Pizza Hut has had some of the best premium items in the history of fast food, and maybe one of their coolest offerings was their Street Balls they rolled out during March Madness for a few years in the early ’90s. Kinda like I’m doing with this post…trying to capitalize on the season. The street balls were non-standard-looking basketballs with custom prints that reflected what Pizza Hut thought the culture on the streets was like.
I had the one featured in the video above and used it all the time in my driveway shooting hoops by myself or playing a game of Around the World with my neighbor. I somehow felt like it made me a better player, but it probably just made me look like an even bigger doofus than I already did as a skinny, pasty-white white boy in the rural Appalachians trying to dribble between my legs on the way for a layup.
While I actually did play basketball in school and was a really good shot from downtown, I just didn’t look like a real ball player. What made matters worse was the fact that every one of us lanky kids who got one of these balls would bring them to practice trying to look cool. That doesn’t work when everybody brings one.
But I’ll say again, these street balls were a great piece of promotion by Pizza Hut, and anyone who was around back then surely remembers them.
For the Christmas season of 1988, McDonald’s was offering up not one, not two, but THREE limited-time offerings for the Christmas season.
There was the 9-piece or 20-piece Holiday McNuggets, which featured a limited-time orange sauce for dipping and came in a festive “gift” box inspired by the season.
There was also the frosty Eggnog Milkshake and the rarely seen Peppermint Sundae.
As much as my mom and I would go to McDonalds, I have zero memory of ever getting to try any of these fantastic-looking treats. Back in those days, the thought of egg nog grossed me out so I wasn’t missing anything there, and I’ve always been a die-hard caramel sundae man so I may not have given the peppermint one a try. But those nuggets with the orange sound amazing, and I’m very disappointed that I never got to try them.
Willow was a movie that captured my imagination in a big way back in 1988. When I first saw the trailer for the movie, I was excited as hell. Not even really knowing the whole plotline didn’t stop me from acting out adventures based on it before it even hit theaters. But that excitement was tempered by the fact that I knew the chances of going to the theater to see it were slim and none, and I could practically go ahead and strike slim from the options.
Usually, when I would get pumped up for a movie that I wasn’t going to get to actually see in the theater, I was comforted by the fact that there would be movie tie-in merchandise to enjoy. But when it came to Willow, I hadn’t seen a thing that was due to come out. That was until I saw a commercial advertising Willow-themed kid’s meals at Wendy’s. The box art featured in the commercial piqued my interest but the show stealer was the Magic Cups that you could get there.
I knew I wanted them when I first saw them. Mainly because they were for Willow, but also because of their “magic” ability. The cups had a base scene printed on them, but the rest of the scene became filled in when cold liquid was added to the cup. That was a cool feature at the time, and certainly was deserving of the moniker “magic cup”.
While I may have never been able to convince my parents to go to the movies with any kind of regularity, talking them into going to Wendy’s was pretty easy since it was a favorite for both of them. So on the next trip there, I got my Willow Kids meal and my first and only Magic Cup.
I never really cared much for cups that were offered by fast food places, but these Willow Magic Cups were one of the exceptions. I only managed to get one of them while they were available, but I held onto it for years. In fact, I held on to it so long and used it so much that most of the paint wore off of it. Once the paint was gone, so was the “magic”, but the memories remain.
Here is a photo I found online of the cup that I had:
Halloween is one of the “big 3” nostalgic holidays for me, waffling back and forth between second and third place with Thanksgiving on my list, and Christmas being firmly in the number one spot. There has always been so much to love about Halloween. From the costumes to the candy, memories of harvest festivals, the scary movies, and the fall weather. But one thing that sometimes gets overlooked is just how wonderful a lot of the promotions that companies run are tied to Halloween. One of the best examples of this has been McDonald’s, and that’s what we’re looking at in today’s Retro Ramblings.
As I related before, one of my favorite things to find in my trick-or-treat bag at the end of the night were gift certificates in general, but McDonald’s gift certificates in particular. They made them available to purchase in little booklets and featured coupons entitling the bearer to a free small ice cream cone, or free small french fries, a small soft drink, or at times, a small Sundae. These little certificates were like some kind of savings bond for a kid. You knew it didn’t hold much value when you were holding it on Halloween night, but you also knew that in the future, that thing was worth something. For me, I would fold them up and put them in my Velcro wallet and eagerly await the next trip to town where I would pester my mom to no end about stopping at McDonald’s to cash in my certificate. The fries, or a cone, or soft drink always tasted better when they were gotten with those Halloween gift certificates.
Maybe my favorite Halloween tie-in that McDonald’s came up with was their Halloween Happy Meals, where everything came in one of those cool Jack-o-Lantern buckets. They initially released them in 1985, and they were such a hit, that they kept them going for many years afterward. Some years, they would make slight changes to the faces on them, but in 1989 they made a major change when they added a ghost bucket and a witch bucket. Of course, I had to have them all. They were the perfect size for a Happy Meal, as the burger and fries fit nicely inside. And they were the perfect size for a lot of other things too. My mom would go every week and get us each a Happy Meal during the Halloween season so she could get buckets too. She used them for things like storing clothespins, while I used mine for storing smaller toys like Micro Machines. The only thing I found they weren’t good for was using them as your candy bucket for trick or treating. They just weren’t big enough for that. But dang, they were such a cool concept, and one of my favorite memories of Halloween from through the years.
The last thing that I remember making a big splash with me way back when were the Halloween McNugget Buddies toys that came out in 1992. Now while getting an animated-looking chicken nugget toy with a face was pretty great on its own, giving it a removable Halloween costume just took things to a whole other level! The toys were well made, and so much fun to put on display in their costumes. McDonald’s created seven different McNugget Buddy characters and each had its own costume. You could even interchange them between the buddies. There wasn’t much to differentiate the McNugget Buddies from each other except their facial expressions, but it was still fun to mix and match their costumes between them.
McDonald’s has stolen my heart many times through the years in various ways, and their Halloween promotions were always one of the highlights of the season for me. What about you? Do you have any fast food Halloween preferences? Let’s talk about them in the comments.
Besides all the great foods that McDonald’s has introduced through the years, I’ve got some fond memories of several of the toys that were included in various Happy Meal promotions. In this Retro Ramblings, I’m going to run through some of my favorites with you.
Dukes of Hazzard Happy Meal Boxes
These hit McDonald’s in 1982, and with their plastic bodies, the boxes were great for crashing into each other while re-creating scenes from the show. You could crash them together and get some great dents in the cars, and then just pop them open and press out the dents and the cars were mostly like new again and ready for another go!
Construx Mini-Sets
I absolutely loved Construx and thought they were one of the best toys of the ’80s, and I certainly didn’t miss out on the free sets when they were in the Happy Meals in 1986.
Berenstain Bears Figures
In 1987, I was all in on the Berenstain Bear books and the cartoon that was on Saturday mornings at the time, so these were a natural fit for me. These were probably the Happy Meal toys that I anticipated more than any other.
Halloween Jack-o-Lantern Pails
These have been offered around Halloween on and off for years ever since 1987. I loved using these things to collect my candy while trick-or-treating on Halloween night. And beyond that, they were great for storing various small toys in like Micro Machines or M.U.S.C.L.E. figures.
Super Looney Tunes
I loved the idea of these things, as their costumes came off to reveal their alter egos. Two toys in one! The Tasmanian Devil/Flash was all kinds of cool.
