The Rare '90s McDonald's Happy Meal Toy That Can Be Worth Over $5k Today

Whether you've got a little one in the back seat begging for chicken nuggets or you're secretly a fan of the smaller portion sizes, McDonald's Happy Meals are one of the fast food restaurant's biggest draws. On a recent deep dive into 10 of the rarest McDonald's Happy Meal toys, we stumbled across the exclusive Ty Teenie Beanie Babies and McDonald's collaboration. There were several iterations of the toys throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s that, to date, are worth various prices from a few bucks to a few thousand bucks, depending on which collection they're from, their condition and the packaging. 

Today, individually wrapped Happy Meal Teenie Beanie Babies tend to sell on resale sites for between $5-$25, but there's an ongoing auction on Etsy for 12 of the 1998 toys going for over $5,200, which is more valuable due to the original packaging. There's also record on a Beanies Babies Collectors Group website of unopened McDonald's International Bears (one variant of the toy) selling for $2,000 and $5,400. The high price point is thanks to the toys' short, month-long campaign window and the fact that these bears were sold, not given out for free. There are even whispers that some of the International Bears sell for $10,000.

When the McDonald's collection first came out, Beanie Babies were already a huge craze, but nobody knew how valuable they would become until years later. The toy's parent company, Ty, had already discontinued several regular Beanie Babies in previous years, so some clever McDonald's customers took a gamble that the Teenie Beanies wouldn't last forever, either. Even when they were originally in the restaurants, customers would queue for them, and in some cases got into fights over the toys.

The first Ty Teenie Beanie Babies with Happy Meals came in 1997 with 10 original toys named Chocolate, Chops, Goldie, Lizz, Patti, Pinky, Quacks, Seamore, Snort, and Speedy. For the original drop, McDonald's supposedly ordered 250 million of the toys to distribute. But stores sold out weeks ahead of schedule in what The Washington Post called, "the biggest sales in U.S. franchise history on the first weekend of the promotion." The campaign returned in 1998 with 12 new toys, and then again in 1999 with 16 new Teenie Beanie Babies, including the McDonald's International Bears Beanie Babies.

The campaign continued in 2000 with 32 new toys, including the American Trio collection, before it was ultimately discontinued. The hiatus didn't last long, as the Teenie Beanie Babies returned to celebrate the Happy Meal's 25th anniversary in 2004 with 12 toys decked out in McDonald's gear. More toys returned in 2009 until Teenie Beanie Boos were introduced with the Happy Meal in 2014 and 2017, eventually swapping to Teenie Tys in 2019 before going back to Teenie Beanie Boos in 2021, though the newer iterations are nowhere near as valuable as the old ones. This wasn't the first time McDonald's had success with a Happy Meal stuffed animal — certain 1970s McDonald's toys could be worth a fortune today – and it certainly won't be the last. If you're searching your cupboards for some long-forgotten items that may be valuable, keep an eye out for these collectible McDonald's cups that are worth lots of money, too.