The Happy Meal Toy Recall That McDonald's Wishes It Could Forget

McDonald's Happy Meals seem to have a place in many people's childhoods. The kid-friendly combo meals are always complete with a toy, and some of these McDonald's toys have become valuable collectibles over the years. Children can often expect to find cute characters in their Happy Meal boxes, but there's one not-so-happy toy that was at the center of a controversy McDonald's likely wants to forget. 

The Step-It activity wristbands were featured in Happy Meals in 2016, but they were later recalled due to a risk of burns or skin irritation from wearing them. In fact, it's considered one of the worst mistakes in McDonald's history. Obviously, the company isn't proud of this moment, and all recall information seems to have been scrubbed from the McDonald's website. According to CNN, there were more than 70 complaints made about the product, with at least seven incidents resulting in blisters from the burns. Ultimately, more than 30 million total fitness trackers were recalled between the United States and Canada, thanks in part to a post about the fitness trackers' danger going viral on Facebook.

Although the fitness trackers were short-lived, caretakers seemed to appreciate McDonald's effort to encourage kids to be more active, especially after eating fast food and ice cream. Consumers who discussed the recall on Reddit said that kids were actually enjoying themselves with the new step-counting device. "I work with kids. Every single one of them has worn one of these in since they started passing them out," one user wrote at the time. "Every one of those kids 1) thinks it's cool like mine and 2) wants to be more active to get a better score." There were various stories from parents about how much their young ones enjoyed being active with the tracker.

While a fitness tracker wouldn't be most people's first thought for a children's toy, it seems that it would've been a success if not for the poor assembly of these wristbands. Ultimately, the danger seemed to outweigh the reward in this scenario, and McDonald's didn't bring back the fitness trackers after the recall. In a legacy of superhero action figures and cuddly stuffed animals, the Step-It wristband certainly didn't become one of the brand's best Happy Meal toys of all time.