Once upon a time, in a marketing deal long long ago, two big companies decided to team up to give the world some of the greatest little toys in the history of promotional giveaways. Disney and McDonald’s restaurants no longer work together, but what they left behind still brings joy to perusers of yard sale tables and collectible shops alike!
As an example, I bring you seven Character Viewers based on Disneyland attractions and shows:
Blurry because I had a little too much grog before taking the picture
This slide shows a staged scene from a show that had live actors portraying a battle between Captain Hook and his pirates and Peter Pan. You can see a short snippet of it in this YouTube video.
King Louie as a Captain on the Jungle Cruise. Nuff said.
The Lion King Celebration was a parade based on the animated film The Lion King. It was designed to tell the story of Simba as if it were a tale passed down in Africa for generations. Its parade featured six floats designed around different aspects of Africa, dancers dressed in animal costumes and a Pride Rock float featuring Simba. The parade ran at Disneyland from June 1, 1994 to June 1, 1997, after which four of the floats were moved to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the Festival of the Lion King show.
This slide likely shows a staged segment of the parade that wasn’t necessarily in the actual procession. This parade replaced the Aladdin’s Royal Caravan and then was itself replaced by Hercules’ Victory Parade.
Mickey and Space Mountain: Great Combination!
When I first saw Winnie the Pooh riding a train, I was expecting a slide showing the Disneyland Railroad. But instead I was treated to this great shot of The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! So… did Pooh move from the 100-acre wood to the wildest mountain range of the old west?
The ultimate Toontown!
Now that Walt Disney World’s Toontown is gone, will Disneyland’s version soon suffer the same fate? As changes continue to come and expansion space becomes harder to find, it may be a good idea to visit this great area as soon as possible! Here is a link to Disney Dose that covers the attractions and postulates on the future of Toontown.
And now I’ve left my favorite to the last:
Splash Mountain
This slide shows the original configuration for the logs, with side-by-side seating. Interestingly, Br’er Bear seems to have thought ahead and predicted the change to a one-behind-the-other configuration. Here are Karen and I ‘enjoying’ our first plummet down the mountain:
So although we can’t go to our favorite Fast Food place and walk out with a Disney toy anymore, with the tens of thousands of Disney-related toys produced between 1988 and 2007, we can always check out eBay for those must-haves!
Check out the link for everything you didn’t want to know about the McDonald’s Happy Meal and the toys that came with them.
