Did You Pick Up A Slimer Bike Horn From McDonald’s Back In 1990?

Friends, right up front I will admit that I’m getting all sorts of dates for when McDonald’s in the early ’90s released this set of Happy Meal toys featuring characters and items from The Real Ghostbusters. One fan site claims these were made available in 1992 although a nice video that I’ve included later in the article – shows off the instruction sheets with the toys and the copyright on those say 1990. I am also throwing into the equation that The Real Ghostbusters animated series debuted on September 13th of 1986 and ran until October 5th of 1991 – makes more sense that the 4 collectibles were offered when the show was on the air, right? Of course since this delightful television commercial appears to be Canadian… I don’t know, perhaps it was rolled out at a later date?

At the very least I can tell you that it sounds like Spring by Antonio Vivaldi is being used in the ad – which fits with the visuals of the buds blooming on the bicycle. I definitely think though that whoever came up with Slimer blowing a raspberry at the end of the commercial should have been given a raise. I’ve watched the commercial four times in a row now and it never fails to make me break out in laughter. Speaking of our favorite little spud – from the commercial you saw that all of these particular Happy Meal toys were designed for your bike – with the Slimer bike horn giving a cute squeak when you squeezed him.

Besides the Slimer bike horn there was also a Doctor Egon Spengler spinner – molded in yellow plastic with a look of shock on his face. While riding the bike the wind would turn the fan blade and cause the good Doctor to spin in complete circles, I will admit I’m just a little surprised that it didn’t emit a sound while doing so.

The third bike item is a curious one indeed, a P.K.E. water bottle that you attached somewhere within easy reach on your bicycle… and it is a water bottle. That is it. Although as you will see in the video below from Fast Food Toy Reviews – it did come with some stickers appropriate for The Real Ghostbusters. I feel that if I had been the right age when these items were released I would have just found a way to clip the water bottle to my backpack or something.

Last but most certainly not least is the Ecto 1 siren – this one is in fact probably my favorite of all of them. The collectible features the front half of the Ghostbuster’s iconic vehicle with a hand crank attached to the rear, turning the crank emits a siren sound – vaguely similar to the memorable wail of the vehicle from the animated series and films. Now that you know about what you could have grabbed back in 1990… and possibly beyond… at McDonald’s – why not check out this review of the collectibles themselves?