The X-Entertainment Blog!

07/17/2008: X-E's '08 Summer Megaparty: Burger Tyrant.

Bah, this shit's ridiculous. I've been seeing commercials for this Burger King "Club BK" kids' meal starring Pikachu and Apple Fries for a while now, and it seemed like just the type of neoclassic Happy Meal worth blogging about. I realize that Burger King doesn't make Happy Meals, but you know what I mean.

I expected the world, but what I got back was this sad, boring bag, with a Pokemon toy haphazardly shoved in with overcooked fries and crown-shaped chicken tenders. They didn't have Apple Fries in stock, which is kind of unbelievable. If there's one thing I'd never expect anyone to sell out of, it's APPLE FRIES.

That isn't what's bothering me, though. What really bugs me is the total lack of customized packaging. There's no "experience" to this.

BACK IN MY DAY, the Happy Meal was as much about its flashy bravado as its toys and cheeseburgers. Was there a single kid in the country who didn't at least try to keep the house-shaped Happy Meal box in perfect working order throughout their meal, free of folds and fry oil? Hell, a good many of us, myself included, went so far as to take those boxes home with us, working under the idea that we'd keep them forever and ever. We never did, but the fun was in the notion that we could.

Those Happy Meal boxes, with their colorful artwork and random puzzles, were as much a part of the filthy food experience as anything else. When McDonald's began phasing out the boxes in favor of less-artful bags, I was sad, but at least the bags still had the same gamut of illustrations and puzzles…albeit less colorful ones.

But this?! An unrelated bag lacking any kind of kiddy theme? APPALLED.

To protest, I refuse to acknowledge the neat holographic Prinplup card or the Pokemon-themed card holder it came with. Take that, BK.

In anti-celebration of this disappointing turn of events, I'd like to institute a new survey. In the comments, talk about your favorite Happy Meal toy ever. Yes, the free toys you got from other fine greasy food establishments are totally fine to talk about, too.

On the plus side: If getting pissed about the quality level of a Burger King "Club BK" kids' meal is the worst thing that happened to me today, I think I'm still in the black.

My fav fast food toy was from McD. It was those fast food items that transfromed into robots. My sec favs were the Nintendo toys they had when Super Mario Bros. 3 first came out. Also from McDs.

I always thought the Teenie Beanie Babies were a great deal, considering how they were perfect miniatures of the actual toys. I think I got them all, even the bears.

More than the toys that came with the meals, I enjoyed BK's premium toys, like the Toy Story Buzz and Woody puppets you could buy and the bean-bag reindeer they had many Christmases ago. And Alf puppets! And the Simpsons dolls! Damn, BK used to have great stuff.

My favorite toy was always the little red plastic firetruck that had the rip cord. I don't remember if it was McDs or BK, and it was a pretty cheap little toy, but man did I love when they brought it back as the happy meal toy every now and then.

Gotta go with the Super Mario 3 toys McDonalds put out. Man-o-man I just had to collect all of those - my poor parents allowed much McDonalds during that promotion in return for less begging.
Second best - Alien Mix-ups from Wendy's back in the (im guessing it was) early to mid 90's.

In terms of BK, though, I don't think anything will top those Simpsons dolls. I preferred BK's old TMNT promotion, but in terms of sheer must-have-immediately, that Simpsons promotion came out at exactly the right time. (I believe it was our first real chance to own such things, or at least, it was one of the first.)

I also loved the McDonalds McNuggets with costume changes. The Halloween ones were obviously the best, but I also remember have a police officer McNugget.

BK kids meals were always second rate. I mean they had those cartoon kids as their mascots that were drawn as cool "nineties" kids, but then they never updated them! The one kid was still sporting a flat top haircut in 1997! Anyway, any nintendo themed happy meals deserved a gold star.

Mine was probably a Millenium Falcon I got from Taco Bell when they did the Special Edition trilogy, back when I was too young to notice whether Greedo shot first or not… Ah, the memories.

BK may not have the flashyness of Mcd, but I always prefered thier food to McDs. BK is by no means a Gourmet resturaunt, but at least their food is SLIGHTY edible, as opposed to McDs food, which is something I can't imagine even cockroaches enjoying. lol.

When I was little and Living in Alaska, We had to drive 45 minutes to get to the nearest McDonalds or Fastfood joint in general. So the treck down to Anchorage was something to be celebrated only through Birthdays. My Birthday unfortunately falls on Dec. 9th. So We could never ever go because Dec. in Alaska is pretty much like walking through the Ice Age.

Well one year, my dad made this big announcement that he's going to go to McDonalds to get me a Happy Meal for my birthday. But I wasn't allowed to go just in case the car broke down. I was 6 at the time and we were in the midst of a horrible blizzard.

So my dad goes out an gets into the SUV and heads out into the storm. Three and a half grueling hours later he returns. With a SINGLE happy meal.

My two brother were FURIOUS. Dad walks up and hands me the Happy Meal and says "Whew, I'm glad I went when I did. They give out special toys to kids having Birthdays, and the storm has caused them to be in short supply. I wonder what special toy they put in there?"

I opened my happy meal and beneath the extremely cold French Fries, and hard as a rock Cheeseburger, I saw the corner of a Box. I pull the food off and revealed none other than. MEGA MAN 2! for the NES.

I know this isn't technically a prize from the Happy Meal Collection. But I still have that game, with the French Fry grease stained box. It's proudly displayed on my bar in my apt.

To this day, I have never EVER received any present that I covet more than that game.

Was it McDonalds that had the Muppet Babies on big wheels? I played with those forever!

Also the muppet babies toys from the mid 80's at McD's and the Plushie Christmas Muppet Babies from Mcdonalds. The halloween mc nuggets also were cool.

The ALF hand-puppets were great! I remember getting ALF in a baseball outfit on a family roadtrip - still have him!

I don't know if these count as "toys" but i remember having the ghost, pumpkin, and witch pails from which my meal came in one halloween. My constant ebaying has yielded no results thus far.

On the actual toy front, nothing beats the chicken nuggets with their cusom halloween outfits. The looney toon figures that came from Arby's were awesome too

HOLD IT! scratch my last comment! My favorite wasn't really a toy but the vhs taped movies like wayne's world and indiana jones that were for sale there priceless

Oh man, now I'm thinking back to everything I loved as a kid. The Bambi toys were awesome! Linked in my name.

Buying a kids meal for the food? That is borderline un-american, but fresh McDonalds food is only slightly better than McDonalds food regurgitated.

Almost forgot, i also had all the TMNT video collection that was handed out by burger king way back in the day, i ran them till they were dead. I was impressed with the video game promo they were pushing for the x-box, until i saw it was only lame bk games

my anger at the fast food establishment makes me want to pwn some poor fool w/ Mr. Game and Watch

Being absolutely enthralled with Fraggle Rock, I loved the Fraggle Rock vegetable race car happy meal toys.

