Review – McDonald’s Changeables Large French Fries (1987)

“Nearly a third of all the toys distributed in the United States never see the inside of a store. Instead, they are dished out by fast-food restaurant chains. McDonald’s 31,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries has become the biggest distributor of toys in the world with its Happy Meal combination.”

—The Real Toy Story: Inside the Ruthless Battle for America’s Youngest Consumers*

Sometimes, especially when life hates me, it takes me a long time to return to a series of toys and continue to share my purchases. Last year I posted a review of the Changeables Quarter Pounder . . . and then failed to share any other toys from the 1987 McDonald’s Changeables line. Well, today we return to the eighties and McDonald’s with this Large French Fries cheap transforming robot toy. Strap in for eighties fun, gang!

Hard Plastic French Fries

Disguised as a box of McDonald’s french fries, this small robot toy is as easy to transform as it looks. Pop out the bottom to form the feet, flip up a section of the front to reveal the face, and swivel both arms up from the sides of the box. Done! Robot mode ready for play!

Robot Mode

Standing just over 2-inches tall in robot mode, the Large French Fries robot is the same height as that Changeables Quarter Pounder I reviewed last year. Now please keep in mind that these toys were designed for the younger kids of the eighties; the simplistic transformation design, minimal paints apps, and playful sculpt were all crafted for little kids and not anyone over the age of about five or six. These were even cheaper in design than Go-Bots toys!

Fun and Nostalgic

The best part of these Changeables robots today has to be the memories that they spark in those of us who were kids in the eighties. I was arguably way too old for these toys in 1987, but that doesn’t at all affect my enjoyment and appreciation of them today. And considering how many different designs McDonald’s created for this series (see Wikipedia) it’s a deep line for a collector to get into today. Fortunately, the Changeables were produced in ridiculous numbers and finding them these days isn’t tough at all. I like them, but if you look at battlegrip.com you’ll notice that I enjoy a lot of different and random plastic junk.