McDonald’s introduced the Happy Meal — a burger, fries, drink, and a surprise toy in a themed box — to their regular menu in 1979. After some early experimentation and at least a few highly questionable concepts (Play-Doh? In a Happy Meal? We’re just begging children to eat it at this point.) they really perfected their formula by the late 1980s: Partner with brands kids love and offer toys appealing enough that they will beg their parents to return to the restaurant week after week to collect them all.
By the ’90s the Happy Meal was arguably at its zenith. The toys were fun, detailed, and often the only way to get merch connected to popular movies and shows. Not long after the turn of the century, Happy Meals arguably started to decline; when I buy them for my own kids these days, I’m sometimes shocked at how paltry the prizes are. (A cardboard box filled with a couple of trading cards with dance moves on them? What kid wants that?!)
For proof that ’90s kids didn’t even know how good they had it, I’ve assembled a list of 20 of the coolest Happy Meal toys — and to be honest, there were so many options to choose from, I probably could have made the list twice as long. If you’re in the mood to bask in some ’90s nostalgia, what you want is what you get from this list.
The Best ’90s Happy Meal Toys
The ’90s were the Golden Age of Golden Arches giveaways — and here are 20 examples of great Happy Meal toys that prove it.
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The Best ’80s Happy Meal Toys
If you grew up in the 1980s, you definitely remember these iconic Happy Meal prizes.