McDonald’s has recently brought back Changeables to it’s Happy Meal toy line up. This is technically the 4th set of these with the previous sets being released in 1987, 1989, and 1990. So, thirty five years ago. Seeing as these are technically Transformers, they are popular with a lot of folks who like Transformers. They also are just, generally cooler than a lot of McDonald’s Happy meal offerings.
I have a sort of random assortment of the previous Changeables, and I wanted to take a bit of a quick look at them, and how they compare to the modern offerings. If that’s all you want to know, the new ones are, pretty much the same as the old ones, with slightly cleaner molds.
Series 1
The first wave consisted of 6 toys, all of them with boring names like “Large Fries Robot” and “Quarter Pounder Robot”. I have 5 of the 6. Just a side note, the “Large Fries Robot” mold was reused in wave 2 and I am not sure which paint apps are which wave.
Actually more of these may have been reused, but I only have two versions of Large Fries Robot. I sorted these based on the copyright year stamps. I am missing Milkshake Robot from the set.
These all share a fairly similar transformation scheme, but none are exactly the same. It really would be too much to expect these to be complex transformations that turn into some sort of articulated robot. Plus I would argue that would make them a bit less charming. I particularly like how they all have these sort of, primal robot faces.
Also, I believe the Egg McMuffin Robot is supposed to be stretched taller, but mine is loose and wants to just fall over unless you squat it down. Of these, I think the Big Mac probably has the most interesting transformation, the body does a sort of bard door slide thing rather than just lifting it open like the Quarter Pounder, Nuggets and McMuffin.
Series 2
Series two bumped the assortment up to 8 toys. As far as i can tell, though I am missing the Cheeseburger and Big Mac, these are mostly new molds. The Large Fries is the same as Series 1, aside from some additional paint apps. I would bet the Big Mac I am missing is the same as series 1, probably also with more paint.
The Quarter Pounder is different, its a boxed burger instead of a bare burger like Series 1.
More interesting, they all got names this round. From the McDonalds Toy Wiki, their names are:
- Ice Cream / “Turbo Cone”
- Soft Drink / “Krypto Cup”
- Quarter Pounder / “Gallacta Pounder”
- Hotcakes / “Robo-Cakes”
- Cheeseburger / “C2”
- Large Fries / “Fry Force”
- Big Mac / “Macro Mac”
- Small Fries / “Fry Bot”
The robot faces this time are much more friendly looking, though still definitely robots. the Small Fry, Fry Bot, is neat because it features an articulated jaw. I also really like the way Krypto Cup sort of butterflies open. Its pretty unique next to all of the others. In general, the transformations this round are much more varied and interesting.
Series 3
Series 3 really mixes things up. There were 8 toys again, I only have four of them to talk about. The main difference is that instead of turning into robots, they all turn into dinosaurs.
Of the four I have, none are remolds of the previous sets, though I believe there is a Dinosaur version of the Ice Cream Cone bot from Series 2. The Large Fry this time lays down to become a dinosaur, the milkshake flips open to become a tall dinosaur. The Hotcakes turns into a sort of pterodactyl similar to a Transformers Laserbeak toy might do.
They also get real names as well:
- Milkshake / “Tri-Shake-Atops”
- Big Mac / “Big Mac-O-Saurus Rex”
- Ice Cream / “McDino Cone”
- Happy Meal Box / “Happy Meal-O-Don”
- Quarter Pounder / “Quarter Pounder With Cheese-O-Saur”
- Large Fries / “Fry-Ceratops”
- Chicken McNuggets / “McNuggets-O-Saurus”
- Hotcakes / “Hot Cakes-O-Dactyl”
Though they do feel a bit uninspired like the Series 1 names.
They are also all quite goofy looking cartoonish dinosaurs. Its a fun remix of the previous concept though.
Series 4
The current wave, I only have to of them so far, I have vague hopes of getting them all, but who knows, distribution is so hard to follow on these and frankly, Im not invested THAT MUCH that I will spend a fortune on eBay.
The Large Fries bot, FR-13S is essentially an updated version of the original Large Fries Bot. The transformation is identical, though it has a much friendlier robot head.
I also have the Playplace robot named Torrus, which actually seems to be an update of the Tri-Shake-Atops from Series 3. Though its a Playplace instead of a milkshake. They share the same transformation to become a dinosaur as Tri-Shake-Atops.
