Retro Review - Spider-man The Animated Series Happy Meal Toys from McDonald's

One of the best parts of growing up in the 90's was the cartoons, especially the superhero ones. Nearly every character had one, or appeared on one. Batman, Superman, The Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man, X-men, Silver Surfer, and of course Spider-man ruled the airwaves and prepared kids for the onslaught of superhero film that were to come. Obviously, with a successful cartoon it only made sense for fast food restaurants to create a line of tie in kids meal toys. The main two lines I remember ruling the toy box as a kid were Batman: The Animated Series and Spider-man. So a few months ago I went on a nostalgia trip and purchased a couple sets of these toys and today I'm going to take a look back at McDonald's Spider-man Happy Meal toys from 1995.

These sets were usually broken up into two halves, 4 of the toys would be character figures, while the other 4 figures would be characters in vehicles. So I'm going to break this review up as well into two halves along the same lines. There was also a "Under 3" toy, which in this case looks to be a repack of the standard Spider-man figure minus the articulation. I wasn't able to get a second sample, and couldn't bring myself to open up the baggie of the first because it was in such great shape, so I'm going off what I can see through the plastic.

All of the figures come PACKAGED in clear plastic baggies, with a much ticker plastic than I remember. Boy I ripped a ton of these open as a kid. They all clear on the back with brightly colored graphics on the front making it easy to differentiate each figure from just a glance. They're also named and numbered, adding to the collectability. There was always a hierarchy to the sets too, with toys you absolutely couldn't live without. It was always really exciting walking into McDonalds' or Burger King and seeing the new toys on display, hoping you were lucky enough to get who/what you wanted on the first visit.

THE FIGURES

The first half of the animated Spider-man set consists of four unique figures: The Amazing Spider-man, Dr. Octopus with Moving Tentacles, Mary Jane Watson with Clip-on Fashions, and Spider-sense Peter Parker. All the designs were based on the characters animated counterpart; I always remember loving Doc Ock's armor as a kid. The real winners of this set were the Spider-man and Dr. Octopus figures, but Peter and Mary Jane aren't that bad. Spidey and Doc Ock both have about 4 points of articulation (waist, neck and shoulders) with the good Doctor's tentacles also being able to twist and turn around. They're not bendy but made from a hard plastic like the body.

The sculpts are pretty good, Doc Ock has some slightly odd proportions though, and Spider-man is a tad stocky. Spider-man always reminded me more of the 1960's animated version rather than the 90's one. It's the eyes, they're small like the classic Ditko look that inspired that series. The paint is actually pretty sold with no real cut corners. It amazes me that Spidey actually has webbing on his costume, albeit it's a little wonky in some places and doesn't quite line up. It's incredible that a 90's fast food promotional toy has better paint applications than some modern mass market figures.

Mary Jane feels a little small, but she also is the only figure that came with accessories. This was one figure I never had as a kid (I had a handful of Batgirls though from the B:TAS line though) so I was mildly impressed with how well the clip on fashions worked. She does however have no articulation. Peter Parker is a solid figure in my opinion (and one of my brother's favorites when we were little), he's just a bit wide in the shoulder's as a result of the action feature. Spin his arm around and his head flips around revealing the classic comic book spider-sense, with half of Peter's face becoming his mask. I think my figure was damaged because the feature didn't work very well and I could move his arm back into a downward position without changing faces. One little touch I love is the camera in his left hand, classic.

THE VEHICLES

The other half of the set includes 4 characters in vehicles: Spider-man's Webrunner, Venom's Transport, Hobgoblin's Landglider, and Scorpion's Stingstriker. For some reason I remember Venom's Transport being a big deal as a kid, with the release of the toy coinciding with the character's first appearance on the show and a Holiday weekend. Maybe I'm making all that up, and it was just a big deal in my house and a memory that spiraled out of control. Either way, it's probably the coolest vehicle in the set.

Each vehicle has a unique feature that activates as you roll it along the floor. Spider-man's spider legs move back and forth, Venom's mouth opens and closes, Hobgoblin's wings flap, and Scorpion's tail strikes. In this lot, I never had Hobgoblin as a kid. I think I found him much later at a Flea market or something. I always really liked the idea from the cartoon that Norman Osborne first made the gear and glider for the Hobgoblin, eventually getting gassed himself and becoming the Green Goblin later. Oh, anyone remember who voiced the Hobgoblin in the series? It's actually one of Mark Hamill's lesser known roles. So crazy, now back to the review.

The paint work on these vehicles is more impressive that the figures in my opinion because the characters are only a fraction of the side. The work on Venom's eyes and spider, and on Hobgoblin as a whole is fantastic. Spider-man is also great, this time with sculpted webbing, it's only Scorpion who ended up with a little bit of over spray. The one thing that always bothered me though is the drivers didn't have any hands. Their arm's end a the wrist but they also don't connect all the way with the inside of the vehicle so there's this odd little gap. Just a minor little nit-pick.

I think the sculpts overall are great, the characters look exactly like they did in the show. I do really like that Spider-man and Venom's cars are almost mirror images of each other, and I love that the Hobgoblin's landgliders wings are holding pumpkin bombs. The front of the landglider is also great and looks like the glider from the series. Scorpion's vehicle is the weakest in my opinion, even though he's one of my favorite villains, the front has always bothered me. I would have loved to have seen a second series, I would have been curious as to what they would have done with characters like Green Goblin, Shocker, Rhino, Kingpin, Kraven, and even J. Jonah Jameson. In both vehicle and figure form.

OVERALL, I think this is a really great and fun line of promotional toys. While the figures are the stars of the show, I think there's plenty of fun to be had with the vehicles. And I'm not just saying that because I grew up with them, the quality is top notch. It feels like there was a lot of love and care put into them, and they didn't cut corners because the were a Kids' meal line. I am definitely going to have to pick up some more Happy Meal sets down the road.