Happy Meals for Happy Kids

 

QUESTION: I was going through some boxes in our attic and discovered one filled with those little toys my kids used to get in McDonald’s Happy Meals. Most people, especially mothers, consider these junk. Do they have any value or should I just toss them?

ANSWER: Believe it or not, some of those little toys are actually little treasures, depending on their condition. McDonald's is famous for its Happy Meals, and kids the world over I have been fattened up on weekly doses of them for over 40 years. Since the early 1980s,  the main hook has been the toy included with the meal. 

Many collectors of McDonald's memorabilia are mostly interested in toys that relate to specific McDonald's characters, but there have also been many tie-ins with established movie, TV and toy lines. Those tie-in items appeal to collectors who are specifically interested in what the Happy Meals promoted.

The first major tie-in to the action adventure market was with Star Trek. The series  returned from TV limbo in the form of a highly promoted film in 1979, and producers planned a huge promotion. This included Star Trek Happy Meals based on the movie. Six different boxes featured activities. One box encouraged kids to fill in the dots to complete a picture of the Enterprise while another offered a chance to decode a message with Mr. Spock, and so on. Toys and premiums included plastic Video Communicators, iron-on transfers of the characters and the Federation symbol, and "Navigational" wrist bracelets. 

Just as collectible are the items that McDonald’s made available to their restaurants, such as display signs, a cardboard Enterprise, and, rarest of all, a silver smock worn by McDonald's employees, which featured an emblem that combined the Star Trek and McDonald's logos. 

Another heavily merchandised franchise was The Dukes of Hazzard, the campy rural action show that dominated TV in the early 1980s. In the summer of 1982, McDonald’s  test marketed a Dukes of Hazzard promotion in St. Louis. The items included plastic cups with pictures of the various characters, and vacuumed plastic meal containers in the shape of the vehicles from the series, including the General Lee car and Daisy's Jeep.

Hot Wheels came to McDonald's in 1983.The cars were the subject of a national promotion, but there were also certain cars distributed only on the East Coast, and some only on the West Coast. Others appeared nationwide. McDonald’s offered 14 Hot Wheels cars in Happy Meals at any given location. There were "Collect All 14" store displays that included these 14 cars. The cars from this promotion individually sell for  $10 to $15, but the 14-car display unit commands can sell for between $300 and $400.

E.T. was a huge promotion for McDonald's, thanks to the family-friendly appeal of the movie. Although E.T. appeared in theaters in the early 1980s, the first Happy Meal with an ET theme didn’t go on sale until 1985. It offered  two different box designs and a series of four posters depicting scenes from the film.

Hasbro, the toy industry giant, got into Happy Meals with a combined promotion for Transformers and My Little Pony. Transformers, robots that became vehicles and other mechanical devices, were one of the top selling action figure lines of the 1980s. Each original Happy Meal promotion include four different small Transformers. Today, they sell for between $40 and150 each for diehard Transformers collectors and up to $100 if they’re still in their cellophane baggie packs.

Ghostbusters, the cartoon TV show known as the Real Ghostbusters spun off of the hit movie, became the next big craze for kids in the action/adventure genre. Ghostbusters appeared in McDonald's Happy Meals in 1977 with four different boxes and school supplies based on the Marshmallow Man and Slimer ghosts seen in the film and cartoon series. These included a pencil case, ruler, note pad and eraser, pencil and pencil topper, and pencil sharpener. All are difficult to find and highly collectible.

Hot Wheels returned in 1989 with more cars available in different regions. There was a 12-ear display that now sells for $300, followed by repeated promotions, shared by Mattel's other titan, Barbie, throughout the 1990s.

Not to be outdone, Matchbox also had a promotion in 1988, featuring a 16-car counter display and cars that now sell for $8 to $10 each.

The I990s proved to be even mare interesting for action-adventure tie-ins, as several popular super heroes became involved with Happy Meal promotions.

1991 saw McDonald's teaming with Disney to promote Hook, the retelling of Peter Pan with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman. The official Hook Happy Meal boxes, which featured striking artwork, contained four Hook floating bathtub toys.

