Happy Meal Toys

The first Kids Meal was introduced in 1973 by the fast food burger chain Burger Chef though at the time, it was known as a "Funmeal". . Eventually, other fast food chains followed suit.

Burger Chef
In 1973, fast food chain Burger Chef began serving Kids Meals. Eventually, however, Burger Chef shuttered in 1996.

McDonalds
McDonalds is a fast food chain founded in 1940 by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. In the mid-70s, the Happy Meal was introduced and along with was a small toy was introduced by 1979. Although generally used to promote an upcoming cartoon, movie or the McDonalds brand itself, these toys were usually small and had a gimmick for kids.

Notable Toys

 * Sonic the Hedgehog Handheld Game

Burger King
Not all toys that are released to the consumer is well received, sometimes, the toys must be banned due for how dangerous they could be such as the Burger King Kids Meal Pokemon promotion where the kids would choke on the small pieces of the toy and some even died, which ultimately led to a mass recall of the toy.

Notable Toys
 * Sonic Adventure (1999)

Trivia

 * Some toys were bigger in size and had more elaborate gimmicks - example being being a build a figure such as the Inspector Gadget promotional toy from 1999.