May ‘25
Luke's Phinds
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Luke's Phinds -
We got some Birthday pickups this month. This year John hooked me up with some unique Blazers collectables.
MCDONALDS 2005 Theo Ratliff HAPPY MEAL TOY
First we’ve got a 2005 Theo Ratliff Blazers Happy Meal toy. Yes, you read that right. Theo Ratliff got a happy meal toy.
Back in ‘05, McDonalds released a set of six figures, each packaged with one of 30 NBA mini jerseys, with every team represented by a single player. While the figures themselves are a bit goofy looking, they at least had some funny names. For example, we’ve got Layup Luke, Slam Dunk Dan, Free Throw Frank, Three Point Pete, and Hook Shot Henry. Funnily enough, the one I got was Layup Luke!
I do phind it interesting that they chose Theo Ratliff to be the sole representative of the ‘05 Blazers. Not that he was a bad player or anything, it’s just that his offensive highlights are a bit lacking. I would have expected them to choose a player with a high-flying dunks like Darius Miles, or even a bucket getter like Zach Randolph. But maybe the McDonald’s execs were bigger fans of defense and shot blocking. I’m sure that the 03-04 season where Ratliff averaged 4.4 Blocks per game impressed them like it impressed me. That’s a lot of blocks!
One Phun phact about these Happy Meal Toys is that the original representative of the Pacers was going to be Ron Artest. However, after the Malice at the Palice, they had to quickly scrap that and replace him with Reggie Miller. Check out this awesome video by Wax Museum that goes into more detail about this, and even interviews the guy from McDonalds. This is some great journalism out here in the toy collectable world!
Damon Stoudamire McDonald’s Mini Basketball
Up next we have a 1999, Damon Stoudamire McDonald’s Mini Basketball. Interestingly, I can’t phind a whole of information on the ball. I’m not sure if this was a stadium giveaway, or some sort of regional McDonald’s giveaway. All I was really able to phind was that there were two other mini basketballs created, one for Brian Grant, and another for Steve Steve.
Whatever the reason was for these being created, I wish that they had made more from this stacked ‘99 Blazers squad. This team included Scottie Pippen, Brian Grant, Damon Stoudamire, Jermaine O’Neal, Arvydas Sabonis, Steve Smith, Rasheed Wallace, and Bonzi Wells. Stacked! They had a strong season that year finishing third in the west but unfortunately ran into Shaq and Kobe in the Conference finals that season.
If anyone has any info on these mini basketballs, let us know!
