It was 1996 and the Marvel machine was a mere shadow of what it would become. Movies were just a pipe dream then and cartoons were king. The spotlight didn't fall on the Avengers as much as it did Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. With small screen success comes attention from powerful people. And who's more powerful than Ronald McDonald?
...which brings us to the Marvel Super Heroes Happy meal. Now, a more ambitious blog would have a complete breakdown of each of the Happy Meals Toys and perhaps a little bit of information/trivia about them. I don't have that. What I do have is two of the bags used at the time for the promotion (see pic above). I bought them for less than a dollar on eBay and then promptly forgot about them. But when they arrived in the mail today, the happy-go-lucky heroes, with they're word jumbles and brain teasers, inspired me to pop them in the scanner.
The first bag gives us a scenario that involves the visible Invisible Woman who seems to have had the tables turned on her. Her friends are the ones who have disappeared. Can you help her find the Hulk, the Human Torch, Jubilee and Spider-Man? If not, then maybe connect with a smiling Wolverine and help him with his word puzzle.
In yet another Spider-Man/X-Men team-up, Spidey has shot some webs to stick it to his three mutant pals. Can you figure out which line goes to the (still-smiling) Wolverine, Storm and Jubilee? Admittedly, it took me a few attempts.
Grab the scissors and paste and head to the side of the bag. It's time to put these panels of Spidey in the "correct" order. Although the avant-garde side of me would insist that there are multiple "correct" orders and Spider-Man's unique skill set could lead to any number of routes up and down that building. Regardless, let's check out the next bag.
Next up is a game of observation. Find the differences between the right and left side of the room. I'm assuming the obvious ones like Thing/Hulk and Spider-Man/Wolverine totally count. But honestly, it's more difficult finding things that actually do match on each side of the room. Maybe it's more challenging when you're working through a french fry coma.
The other side is more of a group shot of the gang along with a low effort word jumble. It's interesting to note that there only seems to be three X-Men on each bag and only 3/4 of the Fantastic Four. It's always curious to see odd character pairing like this.
If you've been lamenting the lack of mazes on these things, then lament no more. The Thing needs to find the Hulk through this rock wall place. If you've got a spare 6 seconds, give it a try.
You might have noticed the mention of a "Marvel-ous Offer" on the both of these bags. Let's turn the bag over to the final side to see what it could be:
If you like Marvel Super Heroes Happy Meals, odds are you probably like Spider-Man Magazine. All it took was a $1.50 for shipping and handling and this order form from your Happy Meal bag, and two issues of those bad boys would eventually be mailed to you.
So there you have an impromptu look at two 25 year old happy meal bags. If they were to do this promotion today we might still see the Hulk and Spider-Man but the rest would unfortunately be left out in the cold. Here's hoping that another round of hit movies get these guys back on the lunch menu.
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