A Happy Meal is a kids' meal sold at the American fast food chain McDonald's. The Happy Meals usually have a tie-in promotion of a franchise with a toy relating to the promotion. The Happy Meal box is also designed after the thing it is promoting and sometimes includes activities on it. The Mario franchise has had tie-in releases as early as Super Mario Bros. 3.

Promotions[edit]

Game-specific[edit]

Super Mario Bros. 3 (August 1990)[edit]

The Super Mario Bros. 3 promotion took place in August 1990, and it was the Nintendo's first tie-in with a fast food restaurant.^[1] One of four possible toys were included in a Happy Meal, each being specifically named and numbered:

1. Mario - A figurine based on Raccoon Mario which bounces up if pushed down.
2. Luigi - A figurine where Luigi sitting on a cloud and holding up a Starman. By pulling it back, user can move the toy around.
3. Little Goomba - A Goomba figurine that hops when it is pressed down. It could be a Microgoomba toy due to the word 'little' in its title and because ordinary Goombas cannot jump.
4. Koopa Paratroopa - A toy of Paratroopa which is also capable of hopping.

There is a fifth toy of a Raccoon Mario, which was specifically designed for children younger than three. They were not packaged inside Happy Meals, and one could only be provided if it was specifically requested for a child who was younger than three. Unlike the other toys, the Raccoon Mario toy is not numbered and is erroneously named 'Super Mario' on the included paper slip.

Mario Kart 8 (July 2014)[edit]

From July 4-31, 2014^[2], eight toys based on Mario Kart 8 were included in Happy Meals. Seven of them are racing figurines and one is a plastic Mario Cap with the Mario Kart 8 logo on it. The figurines include sticker sheets for adding character logos and other details to the karts. The racing figurines include:

• Mario in the Standard Kart in anti-gravity mode
• Luigi in the Mach 8 in anti-gravity mode
• Bowser in the Mach 8
• Toad in the Standard Kart
• Princess Peach on the Standard Bike in anti-gravity mode
• Donkey Kong in the Standard Kart in anti-gravity mode
• Yoshi on the Standard Bike

Mario franchise[edit]

Take the Mario Challenge (September 2006)[edit]

From September 1st through September 21st, 2006,^[3] there was a Mario-themed promotion for Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals titled Take the Mario Challenge. The promotion encouraged kids to be active and play outdoors with their included toy, which included a paper slip with a 'challenge' for them to complete. Six toys were released for the promotion, and two of them are each based on a certain Mario spinoff title.

The Take the Mario Challenge was promoted on the official Happy Meal website and on a television commercial. As a part of the promotion, the Happy Meal website hosted a contest where 100 random participants would win a Nintendo DS Lite included with two Mario games.^[3]

• 'Donkey Kong Banana Chaser' – A figurine of Donkey Kong capable of launching two circular objects
• 'Yoshi Tag and Run Meter' – A figurine of Yoshi that plays an A-major version of 'Alpina Blue' from Yoshi's Story if it comes in contact with another object, or if the saddle is pressed
• 'Yoshi Pop and Catch' – A figurine of Yoshi that includes a miniature baseball intended to be caught in its mouth
• 'Mario Throw and Catch' – A toy based on Mario Pinball Land that shows Mario winking in his pinball form
• 'Mario Swing and Hit' – A toy modeled after Mario's Iron Hammer move from Mario Power Tennis
• 'Donkey Kong Throw and Go Spinner' – A green frisbee with artwork of Donkey Kong centered on the spinning yellow plastic part

February-April 2014[edit]

A wave of eight Mario-themed toys were included in McDonald's Happy Meals in Europe between February and April 2014.

• A basic Luigi figure
• A basic Luigi figure in a different pose
• A figure of Mario with a Brick Block and Coin
• A figure of Mario in a Warp Pipe
• A figure of a Super Mushroom
• A figure of Princess Peach stood in front of an archway
• A figure of Toad sat down
• A basic Yoshi figure

December 2016[edit]

A line of eight Mario figures were included in Happy Meals in China in December 2016.^[4]

• A Mario figure
• A Mario figure that jumps up to hit a ? Block and makes a Super Star appear
• A Princess Peach figure holding a parasol
• A Bowser figure in a Koopa Clown Car
• A Luigi figure on a cloud that spins around
• A sitting Yoshi figure with a Yoshi's Egg pull string
• A Toad figure that waves its arms up and down
• A Boo figure that was its tongue when pushed along

April-May 2017[edit]

A wave of eight Super Mario-branded toys were included in McDonald's Happy Meals in April through May 2017.

• A basic Mario figurine
• Yoshi (able to extend and retract his tongue by pressing a button on his saddle)
• Bowser (plastic fire can be inserted into his mouth and ejected by pressing a button on his back)
• Peach with a background (Peach spins around as the toy moves)
• A Red Shell (can be moved similarly to a toy car)
• Luigi with a yellow Warp Pipe (Luigi can be inserted and ejected from the pipe)
• Invincible Mario (flicking the switch on the toy's base lights the toy up in a number of colors)
• A 1-Up Mushroom (makes the 1-Up sound from Super Mario 3D Land when a switch is flicked)

July-August 2018[edit]

Nintendo released another wave of Super Mario-branded toys starting from July 30, 2018 through August 20, 2018.^[5] One of eight toys were included in the Happy Meal:

• A Yoshi (roulette toy)
• A New Super Mario Bros. U-themed maze toy (has two sides)
• Mario (toy slot machine)
• Rubix cube (with miniature cards, one is to rearrange the blocks to match up with the design, which includes a; brick block, a musical note block, a ? block, an empty block, and a purple, green, red, and blue block that features on each of their sides an icon based on Mario characters; purple having a Goomba, a Blooper, a Boo, a Bullet Bill, and Bowser; Blue having a POW Block; Red having Mario, a Toad, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Peach; and Green having a Mushroom, a Fire Flower, a Yoshi's Egg, a Super Star, and a Koopa Shell)
• Fire Luigi (comes with a cutout Goomba and Koopa Troopa, where the left arm acts as the firing mechanism to launch a disc representing the fireball)
• Running Yoshi (Yoshi can be inserted into a launcher and ejected, with a pik representing an egg and fruit acting as stoppers)
• Super Mario Bros.-themed pointer game (flicking the switch on the toy's base will have a Koopa shell being launched and fall into any of the designated points, with the leftmost bit awarding 10 points, the middle being 50, and the rightmost bit awarding 100 points)
• A Mario and Cappy target game (twist Mario around to have him 'throw' Cappy onto a target icon depicting Goombas and coins)

Gallery[edit]

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Happy Meal.

• Front of the Super Mario Bros. 3 display

• Raccoon Mario suction jumping toy from 1990

• Donkey Kong frisbee from 2006

External links[edit]

References[edit]