The 13 Saddest Toys In Burger King Kids' Meal History

Generations of the past never knew the excitement of a kid-sized meal at a fast food joint accompanied by a plastic toy. Some of these toys sold by McDonald's and Burger King have become collectibles, and are selling for huge amounts of money. But others weren't so memorable. Oddly enough, the first kids' meal was not a Happy Meal from McDonald's, but was from a fast food burger joint called Burger Chef, which began in Indianapolis in the 1950s. Burger Chef offered a burger, drink, fries, dessert, and a small toy for children long before McDonald's or Burger King offered kids' meals.

Burger King's kids' meals have offered some truly iconic toys throughout the years. And some fetch considerable prices in today's collectibles market. If you've hung on to "The Little Mermaid" drinking glass, some of the "Pokémon," "Toy Story," or "The Simpsons" toys, you may be able to sell them for a hefty price. Recent popular toys have included "Paw Patrol," "Spider-Man," and "Peanuts." But we're not looking at the popular, beloved toys from Burger King kids' meals. We're here today to talk about some of the saddest toys a kid may have unwrapped as they ate their burger and fries. Of course, we know this list is highly subjective, and what we've chosen as the worst of the bunch could be someone else's most nostalgic Burger King memory. That being said, these are the Burger King toys that we think belong in the bargain bin. 

Where to begin with Burger King's "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" kids' toys released in 2010? For starters, Burger King kids' meals are meant for children, and "Eclipse" is definitely a movie that leans more into the teenage or young adult market. However, the "Twilight" series was incredibly popular at the time — weirdly sparking a fixation with mushroom ravioli — and "Eclipse" broke $698 million globally at the box office. 

While we understand Burger King's desire to cash in on the wealth, we question its plans of marketing these toys to small children, as well as the quality of the toys. A mom posted on her My Dear Trash blog that she took away her boys' "Eclipse" toys and described the items as "junk." She offered this insight, "I thought maybe they would be so ridiculous that they would be cool, but they didn't swing that far."

The kids' meal offered eight collectable accessories. Girls could receive a chunky plastic bracelet, a picture banner featuring Bella with her two love interests, the Cullen crest ring, or a very small tote bag. Boys could receive a wallet, backpack clip, wristband, or footbag. While it's hard for us to imagine a little boy clipping an image of Jacob to his backpack and heading off to school, the "Eclipse" toys did have their share of fans. If you're feeling nostalgic for these toys, the complete set can be found on resell sites for upwards of $60. 

While kids love superhero toys, we're not sure how they'd feel about this obscure group of superhero figurines showing up in a Burger King meal. The Backstreet Boys Cyber Crusaders were a creation of renowned comic book writer Stan Lee when he collaborated with band member Nick Carter to produce "The Backstreet Project." Although the Backstreet Boys were a wildly successful boy band from the '90s, their superhero counterparts are much less well-known. The project involved one issue of a comic book and seven episodes of an animated series in which the singing superheroes dealt with various enemies and had zany capers. However, this project was destined to be short-lived. Stan Lee Media went bankrupt when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, the project ended, and the Cyber Crusaders never made it to stardom, known only among their most ardent fans. As one Reddit user said of the toys, "Thought this was a fever dream, guess it was real."

Although we're sure some kids were disappointed not to get a Superman or Batman toy in their kids' meal, there was at least one Backstreet Boys fan desperate to get their hands on the Cyber Crusaders. A former Burger King employee recalled on Reddit, "True story, was managing a location doing that promo in Hamilton near where they did a concert. Literally had to call cops because some fan broke through the gate and crawled into [the] dumpster in search of promo materials."

Furby, the interactive plush toy of the late '90s and early 2000s is known for its big eyes, soft colorful fur, and gibberish talk. Furbies would arrive at a child's house knowing only "Furbish," but could "learn" to speak English the more they were spoken to. While Furby was the hottest toy of the day, its interactive qualities have made it nightmare fuel for some. When one Redditor asked the community, "I want to hear your horrifying Furby stories," hundreds of people commented. One person said their Furby spoke in a "demonic, backwards English sounding, devil voice," and "functioned without batteries." Another commenter agreed saying, "Mine did this too, and in addition to demon tongues it made that [god] awful screeching noise."