I think I still have some Muppet glasses that were handed out by one of the chains from back in the 80s. I think they did Star Wars glasses too. Probably my fav was when they handed out the Gremlins read along books that came with the 78 records. They had a whole series of them. I did not live very close to a fast food place so I only got a few, but they were great.

The best was the early 80's McDonald's Flying saucer with rubber alien. At my school there was a big craze over these. I seem to remember that there were four aliens and two of the four were harder to get than the other two. There was a lot trading associated with the rarer two, which were the cooler of the four, of course. There was one I could never obtain and it was the greatest of the four. I think I had a friend who let me see his for a few minutes.

Anyone remember when these chains could rule our world? i am in possesion of a McDonald's restaurant playset for the Little people collection. The closest thing i can find like this now-a-days is McDonald themed fake food at toys-r-us

When I was a kid, my Dad and I collected McDonalds toys and BK toys, and we've got a few 5ft high moving boxes with packaged toys in them.

My favorite, were the pullback cars featuring Ronald, The Grimace, the Hamburgler, and that duck-faced bitch with the goggles. I think they came out around 1984.

I think you mean you're still in the black? Alternately, you could be having a red letter day

I had a Genie (from Aladdin) toy that I carried around in my pocket as a little buddy for awhile that stands out as a sentimental favorite. I loved those Taco Bell Star Wars toys, and the ones Burger King did recently are great too. I keep spare change in Han Solo's carbonite casing. I think the Tiny Toons ones were my favorites of all the McDonald's car toys over the years.

A happy meal in a bag is like Star Wars toys with bendable joints. What is the world coming to?

My favorite thing was the Halloween buckets. I loved those. I also loved the Barbie toys and the transformer burger, fries, and nuggets. I also miss the foam containers…

I just found out, after, like 26 years, that the Grimace is supposed to be a tastebud.

Nintendoman, a tastebud? really? i always thought he was supposed to be something related to the shakes he represented. I feel a little thrown now, like juno with fingernails

Come to think of it, I remember being pissed that I never got the rarer Doozer toys…Wonder if ebay has them.

gingela5: I LOVED the Halloween buckets! =D I actually used them for trick or treating! Along with couple of HUGE pillow cases!

Grimace is a TASTEBUD?! HUH! Well that solves the mystery I guess. If it's true that is.

More trivia: Grimace was originally "evil" and had four arms for the purpose of stealing milkshakes.

Man, fast food toys. Got to love them. There's a McDonalds in Roswell, NM that has a bunch of old toys on display.

Any Happy Meal involving LEGO was automatically awesome. I mean, toys that you can integrate with your other toys? REAL toys, not cheap crap? Awesome.

I have a Men in Black memory eraser thing that I think was from Burger King. It's pretty cool because it's just like a miniature version of the movie prop. I don't think they made a "real" toy like it…I still have it, too.

Any Nintendo-related toys were automatic wins for me. I especially loved the Pokeballs from BK. Those were great. When they came out I used to go get two BK meals at one time, just to get two different toys. Bear in mind I was in High School for this. I never did get the elusive Pikachu toy, though.

Also, McDonald's boxes: I have a vivid recollection of collecting at least three of the Jungle Book boxes when it was re-released in theatres in the late 80s. You could pop out parts of them and connect them all to make a fortress.

Man, now I really miss happy meal boxes. Bags just don't cut it. You need the cool box.

My son has that same case. He saw the commercial and for the first time ever requested BK over McD's.

I remember the ship or boat happy meal. It was and always will be my favorite happy meal toy. I would totally consider buying THAT off of ebay.

I refuse to believe that Grimace, the purple Alien that I have come to know and love, is a Taste Bud.

I loved the Super Mario 3 toys, but my favorites were the oft-commented on McDs Changeables. Sadly, I was only around to have the versions that turned into Dinosaurs. But still, awesome. All the food was still served in styrofoam back then.

One of my co-workers discovered that our local McDs still carried the Big n Tasty, you just had to request it. I don't think I will, because as it turns out, it's actually the McDLT, but without the environment-destroying styrofoam package.

I couldn't remember any specific toys at all.
That is until norb mentioned the SMB3 toys, I think I had mario on a spring or something.
My memory aint what it used to be, I appologize.

The McDLT became the Big Xtra during the Arch Delux years, and then later the Big 'n' Tasty

Alot of fast food snadwiches are really the same thing, they just have different names.

9. These plastic big wheeled monster trucks from some local Pizza place in the town I was born in. Nothing special, but I had them for ages, and they were the first such thing I ever got from a food joint. They were called Stompers, or so my cousin who is getting married tomorrow said.

8. The Little Mermaid toys, particularly the Flounder that squirt water. My sis made me watch that movie until I hated it when she was 6, but I still counted those toys as awesome.

6. Toy Story woody puppet, as well as Buzz Lightyear and RC. I was a bit old, 11 or 12 but it was such a great movie and such high quality toys, who cares?

5. The several million Hotwheels cars added to my collection of several million other hotwheels and matchbox cars from years of asking for them every chance I got at Bombergers, where they were 87 cents and no one was going to say no.

4. The buckets mentioned earlier that looked like ghosts and pumpkins. The second year was better simply because the ghosts glowed in the dark. Those smelled like fries for months, which I think was half the appeal. The mcnugget characters came in these. good combo.

3. Batman Forever clear mugs. Not a kids meal thing, but I was 11 so I wasn't eating happy meals anyway.

2. Rescue Rangers in vehicles with detatchable parts. At the time my sister and I were so into that show you wouldn't believe it. We were 5. We never found any other toys based on those characters, so those were gold to us. I can't think about this without getting choked up.

1. The Land Before Time handpuppets. Got more use than any of the others and I still have them. We didn't have a Pizza Hut location until I was like 8, but when I was 5, my aunt managed one far away and brought us everyone but Sharptooth and Petree. We found a sharptooth in adulthood, but still no petree…

I'm sure I'll kick myself for forgetting many, but below are my favorite Happy Meal promotions ever:

- McBoo Pails
- Halloween McNugget Buddies
- Fast Macs (Pull-back action cars with Ronald, Birdie, etc.)
- Changeables (McDonald's food items that transformed into robots)
- Super Mario Bros. 3 figures - doy.

There were also a bunch of Hot Wheels promotions that I loved, because the toys were exactly the same as what you'd buy in stores.

either the line of super mario bros toys or the rescuers down under slide viewers…

AND, um, I remember the transformer ones…the ones that changed from mcdonalds food into robots, those were rad, and the often mentioned super mario bros. 3 toys were the sex.

One of my best thrift shop finds ever was a complete mint-in-the-bags-with-tags set of all three of the McDonald's Holiday Muppet Babies. I almost went totally ballistic when I found those. They're currently part of the display under my Christmas tree. (We did have them when I was a kid, but they were long gone by the time the 90s rolled around.) I found one of the PokeBall BK toys at the same store a year later (Pikachu) - it's proudly displayed on the same shelf as my Care Bears and Sailor Moon dolls from 2000.

