Way back when, in 2007/2008 (I feel so old), McDonald’s wanted to break into the digital world with something new. This led to the creation of the Fairies & Dragons Happy Meal toys. Children were given the option as to which series they wanted; I went with Fairies, so to preface, this feature will focus mainly on them.
What made the Fairies & Dragons unique was that the keyring toys came with CD-ROMs, which featured playable games developed by Fuel Industries, available for PCs and laptops.
With each fairy, there was a decorated plastic case housing the CD-ROM. These flower-shaped cases were styled to match the colour schemes of each fairy.
Don’t get me wrong, the games weren’t anything overly impressive, but for the time, and the fact that they were from McDonald’s Happy Meals, they were great fun. The mechanics were simple, but the visuals and animations were lovely.
Each game took place on your desktop screen, changing the wallpaper to a mushroom forest. The fairies became sort of like a desktop companion that you could interact with, including a selection of mini-games.
Meet the Fairies
There were four fairies to collect: Sunflower, Lily, Violet, and Rose.
Sunflower
Lily
Violet
Rose
Personally, I wouldn’t play these games now, but I probably would for an afternoon for the nostalgia. They’re a great addition to a game collection, because, as you can probably guess, they’re not being produced and haven’t been since 2007/2008. A few people are selling them online on websites such as eBay; they’re a neat collector’s item, to say the least.
I’m pretty sure I got rid of mine, which is a shame, cause it would be cool to still have them. You never know, maybe they’re hidden somewhere. From what I remember, I only had two of them, and off the top of my head, I think Rose and Lily were the Fairies I collected.
I was blasted with a core memory of these toys after watching a random video on the internet. I’d completely forgotten about them until I saw an image and immediately went down a rabbit hole to find that a ton of other people also remember them.
It’s a shame McDonald’s doesn’t do anything like this these days, but I see why. It was innovative at the time, but I’m not sure it would be as popular now. Obviously, people don’t use CD-ROMs anymore, and as ancient as this makes me feel, there will be plenty of young people who don’t even know what a CD-ROM is.
I’m not quite sure what McDonald’s could make as a current-day alternative to the Fairies and Dragons series. Perhaps a mobile or browser game?
Unfortunately, the Fairies and Dragons series has been reduced to nostalgia bait and, in a way, is a fine example of forgotten abandonware.
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