| 04.16.2018 – Peter Rabbit is based on a children’s book featuring the character in 23 tales written and illustrated by English author Beatrix Potter. It is surprisingly popular in Japan and was introduced in “The Tales of Peter Rabbit” in 1901. The first few books featured Peter prominently, and the succeeding books in a limited role.
To this day, outside of Europe and Japan, Peter Rabbit was not widely known until this live-action film. The promotion of McDonald’s toys in Europe and Australia marks the first time the character has ever appeared in a Happy Meal toy. It never had a release in Southeast Asia, as Peter Rabbit is not popular in this region. |
For the Australian release, there are twelve toys to collect. But they are not released immediately like the ones in Southeast Asia, in one set that you can complete in a day. Sometimes, the ones released in New Zealand are slightly different despite being within the Australasia region.
Every fortnight, two or three toys become available, and this will also depend on which McDonald’s store will have them, and that’s the beauty of ‘happy meal hunting’, if you are mad for that kind of adventure, where some would rather complete a set by acquiring all of them in one store.
The usual packaging for the toy in a clear plastic bag with all the legal and copyright details can be found, which is different from the Southeast Asian releases, with multilingual information, including some in different languages, and where it was made or who the manufacturer is for the specific region.
Sometimes, the name of the toy is different from the press releases, with some toys in this set having slight similarities to the name but not the actual toy. But you can see it in the packaging, the ‘official’ name of the toy can be read in large bold letters.
Carrot Launcher
There have been two Carrot-related launching toys in this set, namely the Carrot Thrower with orange coloured boomerang-shaped accessories, and this launcher that has three carrots molded into one plastic piece. The sculpting on Peter Rabbit is mostly inspired by the original children’s book, which has been modernized.
The figurine is in a fixed pose, carrying a red-coloured launcher. Peter Rabbit looks obliged to point the launcher at a target, which also includes those three cardboard targets that are slightly challenging to have them stand individually.
Mad Rabbit
This, out of the six figurines with their individual gimmicks, has Peter look like he’s aiming for trouble. You probably won’t bother about it if you’re just collecting for the ‘trend’ during its promotion run, without any knowledge of the stories in the original children’s book, to even wonder what type of personality Peter Rabbit has.
Of course, in his first live-action movie, he would have a different portrayal from the original books. The sculpting on the face would have been a bit determined than a little bit mad, with that facial expression carrying a launcher with three massive carrots tied together, making it look like he’s looking for trouble.
Selectively Collecting
The beauty of acquiring Happy Meal toys in Australia is that you don’t need to pay for the food if you are only after the toy, which might be convenient and different compared to the Asian region, particularly in the Philippines, as most would definitely abuse this convenience for would-be scalpers.
But this set has been more interesting if Peter Rabbit is not just the character to have rather than just one character in his various poses and gimmicks that have nothing to do with his portrayal in the live-action movie. But in those twelve items, there are some gems too that are not figurines, and the mini games are something for the older kids.
Overall, the Peter Rabbit launcher is like most of the figurines on the set, standing on a round stand, but with different actions. It’s a fun set to have all twelve, and it is also sort of a ‘missed opportunity’ to introduce other characters for those who haven’t read the original children’s books. The launcher is one of the good ones, minus the face sculpt of Peter being a mean one.
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