Whether on the way home from a big game or a doctor appointment, or just on a special night when Mom and Dad didn’t feel like cooking, getting a McDonald’s Happy Meal was a magical right of passage as a kid. The best part, aside from the salty French fries and tasty little cheeseburger with its unnaturally plastic-like cheese? The McDonald’s Happy Meal toy, of course!
Nothing was more exciting than rifling through that cardboard box as a child to discover which bright and shiny PVC toy you were about to add to your collection of plastic playthings. To this day even some adults — the one writing this included — still get a thrill from opening up a fun, cheap little Happy Meal toy. But did you know that some McDonald’s Happy Meal toys are actually worth quite a bit of money?
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There’s a whole area of toy collecting dedicated just to Happy Meal toys, particular vintage Happy Meal toys from the ’80s and ’90s. These nostalgic little figurines can be found in surplus at garage sales, thrift shops and flea markets all over the country, often for just a few cents to a few dollars, but some are worth much more than others.
For instance, if you’ve got enough spotted PVC puppies laying around from the fast food chain’s 1996 collaboration with Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, you could potentially make over $100.00 on a site like eBay. Similarly, a Dukes of Hazzard collaboration from the early ’80s can earn you some respectable cash for just one single item, as can a lot of original McNugget Buddies.
Below, check out which sought-after and rare McDonald’s toys are worth money today.
McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys That Are Very Valuable
From rare ‘80s action figures to Disney collectibles and modern brand collaborations, these McDonald’s Happy Meal toys are worth quite a bit more than the defunct Dollar Menu.
Gallery Credit: Erica Russell
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