McDonald's
McDonald's is a North American-based fast food restaurant chain. Throughout the decades, the company has offered many Transformers toys as part of their "Happy Meals" targeted to human children. Most Transformers promotions have been aimed towards male children while female children were lured in with other, "girl themed", Hasbro brand products.
In the past, their Transformers were essentially traditional transforming figures, albeit with very simplistic designs: these were, after all, meant to be incredibly cheap mass-produced toys that'd have to withstand rough play from kids of all ages, and as a result, they eschewed the fancier cartoon-accurate proportions, articulation, and play features of "store bought" Transformers toys. This changed in the turn of the 2010s... Arguably for the worse, as McDonald's dropped transforming robot toys entirely and instead shifted towards making non-transforming toys for their Transformers promotions, usually focusing on basic figurines of the characters' robot modes with the addendum of extra gimmicks.
Their biggest competitor in the fast food market is Burger King, who also put out quite a few Transformers tie-in promotions over the years.
Fiction
[edit]Marvel The Transformers comics
[edit]
A McDonald's was located next to Rimmer's Ooptician in Washington, D.C., and was damaged by Bombshell when the Insecticons attacked the city. Plague of the Insecticons!
As part of their joyride in a hotwired Bumblebee, Waldo and Ernest stopped at a McDonald's. Plight of the Bumblebee!
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
[edit]The Transformers Trilogy
[edit]Bonecrusher smashed a McDonald's in Las Vegas to pieces as a show of strength while battling Bumblebee and Prowl. Only the Golden Arches were left to mark where it had stood. Hardwired
Promotions
[edit]1985 St. Louis The Transformers McDonald's promotion
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In 1985, McDonald's gave away non-transforming, non-poseable figurines of four Mini Vehicle characters, each rendered in six different color variations, in various two-color combinations of red, green, blue, yellow, purple, pink and black. These figures were only available in St. Louis, Missouri, as a test run.<ref>1985 McDonald's toys at Toyarchive.com</ref>
The line included:
1996 Beast Wars promotion
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Promoting the then new Beast Wars cartoon and toyline, McDonald's offered five different toys as part of their Happy Meals, one of which was aimed towards children of age three and younger. To date, this is the only time when there have been new characters introduced solely as fast-food exclusives. Two different cardboard boxes, containing both food and toys, were distributed.
The first box featured a purple, mechanically style background with punch-out cards of Optimus Primal, Dinobot, Razorbeast, Polar Claw, Cheetor, Rhino and Panther, with an additional card depicting both Optimus and Megatron in the midst of a fearsome fist-shaking contest. Additionally, it featured the two following jokes:
"Q:Why do robots keep batteries in their wallets? <ref>A:They like to charge everything.</ref>"
"Q:What did the Transformer sing when he paddled upstream? <ref>A:Row Row Row your Bot!!</ref>"
The second box had a green, mechanically styled background with punch-out cards of Megatron, Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, Scorponok, Manta Ray, Beetle and Waspinator, with the same card featured on the first box representing Megatron and Optimus shaking fists at each other. This box also featured two jokes.
The hand-painted artwork featured on the characters' punch-out cards showcased the characters' robot mode in the foreground with designs heavily based on early promotional designs of the first wave toys. Both Optimus and Megatron appear as a bat and an alligator respectively, and all characters have their color schemes based directly on their toys. Scorponok even appears orange, as early promotional photos presented him. Save the card featuring both Megatron and Optimus, each card's background was dominated by a representation of the character's beast mode rendered in a realistic fashion (to the point where it sometimes did not match up with the animal-kibble on the characters' robot modes).
While the Beast Wars toys were targeted towards the boy patrons, [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Littlest Pet Shop|{{#if:||Littlest Pet Shop}}]] dolls were targeted to the girls.
The five included toys were:
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1998 Beast Wars promotion
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McDonald's once more promoted the Beast Wars toyline two years later, this time focusing on the Transmetals sub-line. Three toys were produced, depicting three characters that, although part of the main cast on the television series, had not received toys depicting them in Transmetal bodies. Mirroring the gimmick of Transmetals sold in stores, they possessed a "metalized" look on some parts of their bodies.
