10 Of The Rarest McDonald's Happy Meal Toys And How Much They Might Be Worth Today

The McDonald's Happy Meal has been a staple in most of our lives, but it has only been around since the 1970s. Marketing guru Bob Bernstein created the Happy Meal to attract children (and their parents) to McDonald's. The story goes that he was inspired by his son reading cereal packets in the morning while they ate, and wanted to create a similar device for packaged meals that would draw customers in. The very first Happy Meals were packed in boxes decorated to look like circus wagons, and the toys included puzzles, games, and stationery items.

The Happy Meal toy has a long and illustrious history, dating back to those early days, when it teamed up with some of the biggest franchises in the world to deliver toys and collectibles that kids go crazy for. Those link-ups include massive partnerships with Disney, Pixar, Hot Wheels, Batman, Barbie, Furby, and Hello Kitty, to name just a few.

The most successful collaboration was with Ty's Beanie Babies, which sold over 100 million Happy Meal boxes a year at one point. That's a whole bunch of toys — which begs the question, what happened to them all? While many of them may have ended up in a dumpster, some of the original and rare vintage Happy Meal toys are worth a significant amount of money. Vintage Happy Meal toys can sell for a couple of dollars to hundreds, particularly if they are in mint condition. The highest prices are for "mint-in-bag" stock, which means the toys are in their original and unopened packaging, and you will get considerably more for your toys if you have a complete set. Find out just how much those vintage Happy Meal toys may sell for today.

In 1993, H. Ty Warner introduced the first Teenie Beanie Baby to the world at the New York City Toy Fair, and the world went wild. Who knew that a small, stuffed bean toy would become a global craze, but it did. Beanie Babies initially launched with nine soft toys, including a lobster, a frog, a pig, and Cubbie, a bear that was given as a freebie to children at the 1997 Chicago Cubs game. The popularity of Beanie Babies soared when the parent company, Ty, made the excellent marketing decision to stop producing certain toys; their desirability increased, and the global phenomenon that is now a Netflix show in the making began.

In another brilliant marketing ploy, in 1997, McDonald's hopped onto the popularity of Beanie Babies and launched Teenie Beanie Babies as part of their McDonald's Happy Meal offering. There were 10 original Teenie Beanie Babies, which were smaller in size that the original Beanies, these were: Patti (Platypus) Pinky (Flamingo), Chops (lamb), Chocolate (moose), Goldie (goldfish), Speedy (turtle), Seamore (seal), Snort (bull), Quacks (duck), and Liz (lizard). McDonald's ordered 100 million of the toys for this promotion (10 million of each animal), and the promotion doubled the sales of McDonald's Happy Meals in 1998.

Part of the craze was the idea that these toys would increase in value and become collector's items in the future. McDonald's Teenie Beanie Babies are not as valuable as some of the original and special edition Beanie Babies, which can fetch tens of thousands of dollars; a single McDonald's Teenie Beanie Baby is listed on Etsy for only $6.47, However, there is currently a listing on Etsy for nearly $4,000 for the original set of 12 1998 McDonald's Teenie Beanie Babies.

The Snoopy World Tour series was another hit for McDonald's. The Peanuts cartoon was created by Charles M. Schulz in 1950 and ran for 50 years, until he died in 2000. While the hero of the cartoon was Charlie Brown, arguably the most popular character was his affable beagle, Snoopy. In 1998, McDonald's released a range of plastic Happy Meal Toys featuring Snoopy in different outfits from other countries. Despite the Snoopy World Tour being popular in the U.S., the toys were never actually released in the United States. There were two Snoopy Happy Meal series, in 1998 and again in 1999, but both were only launched in Asia and New Zealand, and the first series was re-released in Europe in 1999. Probably due to its Asia release many of the Snoopy Outfits were Asia specific, including Snoopy in China, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, but there was also an American Snoopy, and Snoopys from Indonesia, Mexico, Romania, Argentina, Trinidad, Panama, Jamaica, New Zealand, Peru, Russia, Holland, Ireland and Hawaii, and many more.

The toys were given away as part of the Happy Meal, arriving dissassembled in plastic bags, with moving arms and legs. Due to the massive popularity of the Snoopy World Tour and its limited availability in the U.S., Snoopy merchandise was shipped overseas, but it was also subject to recreations that flooded the market. Today, original Snoopys sell individually for around $6 each, or a full set for over $100.

