Happy Meal Toys

The fast food restaurant McDonald's featured *Recess* toys in between December 25, 1998 (shortly before "Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave" premiered) to January 21, 1999. The set included seven figurines of the show's characters, and each was linked to a different kind of sport, having them come with a ball and sometimes hold an item relating to it.

The toys were released after the promotion for *A Bug's Life* and were replaced with toys promoting the video release of *Mulan*.

The toys were also part of a contest by McDonald's and Disney: the "Be on *Recess*" sweepstakes, where a winner of the contest would appear on the show.

## Characters included

* T.J. Detweiler (Hockey)
* Ashley Spinelli (Baseball)
* Vince LaSalle (Basketball)
* Gretchen Grundler (Tennis)
* Miss Finster (Labeled as "School Teacher") (Kickball)
* Gus Griswald (Golf)
* Mikey Blumberg (Soccer)

## Gallery

T.J. Detweiler

Ashley Spinelli

Vince LaSalle

Gretchen Grundler

Miss Finster

Gus Griswald

Mikey Blumberg

One of the *Recess* Happy Meal Bags

Another *Recess* Happy Meal Bag

## Sweepstakes

Along with the toys, McDonald's and Disney was promoting a sweepstakes called "Be on *Recess*". The winner of the contest would appear on the show as an animated walk-on character. The winner was selected via a random drawing, and also won a trip with his or her family to Disneyland.

The contest was limited to kids aged three to twelve, and had to complete an official entry form.

In addition to the grand-prize winner, five first-place winners would each receive a *Recess*-themed party at their house, and twenty five second-place winners would each receive a $1,000 U.S. savings bond.

The winner of the contest, Morgan, appeared in Season 4's "The Rules".

## Trivia

* Miss Finster was labeled as "School Teacher" on the bag she came in.
* Not all the sports the characters came with were featured in the show, and some weren't featured at the time of their release. Baseball, basketball, and kickball were featured in various episodes before the toys were released, golf wasn't featured until "The Principals of Golf", soccer wasn't featured until "Soccer Boy", and tennis and hockey were never shown being played in the series; although King Bob frequently carries a hockey stick as a scepter.
* The toy of T.J. came with his jacket zipped up and his shoes were red entirely instead of red and white.
* The toy of Spinelli didn't have her hair ties colored in, her tights were entirely orange, and her hair was tied in the back instead of on the sides.
* The toy of Vince was missing his wristbands, his t-shirt lacked the dark grey stripes on the sleeves, and his sneakers were entirely black instead of black and white.
* The toy of Gretchen had lighter hair, her dress was all blue, instead of being mainly blue with white sleeves and a pink sash, her hair bands weren't colored in, her hair was tied on the sides instead of in the back (though this may have been done in order for the toy's head to be able to turn easier), and her shoes were entirely brown instead of brown and cream.
* Miss Finster's toy was missing her whistle, watch, and belt.
* The toy of Gus was missing his watch.
* This set of toys was the second set of McDonald's toys to tie-in with a show on Disney's One Saturday Morning, with *101 Dalmatians: The Series* being the first, being sold at McDonald's a year earlier. It's also the third set of toys to tie-in with a show from One Saturday Morning at any fast food restaurant, as toys from *Brand Spanking New! Doug* were sold at Jack in the Box restaurants in 1996.

## Bootlegs

Christmas tree ornaments of the toys have been sold online. The ornaments are the toys themselves with a small hanger on their heads. These were not authorized by Disney.

## Links

* Information on the "Be on Recess" sweepstakes.