Raving Toy Maniac

August 22, 2014 - The boy made two trips to Wendy's this past month, but has zero interest in the two Kung Fu Panda toys he got with his food. He has already let me know to hand them out at Halloween.

I bought a set of Guardians of the Galaxy drawstring backpacks from eBay because I wanted all six but I don't like Subway enough to eat there six times in a month. The bags are larger and nicer than I thought they would be. The fronts have pictures from the movie, while the backs have line drawings of the characters.

Let's see what's out there in restaurants this month! (More after the jump)

A quick check of the web sites for the more popular fast food restaurants reveals the following:

- McDonald's has toys from HotWheels and Barbie in their Happy Meals. The next promotion shown is a joint promo of Madden 2015 and Littlest Pet Shop. The wee Madden figures have already gotten some attention for having the wrong skin colors painted on some of the players.

The McDonald's McPlay app now has free ebooks in it as well as a game. The ebooks are also available on their web site.

- Burger King has taken down their BKcrown.com web site for kids, leaving just a bare bones kids menu on their regular web site. I feel like a jerk going to a Burger King and peeking at their toys without buying food, so I found a national number to call, and a nice man looked up the schedule for the rest of 2014! In August, they feature Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, with Ice Age toys coming in September, Rio 2 in October, and Tom and Jerry toys in December. The dates are rough guidelines, and he had nothing on his information about November.

- The Chick-fil-A site shows Color Crafters as the goodies in their Kid's Meals. It is an activity reminiscent of Spirograph.

No changes from last month at these restaurants:

- The Wendy's web site still does not list the toys at all, but sometimes they mention the toys on their Facebook page. Our local Wendy's in Colorado has Kung Fu Panda toys, shown above and also on Facebook.

- Carl's Jr. and Hardee's both now have Rio 2 toys and activities. Starting in early September, the promotion changes to The BoxTrolls.

- Sonic has seven different SpongeBob SquarePants toys that they are promoting in their Wacky Pack meals.

- Subway Kids Meals have Guardians of the Galaxy drawstring backpacks. There are six available.

- Like Wendy's, Arby's has revamped their web site and it doesn't seem to show the toy anymore.

- Taco Bell has phased out Kids Meals and their Kids Menu. Most of the items will still be available on their regular menu, but will no longer be marketed as for kids, so really the only difference is that the toys are gone.