It’s been a long time since I’ve bought a Happy Meal for myself, mostly because my appetite is far greater than one Happy Meal could possibly satisfy. McDonalds would have to create an Unbelievably Elated Meal, or a Comatose With Bliss Meal before my gargantuan hunger might be sated. Fortunately, living with a young child for the past 8 years has afforded me the vicarious joy from the REAL reason kids get Happy Meals : the toy inside.

Sure, I have some Simpsons Spooky Lightups, and a Monsters Inc. Randall that an ex-girlfriend once seduced me with, and I’ll never forget that lenticular Thundercats ring of my youth… so, I have a warm spot for the quick ‘n’ cheap entertainment of the Happy Meal Toy - or if you want to be snooty about it - the ‘Fast Food Premium’. This is why I’m especially excited that McDonalds is pairing up with Lucasfilm to release a set of 18 different action-feature-full Star Wars bobbleheads, to coincide with the release of The Clone Wars animated film.

I know what you’re thinking : aren’t I the guy who vehemently denies the very existence of anything that isn’t Original Trilogy? Why yes, that’s me, but here’s the thing - McDonalds hasn’t relegated this Clone Wars set to only Clone Wars characters. They’ve delved deep into Star Wars history to give us nine completely classic characters out of the total eighteen, and that’s a wonderful ratio for us oldschool fans. Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Boba Fett (!!!), the REAL Darth Vader, C-3PO, and even Wicket the Ewok are present, all perched atop signature vehicles from appropriate movies and scenes. Interestingly, these guys have all been done up in an ‘animated’ style to match the Clone Wars characters, and it works. It really works, against anything I might have believed before seeing them in person.

And get this : Han Solo’s head sculpt has a scar on his chin. Yes. Happy Meal toys officially have more accurate details than most Harrison Ford action figures made by the big manufacturers. This attention to detail, where it didn’t even need to exist, pretty much did it for me. I think I giggled. Of course, Han is perched in his trusty Millennium falcon, which also has pull-back action. You know the drill : place the toy on a flat, hard surface, drag it backwards, and let it go. Add this feature to the bobblehead feature and you have some pretty funky stuff goin’ on. And by ‘funky’, I mean ‘listening to Jamiroquai at full volume, cruising through space’ funky. Darth Vader has the ‘sound’ feature - one of my most favorite action features of all time - which plays both TIE Fighter blasting noises, and breathing noises.

Bobblehead fans need to get these - we’re not talking about cheap heads that kinda pop back and forth. This is the apex of bobble technology that scientists have been talking about! Seriously - it threatens to break the laws of thermodynamics. Both Chewbacca and the Stormtrooper are wind-ups that really walk - so, in addition to having appeal in in these other action-areas, wind-up enthusiasts will also be excited.

Arguably, the Yoda and R2-D2 toys are also ‘classic’, though they’re perched on Episode 1-3 vehicles, thus forever exiling them from the Classic Collection. In addition to these guys, there’s a General Grievous, Anakin Skywalker, young Obi-Wan Kenobi, Asajj Ventress, Padme Amidala, clone Captain Rex, and new padawan Ahsoka Tano. Many of these guys also have pullback action, while Yoda and R2 both play sounds, and anyone who comes with a lightsaber will also include a button to make said lightsaber ignite. It’s a genuinely neat mix of features among the group, and a huge variety to choose from - or be surprised by. It kinda makes me wonder why Hasbro can’t slap a few more voice chips and light-up features into their Star Wars stuff. For almost $8 a figure, they’d better start adding something.

These guys will be at your local McDonalds until the 11th of September. As with any fast food premiums, you can hunt them down one by one, or you can be ‘that guy’ at the counter and request to purchase a whole bunch individually. The counterfolk will usually oblige your toy-lust for a nominal fee.

I’ve taken some photographs of the whole line, which can be seen in our Community, along with a shot to show the scale of these. They’re unusually large for fast food toys, so will comfortably fit into the average bobblehead collection. Finally, The Office Season Three Box Set Bobblehead Dwight will have someone to talk to. He’s never been in better company.

