Vintage Fast Food Toys are Collector Treats
Much like the meals they came with, nostalgic fast-food toys are a usually low-priced way to satisfy a collector’s craving.
Image courtesy odrabenstoyland/eBay.
When you’re a kid, there’s not much better than a meal of junk food topped off by a free toy. (For parents, the treat is getting a meal and entertainment for your kids at a low price.) Fast food restaurants realized this in the 1970s. The first fast food kids’ meal to include a toy was the Fun Meal introduced by the now-defunct chain Burger Chef in 1973. A few years later, in 1979, McDonald’s released its Happy Meal, and fast food was never the same.
Although the toys in fast food meals are usually simple and cheaply made, they aren’t just temporary fun. They are usually released in sets or themes, making them many kids’ first collections. It doesn’t hurt that you’ll never know which toy you’ll get, in the same way that blind box toys captivate today’s buyers, or that many fast food toys overlapped with existing collectible crazes, like McDonald’s Teenie Beanie Babies or Burger King’s Pokémon cards. Other popular toys promoted movies or sports events.
Fast food restaurants are aware that it’s not just kids who collect their toys. In recent years, McDonald’s has released limited-edition Happy Meals geared toward adults with redesigned versions of past favorite toys. Collectors also like to look for vintage toys they remember from their childhoods. You can find them at places like flea markets, thrift stores, online marketplaces, and sites like eBay and Etsy. They occasionally come up at auctions, too; usually with several offered together as a single lot.
If you find a few vintage fast food toys in your attic or at the back of a drawer, they probably won’t fund your retirement, but you could make a small profit off something you got for free. But if you find one at a flea market or online, it won’t cost too much to indulge your inner child.
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