This Was The First Fast Food Chain To Offer Toys In Its Kids' Meal

By most accounts, the first fast food chain to tuck a toy into a dedicated kids' meal was Burger Chef. In 1973, years before the Happy Meal became a household phrase, Burger Chef rolled out the Funmeal, a mini box with a child-sized burger, small fries, a drink, and a simple prize tucked inside. The toy changed with the promotion, too: sometimes a little figure, other times a puzzle or punch-out. The box itself often doubled as entertainment, with mazes, comics, or cutouts that kept kids busy at the table or in the back seat.

The idea was fairly obvious, but also rather brilliant, strategy-wise: Make the food smaller, make it feel like a present, and give kids a reason to ask for the brand by name. Parents got portion control and a predictable price, and kids got a treat that stretched past the last fry. Burger Chef leaned on its mascots, Burger Chef and Jeff, to sell the bundle, then tied the toys to limited-time themes so there was always something "new" to discover. In other words, the blueprint most chains still follow started here. But why did this format catch on so quickly? How did it reshape family dining, and what happened once other players took notice and scaled the idea across the country?

Burger Chef made history with the Funmeal because it ticked several boxes at once. It simplified ordering for parents, it fit a child's appetite without waste, and it gave kids a reason to feel excited about dinner. The toy turned the purchase into a small ritual; the box created a moment that felt personal; the rotating themes kept families coming back to complete a set. Marketers noticed what was happening at the counter and began pairing toys with broader pop culture, from cartoon tie-ins to movie releases, so the meal lived in a child's head long after the food was gone.

Once the format proved itself, larger competitors scaled it with national media, deeper licensing deals, and wider distribution. The template remained the same, though the stakes rose: toys became flashier, boxes transformed into mini billboards, and collecting turned into a hobby for some. The influence is hard to overstate. This is because the enduring kids' meal became an extension of brand loyalty. You can debate the nutritional trade-offs, and plenty of parents do, but the big picture is clear. One chain packaged food, play, and price into a tidy promise, and an entire category followed. Today, McDonald's has the most popular kids' meal of all time and has released many impressive Happy Meal toys over the decades. But Burger Chef set the standard. By 1982, Burger Chef was acquired by Hardee's, and the franchise officially closed in 1996.