The Worth Of These '90s McDonald's Happy Meal Toys Has Mushroomed Over The Years

Toy collecting isn't kids' stuff — there's a fair share of money in vintage toys and games. When you were young, you likely weren't thinking about the value of your toys; you were just playing with them. As everyone grew older, we began to realize that those vintage action figures and trinkets are actually very hard to come by and, nowadays, extremely valuable to collectors. You do not have to go all the way back to the 1960s or 1970s to find rare and potentially valuable toys, though. McDonald's Happy Meal toys from as recently as the 1990s are no different. Some of the rarest and most memorable collectibles are the 1990 Super Mario toys released alongside Nintendo's Super Mario 3 game — so much so that their worth has significantly mushroomed over the years.

While Mario and Luigi are hugely popular today, that wasn't always the case. In 1990, when McDonald's included Mario, Luigi, a Goomba, and a Koopa paratrooper in Happy Meals, there were almost no Mario toys on the market. In fact, the first Super Mario toys ever produced only came out in 1988 in Japan. Nintendo's Happy Meal toys appear to be the very first Mario toys available in North America. Today, a set of four in the original packaging may cost you over $40. Considering that a Happy Meal in 1990 cost just $2, that's quite a return. And if you want to get into some bigger money, it's not just the Mario toys, but the Mario boxes that the toys came in. The Happy Meal boxes were designed with Super Mario art and puzzles on the sides. There were four different boxes produced, and a complete set of those — just the boxes with no toys inside — can cost over $175 today.

The toys produced by McDonald's for this Happy Meal release were fairly rudimentary. The Goomba, for instance, was just a little spring-loaded toy. You pressed his head down, then the spring popped him up and made him flip over. Luigi was on a cloud that you could pull back and release. He would zoom forward on little wheels and spin around erratically. They had very simple paint jobs, but these were Happy Meal toys, so complex designs were not expected.

The real jewel in the crown for collectors was the display case. Every new set of Happy Meal toys would be displayed in the McDonald's lobby inside a case designed specifically for the toys included in the set. The Super Mario display case featured a recreation of a level from the game with a backdrop showing Mario in his Tanooki Suit. These can sell on eBay for over $1,000.

The display case from McDonald's was not an everyday item that anyone could have. Happy Meals have changed over the years, and those types of display cases don't really exist anymore. Some were trashed, some were taken home by employees, and in some cases, customers were allowed to keep them in exchange for a donation to the Ronald McDonald House, according to former employees on Reddit. If you happen to have one of those gathering dust in the attic, consider checking eBay to see what it's worth.