McDonalds' Girls

McDonalds is one of my guilty pleasures: the food, the price, and even the advertising - right through from the 1988 McDonalds Makes Your Day campaign to the cute 2013 Parallel Lives ad. For me McDonalds is THE symbol of globalisation, and how that doesn't necessarily mean just doing exactly the same thing in every single locale - pink slime would never stand up to EU food safety legislation, and you'd be hard pressed to find a statue of Ronald anywhere in the UK (clowns are a dying breed here...).

More importantly, in terms of this blog post at least, McDonalds' is also the doll world's fast food restaurant of choice. All the big names have worked there, and most have been given away from there at some point too. This post will just look at the more usable side of McDonalds doll merchandising - uniforms, restaurants, etc.

* Pictures all come from Google Images, I claim no credit for them. *

Barbie

1982 Barbie Loves McDonalds playset, read more HERE. TV ad HERE.

1982 Barbie 'Fashion Classics' Fun at McDonalds uniform.

1982 Ken 'Fashion Classics' Fun at McDonalds' uniform.

1982/3 Skipper 'Fashion Fantasy' Fun at McDonalds uniform.

1993 Barbie, Stacie and Todd McDonalds Birthday Fun set, more info HERE.

1993 'Happy Meal Fun' dolls: Whitney, Janet, Todd and Stacie.

1994 McDonalds Restaurant with Talking Drive Thru playset - read more HERE. TV ad HERE.

1999 NASCAR Barbie sponsored by McDonalds - read more HERE.

2001 McDonalds Fun Time Restaurant Playset, more info HERE.

2001 McDonalds Fun Time Drive-Thru Playset.

2001 Barbie and Kelly McDonalds Fun Time set.

2001 Happy Meal Dolls.

2003 McDonalds playset - back of the box HERE and pic of it set up HERE.

Department 56

Dept 56 make a series of ornamental buildings, etc, in the Snow Village range, including some McDonalds pieces: restaurant, billboard and Ronald McDonald.

Fisher Price

1974 Playskool 'Familiar Places' McDonalds playset - read more HERE.

1990 Little People playset.

2003 Sweet Streets Playset. Boxed image HERE.

2003 Little People Happy Meal Sonya Lee Toy. There were also little booths for her to work at.

2005 Little People Ronald McDonald Happy Meal toy. You could also get the Hamburglar.

Fisher Price have also made a variety of child sized McDonalds playsets over the years. In 1989 they had a drive-thru stand (TV ad HERE) and a range of food which was available separately - Big Mac, Breakfast, Chicken McNuggets, Garden Salad, Happy Meal and a Refill Pack. There were even a uniform, cooking centre, and soda fountain machine (back of the box HERE) to go with it. In 1988 FP and McDonalds had collaborated on four Happy Meal food guys - Chicken Nuggets, French Fries, Hamburger, and Soft Drink.

Hot Wheels

There were cars with McDonalds imagery on in 1993, 1994, 1997 (not as a Happy Meal toy, but HERE and HERE), 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002,

1994 Sto and Go Playset - more info HERE. (Version with blue car HERE.)

1996 playset.

1999 Big Mac Hauler, there was a slightly different one in 1997 and a Large Fries hauler in 1998. There was also a Happy Meal hauler in 1995.

2004 drive-thru playset. Different box styles HERE and HERE.

Lego

1999 3438 Lego System Drive-Thru - read more HERE.

Licca-chan

Date unknown? Read more HERE. You can see the boxed doll HERE.

1986 McDonalds waitress. She had her own drive through playset, as pictured at the beginning of this post.

1987 McDonalds Waitress. (I've also seen it listed as 1989.)

1990 playset.

1993 playset - read more HERE. (Close up of the doll HERE.)

Based on the uniforms, these dolls must be from c. 1993 too.

2000 miniature McDonalds Licca.

McDonaldland

McDonaldland is the fantasy marketing world McDonalds' created for itself in the 1970s. It spawned characters like the Hamburglar, and served as a branding tool for toys and playsets. Later McDonalds produced figures and playsets will also be lumped into this section.

1976 Remco McDonaldland playset. There were 7 figures available to go with it: Big Mac, Captain Crook, Grimace, Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, Professor, and Ronald McDonald. Huckleberry Toys made reproductions of these 6"-8" figures in 2008 - see HERE.

1978 15" doll.

1993 McDonalds Snack Makers - Cookies, French Fries, Frozen Fruit, Hamburger, Happy Meal, McNugget, Pie, and Shake.

1993/4 McDonaldland Village Happy Meal toys.

1997/8 Happy Meal Girl dolls made by Hasbro - boxed image HERE, and TV ads HERE and HERE.

2000 Drive-Thru playset - more info HERE.

2006 Figure assortment sets - more HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Not sure what year this is - c. 2008?

2009 Drive Thru Centre. You could also get a separate electronic cash register. They've done various play food sets too, e.g HERE, HERE and HERE.

Play-Doh

1998 Happy Meal Playshop - more info HERE.

2003 McFlurry Dessert Playshop - more info HERE.

2003 McDonalds Restaurant playset - more info HERE.

Re-ment, Orcara, Etc.

Re-ment haven't done any branded McDonalds food, but they do a wide range of 1/6 scale burgers, fries and drinks that could be useful. Take a look through the checklist at rement.iamneverbored.com. There is also one for Megahouse miniatures HERE.

Orcara Fast Food set - not branded but uses the red and yellow. Read more HERE.

Sindy

Rare 1982 Sindy. Apparently they were made by WESCO for that year's US McDonalds convention, but missed the deadline and sat in a warehouse for a few years before being sold off to collectors.

Super Duck

This 1/6 scale action figure brand released the 'Hamburg Uncle Joker' set in 2013, read more HERE.

Rival Restaurants:

• 1970 Let's Play at KFC playset.
• Shillman did a Young 'n Lovely fashion doll accessory set in the 1980s with Burger King drinks and fries, see HERE.
• Barbie's cousin Jazzie had her own Burger King playset in 1989 - read more HERE.
• In 1993 Barbie had a Domino's Pizza Party playset.
• In 2001 Barbie opted for a Pizza Hut playset. In the past there had been a Skipper Pizza Hut shop in 1994, along with Pizza Party Courtney, Kevin and Skipper in white and black skin tones.
• 2009 Licca MOS Burger shop - read more HERE.
• 2013 Licca Pizza-La eat in and delivery playset and doll. It was a job Licca had done before in 2004, see HERE and HERE. (Pizza-La is the biggest pizza chain in Japan.)

Song of the Day:

McDonald's Girl - The Blenders.