makes the diner think of donuts and sweet pastries, the crunchy texture reminds them that they are still eating cereal. It's an incredibly sweet and satisfying taste that will no doubt make me come back for more. 

The After-milk: 9

Though the after-milk loses a tiny bit of that sharp pastry punch found in the cereal, it definitely makes up for it by combining the pastry flavor with the milk's inherent creaminess. It's like a luxury coffee creme or a beverage I might have at Christmastime. It tastes like whole milk combined with a splash of french vanilla or light Irish creme. As an after-milk, it is a champion and definitely worth waiting for at the end of the meal.

Conclusion: 8.75

Cap'n Crunch's Sprinkled Donut Crunch may be a gimmick, but it's a logical gimmick: take two foods, both of which are known for being sweet, bready breakfast items, and combine them. And unlike other cereal gimmicks, SDC handles the flavor smartly. By mixing together the best elements of the two foods and leaving out the negatives, SDC gives us a cereal that keeps and even surpasses the promise it makes in its name. Though it is held back slightly by a visually-pleasing, yet rather uninteresting box, Cap'n Crunch's Sprinkled Donut Crunch is a sharp punch of pastry sweetness to the face that will leave you begging for another hit.

The Box: 8

The front of the box is very eye-catching with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America giving us all the Kubrick stare. You do get the sense that the picture used was one of many green screen pictures from a promotional picture day with no elements advertising the cereal aspect other than a picture of the cereal bowl itself. The back of the box, however, is just awesome. Sure there's another one of those picture day photos, but there's A SECRET CODE ON THE BACK. AND YOU COULD WIN A MOVIE TICKET FOR THE AVENGERS. Basically, fantastic.

The Mascots: 7

They're the Avengers. They're cool. They blow crap up. It's nice. It's fun. However, there's no interaction with the cereal. This, coupled with the fact that they are not cereal-original (they couldn't come up with a Cereal Man or Super Cereal Guy?), causes them to lose points.

The Look: 4

Disappointing. If you had shown me this cereal and asked me what brand it represented, it would be a very long while before Avengers would even be considered. Being a Lucky Charms knock-off, it of course consists of two types of cereal pieces: marshmallows and oat pieces. With the marshmallows, we're looking at bare-minimum effort. There are red circles with yellow circles in them (I'm guessing Iron Man), blue circles with red circles in them (I'm guessing Captain America), completely green circles (either the Hunk or gangrene), and grey circles with red circles in them (either Ultron or Black Widow, but probably Ultron). The oat pieces are what really get me. They're simply squares with circles in them. What are they? What aspect of Marvel lore do they represent? Is it...is it supposed to be the Tesseract? Look, I know Tesseracts. I've studied them. I'm seen them. I've chatted with them. That is no Tesseract. Now this would all be different if this were a smaller production. But this is Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron. This is big-budget Hollywood. I expect the marshmallows to at least somewhat represent their characters and I expect the Tesseract pieces to bend the fabric of reality when I eat them. For shame.

The Scent: 6

An extremely prominent oaty smell backed up by a hint of mud in front of an upper-middle class family's house. Very earthy. Not the most exciting smell, but not bad.

The Taste: 6

Very, very similar to Lucky Charms. If I were blindfolded and asked to eat this cereal, I'd probably spill milk all over myself at first. But then I would put the cereal into my mouth and declared it to be Lucky Charms. However, knowing that it's a different brand, I can detect differences. The sweetness is not as strong as in Lucky Charms, thus letting the oaty flavor dominate. This isn't to say it's bad, it's just different. I rate this low not because it tastes bad, but that it's formulaic and doesn't do anything. Now this isn't to say that knock-off brands are inferior. In fact, the Monopoly cereal, also a reiteration of the Lucky Charms, was absolutely superb and far outdid Lucky Charms itself. It also came with a CD of Monopoly for the computer, which was awesome. Avengers: Age of Ultron cereal just seems like a copy of Lucky Charms. Nothing special.

The After-Milk: 7

A staple of the Lucky Charms-style cereal is a nice after-milk. This is no expection. The oaty flavor comes in strong, but is held up by a gentle sweetness. It's like Cheerios after-milk with a bit of perky french vanilla put it. It doesn't change the color much, though. I determined the final color to be cotton white, a slightly dimmer, dirtier white. Not bad. I would certainly buy this after-milk as a standalone product.

Conclusion: 6.5

This is an average cereal. It doesn't do anything different, it doesn't experiment, it doesn't challenge. It's ordinary, run-of-the-mill. It's not a bad cereal and it certainly seems fun to eat during this whole Avengers craze, but as a standalone product, it's just okay. I guess I would recommend this cereal to anyone who just wants an okay cereal with superheroes on it. I would still like to see a Cereal Man superhero.