Sunday, March 04, 2007

Happy Meal


I found a cute plush toy in the back seat of my brother's car. I'm not sure what it was- it looked like a hybrid of Spongebob and a rottweiler.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Oh that-" he said. "It's a Happy Meal toy."
A Happy Meal toy? I thought. That thing would retail for $12.99!
I couldn't believe it. When I was a kid, Happy Meal toys were crap. Maybe you'd get a flimsy riddle book book or a mini-frisbee with the structural integrity of the coke cup lid.
I did some online research. Today's kids have it sweet:
Transformers. Wind up toys. Dolls. Legos. Play Doh. Hotwheels. Beanie Babies, and in a few cases, electronic toys.
What a rip! Today's kids get a mini video game and all I got was a Grimace pencil or a crude chunk of plastic with the Hamburgler embossed on it?
O.K., when I was a kid the smallest video game was the size of a dishwasher and I suppose it'd be tough to squeeze it into the little box. This was back in the days where the phone had a dial, the T.V. had a knob, and the phonographs (remember them?) could be set to 78 or 16 rpm. Tapes were 8 track, the wallpaper was foil, and Chicken McNuggets hadn't been invented. Primitive times.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those kids can thank Chinese slave labor for the booty provided in today's Happy Meal! Hurray for outsourcing! *smirk*

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

It is ironic how America pats herself on the back for abolishing slavery, child labor, and crap working conditions; yet has no problem buying stuff overseas that was created under similar conditions.

Unknown said...

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