These are the very first McDonald’s toys I remember! I don’t know what it was like elsewhere in the world, but Happy Meals never existed at McDonald’s in Australia until these bad boys came along. We were lucky if we got to eat at Macca’s once a month normally, but my mum and stepdad took me there once a week to get a Happy Meal while the Muppets toys were available. If I remember correctly, the Happy Meals were supposed to be a one-time promotional thing, but they were so popular Macca’s brought them back as a permanent thing.

I also remember when Pizza Hut had dine-in restaurants in Australia and they ran a Land Before Time promotion. My stepdad’s favourite character was Spike, so he found out which week the Spike hand puppet was going to be available and we got to go for dinner one night that week. Once the Spike hand puppet was purchased, my stepdad gave it red LED eyes, velcroed it down to his car’s parcel shelf, and spliced into his car’s brake light wiring so that Spike’s eyes would light up when the brakes were on.