The time was a few weeks ago, and the place was the Naka-kon dealer's room. There I was, minding my own business so cartoonishly that I may as well have been whistling between licks of my oversized lollipop, as the wind blew through my propeller hat. I wasn't prepared, suffice to say, to have my life very suddenly changed—to be psychically assaulted by an aura so strong, powerful, and downright oppressive, it brought me to my knees. I am, of course, referring to my reaction when I came face-to-face with what I would dare to call one of the all-time most glorious pieces of officially licensed anime merchandise to ever grace the realm of plastic: The Evangelion x McDonald's transforming toys, which I refer to as the McEvas. They go from being a McDonald's combo meal to Eva units. I cannot emphasize enough: Yes, these are officially licensed.

The seller was asking for US$200, but either being within arm's reach of the apex of anime merchandise must've put me in a flow state, or the merciful sellers sensed how badly I wanted these, because I was able to negotiate the price to US$150. Certainly not a small amount of money, but still a small price to pay for what's instantly become one of the greatest pieces of anime merchandise I own—not to mention the great reactions I've got from the people I've already shown this to.

Let me back up a bit: For the uninitiated, there is perhaps no Japanese IP more heavily merchandised than Neon Genesis Evangelion. And for a country that's also filled with landfills aplenty with all manner of things Sanrio, that's no small feat. Among many other officially licensed goods, there exist official Evangelion dumbbells, eye drops, and screwdrivers. And to list only a few of the brands Evangelion has officially collaborated with, there's New Balance, Round1, and Tamagotchi. Even so, this McDonald's crossover campaign and the resulting toys stand out as easily being one (or rather, three) of the silliest things to come out of this McCapitalistic Chaos.

In December 2024, Evangelion and McDonald's Japan teamed up for a campaign that included a set of transforming toys and then themed burgers. Colloquially, people often call the toys the McDonald's Evangelion transformers because, well, they transform, so it's worth clarifying that they're not capital-T Transformers—although Evangelion has done an official crossover with those as well. As for the burgers, we leave no stone unturned—much less any Evangelion burger untasted—here at ANN. Yes, we reviewed those as well. Fun fact, the corresponding video was the first video I ever edited for ANN, so do feel free to compliment—or perhaps more fittingly, congratulate—me on a job so well done that now I edit videos for ANN regularly.

Because I obviously want to keep you in greasy, deep-fried anticipation, before we get to the toys themselves, I first want to say something about the packaging. They all come in a set together, and the box is made to look like a hangar—complete with the whole Nerv look, and of course, the McDonald's logo. The contrast of the food items, the McDonald's items, and the Nerv hangar look of it all—it's downright artistic.

But now, at last, the toys themselves. Simply put, they look hilarious, and I love them. There's truly nothing else like them, and they're an immediate standout on any shelf—regardless of whether or not you leave them in the box, or whether they're in burger-mode or not. Best of all, while they're not sturdy per se, they're also not as flimsy, finicky, and as prone to having bits and pieces of them break off as I tend to associate many other transformable toys with being. The worst thing that happens is that sometimes it takes a few tries to align certain parts of these toys to get them to snap back together, but even then, I wouldn't say that happens to a massive extent. Essentially, although I don't necessarily think these would hold up to a lot of roughhousing by a young kid, I also think you could transform and pose these regularly without worrying about them breaking.

Speaking of which, the transformations themselves are mostly pretty intuitive, too—and these come with directions (albeit in Japanese, although there are pictures at every step) just in case you're having trouble. Or at least, that's the case on the shake and the fries, where it's pretty easy to see what needs to move where. The burger, however, is a slightly different story. The Eva unit-01 is under the bun, and admittedly, looks pretty funny in this half-transformed state.

Still, it's a bit trickier to parse what you need to do to free him from his plastic prison—at least the first time around. It's one of those things where, after you do it once, it makes more sense, and it stops feeling quite so difficult. The same can be said about reversing the transformations, if you want to turn them back into the combo meal. A bit tricky the first time for each of them, but after you do it once, you'll probably get the hang of it. If you were curious how the burger transformation looked, by the way, don't worry—ANN spares no effort for our beloved readers.

Suffice to say, these are the instant eye-catchers of any shelf you put them on. Whether you're collecting mechs, Evangelion merch, or you just like the weird and funny stuff (or, bonus points: All of the above), these feel like, in many ways, the final boss of capitalism. There are piles upon piles of Evangelion merch out there, but nothing quite like these. What else can I say about these toys but, I'm lovin' it.