Suntan Kitty and yukata Kitty are here for fun on summer days and summer nights.

Whether you call them Happy Meals or use their for-Japan name of Happy Sets, the point of McDonald’s meals for kids and kids at heart is to put both a burger in your hands and a smile on your face. Those smiles are going to be especially big for Sanrio fans this month, as McDonald’s Japan is releasing Hello Kitty Happy Meals, and we’ve got a special sneak peek at the whole lineup!

First previewed last week, we knew that these were going to be very cute. How cute? So cute that even the boxes the toys come in are adorable.

▼ With Mt. Fuji in the background, Kitty-chan is spending her summer on the shore of either Kanagawa or Shizuoka Prefecture.

As you can see, the themes here are the two best parts of summer in Japan, days at the beach and nights at festivals watching fireworks. The first of those is the subject of the initial batch of three possible Hello Kitty Happy Meal items, which will be available from July 11 to 17 and feature the suntanned Hello Kitty who rose to popularity in the late ‘90s.

The surfer Kitty isn’t just a decorative figurine, either. The surfboard is hollow inside, and the top pops off to reveal a shaft for making your own popsicles. Just fill the surfboard with fruit juice, replace the top, and place it in the freezer to solidify.

▼ The shaft has a playful heart-and-ribbon motif, and since it’s plastic, you won’t have t worry about the unpliant texture and taste of a wooden popsicle stick.

Hello Kitty is taking a watermelon snack break on the lid of the Summer Drink Cup, which serves as a reminder that it’s important to rest and rehydrate to prevent heat exhaustion. There’s a slot on the back for a straw, and while the cup’s capacity is on the small size for adults, each refill you do is another opportunity to say hi to Kitty-chan.

Rounding out the suntan beach-theme is the vaguest of the items, the Sunglass Cap Mini Tray.

This is a two-piece tray with Hello Kitty artwork on both sides, plus a set of heart-shaped sunglasses that you can either keep on her forehead or snap shut as a case. There’s not a whole ton of space inside, but you can at least use them to hold an accessory or two, or for organizing thigs on your desk or picnic blanket.

Hello Kitty will be back to her regular complexion from July 18, as the theme switches to Japan’s traditional summer festivals, and she gets into the mood by wearing a traditional yukata (summer kimono).

The first festival item is a bag clip set. Though not super strong, they’re still a cute way to seal up sandwich or snack sacks, and the like, so they’re handy to have if you’re carrying some munchies in your bag on extended outings this summer. Alternatively, they’re also useful for sealing up bags with any trash you might have accumulated while out and about, since public garbage cans are few and far between and the etiquette expectation is that people will take their trash back home or to their hotel and dispose of it there.

The most inventively abstract design of the series comes in the form of the Wind Chime Hello Kitty Fork and Spoon Set.

The soothing, psychologically cooling sound of wind chimes makes them a traditional summertime decoration in Japan, and while this toy doesn’t actually function as a chime, that’s still the visual motif for it. Honestly, the fork and spoon aren’t really sized or shaped in a way that makes them very viable eating utensils, especially for adults, but you can actually separate them from the “chime” part and use it as a key holder or carabiner.

And last, we come to this spherical Kitty, once again sporting a yukata.

This is actually an onigiri (rice ball) maker. Ordinarily, to make onigiri you have to scoop rice into your hands and press the grains together. This is actually easier said than done, though. Press too softly, and the rice ball will fall apart when you try to eat it. Press too hard, and you’ll squash the grains, turning the texture into an unpleasant and uneven mush.

The Hello Kitty onigiri maker (which is shaped like a paper festival lantern), offers a way around that problem, though. All you have to do is put cooked rice inside, close the ball up, and give it a nice vigorous shaking, and the rice grains will press themselves gently but firmly together.

Oh, and remember those boxes the Happy Meal items come in? Don’t throw them away, and not just because they’re adorable. On one side, you’ll find a QR code.

Scan this with your phone, and you’ll get to play a special Hello Kitty version of smash-hit mobile game Suika Game.

As mentioned above, the suntan Hello Kitty items will be available from July 11 to 17, followed by the summer festival yukata ones from the 18th to the 24th, and then a third phase where any of the six items could be yours, while supplies last, from July 25.

Related: McDonald’s Japan
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Suika Game © 2021 Aladdin X Inc.
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