Star Trek was dreamt up by Gene Roddenberry in 1964. Pitched as a TV show from the start, the franchise, which remains popular today, evolved from a pilot show into a global behemoth featuring several series, over a dozen movies, and numerous cartoons, books, magazines, and toys, including the Happy Meal Toys. McDonald's excels at tapping into a craze, and so it's no surprise that in 1979, they released Star Trek: The Motion Picture Happy Meal toys to coincide with the launch of the movie of the same name. This launch was one of the first licensed Happy Meals.

Five Star Trek: The Motion Picture Happy Meal boxes were released. The boxes themselves were works of art and have since become collector's items — each box was illustrated with games and comic strips that supported the movie. Even better, inside was not one but many little toys designed to entertain. The Star Trek Happy Meal boxes included four different Star Trek rings featuring elements and characters from the movie: Captain Kirk, Spock, the Starfleet Insignia, and the ship itself, the Enterprise. It also had different iron-on patches, each with a distinct character: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ilia, a Starfleet game, bracelet, and a Starfleet communicator — a plastic toy resembling a cellphone through which you could view a comic strip. 

Today, there are no full boxed sets of Star Trek: The Motion Picture Happy Meal toy for sale, but perhaps due to its age and many different parts, a full set could command a relatively high price. On eBay, a set of five boxes with no contents is selling for nearly $49.95, a bracelet is $16, and three iron on glitter patches are nearly $25. 

McDonald's Happy Meal Halloween Boo Buckets are still available today, but the original Boo Bucket was introduced in 1986, and it has become a valuable collector's item. Boo Buckets were a Halloween launch — small plastic buckets with lids and handles designed for collecting candy during trick-or-treating. The original buckets came in three designs, with every bucket resembling an orange pumpkin somehow, but they all had different faces: McPunkin, a pumpkin face; McGoblin, a goblin face; and McBoo, a ghost face. The buckets were relaunched in 1989 in three different colors, and McWitch replaced the Goblin bucket (with a pointed hat instead of the pumpkin shape).

McDonald's Boo Buckets have released them in various years since 1986, with a short hiatus from 2016. Some variations on the theme include glow-in-the-dark buckets and cookie-cutter lids, and at some point, they lost their lids altogether. Today, Boo Buckets aren't worth much, but if you can find one of the original Boo Buckets, you can make a pretty penny. An original Boo Bucket from 1986 sells for between $25 and $30, while a set of three can go for around $125.

Fraggle Rock was created by Jim Henson (the creator of The Muppets) in 1983; the show featured a selection of bizarre puppets that the producers say had the ambitious goal of stopping war and promoting peace. The Emmy Award-winning children's show featured the Fraggles, Doozers, and Gorgs, who lived in an underground kingdom. The program tackled subjects such as diversity, the importance of inclusion, and environmental issues. The puppets were brightly colored with tufts of hair and feathers that made them instantly recognizable, and the show was a huge hit.

The McDonald's Fraggle Rock Happy Meal toys were released in 1988. The branded Happy Meal boxes contained four toys featuring the five main puppets, each in a car the shape of a vegetable. They were Gobo in a carrot, Red in a radish, Mokey in an eggplant, and both Wembley and Boober in a cucumber, plus two standing toys made for younger children. The full set of six toys isn't set to break the bank; you can buy the full set of four for $11 on Etsy, but if you can obtain the ones intended for children under three, you could earn a little more, as they are rare. In fact, no current listings were found online at time of writing.

Hasbro launched My Little Pony in 1983, and it became one of the most popular toys worldwide during the 1980s and early 1990s. By 1986, an animated series and a movie were released, along with a new generation of ponies with more characters, and My Little Ponies are still going strong today.

The My Little Pony partnership between the brand and McDonald's has been ongoing for decades, with McDonald's launching a Happy Meal toy with every new generation of toys. The first (and most valuable) My Little Pony collaboration was launched in 1984; the companies released six individual bookmarks, each with a different pony. The ponies are Minty, Snuzzle, Blue Belle, Blossom, Cotton Candy, and Butterscotch. Today, an original Snuzzle bookmark retails on eBay for $38, so a complete set could go for a significant amount.

In 1998, a second generation of My Little Ponies was launched; these were actual My Little Pony toys, and today they sell for around $8 on eBay. The following generations mainly consisted of plastic horse-style toys in some form (sometimes they were plushies), although with a significant decrease in quality.

