Millennial parents bemoan the decline in McDonald's Happy Meal Toys for their Gen Alpha kids: 'My kid just got a "toy" that was a collection of interlocking cardboard strips and a QR code'

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Aug 28, 2024 8:00 PM EDT

There are some Happy Meal toys you will never forget. When the movie Cars came out, I vividly remember getting a girl car toy at my local McDonald's. It wasn't even the main girl car in the movie (this one was mint instead of blue), but something about the toy was so mesmerizing and fun. I could drive it all over the table at McDonald's and on the carpet at home. It wasn't one of those toys you could use once and discard. This car had star power, even if I didn't have the vocabulary to articulate that yet.

Shortly after Cars came out, McDonald's toy licensing agreement with Disney expired and was not renewed. Fast-forward to today, 18 years later, and McDonald's Happy Meals are in a dire position, at least according to millennial parents. The fast-food toys of today seem to have more in common with cereal box toys from the 50s and 60s than those of the 90s and 2000s.