Getting Happy Meal premiums, boxes and sacks is easy, just order a Happy Meal.Collecting of the promotional/advertising items is more difficult.Since they are in limited supply at each store, usually the first person to ask for them gets them after the promo is finished.These include the posters, displays, translites, cardboard hanging and standing announcements, crew cards, tray liners, drink cups, boxes, and fries bags and boxes. Knowing the store manager is recommended for the dedicated collector.Originally, these Happy Meal promos were devised to lure kids into the restaurants, along with their parents, with the intent of selling food products.Recently, however, the toys have become more desirable than the food, and the toys have become more of a profit generator than the food.

The hunt for the toys is now what brings people into the stores.Some types of toys have created frenzies of customers actually traveling to many McDonalds stores throughout the country just to complete their collection.The toys offered in overseas restaurants have become highly desirable, as quite often they are of different designs than the US toys.Most of the early Happy Meal boxes/bags are valued at much more than the actual toys, since most were thrown away.Other restaurants also have had diecast promos of some sort, but since this paper is related to the McDonalds diecast car promos only, I will only refer to items of that theme.Please see my actual checklist for each individual car of each set/year offering.

The first McDonalds Happy Meal promo featuring diecast cars came out in 1983 and was of a Hotwheels theme.Since then, several yearly promos related to or containing diecast cars have been available.These included Hotwheels, Matchbox, Stomper, Tonka, and Bigfoot.The Hotwheels promos were shared with Barbies so that girls would also have a toy available during the same month. Other Hotwheels items were also offered in other Toy and Christmas themed Happy Meals.As in any other type of collectible, rarity and demand determine the value. Any collectible is only worth what someone will pay for it.A true collector does not worry about value; the value is in the enjoyment of the hunt for the items and displaying/studying them.Collect what you like, and the value will be priceless…..

The 1983 “Hotwheels” issue ran on the East and West coasts with some cars particular to each coast and some common cars.There were 23 different cars and a special wheel-shaped box with a purple/silver Cadillac Seville as a crew gift to advertise the “McDonalds Hot Wheels Racing Team”. The cars were issued on cards without any McDonalds logo, but marked with “McD” and “project numbers”.All had BW or GHO wheels.

In 1986, “Stomper” Mini 4x4 Push-Alongs, by Schaper Manufacturing, were issued as Happy Meal premiums. They came in 8 different body styles with 2 colors of each. They featured independent suspensions and non-powered white plastic wheels with black rubber tires. These were different than the battery powered Stompers for sale in stores. Four different Under 3 models, with single piece wheel and tire construction, were available and one Special Offer vehicle was available for purchase via mail order with 3 Proofs of Purchase and $2.49.This was a larger, battery powered, 3-speed vehicle with working headlights.Thus 21 different vehicles are listed.

1987 saw the Ford “Bigfoot” Happy Meal.These were issued as 4 Monster Trucks (with 1” wheels) and 4 Super Monster Trucks (with 1.3” wheels).One truck of each was issued as a girl’s model with a “Ms Bigfoot” logo and in different colors.Some vehicles issued had no McDonald’s identification (the big “M”).This created 16 different varieties.All cars came in clear poly bags.

In 1988, the first and only, McDonald’s “Matchbox” Super GT diecast car Happy Meal came out.Each car came in a clear poly bag. The bottom of each car had a model number and “Made in China, Super GT, 1985”.The model numbers appear as “BR 7/8” and other number pairs up thru “BR 37/38”, with different colors, numbers, and stripes from different areas of the country.Four of the twelve numbered pairs appear twice as different colors.Thus a total of 16 different varieties exist. These cars were not exclusive to McDonalds, and were also sold in retail stores.

During 1988, a“Hotwheels” Happy meal was also introduced. All 12 cars, seven different designs with 5 of them in 2 different colors, came in a blister pack and marked with a “1988” logo and were identical to those sold in retail stores.The 2 designs that are not listed as the same model are actually the same car only painted differently.One is a black/white Police car and the other is a red Fire Chief car.

1990 was the first year that the “Hotwheels/Barbie” combination Happy Meal was offered.This appealed to both boys and girls. Four different cars were available in poly bags. These were also the same ones sold in retail stores on blister cards.

The 1991 “Barbie/Hotwheels” Happy Meal was the first national Happy Meal to have 16 differentpremium toys.The 4 different designs, in 2 different color varieties, of “California Custom Series” cars, were packaged in poly bags with a $2 Hot Wheel coupon and were the same available in retail stores.The Under-3 premium was a hollow plastic Tool Set of wrench and hammer.This made up 9 different HW items.

Something different came out in 1992 for the “Hotwheels/Barbie” Happy Meal.The vehicles were not real diecast models.The cars were new “Mini-Streex”, and came in 4 different designs of 2 colors each, with one Under-3 item.Thus 9 different items were available.Each Mini-Streex car came with its own vehicle launcher pump and had no wheels.Only the U-3 item had wheels, but no launcher pump.