Despite this, it was a beloved plush toy to many, so it didn't come as a surprise when Burger King launched its own line of Furby toys in 2005. But the Burger King Furbies lacked the fascinating qualities of real Furbies. They were decidedly less cute than the original, having no soft fur, and instead made out of hard plastic. Unlike the real Furby toys, these were not robotic but were simply boring plastic figurines with a button on the back that made the ears move up and down and the eyes open and shut. To our knowledge, there are no strange tales across the internet of Burger King plastic Furbies speaking in demonic tongues. This should go in their favor, but they're still disappointing nonetheless.

Barnyard Commandos weren't particularly popular toys to begin with, which makes us wonder why Burger King chose a line of plastic cuffs based on these anthropomorphic sheep and pigs for their kids' meals in 1990. Barnyard Commandos, a line of action figures that perhaps never took off partly because they weren't even poseable toys, were manufactured by Playmates in 1988. The story was that they were a result of a secret military experiment that caused the farm animals to morph into the Barnyard Commandos. An animated series based on the toys only ran for a few episodes before getting canceled.

The Burger King toys offered a bracelet that came in a set of four with the Barnyard Commandos' angry head perched atop the hard, plastic cuff. Were they meant to be worn, or played with? It's hard to tell. If you recall these toys and you're feeling nostalgic, they can be found sold at various second-hand markets across the internet at relatively inexpensive prices.

Getting back to school supplies in your fast food kids' meal rather than a toy already sounds like disappointment, and this feeling likely would've been experienced by those who received the Nickelodeon Back to School Calculator in their 1999 Burger King kids' meals. The calculators were one of five back to school supplies offered in the meals. Other options included items such as a pen pouch, spinning pencil topper, or rocket-shaped pen. The calculator was a real working calculator which, but all accounts, was of pretty decent quality. One person on Reddit said their Nickelodeon calculator was still working as of two years ago. Another Redditor stated, "I took the PSAT with this when I was in high school." 

Despite lasting through the years and helping someone out with their tests, it's hard to shake that sense of disappointment at receiving school supplies in a kids meal when you're hoping for a toy. All you want is a cheap bit of plastic to kill some time with, and not a reminder that returning to school is looming on the horizon.

This one defies our understanding of who at Burger King thought kids would be excited to open up their kids' meal to discover a hard plastic storage container in which to stash their Life Savers candies. Does a hard candy such as Live Savers really need a sealed storage container? Unlike Pez candy, which is meant to fit into a fun container, Life Savers come wrapped up perfectly well inside their roll. Despite this, in the early 1990s, children receiving Burger King kids' meals had the chance of getting a blue, green, red, or yellow Freaky Fellas holder for Life Savers. These plastic figures unscrewed in the middle, revealing a hollow space inside, in which to presumably place a roll of Life Savers. 

What is strange about this promotion is that Life Savers candies are not sold at Burger King and the line of Freaky Fellas has never been seen outside this promotion. Furthermore, in the 1990s, there was no lack of exciting kids' movies, toys, and product lines in which to inspire fun kids' meal toy ideas. So, why did Burger King create an odd assortment of plastic monsters to hold a hard candy? The answer remains a mystery. 

We're not sure if a kid throughout history has ever truly been excited about a finger puppet, and the lineup of Disney's The Lion King Finger Puppet Burger King kids' toys has not convinced us otherwise. While The Lion King is a beloved movie from the '90s and remains the highest-grossing traditionally animated movie ever, Burger King's finger puppet toys based on Lion King characters were less than exciting. These toys, released in 1995, came in a variety of six different characters. They were plastic puppets that popped out of little plastic boxes. 

These little jack-in-the-box finger puppet plastic figures are not to be confused with another Burger King Lion King promotion of figurines that people seem to remember fondly with one Redditor saying, "I still have all of these! That was probably the best movie tie-in they ever did, and what made Burger King infinitely superior to McDonald's." But every toy can't be a hit, and Burger King's finger puppets are mainly forgotten.

Look, 70's kids didn't have the entertainment choices today's kids are blessed with, so perhaps a white plastic hand puppet with the image of The Burger King was an exciting find in their kids' meal. McDonald's had similar hand puppets featuring Ronald McDonald and his gang, including Grimace and the Hamburglar. Kids' meals were a new concept at the time, and it was likely a novelty to get a kid-sized meal at a fast food joint that came with any kind of toy. 

