When I was first presented with Dorothy Hanley’s collection of character soft toys I looked through each one individually in front of my family. Due to the vastness of this collection everybody in the room, from my parents to younger cousins, had found a few toys depicting characters they grew up with. Some of the toys were from childhood favourite media, some were characters that had been forgotten to time, either way there was an instant connection to these toys that transcended generations. These soft toys have become more than just playthings, they are active participants in shaping how children relate to media and, by extension, aspects of their own identity. Soft toys are among our first possessions and they can become deeply embedded in the routines and relationships of early life. When these toys are in the likeness of familiar characters, it adds an extra emotional layer as these toys offer us a tangible connection to characters and narratives that can form aspects of our identities for life.
One of the oldest toys in this collection is this soft toy representing Paddington Bear’s aunt Lucy, this toy by Gabrielle Designs dates back to the late 70s. However, the concept of children’s soft toys depicting popular characters has existed long before then. The beginning of the 20th century marked a pivotal change in how we consumed media. The invention of camera technology, with the rise of Hollywood and popular cinema fastly approaching, entertainment and consumer culture began to rapidly change to form what we see it as today. In the early 1900s, the concept of children’s soft toys was solidified with the invention of the teddy bear, with the Steiff company quickly becoming a household name. It didn’t take long for companies to create soft toys based on beloved children’s characters with some of the first media tie-in soft toys being of characters such as Peter Rabbit, with Beatrix Potter herself creating the first toy in 1903.
It wasn’t until the rising popularity of the animation industry of the 1920’s and 1930’s that companies began mass producing merchandise targeted primarily at children. The popularity and distinctive style of these cartoons lent their characters perfectly to being recreated in physical form. Mickey Mouse and his friends were some of the first child friendly characters to have widely produced soft toys. After World War II, with the beginning of the baby boom,companies began to take advantage of this newly growing market, mass producing stuffed animals of popular cartoon characters such as Felix the Cat, Tom and Jerry, and other Disney characters including Bambi. In more recent decades children’s toys and children’s media have been developed in tandem, with companies producing media with toy lines in mind.
Children’s media merchandise has become an integral part of growing up over the past century. Merchandise such as school bags, stationary, and clothing depicting characters from children’s tv shows, films, and cartoons are an ever-present aspect of childhood. However, one of the most iconic and often overlooked examples of this is within children’s toys. These toys serve as physical extensions of beloved stories and characters from TV shows, films, and cartoons. As we grow up, these toys often retain emotional value, reminding them of the narratives, and characters, that shaped our early experiences. Children often see themselves within certain characters and narratives shown on screen, these soft toys allow for children to interact with these physically. This enduring connection makes them important aspects of our modern media-driven identities.
McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys
This collection features a large amount of McDonald’s Happy Meal toys. These toys all date back to the late 1990s and early 2000s.The majority of these toys are film tie-in soft toys. Interestingly, during this era of McDonald’s history, a lot of the Happy Meal toys produced were soft toys. Although many of the other soft toys in this collection date back further, this collection’s McDonald’s toys being from this particular era is of note. As of late, 2000s toys have gained renewed interest not just as nostalgic objects, but as symbols of personal and cultural identity, These McDonald’s toys are no different. Nowadays, a large collector base has formed around these turn of the century era toys. These items have become markers of formative experiences, media, and social experiences. The commitment to collecting entire sets shows a deep-rooted connection to the characters, stories, and identities that these toys helped shape during childhood.
While McDonald’s Happy Meals have often been critiqued by scholars and the public for their marketing strategies, particularly for targeting children with collectible toys to drive sales, it’s worth acknowledging that there is more than one way to interpret their cultural impact. In the context of this collection I believe that it’s equally interesting to explore the more positive, formative role that Happy Meals have played in many people’s lives.
Happy Meals were introduced to McDonald’s restaurants across North America, in 1979. The modern concept of the Happy Meal has strayed very little from its original 1979 iteration. The inaugural Happy Meals contained a small burger, fries, cookies, and a gift. The first Happy Meal tie-in occurred in this same year, with the “Star Trek Meal”, introduced to promote Star Trek: The Motion Picture in December of that same year. The incentive to collect all the toys in themed sets began here too, with the meals coming with comic strips that would come together to depict the plot of the film.Fast food restaurant kids meals have become a staple of childhood nostalgia worldwide, of which the McDonald’s Happy Meals and their toys are arguably the most iconic. However they certainly are not the only restaurant to offer children’s meals that come with a gift, with their once American rival “Burger Chef” introducing a “Fun Meal” in 1973, a kids size burger meal that came with a small toy. However McDonald’s has cemented this model in popular memory through its massive reach, branding, and media partnerships.
Today, the cultural imprint of Happy Meal toys is evident across the internet. A simple Google search of the phrase “McDonald’s Happy Meal nostalgia” brings up countless results of internet users posting pictures of their collections and old advertisements, inviting others to comment their own memories of which toys they owned. The McDonald’s toys in this collection feature tie-ins to incredibly popular and nostalgic films and franchises, including Winnie the Pooh, Lady and the Tramp, and Tarzan. These toys not only reflect the media landscape of their time but continue to evoke strong emotional responses, underscoring their lasting cultural significance.
To me these McDonalds Happy Meal toys are the perfect example of the unique power of media tie-in soft toys. Not only do they incite the memories of a particular film or tv show watched as a child, these toys also hold emotional significance through the context in which they were acquired. Growing up, many of us have memories of trips to McDonalds, whether it’s for a friend’s birthday party, a holiday, or even the excitement of wanting to collect an entire themed set, they were part of meaningful social experiences. These experiences embedded the toys within broader emotional and social developments, these toys are symbols for early relationships, routines, and emerging identities. Transforming them from simple promotional items into physical representations of specific memories. For many who grew up during the height of these promotions, at least one of these toys holds a fond and specific memory, blending personal experience and the wider cultural moment of the time.
Media tie-in soft toys, especially those found in something as everyday as a Happy Meal represent much more than just childhood memories. They can represent the intersection of media consumption, emotional development, and personal experiences faced in childhood, capturing not just the likenesses of beloved characters, but the moments and feelings that surrounded them. These toys help us to connect with characters and narratives in ways that extend beyond the screen, and our identification with their traits, stories, and values. As Dorothy’s collection shows, these toys help shape how children relate to media, form attachments, and build their sense of self.
Not all of the McDonald’s toys in this collection are media tie-ins. These mini Furbies were released to promote the full size toy line.
These birds and little moose are McDonald’s toys that are completely original, released in 1998 and 1997 respectively.
This collection also features a lot of soft toys that do not contain any media tie-ins.
