Welcome back to It Came from the Back of the Toybox, a segment where I take a look at the unknown, underrated, and unheard-of convertible robots in my collection!
Dateline: 1987. The evil alien Munchoids have begun their insidious plot to steal The Happy Meals. In deep space, a strike force lead by the heroic Macro Mac plans to stop this alien invasion, and so the Changeables head across the galaxy… to Earth!
That’s the story this frankly concerning advert tells, anyway. The Changeables, or the McRobots, were a late 80s McDonald’s Happy Meal premium. While these diminutive toys looked just like smaller but no less plastic versions of McDonald’s fast food, with just three easy steps they revealed robots in disguise!
The first six robots were released in 1987, with another eight joining them in 1989. While the first wave never received individual names, the second wave (including only two repaints!) gave us such classic names as “Turbo Cone” and “Robo-Cakes”.
Above you see Macro Mac, Fry Force, Krypto Cup and the dreaded Gallacta Pounder. I can’t say for sure, but judging from this animated UK advert it seems that we only got these four releases over here. Either that, or it’s a massive coincidence that I own the exact selection of four from the commercial. The second series certainly got a different advertisement in America that showed the full range.
Also above you see Happy Meal-O-Don, from the 1990 McDino series of Changeables. This was before the big dinosaur fad of the 90s - the Golden Arches were really ahead of the curve on that one! The McDinos featured eight fast food dinosaurs among their ranks, with an additional two for the littlest, tiniest babies.
The dinosaur ones concern me. I can readily accept robots that change into foods, but a Quarter Pounder With Cheese-O-Saur would be enough to make me Bedrock’s first vegetarian.
