After heading to the magical Art World, Doraemon’s next stop is McDonald’s Japan.
The blooming of the cherry blossoms may be Japan’s most famous sign of spring, but there’s another phenomenon that occurs even earlier in the season. Every March for the past 45 years, barring a brief disruption during the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a new Doraemon anime movie.
This year’s installment, Doraemon: Nobita’s Art World Tales, opened in theaters on March 7, and follows Doraemon, Nobita, and the rest of the cast on a journey to a magical fantasy realm modeled on medieval Europe. Doraemon isn’t just the star of the new anime movie, though, but also the star of a new line of Happy Meal/Happy Set toys at McDonald’s Japan.
As has become the chain’s style, the collection is split up into two batches, with the first, consisting of four items, on sale as of March 21. Among the initial possibilities to be waiting inside your toy pouch is the Doraemon Stamp, with the cute cat perched atop a castle from the movie.
You’ll notice, though, that the stamp it leaves behind shows Doraemon in a special costume, the same one he wears in the movie. This magical artist guise is also how h appears for the Doraemon Spinner toy.
This one has a cool feature in that you don’t have to wind the spinner up or send it off with a rip cord-like motion. All you have to do is move the Doraemon figure close to it…
…and it’ll spin forward in front of him, as if by magic!
There’s more dynamic movement involved with the Doraemon Beads Tower.
How do you get those beads from the bottom of the cylinder to the top? By spinning Doraemon and Nobita around, and you do that by blowing on the propeller-like attachment.
Rounding out the first group of Doraemon Happy Meal toys is the Harikomi Light Viewer. Modeled after a gadget Doraemon uses in the new movie, the View-Master-like toy gives you a glimpse at four settings from the anime.
The last day for round one of the Doraemon Happy Meals will be March 27, but round two starts up the very next day. We were lucky enough to receive an advance set, so let’s take a sneak peek, starting with the Doraemon Water Pipe Squirt Gun.
It fills up really easily. Simply press the button on Doraemon’s back as you set the tip of the pipe in water, and the reservoir will fill up.
That same button is what you press to shoot, and while we’re guessing the designers’ intent for the squirt gun’s small dimensions were to make it easy for even little kids to use, it also makes it the perfect size to stash in your pocket for derringer-style surprise attacks on our unsuspecting officemates.
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Next we have the Smiling Doraemon, though that smile might be a little hard to see at first glance.
That’s because this is actually a magnetic sand puzzle toy. Using the included wand, you pull the particles up to fill in Doraemon’s facial features, which is trickier to do than we’d expected.
The Doraemon Pinball game also presents a fun challenge…
…and last we come to the Dokodemo Door/Anywhere Door Mirror Box, a cool little piece of trick art that uses a mirror on the door’s inner surface to simulate the effect of Doraemon’s transportation portal.
Round two of the Doraemon Happy Meals wraps up on April 3, but it’s followed by a round three in which any of the eight toys could be yours, though with an unspecified ending date making your Happy Meal run during rounds one or two is your best bet for getting one of their specific items.
Related: McDonald’s Japan Photos ©SoraNews24 Doraemon ©Fujiko-Pro, Shogakukan, TV-Asahi, Shin-ei, and ADK 2025 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