My brother had the Charizard PokeBall for years, though I don't think he still has it. He also had the Buzz, Woody, and RC "Toy Story" toys and three "Hunchback of Notre Dame" handpuppets.

Mom used the McDonald's Spooky Pails as Halloween decorations for many years, though she's since told me she got rid of them. Also around for years - the Disney characters dressed in world-themed costumes (I had Three Caballeros Donald on my shelf in college), pull-back DuckTales toys from McDonald's, and the famous Changeables. (I remember having the Chicken Nuggets, the Shake, and I think there were two of the Big Macs.)

I had totally forgotten about those mcboo pails but HOLY SHIT that brings back memories, damn…I really want a set of those now.

Definitely the McBoo pails. They were awesome. Mickey D's usually came up with some pretty good stuff for Halloween.

The Burger Kings in Staten Island suck ass. First of all, they never have the the current toys. I took my kids there for Indiana Jones toys, and all they could come up with were leftovers from Fantastic Four. At that rate, I expect the Staten Island Burger Kings will have apple fries sometime in 2010.

Another non-toy that i miss, the metal play scapes that included Big mac and mayor mc cheese. I cried when the last mcdonalds around here was replaced with plastic slides.

also…damn, those rescue ranger toys…I would give a nut for a complete mint set of those things.

Ann Marie: I gotta be honest, I had to zip through this entry due to insane day, but I really wanted to talk about the Burger Kings in Staten Island. They're unbelievably bad. I really don't get it. It's every single one of them, too. I can't imagine that this is common for BKs everywhere, as they wouldn't be in business if so. Every BK here is just soooo…ghetto.

Shad, thank you. I've actually seen him on there before but I never think to look when i actually have cash. It's my stupidity more than anything else.

On the subject of the giant tastebud, in a mall McDonalds in the 80's there was one of those big scarey animatronic fuckers that was shaped like a hot air balloon full of McDonald's characters. Ronald did a ten minute bit that replayed itself over and over, and part of it explained how grimace became purple. I don't remember anything else, but the fact that he 'became' purple might be news to you Grimace enthusiasts.

kb: I think what you're referring to are actually old containers that were used for Happy Meals a long, long time ago. I'd kill for one of those, too. I can't remember if the containers were considered "the toy" or if they were just simply containers, but I definitely remember them being out more than once.

back in the day people, mcdonalds REVOLVED around kids and the all mighty happy meal, now…it's not that big of a deal. Sad, but true.

Matt, they did not count as the toy, they just counted as the box, the one year they toy inside was the McNuggets. Maybe the first year they were the toy, but not after.

Justin: Cool — I remember them doubling nicely as sandbox/beach toys. And thinking about them has just reminded me that I indeed had a sandbox, which doesn't seem at all "me," much less like something my parents would've gone through the trouble of building.

I don't remember much in the way of Happy meal toys from when I was a kid beyond Hot wheel cars.

Some of the most memorable ones I've gotten since I was a adult was from Taco Bell (they suck for toys now though) The Toys I'm talking about now were Star Wars related. Argo city that floated using magnets, a really cool Millenium falcon. Mirror box thing with half of Darth Vader's head in it (but the mirror made it look whole)
I held onto these for quite awhile.

I'll redeem myself by stimulating everyone's memory with a similar promotion not yet mentioned:

the earth day gardening sets from McDonalds, with the bucket, the seeds, the mini purple rake thing, the shovel, and the watering can.

later they did a similar thing or wendy's ripped them off, i forget which, but it involved a really shitty terarium

So to save the earth, they made Hard Plastic Happy meal Containers. The looked just like regular Happy Meal Boxes, except they opened like lunch Boxes. The gimmick was that you bring in your container and the McDonalds employee's would load them up with food. That way you wouldn't throw away unnecessary carboard.

I remember them being in conjunction with Capt. Planet, But I seem to recall getting a Mini Flower Watering Can in mine.

My fav poke is Weezing. Neg what's your Diamond or Pearl code? Maybe we could battle sometime ?

My favorites have been covered. Thanks though Matt, we twenty somethings should make a concerted effort to keep McDonald's golden years alive. I look at the shitty plastic turds they pawn off on kids these days, it's sad. Sure they still get a kick, but nothing featuring Dora will ever match a Changeable. Gone forever are the days when a McDonald's toy was a wholly viable addition to a kid's first string squad.

Followed closely by the following, in no particular order: (McD's) McBoo pails, Changeables, Halloween McNugget Buddies, Tiny Toon flip cars, Fraggle Rock cars, Little Mermaid original toys, (Hardee's) Nicktoons back to school, and the (Pizza Hut?) Eureeka's Castle puppets. But really, I enjoyed pretty much all the toys I got when I was a kid, even the Barbies. (With/without hair. I'd play with them in the pool.)

Gotta love the Mario 3, the rescue rangers, the muppet themed toys, but anyone else remember from like the early 90s when mcdonalds was promoting saving the rain forest and they replaced the box with a rainforest themed bag, and had things like cheap water colors and stuff like that? I think I am remembering correctly

Yeah, My Dad is quite a badass. I think he felt bad because my Brothers both had Birthday's that fell in July and Sept. could make the trek to Showbiz Pizza or place that was like Chuck E. Cheese called, Bullwinkles. It was like Chuck E. Cheese in every way, but it had Bullwinkle Characters in it. I don't remember it all that well, except hanging out around the Natasha and Boris area WAY too much.

Um, that comment was directed at Rainbowfeet BTW. It wasn't just a random exclamation of boasting about my Dad.

Yeah, even the Barbies were ok, because my sister was sort of my best friend, and there needed to be female characters to offset the males. We always played ken to be an egotistical braindead asshole and abused him something feirce. It was fun.

Action figures of that size were the perfect toys for in the pool, there's something infinitely fun to sinking/drowning characters when you've never actually known a drown victim.

0301-7819-8932 Here's my code in case you change yur mind Neg. Also Matt I do believe you have Diamond. What do you say to a battle?

i loved the McDs toys that were modeled after the fries, hamburger, and drink..and they transformed into robots(?). also lines that were cartoon themed, all of them. off the top of my head the Fragile Rock and Muppet Babies toys instant winners.

also, i dont know about bests, cause i think i culled all expectation of owning the best when the anticipation was that the next toy could be even better.

Justin, i totally remember those earth day kits now, previously forgotten, thanks for refreshing my memory on that…ah, good times.

Hey, While on the subject of McBoo pails, Didn't the ghost one glow in the dark?

The red Koopa Paratroopa that came with a little squeezy pump so you could make him jump ^__^

Jester, yes it did, but not all of them. not until like 89 or 90. after ones from years past broke I'd always have glowing faces with non glowing lids mix and matched.

