Happy Meal Fold-a-Freebies

There have been no kiddie movies lately. Which means there have been no movie merchandising riding on fastfood's kiddie meals either.
So what is McDonald's Happy Meal smiling about?

First, it's got a snazzy new box --with its own jingle recall. *Dooooontoooownnn..."

And each box has Fold-a-figures.
Ok, Fold-a-figures aren't exactly a breakthrough. It's like a standard value-for-money idea you see on cereal boxes and milk cartons, sitting alongside maze puzzles and word games. What makes Happy Meal's any different?

For me, Happy Meal's bandwagon jump is a lot more kiddie friendly. Kids can easily poke the perforations instead of using scissors. Simple instructions are also printed on the box.

Now the Fold-a-figure characters, quite honestly, weird me out a bit.
There's a Pororo knock-off penguin that's relatively easy to make.

And a rootin' tootin' Sheriff Panda that was a little trickier to fold into completion. How an Antarctic pilot and a law enforcer of the Wild West got together in the world of Happy Meal is a mystery to me and my boys. It would've been cooler if they just featured Ronald McDonald fold-a-figures --one in his regular yellow and red uniform, and the other in a gladiator costume or something, I dunno.

But the penguin and panda ARE cute. And done in a few minutes. Which is neat empowerment to kids. Despite the extra lean movie merchandising season, good survival trick there, McDo!

Oh, and did you see this subtle detail peeking out of the penguin's backpack? You go, branding!