Happy Meal
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A Happy Meal is a kids' meal sold at the American fast food chain McDonald's. The Happy Meals usually have a tie-in promotion of a franchise with a toy relating to the promotion. The Happy Meal box is also designed after the thing it is promoting and sometimes includes activities on it. The Mario franchise has had tie-in releases as early as Super Mario Bros. 3.
Promotions
Game-specific
Super Mario Bros. 3 (August 1990)
The Super Mario Bros. 3 promotion took place in August 1990, and it was the Nintendo's first tie-in with a fast food restaurant.[1] One of four possible toys were included in a Happy Meal, each being specifically named and numbered:
- Mario - A figurine based on Raccoon Mario which bounces up if pushed down.
- Luigi - A figurine where Luigi sitting on a cloud and holding up a Starman. By pulling it back, user can move the toy around.
- Little Goomba - A Goomba figurine that hops when it is pressed down. It could be a Microgoomba toy due to the word "little" in its title and because ordinary Goombas cannot jump.
- Koopa Paratroopa - A toy of Paratroopa which is also capable of hopping.
There is a fifth toy of a Raccoon Mario, which was specifically designed for children younger than three. They were not packaged inside Happy Meals, and one could only be provided if it was specifically requested for a child who was younger than three. Unlike the other toys, the Raccoon Mario toy is not numbered and is erroneously named "Super Mario" on the included paper slip.
Mario Kart 8 (July 2014)
In July 2014, eight toys based on Mario Kart 8 were included in Happy Meals. Seven of them are racing figurines and one is a plastic Mario Cap with the Mario Kart 8 logo on it. The racing figurines include: Mario in the Standard Kart in anti-gravity mode, Luigi in the Mach 8 in anti-gravity mode, Bowser in the Mach 8, Toad in the Standard Kart, Princess Peach on the Standard Bike in anti-gravity mode, Donkey Kong in the Standard Kart in anti-gravity mode, and Yoshi on the Standard Bike. The figurines include sticker sheets to add character logos and other details to the karts.
Mario franchise
Take the Mario Challenge (September 2006)
From September 1st through September 21st, 2006,[2] there was a Mario-themed promotion for Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals titled Take the Mario Challenge. The promotion encouraged kids to be active and play outdoors with their included toy, which included a paper slip wiht a "challenge" for them to complete. Six toys were released for the promotion, and two of them are each based on a certain Mario spinoff title.
The Take the Mario Challenge was promoted on the official Happy Meal website and on a television commercial. As a part of the promotion, the Happy Meal website hosted a contest where 100 random participants would win a Nintendo DS Lite included with two Mario games.[2]
- A figurine of Donkey Kong capable of launching two circular objects
- A figurine of Yoshi that plays an A-major version of "Alpina Blue" from Yoshi's Story if it comes in contact with another object, or if the saddle is pressed
- A figurine of Yoshi that includes a miniature baseball intended to be caught in its mouth
- A toy based on Mario Pinball Land that shows Mario winking in his pinball form
- A toy modeled after Mario's Iron Hammer move from Mario Power Tennis
- A green frisbee with artwork of Donkey Kong centered on the spinning yellow plastic part
April-May 2017
A wave of eight Super Mario-branded toys were included in McDonald's Happy Meals in April through May 2017.
- A basic Mario figurine
- Yoshi (able to extend and retract his tongue by pressing a button on his saddle)
- Bowser (plastic fire can be inserted into his mouth and ejected by pressing a button on his back)
- Peach with a background (Peach spins around as the toy moves)
- A Red Shell (can be moved similarly to a toy car)
- Luigi with a yellow Warp Pipe (Luigi can be inserted and ejected from the pipe)
- Invincible Mario (flicking the switch on the toy's base lights the toy up in a number of colors)
- A 1-Up Mushroom (makes the 1-Up sound from Super Mario 3D Land when a switch is flicked)
July-August 2018
Nintendo released another wave of Super Mario-branded toys starting from July 30, 2018 through August 20, 2018.[3] One of eight toys were included in the Happy Meal:
- A Yoshi (roulette toy)
- A New Super Mario Bros. U-themed maze toy (has two sides)
- Mario (toy slot machine)
- Rubix cube (with miniature cards, one is to rearrange the blocks to match up with the design, which includes a; brick block, a musical note block, a ? block, an empty block, and a purple, green, red, and blue block that features on each of their sides an icon based on Mario characters; purple having a Goomba, a Blooper, a Boo, a Bullet Bill, and Bowser; Blue having a POW Block; Red having Mario, a Toad, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Peach; and Green having a Mushroom, a Fire Flower, a Yoshi's Egg, a Super Star, and a Koopa Shell)
- Fire Luigi (comes with a cutout Goomba and Koopa Troopa, where the left arm acts as the firing mechanism to launch a disc representing the fireball)
- Running Yoshi (Yoshi can be inserted into a launcher and ejected, with a pik representing an egg and fruit acting as stoppers)
- Super Mario Bros.-themed pointer game (flicking the switch on the toy's base will have a Koopa shell being launched and fall into any of the designated points, with the leftmost bit awarding 10 points, the middle being 50, and the rightmost bit awarding 100 points)
- A Mario and Cappy target game (twist Mario around to have him "throw" Cappy onto a target icon depicting Goombas and coins)
Gallery
- For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Happy Meal.
Front of the Super Mario Bros. 3 display
Raccoon Mario suction jumping toy from 1990
Donkey Kong frisbee from 2006
External links
- A Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meal commercial
- A second Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meal commercial
- A third Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meal commercial
- Commercial of the "Take the Mario Challenge" (2006)