This Reddit thread recalls plastic hand puppets fondly and how sweaty they made your hands, with one person stating, "That made my hand break out in sweat under 15 seconds!" You can still find vintage Burger King hand mitts for sale on sites such as eBay which is remarkable considering most of these likely ended up thrown in the trash when the meal was finished.

This entry should have been a slam dunk. These Pokémon toys from Burger King were offered in kids' meals in 1999. There were 59 different toys to collect and they came inside a small, hard plastic Pokéball container along with a trading card. Kids loved the figures which were in the form of key rings, beanbags, launchers, rev-tops, and squirters. As this Reddit user fondly remembers, "I had quite a few of these! I remember the stuffed Meowth was a favorite. I also used to have the Hitmonlee keychain on my backpack, too. Coolest kid in preschool! Lol."

However, the dark side to these toys was the small Pokéball that housed the toys. When a child would open their ball, the two halves were the exact size to fit over a small child's nose. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Burger King Corp. recalled the toys after several tragedies when babies and toddlers suffocated with half the plastic ball stuck over their noses.

While these Sassy brand toys may appear to be a fun and safe item for toddlers to play with and stick in their mouths, they weren't nearly as safe as a toddler toy needs to be. The Hourglass Space Sprout and Look for Me Bumblebee by Sassy were the toddler choices in Burger King kids' meals in 2001. These plastic toys contained tiny beads inside them, which rattled when shaken. However, they were recalled by the CPSC which stated, "The toys can break causing small beads or balls to be released, which poses a choking or aspiration hazard to young children." 

Burger King had recorded 18 incidents of the toys breaking, but fortunately, no injuries were reported. Burger King, which had to recall 2.6 million of these toddler toys, had several missteps in this era regarding unsafe toys. In addition to these toys, and the recalled Pokéballs, Burger King also had to recall 400,000 Riverboat toys that posed a choking hazard.

Everyone knows that the fun of Mr. Potato Head toys is taking the features off the face and putting them back on again in new and interesting ways. But the Mr. Potato Head toys from Burger King offered in 1998 did not come with detachable facial features, which is the entire point of Mr. Potato Head. A tried and true toy, Hasbro's Mr. Potato Head has been around since 1952, although the original toy didn't come with a plastic potato. The first children to play with Mr. Potato Heads (before Hasbro took over) were given a bundle of plastic body parts attached to pins that they stuck into real potatoes.

Although Mr. Potato Head has been delighting children for decades, and saw a resurgence in popularity with the "Toy Story" movies, Burger King's version left something to be desired. There were five variations of Mr. Potato Head toys including plastic french fries. The Burger King versions paled in comparison to the original Mr. Potato Head. 

Usually wrestling memorabilia is a hot commodity, but we're not sure how we should feel about Burger King's attempt at WWE Talking Plush Dolls. Parents generally don't enjoy when their kids receive noisy toys, and parents from 2010 couldn't have been thrilled with these poor-quality sound clips getting played over and over. As for children themselves, we find it hard to imagine a little kid would want to cuddle up to these odd-looking WWE dolls. These were 6-inch soft dolls with very out-of-proportion limbs and angry faces. Although, the John Cena version did have a smile on its strange-shaped little face. 

If you'd like to own one yourself, you are in luck. They are easy to find on sites such as eBay, where they sell from $4 and up. There were three dolls in the collection: John Cena, the Undertaker, and Triple H, and each doll had its own sound clip. 

Altogether, Nickelodeon's Rugrats Treehouse Collection would make a fun set for any kid. However, in 2000, they came in Burger King kids' meals as separate random pieces requiring a child to beg their parents to keep taking them back to Burger King to complete the set. To get the full set and build the treehouse, you would need to go back to Burger King at least eight times, and that's assuming you didn't get any repeats. For four weeks, Burger King sold two different toys per week in the kids' meals. And though Burger King promotional materials claimed the toys could be "enjoyed by themselves," what kid wouldn't want to have a full set and build the tree?

Today, the complete set of eight parts can be found on eBay for $75. You can also find a variety of single toys for sale. The problem with the way Burger King handed these toys out was that kids received them in a piecemeal fashion and you couldn't do much with the random parts, leading to frustration or many trips back to Burger King.