I knew nothing of Gus Fink before I met him during 2008’s Toy Fair, but anytime I meet an artist as prolific as ‘Gus’ (nee Josh Fields), I can’t help but be inspired. Visions of quitting my job and replacing it with painting and drawing for weeks on end fill my head, and then I get in the car and go to work and another delicate layer peels off of my soul because student loans don’t pay for themselves.

What I encountered at in Gus Fink’s Toy Fair booth was row after row of small, bobble-headed figurines - bright, colorful, and occasionally creepy. While I’ve never been a big fan of the ‘cute ‘n’ creepy’ illustrative art movement that was popularized by Tim Burton, Jhonen Vasquez and Roman Dirge (and which has subsequently devoured the back pages of nearly every issue of Juxtapoz), I liked Gus Fink’s stuff. There was so much of it, and so much energy behind it, you could almost feel the freneticism, if ‘freneticism’ is in fact a word. If not, I’m sure that Gus Fink has freneticized it into being.

After the president of collectibles company Rocket USA saw Fink’s work, the rest was history. Rocket USA took Gus’ artwork and sculptures and transformed them into an army of ‘Boogily Heads’ - a wide array of small bobble-headed characters from all manner of the strange. Despite being mass-produced by Rocket USA, the figures retain a very handmade, DIY feel. In fact, I’d ignorantly assumed that Gus was creating, painting and casting all of these little guys himself when I’d met him at ToyFair. I must have looked quite the fool, but such is the illusion of the Boogily Heads - that even an experienced and self-appointed toy expert such as myself was taken in by the ruse. Fink is no stranger to clever ruses, though, given the various pseudonyms that he creates under.

Three series of Boogily Heads have been released thus far, with six figures per series, and a good deal of exclusive and limited figures in addition to these, including paint variants and limited ‘gold’ and ‘platinum’ painted figures offered as retailer incentives. Each figure is packaged in great little window boxes, replete with Fink’s artwork, and just to keep that trademark air of Fink mystery, each figure is packed in with a random mini-comic, backed with a small poster. The comic you get won’t necessarily match up with the figure you’ve bought, and you might even find a super-rare comic in there somewhere, detailing a character that hasn’t been made - yet. Check out our community for a full gallery of these little guys.

The aforementioned ‘Gold’ editions were produced in quantities of 500 each, and are repainted versions of Series 1’s Oinks, Series 2’s Paperbag, and Series 3’s Zuggs. Platinum versions of these three also exist in quantities of 250 each.

It should be no surprise that I really, really dig the robot Scantron from Series 3, not only for the rare combination of intentionally awkward organic forms comprising the robot, but because he’s painted in a radiant silver. We’ve entered art toy territory, and we’re not settling for dull, grey silver on these toys.

‘Creepiest’ goes to Series 1’s Milq, a squinty and scratchy devil-bull figure with a split skull. Perhaps it’s my affection for Hellboy and Mephisto and the surreal nature of demon imagery in general, but the doughy innocence of Milq has a real appeal. If I had to choose one figure for a ‘third favorite’ position, it would be Series 2’s Paperbag, which is exactly what it sounds like. It has a certain Rob Schrab feel to it, if only because Schrab uses brown paper and cardboard in many of his sculptural creations and figures. Maybe the real strength of this series is in quantity, displayed together, assembled in some unholy cute-union, living together in whatever passes for ‘harmony’ in their scratchy, spindly little universe.

It’s easy to write them off as ‘another cute and creepy thing’, but the variety of characters, forms and ideas together presents something a bit deeper than that. Take a look at Gus Fink’s collected stuff over at his site and draw your own conclusions about ‘depth’, but the guy knows what to do to sell art, and he’s livin’ the dream. My envy of this power is not small, and these Boogily Heads are pretty neat stuff.

Scantron now surveys my web-browsing, and Milq looks disdainfully down upon my paintings. Being included among the general displays in this mess is a position of honor indeed.