A tie-in with the TV cartoon version of Back To The Future caused some controversy. The assortment consisted of four rolling toys, but Doc's time traveling Delorean car had wheels that small children could remove and swallow. McDonald's issued an advisory to parents, urging them to avoid giving the cars to small children. The next big promotion also had its share of problems.

In 1992, McDonald's was ready to cash in on Batman merchandising and featured a big promotion involving Batman Returns with four vehicle toys, including Catwoman’s car. 

For some reason, Halloween toys are usually big hits. The Ronald and Pals Haunted Halloween McDonald’s Happy Meal set featured a 20-inch display used at McDonald's restaurants in the 1990s. The company ran their 1998 promotion nationally during October. Unfortunately, many store managers trashed most of the displays afterward. The promotion included six toys—I am Hungry, Witch Birdie, Black Cat Grimace, Jack-o-lantern McNugget Buddy, Ghost Ronald, Scarecrow Hamburglar and Ghoul.

The McDonald’s Happy Meal for Disney Toy Story2 in 1999 includes pretty much every recognizable toy from the "Toy Story 2" movie. The complete set included an incredible  20 toys, which doesn’t seem possible for the movie.

Not all McDonald's toys were tiny plastic junk. Some, like It’s Happy Meal Girl Doll from 1997,  were big plastic junk, part of a series of Happy Meal baby dolls. Actually, these dolls were surprisingly well made for something produced by a burger chain.

And while the intention of Happy Meals was to get kids to eat McDonald’s foods and make them happy, those same little toys are making many collectors happy as well. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Advertising of the Past" in the 2023 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Sorting Out the Often Confusing World of Specialty Antiques Categories

 

QUESTION:  Every time I go into an antique mall, I become overwhelmed by all the items. Booth after booth of what seems like junk. Yet I know there must be some interesting and perhaps valuable antiques hidden there. How can I make sense of it all?

ANSWER: Previously, we took a look at some of the main categories of antiques. But beyond them lies an array of specialty categories. 

One of these is the toy category. Antique toys take in everything from cast-iron banks and vehicles to board games and rocking horses. The diversification is so great that most collectors specialize in collecting one type of toy or another. Few are generalists. But collecting toys can be expensive. The more specialized antiques are, the most costly they become.

A subcategory of toys is dolls. Dolls, dolls, and more dolls dominate this category with teddy bears a close second. There are other products, but from a value standpoint, dolls and bears dominate. English and German dolls are most sought after while German Steiff bears are desired almost exclusively. This category generates more emotion among collectors than does any other. As a result, collectors and dealers become very competent and have extremely specialized knowledge. A beginner in antiques should tread lightly as this is a very technical category filled with passionate and very knowledgeable people.

Like the doll category, antique collectors of scientific instruments are very knowledgeable. As a subcategory of clocks, collecting barometers and chronometers,  particularly marine chronometers and nautical instruments is also a male dominated group. These seem to invoke the smell of the sea in their favorite piece. Again, English makers predominate. Among instruments, telescopes are popular as are surveying and nautical instruments. Microscopes and medical instruments follow hard on their heels.

Another antiques specialty is jewelry. Precious and semi-precious, as well as costume jewelry are the dominant categories with Victorian era jewelry the most popular. Specialized knowledge is required in the precious jewelry category, but most ordinary folks soon become familiar with the semi-precious stones and the costume jewelry found in all antique malls. Pins, earrings and bracelets are the most popular product lines.

One of the most interesting specialty categories is commemorative antiques. Relying mainly on English Royalty and history, the commemorative antique category consists of anything celebrating an occasion. Royal weddings, a monarch's reign, births and victorious battles are all occasions for producing commemorative products. The Victorian period is the most popular, but more localized events such as battles or achievements are also forever immortalized on plates, jugs and spoons.

Collecting Asian antiques takes a lot of effort and research. This highly technical category is best avoided by beginners, Chinese and Japanese antiques dominate this category. Eighteenth Century Tang, Quing, and Cantonese pieces are quite popular, and Japanese antiques are particularly sought after by Japanese collectors who tend to be very nationalistic. Imari ceramics and Satsuma pottery are much in demand among this group of wonderful antique buffs. And more than in any other speciality, the chances of fakes is far greater. 

