Happy Meal | Vintage Action Figures

Roz from Monsters, Inc. by McDonald’s

This summer sees the return to the big screen of some of the characters from the hugely popular 2001 Pixar animated movie Monsters, Inc. in a 3D prequel Monsters University. Monsters, Inc. received the 3D treatment itself last year and that version will finally be hitting screens in Italy where I live next month, so I thought it might be fun to take a look at a collectible figure from the time of the first film’s original release – the gravel voiced Monsters, Inc. secretary, and undercover boss of the Child Detective Agency, Roz.

When Steve Jobs died in 2011 he was almost exclusively eulogised for his innovations in technology, but PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – remembered Jobs as a very public vegetarian who had played a significant a role in ending Disney and Pixar’s commercialisation of its movies through Happy Meal toys and gimmicks sold at fast food giant McDonald’s. When Monsters, Inc. was released, however, Pixar and Disney were still super-sizing kids all over the world, aided and abetted by toys like this 4 ½ inch Roz, which I believe is a European only release, dated 2002 in line with the movie’s release this side of the Atlantic.

Tarzan…King of the Fast Food Jungle!

I’ve been a vegetarian for almost all of my adult life so it’s been quite some years since I’ve eaten a burger or stepped inside a McDonald’s restaurant, and as a result have never really been a collector of the ever popular McDonald’s Happy Meal toys and action figures. They do seem to turn up in bargain bins and on market stalls pretty regularly, however, and I inevitably find them hard to resist!

A stroke of marketing genius, Happy Meal toys have been getting kids to drag their parents into the fast food chain for decades, with Disney heavily involved with the company as a means to promote its latest films during the 1990s, until they abruptly ended that relationship in 2007.

Shrek the Third Talking Donkey Happy Meal toy

Shrek and McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys

With the final chapter in the Shrek movie series Shrek Forever After hitting cinemas worldwide tomorrow I thought it might be fun to take a look at one of the action figure gimmicks that was released in 2007 to coincide with the last Shrek film.

When Disney and the McDonald’s restaurant chain finally parted ways in 2007 the Disney gap was quickly filled by a major merchandise marketing deal with DreamWorks Animation tied to the launch of Shrek the Third. In a move that presumably addressed some of Disney’s (rumoured) concerns about the impact of McDonald’s fast food on childhood obesity, this time around the Shrek toys and action figures would be available with Happy Meals with a new healthier menu including …wait for it…fruit and vegetables, low-fat dairy products and fruit juices! To add further weight (no pun intended) to DreamWorks’ commitment to the problem, the Shrek the Third characters also appeared in a US Dept. of Health & Human Services commercial regarding Childhood Obesity Prevention.

Toy Story: Disney and McDonald’s Happy Meals

As somebody who has been a vegetarian for the last 23 years I haven’t seen the inside of a McDonald’s for quite some time, or likewise, collected any Happy Meal toys directly in a McDonald’s restaurant; their action figures do seem to pop up regularly on market stalls, however, and that’s where I found this Woody the other day. Love them or hate them, the McDonald’s Happy Meal action figures have clearly cornered a slice of the collectors’ market – earlier this year UK newspaper the Daily Mail reported that an entrepreneurial 11-year-old had sold his entire collection of McDonald’s memorabilia for over £8,000 sterling!

From 1996 through to the end of 2006, Disney films were often promoted via the free gimmicks and toys given away with Happy Meals, until their relationship with McDonald’s finally ended in 2007. Whilst there’s nothing officially on the record by the Disney company about the real motivation for its distancing itself from McDonald’s it would be easy to imagine that growing criticism blaming the fast food giant for childhood obesity may have played a part.