McDonald's 2008 'Speed Racer' Movie Cars - No. 8 Cannonball Taylor's GRX

Today is the last in our 8-part series of McDonald's Happy Meal Speed Racer movie tie-ins. We end the series with Jack 'Cannonball' Taylor's GRX car. The car is named after the 'GRX' series engine in it and is purported to be able to go 800MPH. Yeah, okay, try driving that in Las Vegas traffic! Seriously, we see a lot of hot, fancy, fast cars in this town and where do they spend much of their time?- at stop lights and casino parking lots whizzing along at 0MPH! Back to the car. In the movie this car is part of the villainous Royalton Industries line-up and was secretly modified with the installation of a 'super hook' for the season's final race. In the end, 'Cannonball' Taylor and the GRX were disqualified - tsk tsk. A spring-loaded hook was incorporated as a special feature in the toy. It's attached to a string and can be wound up into a spool located within the cars body. Pressing a button on the top rear of the cars body causes the hook to shoot out. Enjoy! Fritz and Bettina Berg

 

McDonald's 2008 'Speed Racer' Movie Cars - No. 7 Taejo Togokhan's Race Car

Taejo Togokhan is the son of the president of Togokhan Motors and rival to Royalton Industries and their attempts at race fixing ad as such is one of the good guys in the film and in the end agrees to testify at the trial against Royalton.

It's funny but prior to opening these bags up I had no preconceptions about the cars, their drivers, the storyline, etc., as I hadn't been an inductee into the world of Speed Racer. The very first impression I had when pulling the car out of the bag and looking at the color scheme was, "Who drives this thing? A Sith Lord?" All that came to mind was a picture of Darth Maul at the steering wheel LOL Anywho, like all the other vehicles in this series it has a special feature, but nothing fancy here though. There is a small knob underneath the chassis offset to one side and protruding down just far enough to raise the car ever so slightly. As you pull back the car and release, the slightly raised knob causes the car to run in an odd circular, spastic motion.  Enjoy! Fritz and Bettina Berg

McDonald's 2008 'Speed Racer' Movie Cars - No. 6 Cruncher Block's Truck

Every good action movie needs good guys and bad guys duking it out with each other. We now have a vehicle from one of the bad guys - Cruncher Block. Cruncher, in league with Arnold Royalton, does whatever it takes to win regardless if people get hurt or not. The truck is not a racer but a place 'to do business', nasty business at that. The toy features a projectile which is fired when the truck is pulled back and released. Enjoy! Fritz and Bettina Berg

The grill is opened...

...the projectile inserted

all the way...

...and the grill is closed again.

Pull back the truck and let 'er rip. After about 10" (25cm) of travel the grill opens and the projectile fires.