I seem to recall that my mom still has a Frankenstein pail. It's currently filled with broken Crayola's if memory serves me right.

the thing about the mcboo pails was…because you got one every time you ordered a happy meal and because they had them for a few years in a row I had, like, multiples of each one of those…man, I wonder why they seem to be impossible to find on ebay? you would think otherwise.

They still do Happy Meals in the boxes, but I think they came back within the last 5 years.

One of my favorite Happy Meal Toy sets I remember was a huge cross-promotion where you had like 20 toys that were all cars of a large train. The locomotive had Ronald, you had Hot Wheels, 101 Dalmations, Muppet Babies, Barbie, Tiny Toons, assorted other toy lines to boot.

I, too loved the Hot Wheels promotions. Got many a great car from those. My favorites were the tiny Drag Racers. I got hours of fun out of those, I wish I could find them. I also remember some years the "Boy" toy were mini Tonka cars.

I have a huge luggage bag full to bursting and too heavy for one arm full of Hotwheels and matchbox cars, including probably most of the ones I ever got from McDonalds, and yes, the drag racers were great. nascar and funnycar McDonalds shit.

My favorite Happy Meal was the Mario Bros 3 series. The boxes for it were a toy onto themselves. They had cutouts so you could use the box itself as a playset for the toys. You were MEANT to take them home and play with them.

Probably a tie between Boo Pails and Changeables, which I think you've both written about, possibly more than once. But I also remember something from Hardees (back when they had more than 2 locations) when Ghostbusters 2 came out. I don't remember the toy at all, but the food came in this weird molded plastic box that was shaped like a proton pack or a PKE meter or Ecto 1 or something… it was like just the packaging was a whole different toy, and I have a very dim, hazy memory of it being awesome. Anyone else remember anything like this?

Also, long time reader (like, 5 years now), first time poster. Hello, everybodeee!

didn't actually come in a happy meal, think it was a buck more, but I loved the disney glasses that were made to commemorate Animal Kingdom…

There are a lot I've liked, but the ones that stick out to me the most are the Garfield ones that were similar to the Muppet Babies figure/vehicle two-packs, and the Super Mario 3 toys.

But I didn't care for the jumping Mario (I had one like that already, in classic colors and sans Raccoon power) or Luigi; rather, I dug the Goomba and Koopa Paratroopa most. I also got the under-3 Raccoon Mario fingerpuppet, which was a favorite of mine for many years, acting as my main Mario "action figure," despite lacking the "action" part.

That's where Wendy's came in only a few years ago; they gave away full-fledged Mario action figures in their kids meals. Blister-card, five points of articulation, a pretty good sculpt… it remains a favorite to this day, even this late in the game.

I have to go with the Hotcakes Pterodactyl. However, the orange cell phone that turned into a periscope has always been nipping at its heels…er, talons.

My favorite was the Luigi w/ starman pullback toy from McD's. I still have it, and play with it. Daily.

The Happy Meal boxes had punch-out holes you could race the cars through. The box was an accessory! Tied with that was Astro-Sniks, little figures that were trying to compete with those PVC Smurf figures of the 80's.

After that, any "sample size" toy from a larger toy line, like Playmobil, Capsela, or those crinkly colored tube building toys that were like big bendy straws.

Hmm, quite a few come to mind. The Flintstones Movie product placement offered a sweet line of Bedrock houses and establishments with neato cars. The Hot Wheels toys were always good because that was as close to a toy that you'd get on a trip to K-Mart. Burger King's Toy Story toys were also of high quality. But among the coolest were the McDonald's food robots that were like Transformers but shaped like various Mickey D's treats.

I didn't read over all the posts, so I don't know if anyone mentioned this or not.

BUT! Does anyone remember the Power Rangers/McDonald's promotion of (I think) 1995. I'm fairly sure it was for the Power Rangers Movie. The toys were simply awesome.

Basically, you got articulated (arms, legs AND heads), scaled-down versions of all the rangers. As a bonus, you got their zord, complete with wheels so it could roll along in the most awesome of fashions.

The full-sized Power Rangers toys made by Ban-Dai were always hard to find (especially Tommy the Green Ranger. Even though I did have two, one is still mint-in-box somewhere). And the zords were VERY expensive, therefore collecting a full set of rangers and their zords was pretty hard.

The McDonald's toys offered a great alternative. And hell, the detailing on them was great for McDonald's toys.

As an added bonus, they were roughly the same size as GI Joes, which meant I had an entire army of baddies for my pint-sized rangers to face!

I remember the plastic Grimace comb (because I'm 80) and the Shirt Tails from Wendy's. Wendy's also had the Mr. & Little Miss books which were really boss. Oh, I also liked the McDonald's barbies and McBoo pails. Can't remember much more than that.

I wouldn't admit this anywhere but here, but my favorite happy meal toy was the Muppet Baby figures they gave out in McDonalds in the mid 80s. I really loved that show as a kid. They were still displayed in my room when I was a teenager listening to NIN at full blast while my parents wondered what they were going to do with me. Now that I'm 30 I still have them sitting on a shelf in my spare bedroom. The only other childrens meal toys I have besides those that I have kept since my childhood are one of the bean bag reindeers Wendys gave away in the 80s and the Alf puppets given away by Burger King. I think I have the Simpsons figures stored somewhere here as well.

The best happy meal toy I ever got was hands down a christmas themed colorforms from around 1983. You got a little fold out christmas scene and a page of colorforms, or maybe they were stickers my memory ain't what it used to be, and you could create your own awesome little christmas scenes. I kept the box from that magical meal for a good 3 weeks before it finally disentagrated.

There was no McDonald's in my town but I did like the toys from Wendy's that made me feel like a spy such as the Carmen Sandiego Apple Decoder or other Carmen Sandiego stuff or things that looked like food but doubled as something else.
I swear I had a thing that looked like french fries but opened up into a cellphone or something… I carried it with me everywhere but I don't know where it came from.
A Johnny Bravo little vinyl folder with a Johnny Bravo club card in it and some stickers… I think it was from Wendy's and it made me feel like someone important carrying it around.
Also from Wendy's a piggy bank but it was a brontosaurus and the coins would roll down the neck and into the hole at the end of the back.
Animal from the Muppets dressed as a hockey player from McDonald's… i think it something that cost extra though… so not a Happy Meal Toy
I liked the cars as well: Fraggle Rock vegetables cars, Woodstock in his purple race car, Luigi on his Cloud, Baby Kermit + skateboard and Miss Piggy in her car… although i think those were handed down from someone else. and Yogi Bear on a seadoo!

just got home and am getting ready for bed after a midnight screening of The Dark Knight.. - for a guy that runs a website reviewing things, I'm never one to stand around a lobby pontificating.. - maybe it's the Buddhist in me, but I enjoy smiling contentedly while walking to my car lost in my own thoughts better.. - guess all i can, or will, say is I think they did a really terrific job.. - hope all of you going this weekend enjoy it..

