Halloween McNugget Buddies

BOO! In the spirit of the season, today I'm featuring the Halloween McNugget Buddies, brought to you by McDonald's.

McNugget Buddies originally debuted in 1988 with the introduction of the 4-piece McNugget Happy Meal.  The original MBs were not Halloween themed, but rather, civilized contributors to society such as a policeman, a mail woman, and (of course!) a scuba diver.  

In 1993 MBs returned, but instead of responsible citizens, they were trick-or-treaters!  I'm guessing 1993 was about the time my family's visits to McDonalds began to die down, because we only managed to acquire 2 varieties of the six Halloween MBs available.  (On a side note, I'm pretty sure we snubbed McDonald's at this time because Burger King was in full force in both the toy and food department.  It was about this time that BK started manufacturing useful toys [i.e. magic tricks, frisbees, and the like] aaaand they introduced the Italian Chicken Sandwich, God's greatest gift to the fast food world).  Anyway, I digress.  Back to Halloween MBs.  The complete set of Halloween McBuddies in 1993 included McBoo McNugget, Mummie McNugget, Monster McNugget, Witchie McNugget, McNuggula, and Pumpkin McNugget.  Because we never collected all of them, I had to borrow an image from SydLexia to aid my readers:

(Image:  http://www.sydlexia.com/mcnugget_buddies.htm)

Anyway, as I said before, my sister and I only collected two:  Mummie McNugget and Witchie McNugget.  We actually collected two of each of these, but I seem to have misplaced the second Witchie McNugget's body, so she would have just been a pile of clothes had I included her in this image:

I have to give McDonald's props on these toys.  They were (and still are) awesome.  They celebrate the greatest holiday of the year.  You may be fooled into thinking these are your run of the mill trick-or-treaters, but SURPRISE!!!

They're Chicken McNuggets.

In my efforts to locate the missing Witchie body amongst the millions of Happy Meal toys in the playroom, I managed to locate some original MB bodies.  There were two clues to lead me to the conclusion that these bodies did not belong to my witch costume.  1.  The original bodies were made of a sturdy, rubber-like material and were not glossy like the plastic ones of the Halloween era.  2.  The Witchie clothes didn't fit.  The original MBs must have been slightly larger than their Halloween counterparts. 

So there we have Mummie McNugget and Witchie McNugget.  I wish we had collected them all (as encouraged by the commercial).  Based on looks, I'd say the best of the lot was Monster McNugget, but if we're basing this contest on name, McNuggula wins, hands down.  

I give these toys an 8 out of 10.  As far as Happy Meal toys go, they're among the cream of the crop, but if you think about it, all they do is stand there, so I can't give them a perfect 10.

If you'd like to read more about the dawn of McNugget Buddies and their evolution, I advise you to read this article:  http://www.sydlexia.com/mcnugget_buddies.htm.  The article uses the F-bomb a bit too loosely, rendering it ineffective when necessary, but it does a great job of chronicling the lives of the McNugget Buddies and the creative play and commentary at the end is pretty funny.