The military antiques category takes in arms and armor, swords and daggers, pistols, revolvers, medals, and military equipment. British, German, American and Italian items are all covered in this class. For the beginner it is best to avoid these antiques until you have time to study them. Definitely a man's "thing," military antiques cover everything related to wars and regimental history.

Traditionally, antiques include objects that are 100 years old and older. Items less than a century old are typically classified as collectibles. This category covers everything from blue willow patterned ceramics to the war medals. Often collectibles can be quite new and tied to popular media and the movies.

A subcategory of collectibles is memorabilia. Dominated by Walt Disney products, particularly those to do with classics such as "Snow White."  Elvis leads the list of musical memorabilia. Postcards, Coca-Cola signs and signed autographed copies of correspondence are also in demand. This is a fun category as it's so diverse. But it’s also very fickle and tends to go through trendy periods when prices fluctuate widely.

While the main and specialized antiques and collectibles categories mentioned here are the most popular, there are many others. With antiques and collectibles, there’s something for everyone to collect.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about railroad antiques in "All Aboard!" in the 2021 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Sweets for the Sweet

QUESTION: My aunt collected small glass candy containers. Because I always admired them, she gave them to me when she moved to a retirement community. I really don’t know anything about them. What can you tell me about these containers? Are they still being made?

ANSWER: That was nice of your aunt to think of you. Because of your interest, she probably felt that you might not only care for her collection, but add to it.

Several manufacturers, mostly located around Jeannette, Pennsylvania, produced glass toy candy containers in America for 90 years. Although many of them originally sold for about a dime, they now range in price from $5 to $5,000. There are nearly 600 different containers known to exist. About 14 companies distributed them in America.

The use of glass candy containers began in Philadelphia at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 where confectioner Wilbur Croft and Company produced candies in Machinery Hall. Croft sold his candy in clear glass containers shaped like the Liberty Bell. With a pewter screw-on closure and a paper label on the bottom, collectors consider this bell to be the first American glass toy candy container, currently valued around $200.

One of the primary makers of glass candy containers was Westmoreland Specialty Company,  operated by brothers George and Charles West in Grapeville, Pennsylvania. They built their factory in 1889 and produced nearly 100 different candy containers through 1932, each made by hand in single molds, with some being hand-painted. The factory also made tin closures and other parts needed to produce complete containers.

Though candy containers started as souvenirs with simple designs, they evolved into great glass toys filled with candy. One of Westmoreland's early souvenirs, dated 1896, featured a painted milk glass Uncle Sam hat that doubled as a bank. It had paper portraits of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt glued onto a slotted metal closure, and now brings about $125.

In 1913, as designs became more intricate, Westmoreland produced several glass candy container lamps that held a candle and a lithographed paper and cardboard shade. There were Christmas, Easter and Valentine lamps as well as three novelty lamps featuring a tree trunk base with an embossed rabbit, hatchet or cherries.

By producing candy containers such as Charlie Chaplin, the Spirit of St. Louis airplane, Jackie Coogan, the Carpet Sweeper and the Phonograph, Westmoreland took advantage of popular people or new inventions to increase sales of the glass toys.

Manufacturers produced most candy containers of clear glass so the colorful candy could be seen, but Westmoreland used some colored glass in 1927 to attract buyers. It made the Spirit of St. Louis in clear, amber, pink, green and blue, and its Pointed Nose Racer, which now sells for about $2,500, in several colors, also.

One of the most valuable Westmoreland containers is a functional tin kaleidoscope featuring a turning glass tube filled with candy, estimated to be worth $5,000 or more. Another unusual container is a 31-inch-long whip made of cloth-covered wire with a candy-filled glass handle.



Westmoreland also made some glass containers and tin parts for Turney H. Stough of Jeannette, another major player in the candy container industry.

Stough produced more than 100 different glass containers, which is more than any other company. Candy containers comprised more than 95 percent of  Stough's business. He hired outside firms to produce everything he needed while his company did the assembly, packaging and distribution.