The Happy Meal toy that sticks out the most to me was the line based on Back to the Future: the animated series, from 1991. I still have a Doc Brown Delorean or two that I saved, as well as a toy Time Train that my brother got from a friend or a cousin. Other than that, I can remember lines based on:

Super Mario World (1991, McDonald's)
Batman Returns (1992, McDonald's)
Tiny Toon Adventures (1991, McDonald's)
Looney Tunes/DC Comics crossover (1993?, McD's)

Also, in the early/mid-90s McD's used to have promotions where you'd get movie-related collector cups whenever you super-sized (I remember Batman Returns and Jurassic Park having such promotions). They don't do that as much anymore, do they? The closest thing to that these days is that Carl's Jr. cups sometimes advertise movies (Rush Hour 3 and Hellboy II, for example).

I'm going to see The Dark Knight it this Sunday. I am really psyched about it. I actually went to see Iron Man tonight. I was going to wait for Iron Man to come to video, but my friend talked me into seeing it. I really didn't expect much from it, but it was honestly the best Marvel movie I have seen to date. I am sorry I didn't see it sooner.

First, let me show some love for the lesser-known restaurant toys. We can't forget that Pizza Hut gave us Garfield back-to-school shit, Young Indiana Jones crap, Fievel Goes West cups with hats, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cassette tapes and posters. Also, I seem to have this memory of Denny's perpetually offering different Flintstones toys.

But man. It would be impossible to determine my favorite Happy Meal/Kids Meal toys. There are so many precious memories. The Looney Tunes with the snap-on superhero costumes. The Lion King figures. The Animaniacs in funny vehicles. The glass Batman Forever mugs. The Simpsons in nature settings (and big dolls). The Batman: The Animated Series figures. The Nightmare before Christmas watches. Any time they ever did a McDonald's character toy, like the costumed McNuggets or even the food transformers. The Super Mario figures. The 101 Dalmatians figures (and later on, X-mas ornaments). The Hercules plates. The Lost World: Jurassic Park watches. Really, countless others.

Then there are some that have seemingly been in my life forever because of how little I was when I got them. The Alf puppets. The Garfield on a skateboard. And one time my dad got a big plastic Batman cup from the first Tim Burton movie. That one might've been from Taco Bell.

Oh, and also, not terribly long ago, I remember my brother coming home with Bruce Timm-style Justice League toys he got at SUBWAY, of all places. It seems so amazing now. These places really don't try anymore.

Matt, I thought I read somewhere that when the Star Wars: Clone Wars toys hit McDonald's on August 15th, they would be in Happy Meal boxes. But I'm only like 50% sure of that, so don't quote me.

And when they made the Happy Meal boxes into those plastic boat shapes that -obviously- could float; those were the shit

I saw the Dark Knight, and it left me with a funny feeling. I was expecting more, but the rest of the nerd community seems excited and pleased.

Or the ones you mean are something else? These are cardboard, they usually come with art representing the toys given and maybe a puzzle or something like that.

I can't remember whether this was from BK or McDonalds, but my favorites were the Sonic 3 promotion toys. Sonic and Knuckles were a bit bland, but fun. Robotknik perplexed me (how did he manage to avoid falling off tables?!?!?!). The best was Tails though. I would practice seeing how high I could launch him in the air. Besides the Teeny Beanies, they were the only toys I can remember playing with long after I got them.

I e-mailed the link to this blog to Burger king investor relations. And if anyone clicks the link on my entry here, it will go to that investor page (if you want to also e-mail them). My first job ever was at Burger King, and I have some odd loyalty to the company. I worked there back in the day the FIRST time the Star Wars glasses came out, if you know what I mean.

When the Disney animated Hercules movie came out, my sister and I decided that we would collect all the Happy Meal toys. We didn't love the movie in particular; we just liked the toys. We kept those awesome boxes as long as we possibly could too, because they actually had punch-out sections to form doors for a little house.

Also, we were really into Beanie Babies, so we ended up getting our grandma to help us collect every one of those miniature versions that McDonalds came out with. They became the heart-shaped-tagless children of our bigger Beanies, much to the dismay of our collector's value-oriented mother.

Oh yeah, does anyone remember that cat and dog mascot team from the Taco Bell kid's meals? Those made awesome toys; I remember getting a small playhouse with one meal. It reminded me of those Polly Pockets that I loved so much, but a little more simplistic. It seemed like a real bargain, as far as kid's meal toys go.

I would have much preferred a brown paper bag. Eight year old kids knew The Burger King Kids Club was not cool.

I liked the pull-back plastic cars with McDonald's characters driving them. I remember Birdie had a pink car. This was in the late 80s, and I think Mayor McCheese had one.

My apologies; this is the 3rd time I tried to post. must be doing something whacked. Anyway, I e-mailed the link to this page to Burger King Investor Relations. My first ever job was at BK, and I have an odd loyalty. By the way, here's their link: http://investor.bk.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=87140&p=irol-info...

Without a doubt, those transformer foodstuffs that Macdonald's came out with in the late 80's where miniature fries, burgers, milkshakes et all turned into tiny robots. I thought those were the coolest things ever. I still to this day contemplate buying them all off of eBay.

Runner up is the Fraggle toys they offered for a short time that had the little muppets riding around in vegetable cars. Red was in a radish, Gobo was in a carrot, Moki was in an eggplant, and Boober and Wembley were in a pickle. Those were super cute.

I have a HUGE collection of Happy Meal toys bagged up in my attic. I've been lamenting this sad turn in Kids Meals/Happy Meals for a long time. Were there any of you who, like me, actually TRIED to take the box apart, then reassemble it to "make your own Bambi/Batman Returns/Super Mario Bros. playset" as it advertised on the bottom of the box? I felt like I was building my own ramshackle Eternia.

Let's see…fav McDonald's Happy Meals were probably those Food Changeables, their version of Transformers that transformed into your favorite McDonald's food instead of vehicles. I collected all three series, even when they ran out of ideas and made them change to dinosaurs instead of robots. That's also one where the almighty Happy Meal box was crucial, because it set up your Changeables' special powers and bios. Without the box, how could you know that Fry Force was able to generate a force field around himself?

As far as franchises, I dug the Super Mario 3 and Batman Returns the most, and I ended up trying to collect every Star Wars kids meal toy since Taco Bell's Special Edition toys.

Does anyone remember Dairy Queen's "Rock-a-Doodle" figurines? There was no Dairy Queen here in south Louisiana at the time, and I was pissed when I found out I missed the boat on that one.

All this talk about old McD's toys makes me want to go through my parent's attic! I know I have some of the transformer toys up there.

