Since 1979, McDonald's has been making toys that kids and adults alike look forward to. Their toys
have run the pop culture gamut, and many of their most popular toys don't even come in Happy Meals.
Here are a few McDonald's collectibles that are worth way more than you think.
In February 2021, McDonald's added to the ongoing Pokemon
craze and released trading card packs to celebrate Pokemon's 25th anniversary.
The release happened to coincide with an unusually high demand for Pokemon cards while people were
stuck quarantining at home. With the cards being difficult to find, resellers were soon grabbing
as many packs as they could and selling them at prices much higher than your average Happy Meal.
The Pokemon 25th Anniversary Happy Meal packs from McDonald's included four cards,
each depicting one of 25 different Pokemon in the full collection.
The set included a starter Pokemon from each generation,
and holographic versions for every card, so there were 50 different cards to collect. Most card
packs came with at least one holographic card –- a holographic Pikachu being the most popular of all.
"Pika! Pika! Pikachu! Pikachu! Pika! Pika!"
Pokemon cards can still be tough to find in any store,
and if you want a McDonald's Pokemon card without sitting in the drive-thru line,
be prepared to pay. A full set of all 50 McDonald's Pokemon cards
sells for about $150 to $200 dollars. A single holographic Pikachu card sells for about $30.
Not every Happy Meal prize is a clear winner, and McDonald's frequently performs market
research to be sure a Happy Meal toy line will draw kids and collectors alike to restaurants.
Sometimes in Happy Meal market research, McDonald's releases test market Happy Meal
toys in a small geographic area to measure the interest in a toy before a nationwide release.
For collectors, there's a lot of interest in these extremely limited toys,
since many are changed in some way before the full Happy Meal toy line is produced.
One fabled test market batch is the 1985 St. Louis Transformers set. McDonald's has released
Transformers several times over the years, but the first release of Transformers from the 80s is
highly sought after. Some have various shading and color variants, making individual pieces
even rarer, and they're hugely popular, even if they don't even change from vehicles to robots.
“I can't transform! What have you done to me?"
Given the rarity of these test market Transformer Happy Meal toys,
they can command a high price in the resale market.
One set -– a total of 10 in varying levels of mint and near-mint condition –- sold for $735.
Fast food and video games go hand in hand. So when Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in 1990,
McDonald's released Nintendo's first fast-food toys, but they wouldn't be the last.
The four Mario Happy Meal toys included a jumping Raccoon Mario,
Luigi holding a Starman, a flipping Goomba, and a hopping Koopa Paratroopa.
Children under three could get a Racoon Mario designed for younger children.
These toys were available in late July and August 1990, and are usually worth about $5 each,
though Nintendo collectors can't get enough of vintage Nintendo stuff.
So even if the toys themselves aren't worth a ton, they remain some of the most popular ones today.
[giggles] "Merci!"
Surprisingly, the real money is in the Happy Meal boxes themselves, which sell for about $20 each.
And a full store display set of the original McDonald's Mario toys sold for $625.
Minions are a worldwide phenomenon. So when Minions toys are released in McDonald's Happy
Meals worldwide, collectors flock to pick up the many variations available.
In July 2015, the Minions took over McDonald's for the first time.
The original Minions toy release coincided with the new Minions movie,
and McDonald's went all-in on the promotion, transforming some restaurants and menus to
reflect the Minions craze. Menus expanded worldwide to include the Minions' favorite food…
"Banana?"
...featuring strawberry-banana yogurt, fresh bananas, banana-chocolate McFlurries,
or banana shakes. The 2015 toys even generated their own share of controversy,
as some parents thought that one of the talking toys was actually cursing.
"They think this McDoland's Minions toy is saying, 'What the'... well, you know what comes next."
Even though Minions 2 : The Rise of Gru was delayed until 2022, McDonald's released their
promotional Minions for the movie in 2020 anyhow. The United States got 48 different basic toys,
as well as 48 gold variants, while other countries got slightly smaller sets. A set of 48 basic
Minions sells for about $150, and a set of all 96 goes for a whole lot more, if you can find them.
McDonald's has released many different Happy Meal toy lines with Disney over the years,
including promos for newly released movies, old favorites, and commemorative collections alike.
One of the most notable commemorative collections of Disney Happy Meal toys
is the 100 Years of Disney Magic set. In 2002, McDonald's released 100 different characters to
commemorate the 100th birthday of the late Walt Disney that included Disney characters
like Mickey, Minnie, Snow White, Dumbo, Mary Poppins, the Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.
Four special edition commemorative glasses were available for sale, too. With more than 100 pieces
in total, there was a lot of interest in buying and trading to create a complete set of the toys.
Of special interest are three figures from Disney's controversial Song of the South, which
was taken off of US TV a year before this toy line came out, and rarely mentioned by Disney since.
Given the extensive span of the collection at 104 pieces total, it's tough to find a complete
set for sale. A lot of 100 sealed Disney Magic Happy Meal toys sells for about $300.
"Ah, that's what I like to see!"
Disney didn't just stop at 100 years, though. In 2020, McDonald's Happy meals included a
new line of toys featuring popular Disney parks attractions, like Mickey and Minnie's
Runaway Railway, the Tower of Terror, and the Pirates of the Caribbean, among others.
But like much of 2020, the Happy Meal toy release did not go as planned. The toys included game
tickets with a QR code, which ultimately led to the toy line's recall. The code was intended to be
scanned within the McDonald's app for a contest and engaging content. But when the QR code was
scanned outside of the app, users were led to an error message or unintended search results.
