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.

Sonic Gear Main * Fast Food 1 * Fast Food 2 * Fast Food 4 *

This is a flattened happy meal box from McDonalds. It was from 2003, during 1 of their Sonic promotions. The box however, was not totally Sonic themed, as you can see here one of the sides has Super Monkey Ball on it.

This is an ad for the Sonic 3 promotion at McDonalds. It says "Hey kids! it's Sonic the hedgehog 3 Sega's hottest & newest video game!" It then has pictures of the toys you could get with the meal, (surprises) and tells about the contest where you could win a Sonic 3 game, Genesis console, or other items. That tiny writing is the fine-print for how to enter. Photo discovered by Piplupfan77

This is likely to be an in-store promotional poster or some type of sign. It announces the first set of Sonic toys McDonalds had in the Happy Meal. It says "Collect All 4! A different one each week" The bottom small text explains how you get it free in a happy meal. Look at how the art is drawn to actually look like the toys themselves, rather than the actual characters. Sonic has a fin of spikes, Knuckles has a giant lower face & very tall head, the Robotnick looks about the same (complete with winder on the side) and the Tails...is a little odd. Yes he's a flat thing (looks sort of long-bodied here like a wiener-dog) but notice how it's not the one that "flew" from the helicopter type ripcord thing but the other one where he rotated the tails as you pushed him along. Photo discovered by UltimateHedgehog

This is a rotating TV toy from a multi-promotion "15th Anniversary of the Happy Meal". Other little cars with spinning elements were released for the same promo, and you could hook them together with the peg & hook (seen at left) to make a pull-along train. Each has 3 images in it. You can see the Robotnick one here, but there were also Sonic & Tails (wearing party hats).

There is a Genesis on top of the TV, and look how well it is sculpted! It has the controler depicted realistically beside it too. Even the back of the CRT style tv is detailed. It's a surprising amount of quality put into the toy that you don't generally see on other photos. To see the other views of this, you can go to Fast Food International as this wasn't a USA exlcusive item. This was part of the Happy Train Promo. You can see the TV in there with all the other items in the photo at left. "In 1994 McDonalds celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Happy Meal by having a set of toys called "The Happy Train". This promotion contained 15 toys from different franchises that had previously been in happy meals. The toys all connected like cars and as you'd guess, they make a train. Characters such as Bugs Bunny, Snoopy, and Little Mermaid all appeared in this train and sure enough so did Sonic the Hedgehog." Sonic related Photo, info & owned by SonicToast

Here is what the packaging would have looked like for the twirling TV above. It's the green bag (labeled "Sonic" but harder to see)

There were several different Happy Meal boxes printed for the promo. Each box had a different theme on each side to promote 1 of the toys from the line. This is Sonic's side. Each had a little game/puzzle/riddle thing to do. Sonic's is a "Connect the Dots" It says "It's a surprise party, connect the dots to see who's coming!" (well clearly Sonic) The joke at the top says "What do you get when you combine ice-cream & a balloon? A real cool float."

What's going on with that terrible Robotnick art there at the bottom? He's almost abstract in his terribleness. 2 really huge beaver-like teeth, the mustache has gone wild, his fists are like boxing gloves and the eyes are just...not on model to really anything. Do you want to see a documentary / expanation of this promotion? Lucky Penny Shop has Happy Meal Documentary that you can watch. Photos by Lucky Penny Shop & discovered by Crystal SonicFan

The restaurant Del Taco has kids meals with prizes inside. For the release of Sonic Boom, they created the prize called "Clash Cubes", which are actually an interesting and fun concept. All the photos in this area are kept large so you can read what it's all about. All photos in section by RaeLogan

Here you can see the clash cube cards, you got 2 with every pack, enough to build 2 cubes for yourself. You punch out the sides & snap together your custom cubes according to the rules. The check list above shows you there are 48 sides total, & names them all. The Sticks side acts as a wild-card in this game, but you can only use 1 per cube. You roll the cubes like dice to play it.

It also comes with an instruction book seen above. The concept is pretty simple, but all manner of cool things could be added to make a complex game that would be for sale. The cube sides are made from plasticard so they are actually a bit tough. This is a very interesting fast food bonus item. All photos & owned by RaeLogan

Here's a better look at that Jack in the Box Knuckles Toy Figure. JIB had one of the first Sonic 3 promoations so they had some-what of a grasp on what Knuckles was supposed to look like, but not quite 100%, as evidenced by the wierdness going on with the spikes vs. the back of his head, and the somewhat-fat looking body & small feet. They got the large fists right, & the tail too...but sadly his eyes aren't really looking in the same direction giving the figure a bit of a strange impression. Because Jack in Box restaurants were not nation-wide in the USA, this figure is not that common. Photo discovered by: TheTumblex

Here's something super wierd to see! It's a meal-mistake toy! While it is unusual, mistakes CAN happen when meal toys are being produced. In this case, it's McDonalds' Sonic who's had an accident and gotten...double the amount of eyes! The eyes are stamped on with black paint. Usually, the machine works right, stamping the eyes onto the front of the figure's face. However, something's gone wrong here, and he clearly has a second set of eyes stamped on under his face on the chin area. They're in the same configuration, and with the same 'highlight hole' as the regular eyes. This is an interesting old curiosity. Photo & owned by Max6464

In Winter 2020, Arby's gets Sonic! Rolling into their kids meals are these character disk toys. If they look familiar...it's because they're pretty similar to the ones you get in the Jakks Pacific bendable figures as the 'extra character', though these aren't as elaborate. You can get Sonic, Tails, Amy or Knuckles. The rolling disk has 2 round sections and a 'foot' so that when it is on display it won't fall over. The disks are pressed down/together

1 behind the other so that it makes a portrait on a flat disk that's fairly thick so you can roll it along. If you want these at Arby's though, you'll likely have to actually get the meal because the restaurant doesn't sell the toy seperately like some of them do. With nice CG art, modern characters in fun poses (reaching Amy, fist out Knuckles) these are an all right meal toy to be able to collect. They look fresh and are simple enough to probably always just work. Discovered by Taaron *Opinion zone: What's actually up with rolling disks? They're like...super popular and have been for some time? There's quite a few that have been both prizes and actual for sale toys in both the USA and the EU. And now, they're back in Jakks Pacific and then also here again as a meal prize. There's nothing wrong with them, they're probably ok to play with, but it just seems odd how many of them there are (when it could have been a ball/bounce/any variety of toy but somehow it's a a wheel a lot)

Burger King Kids Club (probably breifly) had a promotion for Sonic R...when it came on the PC. It uses the rendered art/not the one from the game/which was still very polygonal/blocky at this point. Also note the blurry background to obscure their polygons too. The text at the top says "Be sure to look under this box for a power ring", so there was probably a cut out/punch out of some kind under there. The cup has the same graphic as the box, but wrapping around. *There is a chance that this was outside the USA.