I may be going way old school with this, but I remember Happy Meals that came in a plastic bucket, and the toys were beach/sandbox tools like shovels, rakes, etc. Pretty neat idea.

I was always psyched when Legos came as the toy. I don't know why McDonald's didn't give out Lego toys more often - as little plastic blocks, they've got to be ridiculously cheap to produce, but kids go friggin' apeshit over them.

I loved the stomper happy meal when I was a kid. Of course it wasn't a full sized battery powered stomper. But it still was a nice "hot wheel sized" stomper. I remember saving the box for awhile. It served as a nice little garage.

I still have a Richard Scarry figure that I think was a McDonald's happy meal toy. ? It's a pig (Mr. Frumble) driving a pickle car. Mr. Frumble was calamity-prone but you'd think the pickle car would turn his luck around for the better. Shows how much I know about pickle cars I guess. Maybe it was pickled in bullshot…

Of course the SMB 3 toys, even though I had a defective Koopa-Paratroopa. Pisses me off to this day. Also of course, the Hotwheels cars.

Anyway, I remember getting a figurine of that bear mascot from A&W, thinking it was a cookie, and taking a bite out of it. Luckily I realized it wasn't edible before I swallowed the thing's foot.

Other things were Warner Bros. toys in the Adventure Meal at Arby's (which, yes, I called Happy Meal). McD's also had Tiny Toons stuff I believe, and probably Batman at some point. OOH, and the Inspector Gadget figures from BK.

I wanted to get The Simpsons figures at BK in 2001, but only got Bart in a skeleton costume.

Last year McDonald's had the TMNT figures, Donatello and his spinning bo was a good stress reliever. McD's also had the Sonic toys a couple years ago too.

Okay, reading the other comments, the cars came out in 1984, were called "Fast Macs," and it was Big Mac, chief of police, that I was thinking of, with the white and blue car. www.bearstuffs.com/ product.detail.php?id=1584972

I had Garfield and Kermit on skateboards, the Gremlins records, McBoos, McPails, and a bunch of California Raisins from Hardees.

I stopped getting toys in the early nineties, but I did pay my nephew $2 for a Pikachu from BK in 1999. It came in one of those "biggest toy recall in history" PokeBalls.

Don't remember what place they were from, but it was these flip cars from Tiny Toons. The detail on them was fantastic - and I had the whole set, which was rare. I think these are up in my parent's attic somewhere, actually.

I also remember going crazy for the Snow White toys from McDonalds and trying to collect them all, but I don't remember why. They weren't all that spectacular.

AND…the Garfield cups from McDonalds. One of these days I'm going to buy a set off eBay. My family had them growing up but all but one has broken. They were my favorite cups to drink milk out of.

Fraggles in go-karts you pull back and they zoom off in grandiose style. The source, however, I do not recall.

Ok apparently everyone else loves them too and they're from McD. I had the carrot!

The Tiny Toons cars that flipped to reveal a second car! Captain Planet and Chip n Dale did it too I believe.
I loved the commercial: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2nK8cie2ds

Best use of meal box was the Sonic the Hedgehog set, with little ramps to fold out and launch characters over, up and through.

From McDonald's I loved the tranformers that went from a McDonald's food item to a creature, especially the burger that turned into a dinosaur I believe. The Barbie minis were real cool too.

But the BEST toy I ever got was from Wendy's circa 1990ish at Halloween (back when kids still trick or treated at night!) and it was a play-doh extruder about the size of a pez dispenser with Frankenstein or other Halloween creatures for the head and it came with a mini tub of glow in the dark play-doh. I got it on Halloween night and was so jazzed it made waiting for it to get dark bearable.

My favorite happy meal toy was teeny little tins of Play-doh. This was right before we moved, so I remember it being in 1984 or 1985. Second place of course goes to dress-up-able Chicken McNugget, 3rd prize to Transformer Happy Meal foods.

I always loved the boxes as a kid, but to be honest, I kind of prefer the bags now, only because I frequently still get happy meals for lunch (the perfect lunch sized portion of McDonalds food that doesn't make you feel ill) and the only McDonalds near my office is in the mall, so it doesn't have a drive-through and I if I have to walk all the way back through the mall and then back to my office carrying a happy meal box I feel kind of like a loser. At least with a bag I can shove it in my purse.

I've also remembered the McDonald's McNuggets trick or treat dress up toys! I know these well, as when I was a kid I received three in a Happy Meal by mistake. Triple score! Unfortunately it was because the window guy was mentally challenged, and not just luck.

I used to have all the McDonald's transformable characters. I mostly had the fry guys and the Chicken McNuggets because those were the most common. I had a couble of the Big Mac box ones too. They may still be somewhere in my mom's house, but I'm not about to embark on the mission to find them.

I also remember rubber McNuggets that you could 'dress up' with little articles of rubber clothing. I mostly remember the tennis playing McNugget that came with a headband…he rocked that headband. I miss the old toys.

I had forgotten, but as a kid, I was totally obsessed with the California Raisins figures from Hardees. I had dozens of the damn things. I must have been eating Hardees three meals a day for months. That explains the adult onset diabetes…

The first set of Animaiacs toys from McDonald's was my first complete collection of Happy Meal toys, so when I was little, they were kind of special to me. The Slappy and Skippy motorcycle toy was my favourite. Slappy was rad.
As a hug animal nut, I was also super into the Animal Kingdom toys they had to commemmorate the opening of the park. Other favourite sets were the 101/102 Dalmatians, and the 100 years of Disney or whatever. I liked the fact that you didn't know what toy you'd get. With so many toys in those sets, I dunno if the chances of getting doubles were that high. I never got any doubles.

Oh, I also loved the Babar toys that Arby's in the US used to have! Until I was about 6, fast food joints in Canada and the US didn't carry the same toys, or Canadians got "abridged" sets, by which I mean we got the same set minus a few toys. I don't think that Arby's in Canada ever had Babar toys.
Those Disney/Epcot toys at McDonald's were great, as well. I was always bitter about the fact that the Canadian mountie Dale was only in Canada, whereas the US got Moroccan Dale. We had both versions here, though.
Yeah, I was sort of raised on fast food. Never eat the stuff now, though.

I remember getting an Alf record that was kind of made out of paper that you had to wiegh down with pennies.

The fry guys and california rasin figures were always good. In more recent times the star wars promos were cool back when episode one still seemed like a great idea.

Funny you should mention the hell that Staten Island BK's are, because at the same time you were posting this, my Son and his wife were waiting a literal hour for their order at a SIBK with no other customers on line (it caused them to miss the midnight Batman showing, not a happy moment). You're right though our BK's suck and are expensive too! Even Manhatten BK's charge less for food then ours.

As for Mc-Favorites I have three, all from the early 80's, but they're not Happy Meal toys.

1) "The Great Muppet Caper" Collectible Glasses. They were kept at my Grandmother's house, it was a very fond memory that lasted well into adulthood.

