The year was 1995. It was Disneyland's 40th Anniversary and McDonalds was helping to celebrate in a big way!
McDonalds and Disney would enter into an official partnership the next year, but had already partnered up on various Happy Meal promotions in the previous years for films such as The Little Mermaid and The Lion King. The Happy Meal toys this time would be viewers shaped like parade floats for various Disneyland attractions. There were eight in all, and I happened to get all eight at once at a garage sale years ago!
Let's take a look, shall we?
First, we have Brer Bear in a Splash Mountain log!
...which it says on the other side!
And here is where you look in...
...to find this scene! (It was kind of tough to get shots of the slides)
Next we have Roger. I thought this was for Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.
But it's actually for all of Toontown!
Benny the cab coming right at ya!
And here is the scene on the inside!
I was also wrong on this one. I thought this was obviously Peter Pan's Flight.
But it's actually Fantasmic!
Peter looks good in this shot.
And here is the Fantasmic scene!
Now, honestly, I didn't know what this was. I thought it could be actually from a parade, since MGM Studios had an Aladdin parade.
But it's really for Aladdin's Oasis!
Let's look inside, shall we?
Ah, there we are. Apparently this was a pretty good production.
Now, I knew THIS had to be from a parade...
...and it is! The real float was actually sent to Walt Disney World and became part of Festival of the Lion King!
And the float at Disneyland!
This one might be my favorite! Who doesn't love The Jungle Cruise?...and King Louie!
There's the Jungle Cruise logo!
And Louie coming right for us!
Now, when I bought it I thought that this might have been the Disneyland Railroad.
Wrong! It's Big Thunder Mountain!
With a very cute Pooh Bear driving!
Hey! Mickey! Look over here!
That's better! I understand Space Mountain can be distracting!
Here's the inside scene!
So there you have it! These are fun little trinkets that were probably fun to collect, but they have relatively little value other than historic and Disney Nerd appeal. Still, I like them! ...and I hope you've enjoyed them too!
Until next time, keep searching for treasure!
Stu, I remember seeing these in McDonalds...it's hard to believe they're from almost 30 years ago. I don't think I ever took a peek inside of one - so I had no idea what I was missing. Now I want the King Louie/Jungle Cruise one! I looked on eBay and see that they are affordable, though the Splash Mountain one is going for more, of course.
ReplyDeleteYou found a fun treasure; thanks for sharing!
Sue
Thanks! It doesn't seem so long ago does it? And then I realize that was the year that we took my daughter to Walt Disney World for the first time when she was five...and now she's 33!
DeleteThey are fun!
Oh, wow, these are really special!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad you liked them!
DeleteI also remember these, and like Sue, I can't believe these are from almost 30 years ago! If they did a new batch of these for DL's 70th birthday, I would hope that the "Fantasmic!" viewer would be just a melted blob of plastic! ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you were able to get the entire set, and all at once!
- TokyoMagic!
Lol, I see what you did there! The weird thing is that there would be people really trying hard to get that blob!
DeleteYeah, I get lucky sometimes!
I like a lot of Happy Meal toys, and for a while I started collecting some, until I realized that they would take over my life. I already have 20 other collections going! So I stopped buying them. But I love seeing the ones you have. Thank you for going to the trouble of taking the photos so that we can see the little image inside! I've always wondered what they looked like!
ReplyDeleteOf course! I'm glad you enjoyed them!
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