1992 also had the first Tonka toy cars in a “Cabbage Patch/Tonka” girl/boy Happy Meal.Five different heavy-duty mini Tonka utility vehicles, with moving parts and wheels, and one U-3 one-piece plastic molded dump truck with “China” printed on bottom were available. Thus 6 items are collectibles.

In 1993, 8 different diecast “Hotwheels/Barbies” again were available. This year 3 McDonalds and 3 Hotwheels racing team colors were shown on exclusive to McDonalds HW cars.The green “Quaker State” racing car used here had the numbers 26: the real NASCAR racer had numbers 62.Why the numbers were reversed is a mystery.There was a yellow #88 Duracell racer also.The U-3 Tool Set, same as 1991, was again available, but in different colors.

During this year, a Christmas time Totally Toy Happy Meal contained 4 more Hotwheels Attack Pak items.Two were Keyforce vehicles, one was a Shark Cruiser, and one was a green 1957 Chevy with alligator tampos.So, for this year there were 13 different HW items available.

1994 had the second Tonka toy cars in another “Cabbage Patch/Tonka” girl/boy Happy Meal.This time, four different heavy-duty mini Tonka utility vehicles, with moving parts and wheels, and one U-3 one-piece plastic molded dump truck with “China” and “Chine” printed on bottom were available. Thus 5 Tonka items are collectibles.

1994 also had another “Hotwheels/Barbie” Happy Meal promo.This year, there were 8 different exclusive car designs and 1 U-3 Mini-Streex Fast Forward vehicle with wheels.Some of the cars were animal and futuristic styles.During the year, another Happy Meal, the McDonalds Birthday Train offering contained another Hotwheels item.This was a small racetrack on rollers.As the toy was rolled, the car actually rotated around the track.So for this year there are 10 HW collectible items.

1995 was another big year for Hotwheels items.8 individual “Barbie/Hotwheels” Happy Meal cars, 4 Attack Pak vehicles with opening mouths, 2 race cars with jump ramps, and 1 HW North Pole Explorer toy vehicle.The ramp cars were a repeat of the 1993 green Alligator tampo car and a new red 57 Chevy.Each was enclosed in a baggy with a blue jump ramp. This makes 15 items for this year.

In 1996, the “Hotwheels/Barbie” Happy Meal promo contained 5 unique vehicles and 1 Under-3 toy.The U3 toy was a rubber Squeezer Steering Wheel shape about 4 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick.The cars were patterned after the real HW series cars, such as the Hot Hubs, Dark Riders, Roarin Rods, and Krackle cars.

The 1997 “Hotwheels/Barbies” offerings were of the exclusive Emergency Vehicle motif.Five all plastic vehicles.By this year, the familiar U3 series toys were no longer offered.McDonalds had changed over to more generic Fisher Price U3 toys. These were available all year long.

1998 again produced the McDonald’s Racing Team motif on the “Hotwheels/Barbies” Happy Meal toys.Four different NASCAR Racer styles showing Ronald, MacTonite, HW, and the NASCAR 50^th Anniversary paint schemes were available.These were the first models that had self-adhesive stickers to be applied.

By 1999, newer modernized HW cars were offered in the “Barbie/Hotwheels” Happy Meal.Eight models in bright metal flake colors with names like Street Raptor, Barracuda, Piranha, Surf Boarder, and Led Sled caught the attention of collectors.

With the dawn of a new millennium, came the special Y2K “Barbie/Hotwheels” Happy Meal collection.Five current NASCAR/GRANDPRIX racing car models with their futuristic versions and an extra purchase cardboard storage box/garage/ramp were available.These sleek models all had the self-adhesive stickers to apply.A total of 11 items are collectible.

In 2000, the only year of double issue “Hotwheels/Barbie” Happy Meals, 16 different items were available.These included sports, racing and Formula 1 cars, airplanes, bikes, binoculars, stopwatches, key chains and a car launcher.This was quite a collection to acquire and a considerable amount of time and money to spend purchasing Happy Meals to obtain all of the items.

As I said before, the marketing is now focused on creating demand for the toys, not the food.That is what brings customers into the restaurants.The hope is that once inside the store, you will buy other food also.During some promos, you can buy just the toys alone with some other purchase, but usually the price for the toy alone is too high and the best deal is to buy the Happy Meal and eat it.Hey, how about helping the homeless by giving them the food and keeping the toy.

For some of the older issues, the only real way to know if you have an actual Happy Meal car is if it is still in the baggy.As more time goes by, the harder it is to find bagged cars.On the newer issues of today, the cars are actually marked “Manufactured for McD”, and some wheels are of different styles.This makes identifying them somewhat easier.Make sure you check out my checklist pages for style and wheel listings.I will soon post other listings of the non-Hotwheels cars and other manufacturers of McDonald’s motif retail diecast items and McDonald’s diecast advertising items.Maybe even listings of other fastfood restaurant’s offerings of diecast cars or vehicles in general.Feel free to email me with any suggestions or comments.

Happy collecting, and don’t get sick on all those Happy Meals you have to eat to get the premiums…..

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