The meals were now distributed in paper bags instead of cardboard boxes, and featured much more crudely drawn depictions of the promoted toys, directly based on the characters' toys, posed statically. The first bag presented on one side Dinobot, Blackarachnia (oddly, depicted mis-transformed in her artwork) and Scorponok standing in a thundercloud, while a lightning bolt strikes a stony landscape. Said landscape is in actuality a simple puzzle to be solved, as explained on the bag:
"Wild storm, MAXIMIZE! See which beast changed into a robot by filling in the spaces that have one dot.<ref>The answer is Scorponok.</ref>"
The second bag featured on one of its sides similar artwork, this time depicting Dinobot's robot mode in the middle of a field, riddled with flows of lava, spewed forth from a volcano in the background. The bag instructs:
"TRANSFORMER Dinobot is a robot in disguise! Follow the lava trail from his cool robot mode to see which beast he changes into." The possible choices depicted are either A: A mechanical scorpion (depicted on another side of the bag, which the puzzle also occupies), B: A mechanical velociraptor or C: A mechanical black widow spider."<ref>The answer is B, the velociraptor.</ref>
This time around, My Little Pony toys were the girl-targeting counterparts to the Beast Wars figurines. Artwork and puzzles for these toys occupied the remaining two sides of the bags.
The three included toys were:
2000 Beast Machines promotion
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Two years later still, McDonald's promoted the Beast Machines toyline, successor to the Beast Wars franchise. Unlike the previous toys it offered during the Beast Era, this time its toys were meant to depict the characters as they appeared in the televised show, as opposed to new characters or bodies. The result was a varying degree of success in terms of show-accuracy, with most toys concentrating on one mode to be most faithfully a depiction of the character: a design direction that would become common in McDonald's Transformers toys for the next eight years. For whatever odd reason, this batch of toys also used a lot of translucent plastic.
Returning to boxes for distribution, the two variant cardboard vessels were:
- A Vehicon-themed box, with one side occupied by an image of Megatron, in his harness menacingly raising an arm forwards (and erroneously labeled as being in "vehicle mode") while the other side was adorned by images of Jetstorm; his vehicle mode flying over a Cybertronian landscape alongside several Aero Drones, and his robot mode in a stock pose. The image of his robot mode could be punched out, advertised as a Jetstorm bookmark.
- A Maximal-themed box, with one side featuring an image of Optimus Primal in beast mode, gesturing invitingly, and another side dominated by an image of Cheetor in robot mode, with a smaller image of the technorganic cheetah in beast mode and an image of Blackarachnia in beast mode, advertised as a "straw crawler" which could be punched out similarly to the Jetstorm Bookmark.
This time around, the toys advertised towards girls were [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Hello Kitty|{{#if:||Hello Kitty}}]] themed, with images of said character occupying the remaining two sides of each box.
Additionally, some participating McDonald's also distributed coupons that offered $3.00 off any Beast Machines Figurine purchase of $15.00 or more.
The toys produced for this promotion were:
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2003 Armada promotion
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The Armada promotion not only included individual gimmicks for each toy, but also featured powerlinx points, allowing these toys to interact with the larger figures and Mini-Cons sold in stores. On top of it all, all of the members of each faction were promoted as being able to combine into a larger machine. Although this resulted in somewhat awkward combined forms, it did a thorough job of driving the point home of what was the focus of the Armada toyline: powerlinking.
As with previous years, each figurine was a simplified version of one of the main characters of the television series, featuring basic transformation schemes to achieve the vague look of the robot modes that they're meant to represent:
Autobots
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Decepticons Featured a spinning rotor gimmick. Featured a "battle damage" gimmick. Featured a gimmick similar to that of Jumpstarters. Featured a gimmick simulating his motion of firing his cannon while in robot mode. |
2004/2006 Energon promotion
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The Energon promotion is notable in that there were two distinct figure sets, one at first released only in Europe, and the other in South America. Neither set of toys were made available in the United States and, as a result, they tend to be hard to come across in the North American secondary market (but are otherwise pretty common in their respective launch locations).
Europe
[edit]The European lineup were fairly bulky toys built around a shared electronic gimmick. This involved a large removable electronic "Energon cube" being placed inside the toys to activate lights or sounds, with each figure having its own unique cube. The cubes were all interchangeable among these toys. Optimus Prime and Megatron also came with their own extra accessories - a non-transforming jet based on Wreckage and a tank based on Energon Megatron's toy accessory, respectively - which acted as infrared remotes to activate the cube effects from a distance.
Strangely, two years later in 2006, the European exclusive toys were retooled and stripped of all electronic gimmickry and re-released...in South America. Thus, a few countries would actually get two different Energon promotions!
