40 years of the infamous Happy Meal from the house of golden arches and I've been alive to witness 30 of them. Rumors and photos started popping up everywhere quickly with very little details on this limited promotion from McDonald's. As fast as the rumors spread, an official date was released along with a timeframe for the short promotion (seriously short, like 5 days short). McDonald's (sorta) has their shit together this time and I'm assuming they learned their lesson with the szechuan dipping sauce fiasco.

Anyways, they brought back 17 toys from past happy meals for this anniversary and I'd love to talk about most of them. I made a phone call to the nearest McD's before I made my way out too make sure it wasn't a wasted trip. It's always super awkward in situations like asking if I, a 30 something year old, am able to buy one of each happy meal toy if I purchase some food. Luckily, the lady was relatively sincere about it and confirmed it was indeed possible and that they'd have one of each figure sorted out for me before I arrived to pick them up. So, I get there, no one knows what I'm talking about, no figures sorted out before I arrive, this situation just got a little more awkward. After I let them know what I was there for, a couple employees got to it. Not knowing that there wasn't a #9 figure included in the promotion (due to copyright or something or other), the two employees kept searching for this missing toy for what felt like an hour. This made matters a little worse as there was an angry mob full of hunger stricken customers that didn't have time to wait for some grown ass man who needed 17 happy meal toys.

All 17 of the little beauties wrapped up in their blind bag glory.

Eventually, I saw there was no #9 on their map and passed it on to the employees scrambling through this huge box of plastic. All in all, I'd say holding up a line of angry hunters all dressed in orange camo fresh from the woods was well worth taking a small ride back to my childhood. The 4 chicken nuggets, extra fries and apple juice were just a plus.

Before I truly begin, I'm going to say this - almost every Happy Meal series had that one toy you didn’t want to receive. And for me, these four kind of fit that bill. Furbys are ok in my book as they sort of remind me of pre-mutated Gremlins, but Beanie Babies, Hello Kitty and My Little Pony, although popular, were things I never really cared for. And they should've ditched Hello Kitty as they just had a Halloween release of Hello Kitty figures at McDonald's this past month. And Beanie Babies.... I feel like that'd be the one I'd be least happy with had I purchased a bunch of Happy Meals to get them randomly. At least it's a Purple Platypus I guess.

Pretty cool that even McNuggets partake in no shave November, too.

Recently in a Halloween article, I was ranting an raving about how cool it'd be if they brought Mcnugget Buddies back somehow whether it be a rerelease or brand new members of the nugget family. And here we are with 3 rereleased Mcnugget buddies from the original line (non Halloween guys). We got a McDonalds employee, and a good portion of the village people. These had to be part of this promotion. There was no other way around it. Imagine a world where there was an event like this with no Mcnugget buddies. Unfathomable.

Next, we have a couple Changeables! A robotic hamburger and a happy meal box turned dinosaur. So, basically, changeables are McDonalds version of Transformers but with food items instead of automobiles.

I can't stress enough how cool Happy Meal toys were back when they included characters from the McDonald's franchise. And these two, among the 7 included, are no exception. Here, we have the notorious Grimace and Hamburglar lookin' like they're about to drop the most fire hip hop album of the year.

Up next, a couple classic Disney characters. Straight out of Fantasia comes Mickey as the sorcerer's apprentice and also 1 of 101 Dalmations driving in a car with his eyes closed. This Dalmation is an accurate representation of how I drive to work on the daily.

Then we have Jason Lee Scott aka the red ranger from Power Rangers. I'm not sure if it's just mine or if they're all like this but the right arm is basically stuck up like that. The left arm moves as does the right leg. I will eternally imagine Jason either waving as if he's aboard a float at an Angel Grove parade or trying to tell someone how much height is added to Rita Repulsa while she wears her hat.

Next, we have a Tamagotchi keychain. There's a switch in the back which makes the screen light up when it's pressed in. I suppose this would be another one of those toys that I'd have been disappointed with as well but I had a little more experience with these guys than I did with the other four.

Then, straight outta Space Jam, we have slam dunking bugs bunny. He's on a platform with wheels that makes the figure spin as you push it. They made all the Space Jam figures so they could link up together. I never had these but I'm sure a train full of Looney Tunes is just as exciting as it sounds.

Last but certainly not least we have the McDonald's Thunderbird from Hot Wheels. I always had at least one shoe box full of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars like most kids in the early 90’s, so I'm still pretty pumped on this one. I'm not a big Nascar fan so I'm not really sure who this car belongs to.

I applaud McDonald's for answering prayers to millions of man (and woman) children worldwide because, let's be honest, more 20 to 30 year olds are crazy about this release than actual children are. Before this, I haven't had much excuse to visit McDonald's or ingest artery clogging food in a long time, so I see it as a win win.

This promotion started on Thursday the 7th of Nov and will last until the 11th (which is TODAY!) so get your Happy Meal toys fast before they're gone! If you don't want to take home a bunch of Happy Meals, ask to purchase just the toys and they should be happy enough to sell you them or, in some rare cases, give you them for free *cough* Derek *cough*. Thanks for reading!

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