2) Atari Scratch'n'Win contest. Cross promotion with fast food was still new back then, so this seemed so cool.

3) Flying Saucer Happy Meals - (The container itself was a flying saucer frisbee. They were totally awesome!) I remember sitting in the car with my dad at the Grant City train station, with the smell of Mc-Dinner filling the car, waiting for mom to get home and playing with this space-ship.

As for the cardboard containers they still make them, but seem to only keep them in supply for the first week and only for major promotions. My daughter got one for "Kung Fu Panda" and it was so cool looking I pondered saving it for a time, but the parent in me won out and I tossed in the recycle bin after a week.

As for finding them locally, I would recommend the Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's in Midland Beach. I believe it's the Island's oldest McDonald's and they always seem to have the boxed Happy Meal's and other promo's in good supply at least for the first week or so.

FIREBALL ISLAND!!! Not to derail everyone, but Totally Rad Show did a review/playthrough of Fireball Island, and I thought you'd be interested. Click my name to go to the video. It starts around 20 minutes in…

By far my favorite McDonald's Happy meal was the line of Dukes of Hazard Happy Meal boxes. There was a jeep, Boss Hogg's car and of course, the General Lee. These were plastic molded "boxes" that came with stickers to apply on them. I don't know why exactly, but these rocked my world!!

I was also HUGE fan of the Looney Tunes/Superheroes toys. Daffy was Batman, Bugs was Superman, Tazmanian Devil was Flash, Petunia Pig was Wonder Woman.

I also loved the Batman animated character cars/vehicles. There was Batman, Robin, Two-Face, Catwoman, Joker, and maybe Batgirl.

I also was into the California Raisons (I even dressed as one for Halloween and I still think they did the best version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ever) so I had some of the Hardees figures.

None of the restaurants seem to target kids anymore, probably due to the whole obesity epidemic. I couldn't tell you what toys the restaurants currently have. Plus they seem to have gotten generic. I was never into the Hot Wheels/Barbie promotions McDonalds frequently does.

ATD has a point. Maybe you got the non-descript bag because you got a Big Kids Meal, and big kids don't want the world to know they're eating kids meals.

My favorite food toy ever wasn't from a kids meal. I'm too young to remember exactly how it worked, but Domino's had a toy car promotion. I seem to remember them sticking a form to the box or something. Anyway, it was a perfect little 80's-style Matchbox hatchback with a Domino's sign on top and logos on the doors. Inside, there was even a little pizza oven on the front seat. I still cherish it. That bad boy's metal too, so it'll last a while.

I had a Birdie mirror I kept forever, and I remember that the Bambi toys were the only ones we actually worked on collecting the whole set (not sure why…) I also had a pail from the 1984 Olympics promotion that I kept until most of the design had worn off. I don't know why getting your meal in a pail is so exciting, but it is.

I have to give a shout out to the DQ kids meals that always came with a free cone token attached to the box. When you were done eating, you punched out the token, took it to the register, and got a kids cone. Of course, if you didn't dine in, you could always keep the token for a later visit. I still talk about that to this day.

My favorite McDonald's Happy Meals as a child were the beach pails they would release during the summer. It was so exciting because they would always correspond with our upcoming beach trip to SC.
In my early 20s, I collected all the teeny Beanie Babies.

I went pretty psycho over the Happy Meals that were boats. Even though I remember consistently getting the Ferryboat. Never did get the racing boat.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/39/81007407_9ae4b944e7.jpg?v=...
I also remember Army's giving out Mr.Men characters. I think i still have Mr. Bump somewhere.

McD's is bringing back the Big Mac Jingle for its 40th anniversary, and you can recreate it:

Jester That is the best birthday present story ever. Let alone best happy meal story.

Bookafish If you really want the pails I have seen them at Goodwill at Halloween time. So try them during the Halloween season or any other thrift store. I would suggest yard sales too but if you don't go to those anyway then that would be very time consuming.

I remember happy meal toys and various kids meal toys throughout the years I can't really pinpoint one. I know I got an Artic Circle orange flashlight during the halloween season with a witch head picture to put over the end. Also the bambi poseable figures, a hot wheels car that was purple and black and silver that had one of those pump things that you pushed on it with your palm and then it shot off. Any water gun or water toy that came out during the summertime. The pails of course. Anything you felt like they spent more then 5 cents on was great.

I just wanted to say this morning I got an HDTV cord for my wii and some batteries so I can play it once it gets hooked up. I promised him I wouldn't hook it up myself (he's possessive over HIS tv) so it might not be tonight but ASAP I will give you guys my Wii Code. Just to give you guys something. I want to pay the 5 bucks for the browser sucks or not sucks. lol. Anyway that is my update. No Mario Kart for now. But patience is a virtue.

I'd say Burger King was a much more favorite place for my family back when I was a youngster.

McDonalds of course gave us those lame transformoids that would go from a burger to stupid looking robot. I've always been a big Burger King fan, but haven't tried their toys since 2001 when they were doing the Simpsons Halloween stuff.

McDonald's had these little hot wheels cars that you would pull back and they would do wheelies and spin around. Had to be around 1984 or so. I also liked the Garfield mugs..they werent in the Happy Meals, but still pretty cool.

I recall at one point they put your happy meals in a plastic boat and the top came off…anybody else remmeber these?

i got this garfield figure (whom i normally could not care less about) in a hawaiian shirt and it came with a pink skateboard! Now, if any figure came with a skateboard, it was automatically the coolest thing (hence why mondo gecko was the greatest turtle figure) but to get such a thing in a happy meal was inheard of. the skateboard had one of the little plugs, for the whole in the foot of garfiled, but because of this, the skateboard could be used as a gi joe skateboard. And thus, Chuckles rightfully rode that pink skateboard….

Your talk of the 'experience' of kids' meals got me thinking…Here in BC, Canada, there's a chain of restaurants called 'White Spot'(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Spot) that originally started out as a burger joint, but now tries to sell crappy versions of Thai and Indian food, fancy salads, etc. One thing that hasn't changed over the years, however, is the "Pirate Pak," the kids' meal of kids' meals for those on the west coast of Canada. Your choice of grilled cheese sandwich, cheeseburger, or other items come in a brightly-coloured, illustrated cardboard pirate ship complete with fries, gold foiled chocolate pirate coins and ice cream. It kicked ass. There was a scare a few years ago that they were phasing out the Pirate Pak, but so far it stayed around - most likely due to the fact that kids raised on it are now taking their kids in for the same thing. =)

ps.
excuse the mispellings - i broke my collarbone yesterday, and have had to resort to one hand typing.

