What percentage of Americans born after 1980 have eaten at least one McDonald’s Happy Meal in their life? 70 percent? 80 percent? More than that?
For 45 years, it has been a cornerstone of most children’s culinary demands. The concept’s creation is credited to a man named Bob Bernstein, who took an idea hatched by a McDonald’s franchiser in Guatemala for a packaged meal targeted at families with small kids, and streamlined it for mass production in the United States. He supposedly hatched the notion to put it in a cardboard box with McDonald’s golden arches as handles, and came up with the name “Happy Meal.” After early tests in 1977, McDonald’s across the nation added them to their regular menu in 1979.
Within a few years, Happy Meals had become enormously popular, especially after McDonald’s began focusing their toys around popular films and television series. (For you trivia nerds: The very first tie-in between Happy Meal and movie was for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, because if there is one thing children love, it is ponderous, slow-moving science-fiction films about hairy middle-aged men contemplating their mortality in deep space.) At that point, the food itself was no longer the star attraction. It was just the excuse to get the latest themed action figure or vehicle.
While the golden (arches) era of the Happy Meal toys arguably didn’t arrive until the ’90s, there were still some classics in the 1980s — especially in the decade’s final years, after McDonald’s struck a cross-promotional deal with Disney. Here are 15 of the best Happy Meal toys of the decade. (By the way, if this triggers some intense sense memory and you want to rebuy any of these for your desk or bookshelf, most are available and very affordable on eBay.)
The Best ’80s Happy Meal Toys
If you grew up in the 1980s, you definitely remember these iconic Happy Meal prizes.
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