Like Stough, George Borgfeldt & Co., a New York City toy wholesaler, hired Westmoreland and other companies to produce)le its candy containers. Some of Borgfeldt's most sought-after containers are pieces of Flossie Fisher's furniture, dating from around 1916. Based on a cartoon in Ladies' Home Journal, the yellow tin bed, table, chairs and other items featured black silhouettes of animals and children. The bed alone sells for over $2,500. From 1913 to 1916,  L.E. Smith of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, produced only about 20 to 30 different candy containers, including a bureau, a mantel clock, a flat iron and a figural container of Charlie Chaplin, all hard to find today.

A former Westmoreland employee founded the Victory Glass Company, also of Jeannette, which produced nearly 100 different containers from 1919 to 1955. Not having an in-house tin shop like Westmoreland, Victory relied on intricate glass designs, like the Swan Boat and the Amos and Andy Taxi, to make its candy containers attractive and appealing.Two of Victory's hard to find containers are the Refrigerator with short legs, which sells for about $4,000, and Dolly's Bathtub, which sells for about $3,000.

In 1940 J.H. Millstein, a worker at Victory Glass, developed fully automatic machines to speed up production and lower costs. Millstein opened his factory in 1943 with machines that could handle 12 molds at a time. Though he only made 13 different containers from 1943 to 1956, he produced and sold millions of them.

Unfortunately, World War II brought rising production costs to the industry. Candy containers became basic again as companies cut costs with simpler designs, less hand-painting and fewer intricate metal parts switching from tin closures to paper or card-board. By 1956 only two companies were still making candy containers. Though Millstein and Stough produced some plastic containers around 1967, high production costs and declining sales closed the remaining factories making glass candy containers.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about Colonial America in the Spring 2018 Edition, "EArly Americana," online now.

Life in Miniature

QUESTION: My sisters and I loved to play with dolls. My mother bought us each several sets of large doll furniture made by the Hall’s Lifetime Toy Company. We took very good care of this furniture and still have it today. What can you tell me about it?

ANSWER: Hall’s Lifetime Toys of Chattanooga, Tennessee, made some of the best doll furniture on the market in the 1950s to 1980s. They became known for their quality pieces which came in every size, shape, and style to match various types of dolls available at the time.

Charles Hall built his company up from a single canopy bed which he took to the New York Toy Show in 1942 where it won several prizes and was even featured in the New York Times. He took home orders for 2,000 beds but didn’t have a place or a staff of workers to make them. So he rented a store, hired some workers from a local furniture plant to make the beds.

Eventually, he produced his canopy bed in five sizes. It became the basis of his new toy business.

The furniture Hall made in the 1950s was for 8-inch dolls like Ginny, Muffy, Ginger, Madame Alexander, and others. Later, he began producing pieces large enough for  Barbie dolls. To add some variety to his canopy beds, he created three styles of headboards.

Halls became the largest manufacturer of wooden doll furniture in the country. The company sold its wares to a number of high-end toy and department stores, including FAO Schwartz and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, Marshall Fields in Chicago, and I. Magnin in San Francisco.

When Hall died in 1959, his wife Marie took over. She added doll houses, made by Arcade Lithographing, to the company’s product line, selling them for $25 in 1964.

The firm’s promoted the quality of their products and packed a guarantee pamphlet in every box. Also included was a black and white fold-out pamphlet with numbers assigned to each doll furniture item.

The peak years for Hall’s Lifetime Toys were from the 1960s to the 1980s. Over the years, they made furniture for 8 to12-inch dolls, 3/4" scale miniature furniture, and 1/12 scale furniture and dollhouses.

Today, you can find Hall’s pieces on eBay and Etsy and other online collectible auction sites. The value of these varies but has remained quite high. A four-poster Barbie-size bed sells for around $64 while a wooden make-up table and stool for Barbie sells for $59. A single bed plus make-up vanity and bench sells for $110 on eBay. Some pieces, such as a pink vanity table with mirror and bench for a Ginny Doll, can sell for as much as $110. A patio chaise lounge and side  table alone goes for $30.  A three-piece living room set—sofa, armchair, and coffee table—goes for around $100. All prices include shipping.

Hall’s made a wide variety of doll furniture, from period pieces to sleek modern renditions. The company even produced bathroom sets, complete with tub, sink, and toilet. All of its furniture was handcrafted out of wood and painted in a variety of colors. Beds came with mattresses, pillows, and blankets, and living sets had real upholstery.