Toys for Grownups

It’ll be a hot time in old Itasca, IL, this month, when the McDonald’s Collectors Club holds its 10th annual convention to sell and swap Happy Meals toys. As many as 500 members turn their hotel rooms into showcases, “room-hopping and shopping” for a week.

“Money gets to be like funny money. People buy from you, then you run down the hall and buy something from them,” says club president Linda Gegorski. Auctions throughout the weekend support Ronald McDonald House charities.

Gegorski calls the club’s 1,000 members “historians of the corporation. McDonald’s has an archive [of Happy Meal toys], but no display.” She began collecting in the early `80s. This year, she’s on the hunt for plates and paper goods – her husband has convinced her to concentrate on pieces that store easily.

Gegorski says collectors like piece-together sets such as last summer’s Inspector Gadget and this spring’s Tarzan play set. She’s fielded calls from frustrated consumers searching for an elusive part, but she blames local distributors, not McDonald’s corporate. “McDonald’s takes complaints seriously, but there isn’t much they can do,” she says. “Most people are patient enough to search eBay and other sites.”

Inspector Gadget “was a huge hit with young fathers,” she adds. “My site had hits every day for a year – I just sent out two arms this week.”

Here’s the buzz on what collectors are waiting for this year, courtesy of an independent collector’s site (see box, top right).