Growing up, getting a Happy Meal was a rare treat as I didn't live anywhere near a McDonald's. But in the late '80s, a Hardee's opened in my neck of the woods, and was the FIRST fast-food joint in this particular redneck-infested sprawl.
I still they had the best premiums, as I remember a badass "Ghostbusters II" promotion (a plastic Ecto-1 shaped meal box) and Marvel Comics collector cups and vehicles (Spidey, Captain America, Hulk in a yellow bulldozer and She-Hulk in a purple Cadillac). These were the answers to my prayers, as they emerged during a time when there was a surprising lull in superhero toys. (This was after Secret Wars and Super Powers, but before the big Batman and X-Men renaissance brought on by Toy Biz.)
Anyone else remember this? There was a solid 3-4 years with NO new superhero lines. I guess we still had G.I. Joe, Transformer, MASK, He-Man and whatnot, but as a comic fan, I was heartbroken.

my favorite Happy Meal toys were the Warner Brothers cartoon characters that came with removable DC Superhero costumes.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v638/tinpanorama/mcart1943...
I remember liking the Taz/Flash toy the best, even though i don't really like Taz or the Flash, and i can't figure out why it was my fav.

I would have to go with the changables,I couldn't get enough of anything that even resembled a transformer back in those days. But also we had a drive up only place called the Burger Barn which I recall receiving a sweet monster truck toys. Where me and my brother had a fucking blast mobbing those suckers through the trash filled dirt trails that surrounded the parking lot. It is pretty sad what the kids get now a days compaired to the sweet toys from the eighties.

Ya it is probably more of a fact that I remember them being so much cooler then they actually where. But I like to recall them being freaking awesome.

My favorite McD toys were the muppet babies on the bikes and the super hero loony toons…

The Wendy's Go-Bots were also a huge deal. Even though they were monumentally crappy.

Im going to answer the survey without looking at anyone else's comments so that I cannot be biased. I have three all time favorite happy meal toys: #1 was the chicken mc nugget that dressed up like zoro. When I was a small kid I loved playing with fisher price fake plastic food, and the mcnugget eventually got mized in. i remember yelling at my younger sister for acting like she was eating it when it clearly had a face. #2 was a fry kid in full basketball player garb (i pretty much worshipped this one, and decided that I was going to be a pro basketball player, but seeing as how I have never even once played a full game of basketball, and also am a 5 foot 4 inch girl, I dont think I will be flirting with a contract from the NBA anytime soon. Number three was one of those pails that you would get around halloween. Mine was a ghost pail and it glowed in the dark. I think my parents might still have that one floating around the basement somewhere(no pun intended).

Sorry for the (possible) double post, but after reading some of the comments, I have to say that the fraggle rock vegetable car toys are on my list, and the food changeables(i had the fries and the shake/drink…whatever it was). Also, I still actually use one of my mcdonalds toys….it is a plush sebastian from the little mermaid that is supposed to be a christmas ornament, it gets put on the tree every year, and every year my fiancee laughs at me.

I'll never forget the Happy Meal UFO containers. They were plasic space ships that the Happy Meal came in. My brother and I played with those containers way more than we played with any of the toys that came inside.

I used to love the BK happy meals back in the early 90s (I believe it was…). They were boxes that were shaped like animals and the jaw hinge was where you opened the box (I think). These were mostly safari animals (?) but I just remember them being VERY cool and YES I used to take the boxes home with intentions to KEEP THEM FOREVER!!! too although never did that. They always ended up getting thrown away a few days later.

As for the TOYS, my favs were:
McDonalds Bambi toys in the late 80s. These were really well made and had moving joints. Better than alot of the retail Bambi figures I've seen. I had Flower, Thumper, Bambi and maybe Owl too… LOVED them.

BK Sonic toys (93?) or was it McDonalds? ACK! I can't remember… I was "too old" for happy meals at this point but got them just so I could have the Sonic toys. There was one that you pulled back on it and Sonic would race across the floor. There was a pull string Tails toy that made Tails fly. His tails were like a helicopter just as in the game. These were cool enough to remember!

I also liked the Beanie Babies McDonalds toys, these have always been good quality. The Ponyville toys from last year? was it, were very neat, my daughter insisted on tracking down all of those. KFC (I think it was?) that had Pokemon beanie babies around 98-99. I still have my Dratini from that. I SO wanted the Vulpix too but Dratini was one of my all time fav Pokemon.

I'm one of the few to get the Barbie Holiday Snowglobe that they pulled from production in 1992. Only those that worked there had access to the display, as the globe never actually made it into happy meals.

Those that have asked if McDonalds STILL do the BOXED Happy Meals - the answer is YES they do. Just not ALL the time.

For a period in 2006 there were boxes for the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The only toy we got was the treasure chest, over and over again.

And THIS Year, they had "the box" for the SPIDERWICK chronicles. The toys were gawdawful UGLY though.

Ahh, but McDonalds happy meal toys aren't free. You are charged extra for them. You can actually ask for the happy meal without the toy and its cheaper, but who the hell wants a happy meal without the toy!!?? Thats what makes it happy. You could pay extra and get two toys, which technically makes it even more happy.

My favouritehappy meal toy was a little red transformer that turned into a people carrier type thing.

Another random thought. On TV why are fake happy meals always called laughy meals, no matter what fake resturant they came from?

snotty, strangely enough, Taz/Flash was the ONLY Looney Tunes/DC toy I never owned. I had multiple Bugs and Petunias, though. My fav, of course, was Bat-Duck.

The posts I read for the Alf record/puppet sets brought back a flood of memories…pre-Kids Club BK meals.

Who here remembers Burger King's Beetlejuice Kids Meal? The toys were little two-sided statuettes that were pretty much only good for display. But hey, it was Beetlejuice…

Jeremy, that's really funny, cause Batman and Daffy were my favorite characters. i remember my brother and I both got a Taz/Flash toy.

1). Hotwheels- Back in the day, Mcds actually gave out authentic hotwheels. You know the metal ones that lasted more than just 2 weeks. I still have the rip off general lee and the lame station wagon they handed out. I think Matt posted a menu/tray cover from this give away not too long ago.

2). Fragglerock toys. This are truly a gem for any child of the 80s. The toys came with a person and some sort of vegetable shaped car for each one. Truly a classic.

3). Muppet Babies. I can still see my Kermit the frog inside his sweet ride. Although I had to suffer through about 5 Miss Piggies before receiveing my treasure of Kermit.

Not related to Burger King or kid's meals but one of the funniest things i've seen in a while. Forgive me if you've seen this before but you gotta give this little girl a medal for her valiant efforts in trying to deke the claw game http://www.break.com/index/little-girl-cheats-at-claw-game.h...

I like the Changeables, the Mario 3 toys (I loved the hell out of my Luigi cloud car), the McBoo pails. When I was a kid, I loved the Barbies and collected them every year for a while. I also remember those Back to the Future cartoon toys; I think I had Marty on a hoverboard.

I'm so glad this shitty blog post turned out to have such a great discussion. I was *this close* to just posting another IOU last night, too. Good reads, guys.