The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation Studios released the first product of its collaboration in 1995 with the full length animation Toy Story and by June 2006 the team up reached its seventh creation with the movie Cars. To celebrate the film's launching, the leading fast food chain, McDonald's, momentarily joined this productive partnership when it issued the collectible memorabilia of the main disney characters as its Happy Meal toys.
From June to July of the same year, plastic miniatures of Lightning McQueen, Sally Carrera, Mater, Doc Hudson and Ramone were among the 9 freebie items that kids were to choose from to go along with every Happy Meal. The 1:50 scale models are replicas of their screen counterparts, each with a hint of their respective personality traits.
The Happy Meal model for Lightning McQueen, the racetrack rookie who takes center stage in the movie, comes in two versions. Both are pullback toys and can perform wheelies but one depicts the clean and sleek McQueen, whereas the other is the unkempt form, as if having just completed the repairs on Radiator Springs' main road.
The miniatures of his friends from the formerly popular stopover to a now sleepy town also have their individual attributes. The Sally and Mater models steer left or right, while Flo, the 1950s sassy show car and Fillmore, the hippie van of the 60s, are both pullback toy cars like that of McQueen. Ramone, the body paint artist and Flo's husband, expresses his art in the movie by changing his body color daily, so the miniature version comes in three hues, namely orange, green and the original violet. Meanwhile, Luigi, a 1959 Fiat 500 who owns the town's Casa Della Tire Shop, comes with a tire crank. Lastly, Doc is a wind-up toy that knows its bounds, turning about when it reaches the table edge. This design is quite fitting for the Hudson Hornet in the film who is also the town's doctor and voice of wisdom.
Interestingly these Happy Meal toys which are created for the film's young viewership, also attracts the adult crowd. Apart from quickly running out of stock which implies the popularity in demand, these same giveaways are available at online stores for the serious collectors. Priced somewhat costly considering these are released as tokens, most are for sale with the factory packaging still intact. The rarer the item, like the dirty McQueen and Mater, the more expensive it is.
Cars is a computer graphics animation that is backed by a formidable list of voice artists, starting off with Owen Wilson as McQueen, Larry the Cable Guy as Mater, Bonnie Hunt as Sally and Paul Newman as Doc. Cheech Marin, Jenifer Lewis, Tony Shaloub and George Carlin also join the list of talents to give life to Ramone, Flo, Luigi and Fillmore, respectively. Since the film is entertaining to both kids and adults, it is no wonder that the McDonald's Cars collectibles are popular to audiences of all ages.
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