This was an Instagram post I had June 2013, while my British friend K and I were spending a short holiday in Boracay. I was away from home for nearly two weeks that time, and when my siblings learned about the McDonald's Happy Meal that features the Minions as part of the promotion for the Despicable Me 2 movie, they quickly messaged me their proposal -- that we would pitch in to complete all ten toys. They gave me three toys to hunt, sister had to hunt the other three, while brother volunteered to hunt the last four. I was in Boracay the time they messaged me, and I was so thankful that there is a McDonald's branch in Boracay, and was able to buy this toy. Days after, I got to buy the remaining two toys at McDonald's SM Mall of Asia and McDonald's Robinson's Place Ermita.
Two years after, the Minions were given their own movie, and my sister and I were so happy that McDonald's will once again offer Minion toys on their Happy Meal. When we heard that McDonald's are offering the toys on pre-order, my sister took note of the start of the pre-order period and went to McDonald's near her workplace as early as 8AM to pre-order.
She had to pay for the whole set - a little less than 1,000 pesos, and was given this pre-order stubs, which has the main stub for the toys as well as ten food stubs, which my sister could use until August. It was a good system, though the meals were already pre-determined as well. majority of the food stubs were for Burger McDo meal, but it had two Chicken McDo meal stubs.
My sister asked me a huge favor, making me travel to Makati very early morning last June 25. For breakfast, we went to McDonald's to claim the toys, a day before the toys were made available for individual selling. I was so happy to be able to be one of the first people to share the picture to my sites, but I wasn't able to blog about it, so yeah... boo. Hahahaha.
I love the look of the toys for this batch compared to the last batch, maybe because the movie featured a more diverse set of characters. Taking a close look at the toys --
Chatting Bob
After turning on the power button, pressing the button on his tummy would allow the toy to speak. It was just unfortunate that the paint of this toy wasn't so good - there were some blue paint on the toy's lower left lip area.
Guitar Strumming Stuart
Switching on the power, pulling the guitar neck downwards would make the toy sing.
Minion Caveman
No battery power needed, pushing the button at the back would make the minion's hand with banana move.
Groovy Stuart
Tilting the toy from left to right would make the toy move his hands, like he was dancing.
Minion Vampire
Pushing the switch at the back would allow the toy to show its fangs - I used scotch tape to put the switch in position.
Egyptian Hula Minion
The hula hoop is detached to the toy, but there was a slot on the toy's waistband to make the hoop stay in place. Pushing the button on its head would rotate the hula hoop.
Lava Shooting Kevin
Another battery operated toy, switching on the power would make the "lava" light up, but we got a dysfunctional toy, it wasn't lighting up.
Guard Minion
A very classic way to move a toy - wind it up, set it on a surface and watch it walk.
Marching Minion Soldier
Pushing the button on its headdress would make the toy's eyes move from left to right.
Martial Arts Minion
A little complicated to use -- hold its foot, turn the upper body counter clockwise and release. It would spin round and round. Unfortunately, it was difficult to do this with the minion set on a surface. I really had to hold it's foot and position it at an angle so it would spin good.
True, paying a one time payment of 900+ pesos was a little heavy on the budget, but... we were glad that McDonald's offered the pre-order of the toys. It just took away the stress of hopping to different stores just to buy the toys, because not everybody buys the toys all at once, there will be instances that diners would all prefer just one toy, and there was a risk that the store would run out of stock for one or two toys.
If McDonald's would offer pre-ordering of toys in their next happy meal, I suggest you go and take the chance. There is a big sense of fulfillment in completing all the toys...at once.
*** Jenn ***
I come from a family who loves cooking and eating. I never had any formal training in cooking and that I taught myself how to cook based on the handed down recipes, but I could say that I can cook good food. In 2008, I started documenting my food trips for my