McDonald's quickly recalled the toys, and although McDonald's intended to re-release them,
the restaurant ultimately stopped selling the toys altogether.
By this time, however, countless toys had already made it into Happy Meals.
So, while the set may be a little harder to assemble than most due to the limited
availability, a full set of 10 is still worth about $50 – more than most Happy Meal toys.
Another highly notable partnership between Disney and McDonald's
is the 101 Dalmatians collector's set. Disney's 1996 release of 101 Dalmatians featured one of
the largest single collections of Happy Meal toys, as collectors sought out all
101 different Dalmatians that were available. That's a lot of toys to pick up,
not counting any potential duplicates, and you can only eat so many Happy Meals.
In addition to the sheer size of the collection, this set is unique,
as many collectors got an official special edition collector's set:
a Dalmatian-spotted box to hold the complete set of available figures
with a certificate of authenticity from McDonald's. For some, the boxed set might
have been cheaper than trying to find all 101 unique Dalmatians one at a time in Happy Meals.
One complete McDonald's 101 Dalmatians set sold for $105.
Barbies are some of the most popular toys of all time, with or without the help of Happy Meals.
The Barbie Happy Meal partnership with toymakers Mattel has been a popular one,
as McDonald's has included Barbies in Happy Meal toys several times throughout the years.
The 1993 collection is especially popular, because that was the first year that the
mini-Barbies featured "real" synthetic hair that could be brushed and styled
instead of the molded plastic the toys had featured before.
"I want a hamburger Happy Meal too, and a totally cool friend with beautiful,
long hair she'll let me style."
While a full set of 8 only goes for about $12,
that same year Mattel released a separate line of full-sized Happy Meal Barbies in
regular toy stores. Janet, Stacie, Whitney and Todd can sell for up to $25 each, with a deluxe
'Birthday Fun at McDonalds' boxed set, complete with Ronald McDonald cake, goes for about $65.
Hot Wheels have been available in McDonald's Happy Meals many times in the last 40 years.
In fact, there's been a Hot Wheels McDonald's Happy Meal toy release
nearly every year since 1991. You might think that would make Happy Meal Hot Wheels
less valuable than other popular McDonald's toys. And you're right; most of these toy
cars are virtually worthless to all but the kids, and adults, who love to play with them.
But there are McDonald's Hot Wheels toys that are highly sought after,
especially older or hard to find models, and cars distributed at special events.
One McDonald's branded Hot Wheels, a '67 Camaro with Ronald McDonald House branding,
wasn't a Happy meal toy at all. It was distributed only at the 1st Annual Hot
Wheels Nationals in 2001, held in Oakbrook, Illinois. They sell for an average of $125.
When Disney released an Inspector Gadget movie in 1999 starring Matthew Broderick,
McDonald's released a set of Happy Meal toys to go along with it. Although the movie was a
disappointment at the box office, the Happy Meal toys had some interest, especially
among loyal Inspector Gadget fans intent on collecting every piece from the toy line.
This collection is one of the most unusual Happy Meal toy sets:
you need eight different pieces to put together a full Inspector Gadget.
A full, sealed set isn't too hard to find for $30, but hardcore collectors always go
for the store display. A single McDonald's may get thousands of toys, but they only get one display.
That's why a fully-loaded display of the Inspector Gadget set sells for a little over $130.
Some of the promotional products associated with
a McDonald's Happy Meal toy release are just as popular as the toys themselves.
The toy barn released for Toy Story 2's 1999 Happy Meal collection is one promo product
that's highly sought after, because it was only privately released to executives and friends of
McDonald's and Pixar. It's a display and storage case in one, designed specifically for collectors.
The cardboard box is filled with all 20 toys in the collection,
and came complete with a letter from Al McWhiggin, the movie's ultimate toy collector
and owner of Al's Toy Barn. A complete box in good condition is especially rare.
In addition to the toys and the toy barn,
the Toy Story 2 promotion featured refillable candy dispensers featuring Buzz Lightyear,
Woody, Bullseye, Jessie, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Rex, and Hamm.
Al's Toy barn has sold for $115,
and a set of unopened McDonald's Toy Story 2 candy dispensers can go as high as $20.
Fraggle Rock was a popular Muppet-based show from 1983,
and later, an animated series in 1987. It's also been rebooted once again in 2020. But originally,
the beloved Jim Henson creatures were released in a set of McDonald's Happy Meal toys in 1988.
The official set was made up of four Fraggle vegetable cars, featuring Gobo, Red, Mokey,
and Wembley. There were additional toys also, including two toys for kids under age three:
Gobo and Red, each holding a vegetable instead of riding in one.
These toys are sought after, but even more rare are the test
version of the Happy Meal toys sold the year before in West Virginia,
featuring two Doozer cars instead of Mokey and Wembley's vegetable cars.
A complete set of these Fraggle Rock Happy Meal test market toys sold for $100 dollars.
McNugget Buddies were a hugely popular commercial mascot for McDonalds in the 80s and 90s,
and their toy counterparts were no exception. The nugget characters ranged from firefighters
and police to farmers and scuba divers with names like First Class McNugget,
Sparky McNugget, Corny McNugget, Rocker McNugget, and Cowpoke McNugget.
The toys were released in 1988, 1993, and 1996, and some of the most sought-after McNugget Buddies
are the Halloween edition, which included a Spider McNugget and an Alien McNugget -– and
even a Ronald McNugget. While the individual toys may not be worth a ton, a full store display of
the 1996 Halloween McNugget Buddies sold for $79.99, and the 1992 edition for nearly $100.
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