Vintage 1985 McDonald's Ronald & Grimace Puffy Stickers 🍟 McDonaldland Set

Was Grimace Really a Milkshake Thief? 💜 A Vintage 1985 McDonald's Ronald McDonald and Grimace Puffy Sticker Set, McDonaldland

Size: 2" x 2"

If you grew up anywhere near a McDonald's in the 1980s, that purple is filed away in your head for good. This is a card of two puffy vinyl stickers: Grimace, arms thrown wide over GRIMACE (TM), and Ronald McDonald, grinning head and shoulders over RONALD McDONALD (R), each one printed © 1985 McDonald's. The peel-off backing is printed over and over SAFETY TESTED FOR CHILDREN 3 AND OLDER and MADE IN TAIWAN. The stickers are still on their backing, never peeled, never stuck on a notebook. The same pair turns up on lists of McDonald's Happy Meal giveaways from 1985.

🍔 From San Bernardino to Oak Brook

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their drive-in in San Bernardino, California in 1940, and in 1948 they tore it down to burgers, fries and shakes and their Speedee Service System. A milkshake-machine salesman named Ray Kroc showed up in 1954, opened his own McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois in April 1955, and bought the brothers out by 1961, and the company he built ran a worldwide empire for decades out of Oak Brook, Illinois, a quiet Chicago suburb. Old-timers in the industry still repeat the sign Kroc reportedly kept above his desk - In God we trust; all others pay cash - a little piece of company folklore that captures just how practical the man was, even while his restaurants sold childhood magic to the rest of the country. Before the clown, the mascot was Speedee, a little hamburger-headed chef.

🤡 Ronald

Ronald McDonald first showed up in 1963 in local Washington, D.C. commercials, played by a weatherman named Willard Scott - the same Willard Scott who later wished centenarians happy birthday on the Today show. McDonald's took Ronald national in 1966 and polished him into the clown on this sticker.

💜 Grimace, the milkshake thief

McDonaldland came in 1971: Ronald, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese and a big purple fellow named Grimace, who started out as Evil Grimace, four arms and all, stealing everybody's milkshakes. Kids didn't want him to be the bad guy, so within a year he was down to two arms and turned into the sweet, clumsy friend on this sticker. Local legend among old McDonaldland watchers has long held that Grimace was meant to represent nothing more specific than a giant taste bud - an idea the company itself has floated over the years, which only adds to his charm. McDonaldland also landed McDonald's in court: Sid and Marty Krofft, who made H.R. Pufnstuf, sued over it and won.

✨ Puffy stickers

Puffy stickers were a whole fad in the 80s - raised, glossy, squishy, nothing like a flat paper sticker. Kids traded them at school, pressed them into sticker books and stuck them on lunchboxes and bedroom windows, and a McDonald's pair was the good stuff, because Ronald and Grimace already felt like friends. The Happy Meal itself had only gone national in 1979, so in 1985 a little prize in the box was still a brand-new kind of thrill. Grimace even got a second act in 2023, when his purple birthday shake went viral all over the internet.

🍟 About these

Each sticker is about 2 by 2 inches. Put the card in a frame next to an old Happy Meal box, give it to the 80s kid who still knows every McDonaldland character, or start a sticker book back up. The supply is finite - McDonald's isn't printing 1985 puffy stickers again, and once these last unpeeled cards are gone, they'll be very difficult to acquire.