Today, my wife and I passed by a McDonald’s outlet in Olivares, Tagaytay. I ordered a Happy Meal and got that orange-freak-on-gift-boxes toy above.
When I was still in college (yeah, 1996 to 2001), my colleges chums and I often had our lunch (or snack or whatever-time-it-was meal) just so we could acquire an addition to our ever growing Happy Meal toy collection. It didn’t matter that we really prefer Jollibee’s burgers than McDonald’s because Happy Meal toys are much much better that the Kiddie Meal’s. I remember a time when the two fast food chains’ competing toys were Disney’s 101 Dalmatians (McDo) versus Warner Bros’ Space Jam (Jollibee). And of course, we preferred the 101 Dalmatians toys. We were so into completing all 101 Dalmatian models (if ever a complete set exists) so there would be times when we would order two Happy Meals just so we could collect more dalmatian toys faster. There were times that we would hear a news from a random fanatic that better 101 Dalmatian models were available somewhere so we would storm that branch and harass the crews until they show us all their available Dalmatians. If we already have them all, we would not buy a Happy Meal.
That was so many years ago and a Happy Meal only costs PHP 35.00, no matter what meal you would have with your Happy Toy. Today, I bought a 5pcs. Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal for PHP 102.00 and only got that orange-freak of a toy. I wonder whether other freaking college students (like we used to be) still collect their Happy Meal toys.
Maybe these days, these should be called the McDonald’s Not-So-Happy Meal.
