Here’s something only fat kids will understand. Every kid, who lives where McDonalds are available, dreams about a Happy Meal. Food, that’s bad for you, and a toy? What’s not to love? But as a fat kid you don’t really want a Happy Meal. You want the toy and an adult portion of food. I would get a 6 piece nuggets and a large fries, in a Happy Meal bag with the toy.  This didn’t happen all that often, McDonalds is actually pretty expensive.  I only remember a few times. One of them, or the toy at least, stands out in my memory. Today I’m going to take a look at those fun bits of plastic.




So what toy is worth devoting an entire post to? What silly bit of plastic, designed to entice children through the golden arches has left such a lasting impression on me? Changeables. Not sure what those are? Let me refresh your memory.

Did you know these things had a name? I didn’t. Not until I started researching this feature. I may not have remembered or even knew their names, but I remember the toys. Or, to be exact, I remember the few I had. One in particular. But before we get into my memories let’s take a look at these toys themselves.

If you’re a child of the 90’s these won’t really be memorable to you. The first series debuted in 1987, when I was just 4 years old. There were 6 toys in this line. This included a Big Mac, Large Fries, McNuggets, Mile Shake, Egg McMuffin, and a Quarter Pounder. That is what they looked like in their base modes but when transformed…

Food Robots, sure the faces are vague, and there is no articulation to speak of, but those were simpler times. We didn’t need bells and whistles. What I would have liked, though, would've been for these to have more complex transformations and a bit of characterization. Luckily there were more to come.

Series two, which came out in 1989, gave us those two improvements. Aside from two re-colors (Big Mac and Large Fries) this series saw 6 new toys. This time around the toys had names, which automatically gave them more character, since any is more than none.

The Big Mac was Macro Mac, the Large Fries became Fry Force, the Small Soft Drink turns into Krypto Cup, the Small Fries transforms into Fry Bot, the Hot Cakes change into Robo-Cakes, the Quarter Pounder Box shifts into Gallacta Pounder, the Chesseburger becomes C2, and finally the Ice Cream is revealed to be Turbo Cone. Once again these are food robots, or robots disguised as food. Wait Robots. In Disguise? I wonder where that idea came from?

1990 saw the third and final series of Changeables. This time we got something different. This time it wasn’t food robots.  Not everything was new, however. Series three was made up almost entirely of old molds. There were 4 from series 1 and 3 from series 2. That meant that only one of these toys, the Happy Meal Box, was actually new.

Except, you wouldn’t know that at first glance, at least not when they’re transformed. In their base modes they are pretty much exactly the same, but when they change it’s a whole new story.  Why? Because this time we get food Dinosaurs! That’s right that isn’t just an order fries, it’s a Triceratops!

The toys this time around are Happy Meal-O-don, McDino Cone, Hot Cakes-O-Dactyl, Fry-ceratops, Big Mac-O-Saurus Rex, Tri-Shake-atops, McNuggets-O-Saurus, and Quarter Pounder with Cheese-O-Saur. There isn’t one those names that doesn’t make me smile.

This is the series that I remember the most, I had one of these and I loved it.  The Hot Cakes/Terradactyl was a favorite of mine as a child. I remember carrying it with me often. It was that, a Battle Beast, and small Eagle from the old series SilverHawks.

While these are the same molds, some of them have different alt modes. Take my favorite for instance. If you look at the pictures above you can see the obvious difference between Hot Cakes-O-Dactyl and Robo-Cakes. 

Each of these series also included a toy for kids Under 3 years of age which I did not talk about. So if you’re curious you can probably find some info about those.

Back to me. Hot Cakes-O-Dactyl. What was it about this simple little guy that caught my mind? Let’s take a second and actually look at what he is. He is a dinosaur pretending to be an order of hotcakes. That means he is tiny, so he is a breed of tiny Pterosaur. Tiny Pterosaurs that are alive today and are smart enough to disguise themselves.  Imagine that, can you even fathom the story behind something like that?

As a kid, that is something I spent a lot of time going over in mind. Just wondering how my little buddy came to be. Was he the result of an experiment gone wrong or some kind of evolutionary wonder? This was the kind of toy that sends your imagination on wild trips.

There was another reason I loved this guy. I have a thing for transforming toys that are everyday items. A few years ago a saw a show called Keitai Sousakan 7. It was about transforming cellphones. The idea of these little robots walking among us unseen just caught my attention. It didn’t hurt that the show was really well written, well acted, and damn good.

The idea of a hidden world, and little robot buddies just hits my happy place. I like the image of aa kid carrying something that looks normal, but secretly it’s his best friend. Wherever he goes, his buddy goes with him. It’s an idea that just screams adventure. I wanted to go on weird food based adventures with my Hot Cakes-O-Dactyl. It’s that kind of toy.

That could just be me. Movies like Small Soldiers and shows like Keitai Sousakan 7 just do it for me. It’s a take on the “A boy and his dog” genre, which speaks to me.

Anyway, this is my favorite Happy Meal toy of all time. It is one of my favorite toys ever and it was definitely worth taking a stroll down memory lane for.

Next week I’ll be looking at a Fat Guy. Maybe Awesome, maybe Awful. Who knows? See you then.