Another long-running partnership is the McDonald's Power Rangers Happy Meal collaboration, which launched in 1994 with Power coin pogs and continues to this day. The popularity of Power Rangers in the 1990s cannot be overstated, perhaps rivaled only by McDonald's itself. "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" was a TV show about five kids with superpowers who transform into Power Rangers to save the universe from Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, and their acolytes. The franchise was incredibly successful, with multiple spin-offs, toys, and marketing collaborations, of which the McDonald's one has been long-running and notably successful.

The first McDonald's Happy Meal launch coincided with the second season of Power Rangers and a global craze; the Power Ranger Pogs were collectible cardboard caps or coins that could be flipped over and won or traded. The 13 branded pogs featured all five Power Rangers and their enemies. To support the launch of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, a second Happy Meal collaboration was announced, and five toys were released. They were plastic items that mimicked gadgets from the show: the Power Coin, PowerMorpher Buckle, Power Siren, Alien Detector, and Power Flute.

A single 1994 McDonald's Happy Meal Power Rangers Pog currently sells for $10 on eBay. Unlike the other toys on this list, the most valuable Power Rangers Happy Meal toy is not the oldest (the Pog); instead, it's the 2000 Light Speed Rescue launch. A full set of these toys and their vehicles will set you back $125 on eBay.

The much-loved children's animated cartoon, Inspector Gadget, was a rather incompetent half-human, half-robot detective whose arch-nemesis was a villain named Dr. Claw. The series ran from 1983 to 1986 but continued on various platforms into the '90s with a Christmas Special in 1992 and multiple spin-offs up to 2002, including a movie starring Matthew Broderick. Inspector Gadget was notable for his multi-functional gadgets, which included an umbrella, a helicopter blade, and binoculars that extended from his hat, as well as stretching limbs and roller skates or springs on his shoes.

The Inspector Gadget toy was launched as part of the McDonald's Happy Meal in 1995. Unlike other collections, you were required to collect all eight pieces of the set to complete the full Inspector Gadget figure — the gadgets from the series and movie weren't accurately reflected in the Happy Meal toys, which had different gadget functions; for example, the right arm was a squirt gun, the belt was a watch, and the leg turned into pliers, although the iconic propeller hat remained. There's a full eight-piece set, mint condition in packaging, set on eBay UK for $900, so if you think you've got one of these in the back of your mom's cupboard, it may be worth taking a look.

In 2002, McDonald's released the Disney "100 Years of Magic" set to celebrate what would've been Walt Disney's 100th birthday. The collaboration between these gargantuan brands saw 100 plastic figurines from Disney and Pixar movies issued in Happy Meals over a few months in 2002. Every figurine was made for display (and collection) rather than play, standing on a gold base with its original date of appearance on the bottom. The collection included the classic Disney figures: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, every Disney princess, loved characters like Winnie the Pooh and Brer Rabbit, and of course, the then-modern release of characters like Buzz Lightyear.

The task of collecting 100 figurines (they were all numbered) was another stroke of marketing genius from McDonald's. Surely a heavy burden on parents' pockets, but perhaps one that paid off. A Disney "100 Years of Magic" unopened manager edition set is listed on eBay for nearly $7,000. In comparison, a single figurine is listed on Etsy for around $15.

Another '90s classic, Furbys are an animated/robotic soft toy that was launched in 1998. New millennium, new technology, Furbys could speak, in a manner of, err, speaking, making up to 42 noises in their own language, Furbish. These owl-like creatures, with their big eyes and distinctive mannerisms, drove kids wild, and by the first two years of production, over 20 million Furbys had been sold.

In comes McDonald's jumping on the bandwagon by launching McFurbys, which were mini versions of the Furby craze. The McFurbys were not electronic, with limited movement and no speech, but they were arguably even cuter in miniature size. There were 80 McFurbys launched in total, in 10 sets of eight each. The collaboration was incredibly successful, so much so that some estimates put the sales of the McFurby Happy Meals at around 100 million in 1999. Happy Meals with McFurbys were launched in 1999, 2000, and again in 2019 to celebrate 40 years of the McDonald's Happy Meal. 

No single McFurby stands out as the most valuable; their value increases exponentially in line with the number you have. Etsy has a set of 80 original McFurbys from 1998 in mint condition listed for $900, and you can buy a single complete McFurby set of eight for $41. Not a bad investment, really, for a Happy Meal toy.