Fast Food? Sounds like something Sonic already!
With how popular Sonic was at different times, it's not surprising he had several Fast Food tie-ins. Places like Burger King, McDonalds and even Jack In The Box featured Sonic toys for free in their kids meals. These had various degrees of quality and collectability. The early ones were just mini action toys that shook, rolled or flew. Later on, it switched to mini LCD games, which were actually pretty neat.
However, since the items were freebie give-aways, they were thrown out a lot, and also not too memorable from exactly which restauraunt they came...The best way to grab these is to go onto Ebay as SOON as a promotion appears in an eatery. Try to buy all of them on one lot. These do not last well, and you'll pay more later on if you don't.
With how popular Sonic was at different times, it's not surprising he had several Fast Food tie-ins. Places like Burger King, McDonalds and even Jack In The Box featured Sonic toys for free in their kids meals. These had various degrees of quality and collectability. The early ones were just mini action toys that shook, rolled or flew. Later on, it switched to mini LCD games, which were actually pretty neat.
However, since the items were freebie give-aways, they were thrown out a lot, and also not too memorable from exactly which restauraunt they came...The best way to grab these is to go onto Ebay as SOON as a promotion appears in an eatery. Try to buy all of them on one lot. These do not last well, and you'll pay more later on if you don't.
This Tails themed ball comes from McDonalds. If it looks familiar, it should. It's the unexpected/seldom seen 2nd "Under 3" toy. (an under 3 toy is one given to babies who would otherwise eat plastic) The Sonic version can be seen on page 1. Usually the 'ultra little kids toy' is just that, one item because it is not freuqently given away. It's a nice touch they made a Tails one to collect as well. Discovered by SonicBoy19
This cardboard stand was used to back the display for the LCD games with racing themes. The character art has been altered a little to show them all with games in their hand. The games without their character are just shown on the checkered flag. You can see that this is 3D/box like, and likely had a 2nd part somewhere, or a front. Discovered by SonicBoy19
This is another cardboard backing/stand, but for the sports themed set of games. You can see that on this one some of the games are actually stuck to the board (a common tactic, so you can see the real item) and the rest are just pictures of the game, placed around the character or a ball that is used in the game. Though slightly cluttered looking (multiple balls, everywhere) it's a good shot of Rouge (though her racket has no strings) Discovered by SonicBoy19
Carl's Jr. is a restaurant only seen in parts of the USA. Despite not being universal, they still picked up a Sonic promotion for their kids' meals. (though the items are seldom seen, and may be considered somewhat rare) Their promo was in 1996 and included 4 viewers, each with Sonic, Tails, Robotnik or Knuckles. When you look in, you can see Robotnik, Tails, and Sonic stock arts (much like an old viewmaster toy)
Photographed & owned by ST. This promotion MAY HAVE been shared by Wendy's. It is likely the promotions were simultaneous if it was. Added info by Sonictoast
Here's the rare and interesting Robotnick viewer from this set. It's yellow with black accents instead of beige like Knuckles' one. The sticker on the front is rather interesting because it contains an unusual/seldom seen stock of him. It contains 6 slides, each starring Dr Robotnik. While many things are quite reliant on stock art alone, this seems to take an extra step, adding strange backgrounds like space, stairs and a city-scape of some kind. Others are clearly mash-ups like running Robo & Sonic. The non-sensical Robotnik with a club appears, but with that terrible 'bad eyed' stock Tails, implying he's been hit. Photographed & owned by Sonictoast