Autobots
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Decepticons Remote-control triggered lights. Light up body. |
South America
[edit]The 2004 South American figures were simpler and all featured spring-loaded transformations which were activated by pushing in buttons on the front of their vehicle modes.
While having paint operations, these toys relied on pre-applied stickers for added details, something not see in a lot of other McDonald's toys.
Autobots |
Decepticons |
2008 Animated promotion
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After a couple of years where McDonald's competitor Burger King would instead be Hasbro's choice for fast food promotions, the Transformers came back to McDonald's in 2008 to promote Animated. As with Armada, there were also some differences in the promotional toys across various regions.
America / Europe
[edit]In America, the Animated promotion featured six different figures aimed at boys while Littlest Pet Shop was once again the promotion for girls. None of the figures featured individual gimmicks like the previous promotions and although the toys were mostly successful in representing the characters on a limited Happy Meal toy budget, some figures' second modes suffered greatly.
In foreign markets, the Animated promotion differed: a lot of European countries got only four out of the six toys, meanwhile; for some reason, France received an exclusive Blitzwing figure that wasn't included in the American lineup. There were also some slight differences in deco work across other regions.
Autobots |
Decepticons (French Exclusive) |
Latin America
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In South America, the toys were entirely different and featured a smaller cast. Rather than having manual robot to vehicle transformations, the toys folded up into nebulous alternate modes and transformed via a Jumpstarter gimmick. Despite being newly designed figures, the toys borrowed the head sculpts of the American toys.
Autobots |
Decepticons |
2010 Transformers promotion
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Oddly launching one year after Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (as with the 2007 movie, Burger King would be the one to have a concurrent movie promotion for the sequel), this merchandise line released under the plain "Transformers" title - per the identically-named toyline of the same year - and featured an assortment of figures based on the two films in the movie continuity family (yes, there were still only two by 2010 if you want to feel old). There were six different figures aimed at boys, while Hello Kitty was the parallel promotion for girls.
Sadly, this would also mark the end to McDonald's Transformers as we had known them: in a similar fashion to some of the Burger King toys for the live action movies, none of the figures transformed, with the engineering budget being put into gimmicks instead. This would become standard for most of the next McDonald's promotions to come.
Autobots |
Decepticons |
The Happy Meal bag came with the suggestion for kids to play a "Capture the Flag" game... But no actual included flag. Go figure.
2011 Dark of the Moon promotion
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The first McDonald's promotion to be exclusive to Japan, this tie-in to 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon would feature two sets of toys, both based on Optimus Prime and Bumblebee: a pair of non-transforming figurines like the previous 2010 international tie-in and a pair of simplified versions of their Gravity Bots molds with added stickers.
Notably, the Gravity Bots would be the last time that a McDonald's Transformers tie-in promotion featured actual transforming robot toys... And thanks to being Japanese exclusives, you might have never heard about them until you read this page!
Figurines |
Gravity Bots |
2011 Transformers: Prime promotion
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An unusual promotion released only in Japan alongside the previous one as a tie-in for both Transformers: Prime and the upcoming Dark of the Moon film, this set of three toys was actually not sold as a standard pack-in gift with meals but instead through some rather convoluted ways: Optimus Prime and Bulkhead required you to buy a Happy Meal only exactly within the span of two days (July 30 to 31st), which, alongside the aforementioned Optimus or Bumblebee toys, would give you a special ticket that could be traded in at a specific set of toy stores for either of the assorted charms. As for Bumblebee... He was simply available as a free pack-in gift with the September 2011 issue of TV Boy magazine instead.
The toys themselves consist of miniature versions of McDonald's food items, which sprung open to reveal chibified characters from the Prime cartoon inside: perhaps, intentionally or not, somewhat evocative of an older McDonald's toyline. Bafflingly, these three figures could also interact with the new trailer released with the Chronicle Optimus Prime set, which included moulded spaces specially designed to accommodate them in its floor.
