By Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily
renee@cowboystatedaily.com
Many people can remember growing up begging their parents to get a McDonald’s Happy Meal. Turns out the Happy Meal concept isn’t something one can easily outgrow.
A burger (or Chicken McNuggets), fries and a drink in a colorful cardboard box rings that nostalgia bell. And, of course, there are the toys, which over the years have become serious collectables.
Seems McDonald’s underestimated the appeal of the company’s new Adult Happy Meals.
Released Oct. 3, Adult Happy Meals were supposed to be available to customers through Oct. 31, or while supplies last.
Turns out “while supplies last” wasn’t very long for many McDonald’s outlets around Wyoming and the United States.
That’s much to the chagrin of those who hope to nab their own fleeting, 15 minutes of happiness-in-a-box as the promotion is already a sold-out show at most McDonald’s stores.
Many May Be Out Of Luck
The toys in the Adult Happy Meals is the unexpectedly popular Cactus Plant Flea Market promotion announced Sept. 27 in conjunction with Cynthia Lu’s streetwear brand. There are four Cactus Plant toys available.
While many national media chains panned the announcement for one reason or another, one Cheyenne-based McDonald’s told Cowboy State Daily its Adult Happy Meal boxes sold out within an eye-popping eight hours of release.
“I don’t know if we have any more coming,” said the store’s general manager, Logan Connor. “Not to my knowledge at this point, but I think they are planning on maybe a December release.”
Connor said even he missed out on the promotion.
“By the time I even realized what was happening, they were already gone,” he said.
Ditto for Dom Osiris at the Dell Range McDonald’s in Cheyenne.
Her store also ran out in, “like, the first two days we had them,” she said. “As far as I know, everybody’s done.”
Managers at both the Dell Range and the Yellowstone stores said they have some of the empty boxes on hand — just not the all-important toys that go inside.
In Laramie, a worker at the McDonald’s on Grand Avenue said it ran out of the Adult Happy Meal toys within hours of the promotion beginning.
By Tuesday afternoon, nearly all the Wyoming outlets contacted by Cowboy State Daily reported being out of the Adult Happy Meal toys with the exception of the Rawlins McDonald’s and the outlet in Rock Springs. However, the Rock Springs store said it only had about 10 toys left and anticipated them not lasting long.
Adult Happy Meal Scalping
While it’s difficult to get Adult Happy Meal toys from a McDonald’s store, complete sets of the toys are available for anyone willing to pay a premium.
Sellers on eBay were listing toys for prices ranging from a starting bid of $3.25 for a Cactus Buddy to as much as $551 for a complete set of all four figurines.
There also were empty Adult Happy Meal boxes on offer for as little as a $14.99 starting bid.
It’s often said money can’t buy happiness, but at least online it can buy coveted Adult Happy Meal memorabilia.
