Toy Review: McDonalds’ Rio Happy Meal Toys

McDonald’s Happy Meal
Rio Toys

Whee!

I’ll admit to being bummed out when I first found out that McDonalds and Disney had dissolved their decade-long partnership in 2006. That meant those great Happy Meal toys from 101 Dalmations, Tarzan, Atlantis and all the other great giveaways. But if that never happened, we never would have gotten the Spectacular Spider-Man set, or those sweet Marvel Superheroes toys, or those crazy fun Monsters vs Aliens! figures.

Because McDonalds wasn’t locked into an exclusive agreement with The Mouse House, they were free to partner with Dreamworks on properties like Kung-Fu Panda (still kicking myself for selling those), and Lego with the Lego Batman toys (still need to find a way to get these).

Right now, the Happy Meals include another picture from Fox’s CGI division Blue Sky Studios, Rio.

As you can probably tell from the solicitation piece above, Rio is the story of couple of birds. Specifically, the last pair of Blue Macaws in the world who get stuck together in Rio de Janeiro, running from people who want to sell them for big bucks on the black market. The birds look to be based on the Spix’s Macaw, another species that’s extinct in the wild, but with a small captive population.

The main protagonist is Blu, a male macaw whose owner lives in Minnesota. As expected, his looks to be the first figure in McDonalds’ line up to vanish from the toy bins.

So let’s save that one for last. Hehehe.

First up is Blu’s love intrest, Jewel.

Jewel is one of the figures that takes up the most space. It’s not that she’s particularly massive, but she’s sculpted with her wings fully extended. Makes her quite the space hog on the shelf, but it looks great.

Like most figures from Happy Meals, there are some action features. The first is mechanical. Press a button on her back and her wings are raised up. The second feature is electronic; a light behind the flower on her heard turns on when you press the button.

The light is kind of silly really. Maybe it’s something to do with the movie (a rare blossom or something?), but it’s kind of useless. Kids might get a kick out of it the first time, but I think they’d perfer the sound features on the other toys.

Next in line is Nigel, the bad guy (at least that’s what I gather from the trailers). I think he’s a cockatoo? The character is voiced by Jemaine Clement of The Flight of the Conchords.

His action feature is about the same as Jewel’s. You press his upper body down, and his right arm and his crest move upward.

Whee.

As action features go, it’s boring yes, but it’s also unobtrusive. The figure looks great as a display piece, especially along side the other toys. And the action of his arm does look kind of silly, like he’s pontificating.

My favorite of the bunch is probably Rafael. I’ve already bought 2 of them (gave the other to my girlfriend).

Again, he’s got a button on the back that activates the physical mechanism and the electronics. Instead of a light, Raphael has a sound chip inside that plays some kind of Latin dance music, which goes perfectly with the way he’s posed. His wings also extend out when you press the button.

There is also a switch found on the two macaws as well as the toucan. If you’re not a fan of the music, you can simply switch it to the off position and pindot (press) to your heart’s content.

The last one I’m reviewing of course, is Blu himself:

I love the way they’ve done him, with the pose that envinces some kind of action going on, rather than just having him stand there. It’s true for most of the figures really. Plus it’s great that the skate board is removable. If you don’t really feel like having him skate around, and want him to dance with any of the other toys, it’s easy to do.

The button to activate his sound chip (which plays a sort of skateboarding anthem) is located on his front; the tip of what would be his thumb. Not sure why they just didn’t put it in the back like the others, seeing as how it doesn’t really NEED to be there. But then again, it’s not that noticable, especially since they’re all pretty much cast in the color they need to be in.

What paint they do have (beaks and eyes mostly) is subject to imperfections, so if you’re a stickler, be careful choosing. You’ll need to work at it, since the figures are basically in plastic pags with some printed instructions on them. It’s hard to examine a toy through those things, and you’re likely to piss off that 300 lbs dude in back of you waiting to get his quarter pounder with cheese (that would be me).

This really is a great set of toys, though I’m not sure if I want to complete it. Like most McDonalds sets, there are the awesome looking pieces that look great on their own, pieces that look great as a set, and the pieces that just look crappy from the get go.

I might still get Pedro, and MAYBE Nico (I’m on the fence about him), but I’m pretty sure I’ll pass on Luiz and Mauro. Kipo looks to be a regional exclusive (we don’t have him here in the Philippines), but he doesn’t look all that interesting either. I’m kind of bummed that Eva isn’t available, though. That one would look nice next to Raphael.

Oh, well. What we got was pretty great, and there’s always eBay.