2012 Transformers: Prime promotion
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For the Transformers: Prime promotion, McDonald's featured non-transforming toys of Prime characters' vehicle modes, incorporating various gimmicks into them. The promotion for bronies girls was My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
Autobots Lit up when you pushed his smokestacks forward. Featured a missile launcher in his roof. fired paper discs from a launcher under his hood. Had a non-firing cannon under his roof. |
Decepticons Fired a spring-loaded paddle from his front end. Featured two pop-out non-firing missiles. Featured a non-firing cannon revealed by turning his spare tire. Featured two pop-out non-firing cannons. |
2013 Transformers: Prime promotion
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A second promotion for Transformers: Prime took place the following year, this time featuring toys of Prime characters in robot mode with exclusively mechanical-based gimmicks. It was accompanied by a Littlest Pet Shop promotion.
Autobots Turning his upper torso caused him to wave his sword. Pushing down on his wings caused him to punch with his right arm. Bulkhead is also right there in the picture. |
Decepticons Fired a spring-loaded missile from his fusion cannon. Fired a spring-loaded missile from his left arm. Pinching his legs together caused his upper body to spin, flailing with his hammers. |
2015 Transformers: Robots in Disguise promotion
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The first promotion for Transformers: Robots in Disguise included a variety of figurines, as well as Transformers "diadems" stylized after Optimus Prime and Bumblebee.
Autobots Mace-swinging gimmick. word-slashing gimmick. Gear-activated drills. Staff-spinning attack gimmick. Flame missile projectile. |
Decepticons Retractable grapple pincher. Light-up gun. Lunging action. |
2016 Transformers: Robots in Disguise promotion
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A second promotion for Transformers: Robots in Disguise took place the following year. It was accompanied by a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic promotion. A coloring page was also included, featuring an illustration of the Transformers characters next to another of the My Little Pony wave counterparts.
Autobots Launching missile. aunching disc. Back-mounted disc launcher. Lauching projectile. |
Decepticons Launching missile. Launching missile. Launching missile. Launching disc. |
2017 Transformers: Robots in Disguise promotion
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A third promotion for Transformers: Robots in Disguise took place in 2017. Once again, My Little Pony was the alternate toy option. Instead of strictly figures, this collection had a mask and figure for each of the characters. Once more, a batch of My Little Pony figures was this wave's gir-oriented counterpart.
Interestingly, the mounted cannons in this assortment of toys uses 5 mm post-compatible pegs, making them attachable to many larger figures from other Transformers toylines.
Figures Sword slash gimmick Attachable wings and chest mounted wheel (to simulate flight) Cannon with launching projectile Cannon with launching projectile |
Masks |
2017 Holiday Express promotion
[edit]For the 2017 holiday season, McDonald's ran a promotion where every Happy Meal came with a train car featuring a brand used for one its past promotions. Transformers: Robots in Disguise was the featured brand for one car, a grey boxcar with a sculpted Bumblebee who bobs up and down as the train advances.
The train car depicts several RID characters (Bumblebee, Bisk, Strongarm, Sideswipe, Quillfire, and Underbite) in vehicle mode in a car carrying structure. These and the other train cars released under this promotion could all be connected, in any order, to form one long train.
2018 Bumblebee/Authentics promotion
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The release of the 2018 promotion coincided with both the release of the Bumblebee film, though the toys are very much the Evergreen G1 designs. Despite this, most promotional material for the toys used the Bumblebee film logo and robot images.
Unlike any of the previous McDonald's toylines, these feature a quirky super deformed aesthetic with oversized heads and goofily-proportioned bodies. Yet again, My Little Pony was the girl equivalent for this batch of toys, also featuring the same sort of super deformed aesthetic.
Autobots Spring-loaded pop out sword Launching projectile Pull-back motor Light-Up flame/eyes Rotating wing fans |
Decepticons Wind-up walking Jet-Launcher Pop-out rocket boot flames |
2019 Cyberverse promotion
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In 2019, the first Cyberverse themed promotion included non-transforming base figures, each being packed with a small vehicle that could be detached into two parts and worn as weapons and armor for the robots. The armor parts all used 4 mm pegs and could be swapped around between figures. The toys are all based on the Spark Armor figures from the Cyberverse toyline, using all the same characters as that subline. Sticker sheets were included for added details.
Oddly, in this same year, McDonald's competitor Burger King would also get a promotion based around the Cyberverse Spark Armor figures. Beyond the small aforementioned Japanese Dark of the Moon promotion, this marks the first major instance of both McDonald's and Burger King getting a Transformers promotion for the same series.
In America, only four figures were released, but European and Asian markets received an additional four figures, totaling eight. And yes, My Little Pony was, once again, the girl-oriented counterpart for this batch of toys.
