McDonald’s fans, it’s happening… The Friends Meal is finally launching in the UK.
Dubbed the’ ultimate adult Happy Meal’, the new meal launches in restaurants nationwide from February 3, giving customers the chance to get their hands on limited-edition figurines of their favourite characters.
There’s a mini Monica, Phoebe, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, and Ross, and each one features a cute nod to the iconic 90s sitcom.
Rachel is serving coffee, Monica is dressed in her chef whites, Chandler is holding the chick while Joey has the duck, Phoebe is playing guitar, and Ross is joined by his monkey, Marcel.
If you’re planning to collect all six of the toys from the fast food chain, you might want to keep on reading, as we have some devastating news for you…
How do you collect all the McDonald’s Friends toys?
In the past, Maccies has often allowed customers to buy individual Happy Meal toys at restaurants when fans were collecting an entire range or hoping for a specific one.
However, the chain has confirmed to Metro that with this release, people won’t be able to purchase the Friends figurines separately.
The only way to get your hands on them is to order a Friends Meal – so collecting all six won’t come cheap.
McDonald’s also won’t be encouraging customers to ask staff to give them a specific character, as stock levels at each restaurant will vary.
However, you can certainly try your luck and see how you get on if there’s one you really want… the worst that can happen is they say no.
Which Friends toy are you most hoping to get in your meal?
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Monica
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Joey
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Rachel
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Phoebe
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Chandler
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Ross
How much does the Friends Meal cost at McDonald’s?
Prices for the meal start from £9.09 for a medium Big Mac or McPlant meal, and rise to £9.19 for a 9-piece medium Chicken McNugget meal.
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For those who want large meals, it’s going to cost £9.99 for the Big Mac and McPlant and £10.09 for the McNuggets.
So if you were to do the math, buying six medium Big Mac meals would cost you £54.54, while six large McNugget meals would be more than £60.
However, there’s no guarantee that you’d get all of the characters this way, as they are added randomly to each meal, meaning you could end up with duplicates.
You’d likely have to buy more than six meals in order to actually collect them all, and the price would stack up substantially.
Is the Friends Meal worth buying?
As Metro’s specialist food writer, I was invited down to McDonald’s HQ in London ahead of the launch to try the Friends Meal before it launches, and I have some thoughts…
First, if you loved collecting Happy Meal toys as a kid, this nostalgic Warner Bros collaboration is going to reignite your obsession, there’s no doubt about it.
As I waited for staff to hand me a tray of food, the eager anticipation I felt transported me straight back to my childhood. I was mentally keeping all my fingers crossed that inside the box, I’d find Monica… and reader, I got her!
Toys aside, the meal itself is pretty standard, filled with classics from the menu; the only other new item in the mix is a sauce called Monica’s Marinara.
To be completely honest, I didn’t have high hopes for the sauce. McDonald’s has launched many tomato dips and salsas over the years, and they all taste pretty much identical. So, I was expecting more of the same from this, just repackaged with Friends branding — but I was pleasantly surprised.
The sauce is made with tomatoes, onions, herbs, and garlic, and tastes just like pizza. There’s something so quintessentially American about it, which is exactly what you want for a show set in New York.
My final verdict is that the toy is the selling point, as the food itself is a little lacklustre. I couldn’t help but feel one thing was missing, and that’s a bold new burger.
I don’t want to be greedy, as Maccies is giving the people exactly what they want, but as Friends is such a foodie show, it feels like this launch was the perfect excuse to get creative.
A meatball marinara sub could have been interesting, or perhaps a fast food twist on Ross Geller’s infamous moist maker sandwich?
Even a dessert inspired by Rachel’s ridiculously wrong trifle (hold the beef) would have been iconic.
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