Review: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway Happy Meal Toys
Today, I check out a Happy Meal set that was released late last year in McDonald’s stores here in the US. What makes this set interesting is the controversy surrounding the release of the set (which I will talk about in a bit). Featuring Disney’s “Sensational Six” in some iconic Walt Disney World attractions… here are the toys from the Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway Happy Meal promotion.
This Happy Meal collection of 10 toys features attractions from all four of the Disney Theme Parks. Three toys are from the Magic Kingdom, three from Disney Hollywood Studios, two from Epcot, and two from Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The overall celebration of the set was for the opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway attraction at DHS, in which all of the “Sensational Six” (the “Fab Five” when Daisy Duck is added) are featured. You can also visit this website if you’re interested to find more toys for your kids.
Goofy in Runaway Railway & Mickey at Mission: Space
Minnie at Dinosaur & Pluto at The Jungle Cruise
Goofy at Everest & Donald Duck at Mad Tea Party
Minnie at The Pirates of the Caribbean& Mickey at The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Daisy at Soarin’ & Mickey and Minnie in Runaway Railway
Each toy connects to one another as part of a train, and each toy features a movement function when rolled along.
Now, here is where the controversy. Each toy came with a ticket. Each ticket had a numerical code on it where one could enter online to win a trip to Walt Disney World. Each ticket also features a QR code… and this is where the problem came from. Apparently, some of the QR codes forwarded people to sites that were NOT family friendly.
One of the tickets in question, with the numerical code and QR code on the reverse.
Immediately upon finding this out, Disney disabled all QR codes on the tickets, and then recalled all of the toys still in circulation. The plan was that the packaged toys would be opened, the ticket removed, and the packages resealed before being sent back out. Unfortunately, not all areas got some of these repackaged toys. Case in point, in the surrounding area where I live, we did not see any of the re-released toys surface… or if they did neither myself or any of my friends actively looking found them.
I ended up getting a set from a friend for Christmas, who got it online secondhand. It was basically the only way to get a complete set in most of the country, based off what I heard.
I should also mention that stores were giving out as a free promotion special Mickey Ear Hats. While only of heavy card stock construction, they are a fun giveaway for the kids.
While I am not a big collector of Happy Meal toys these days (mainly because the themes I am not a fan of), I really like this set and very happy that it is an added part to my Disney collection.