Autobots (Europe/Asia only) (Europe/Asia only) (Europe/Asia only) |
Decepticons (Europe/Asia only) |
Japan
[edit]Japan had an exclusive “All-Star Water” promotion from August 16 to August 22 which included a translucent vinyl figurine of Optimus Prime featuring a water-squirting gimmick. He also comes with an Autobot insignia with paper that changes color when hit by water.
2021 Cyberverse promotion
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Released in Singapore and Europe in January 2021, this promotion included six non-transforming figures with limited articulation. The chests of the figures had panels with lenticular image stickers on them which would change angle when the left arm is moved. Moving the panel causes the image on their chest to change.
Autobots Image changes from robot chest to burst of electricity. Image changes from robot chest to glowing Autobot symbol. |
Decepticons Image changes from robot chest to battle damage. Image changes from robot chest to missiles flying through air. |
2022 Potato Head promotion
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Being a three foot three superfluous freak
The as-of-now last McDonald's Transformers promotion, this series was a crossover of sorts with Potato Head, releasing only in some select regions across Asia and Africa. It featured a variety of miniature Potato Heads with various character costumes based on both Transformers Evergreen designs and the cast of My Little Pony, in the style of Mixable Mashable Heroes.
Since the parts are interchangeable, you could use the My Little Pony heads with Transformers torsos and vice-versa to create the most horrifying Transformers-Potato-Pony mutants your heart could conceive of.
2026 Transformers & My Little Pony promotion
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On February 10, 2026, McDonald's restaurants began offering a set of Transformers and - who could have guessed - My Little Pony toys with Happy Meals. The three included Transformers toys are designed in a chibi style based on Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Megatron from the original G1 animation. The toys are as follows:
A plastic Optimus Prime head sculpt designed to fit on a pencil. Rotating the helmet switches Optimus Prime's expression between a smiling face and a battle mask. A hard plastic card protector featuring a raised Bumblebee design, equipped with a hollow hook shaped like the Autobot insignia. The bottom of the holder has a sliding slot for opening, with a Bumblebee card stored inside. A red plastic launcher with a raised Megatron design. Pressing the launcher fires a plastic disc printed with an image of Megatron. |
Notes
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- Beyond the Transformers brand, McDonald's has also released a few other transforming robot toys over the years. These include:
- Easily the most famous, the Changeables toyline was McDonald's' attempt to cash into the transforming robot craze during the 1980s. The line was comprised of small robots (and later dinosaurs, releasing under the McDino Changeables subline) that transformed into food from the McDonald's menu, resulting in a small army of quirky little burgers, fries, soda bottles and the likes. The Changeables have since become cult collectibles, and to this day, it's not uncommon for people to (erroneously) assume these were Transformers tie-ins: they were not, but if you came to this page looking for them then they shall be mentioned in these notes nonetheless.
- By popular demand, the Changeables were also brought back in 2026 with an all-new series of toys, with some taking design cues from the original figures and others being all-new designs instead.
- Another 1980s series of robots sold through McDonald's were the Commandrons, a series of four more traditional robot-to-vehicle transforming toys manufactured by Tomy (before they eventually merged into TakaraTomy).
- A handful of TakaraTomy transforming robot toylines have received McDonald's toys in the brand's Japanese branch. These include multiple waves of Shinkansen-based robots from Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion (新幹線変形ロボ シンカリオン) and a 2025 wave of figures based on Tomica Heroes Jobraver Tokusō Gattai Robo (トミカヒーローズ ジョブレイバー 特装合体ロボ). Notably, the latter, as well as most of the Shinkansen promotions, are actually traditional fully-transformable figures... Something that the Transformers franchise hasn't seen on its Happy Meal offerings in {{#expr: 2026-2011}} years.
- Also in early 2025, McDonald's Japan released an odd set of three Neon Genesis Evangelion figures that transform into life-sized plastic versions of McDonald's food.
- Easily the most famous, the Changeables toyline was McDonald's' attempt to cash into the transforming robot craze during the 1980s. The line was comprised of small robots (and later dinosaurs, releasing under the McDino Changeables subline) that transformed into food from the McDonald's menu, resulting in a small army of quirky little burgers, fries, soda bottles and the likes. The Changeables have since become cult collectibles, and to this day, it's not uncommon for people to (erroneously) assume these were Transformers tie-ins: they were not, but if you came to this page looking for them then they shall be mentioned in these notes nonetheless.