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What to do with old Happy Meal toys
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Happy Anniversary, Happy Meal!
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As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Happy Meal, probably more than a few parents have asked, “What are we going to do with all these Happy Meal toys?” With the not-so-shocking news that McDonalds is the largest distributor of toys in the world, how many mini-Barbies, Mike from Monster’s Inc, mini-hot wheels, and 101 Dalmatians are on the bottom of already packed toy boxes? Or under car seats, in junk drawers, in diaper bags, hanging off of back packs, etc?
Here’s just a few suggestions for what to do with all your Happy Meal toys:
Donate ‘em:
Giving to those who need is such an important life lesson to share with our children. They learn by example, right? What better way to start a lifetime of giving?
Here a few links where you can find several organizations to donate toys, whether new or used:
Charity Guide
Charity Navigator
Goodwill Dos and Don’ts
Personally, that’s what we have done with most of our old Happy Meal toys.
Sell ‘em:
Have you heard about eleven-year-old Luke Underwood from Notts, England who last month sold his entire Happy Meal toy collection for £8,130, about $11,000? Most of the 7,000 promotional items had never been opened and also included Happy Meal boxes and posters.
Zach McGuire, an eleven-year-old boy from Ohio, is helping ease his family's financial burdens by selling his toys to raise money.
Several sites on the internet walk you through the steps to sell Happy Meal toys.
And, Happy Meal toys are always popular at garage sales and flea markets.
Collect ‘em:
Last week Ronald McDonald and a delegation of other McDonald's representatives stopped by David Bracken's house in Pittsburgh PA to view his 9,000-piece collection of McDonald's items, which includes between 7,000 and 7,500 Happy Meal toys.
Check out the McDonald Collector’s Club for lots of fun information on how to sell and collect your Happy Meal toys.
Some suggestions from experts to kids when they are starting out their collections:
- pick a central location to display your treasures, like a shelf or display case
- try to focus on a theme, category, or character
- collect items that your love or have a special meaning
Whether you want to collect them to eventually sell them or you just like to collect things, this may be your option.
Recycle ‘em:
Pass on toys to Grandparents who may need items for your cousins and grandchildren of friends.
Swap with friends so toys can be shared and played with again and again. Another great life lesson of sharing and giving.
If you live in the Cincinnati area, a super cool program is the Toy Lab at Happens Inc. There are several cool creations by kids on their web site.
From their website:
Toy Lab is now recycling your toys!
Action figures, Barbies, plastic cars, airplanes, rubber animals,or any other fantastic plastic toy that you would rather recycle than throw out.
Call Toy Lab and the Toy Lab Toy Rescue Team will set up a time for you to drop your toys off. When you arrive at Toy Lab our team will collect and weigh your toys. For every 25 pounds of useable toys you recycle you will receive a Toy Lab Gift Certificate for one Toy Lab T-Shirt with an image of your Toy Lab toy printed on it.
Happens Inc is located on Beechmont Avenue in Anderson Township… the same building where my favorite childhood ice cream store was located - United Dairy Farmer, 5 minutes from where I grew up.
Create ‘em:
If you don’t live in Cincinnati and you’re feeling a little creative, older children can create some fun, inventive sculptures with old Happy Meal toys. Depending on what toys you have on hand, cool creations can designed with many materials:
- with a clay base
- assembled with Sculpey and baked
- super glue – only applied by parent
- hot glue gun – only assembled and glued by parent and left to cool
The limits to your children’s imaginations are endless!
Sculpt ‘em:
Robert Bradford creates some fantastic sculptures made out of recycled toys. Check out his artwork on the Robert Bradford web site. Every piece is fun and full of color. Show the sculptures to the kids, maybe they’ll become inspired.
Invent ‘em:
Secret trick of toy inventors is to take apart toys to figure out how they work and/or use them to create prototypes for new ideas.
Anyone have any other suggestions for what to do with old Happy Meal toys? That is, besides trying not to step on them in the middle of the night... like we all have, right?
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