Or "McDonald" [sic] - Stephen Mack from email

Nah, that's the dining room. Don't need a dishwasher. - John E. Bredehoft

Train them early. - EricaJoy

I think it's the box they're referring to - it's for people that live in boxes - Jesse Stay

Why waste money on pretend Doctor sets, when you can inspire your kids to try and make a go at the fast food industry. - Davis Freeberg

An excellent point, Davis. The scary thing to me is that there was a full line of McDonalds toys at this store (a Toys-R-Us outlet in the Stanford Mall). I took a couple of other photos too. Do kids actually like these toys, or does McDonalds just want them to? Either way, it's an excellent brand extension by McDonalds, but it makes me sad. - Stephen Mack

The same toys existed when we were kids too. I had a toy cash register. They just weren't branded like this. - Otto

I think that when I was a kid, I had a similar toy set, but it might have been a generic burger stand. I can't say that it hurt me any, but I do remember eating a lot of playdough as a child. - Davis Freeberg

I don't mind cash register toys. I do find the branding to be questionable. It seems like a fairly transparent attempt to get kids hooked on McDonalds at a young age. (But mostly I posted this because of the silly "WOW! Just Like Home" label with the misspelling of McDonalds.) - Stephen Mack

They don't need branding like this to appeal to children. The Happy Meal covers that just fine. I loved those things when I was a kid. Of course, McDonald's burgers now make me physically ill. I'll stick with Wendy's. :) - Otto

It is really hard to find un-branded toys these days (We finally found a play food set at costco that didn't have any branding) Between movie tie-ins and disney almost every toy is branded. I think there may be a market opportunity in specializing in unbranded toys. - Carl Haynes

I prefer toys that let you create things. Legos (in big box bulk form only, not the little crap sets). Erector Sets. Heck, even Lincoln Logs. Most of the more specialized toys went unused when I was a kid. Had more fun with the cardboard box. - Otto

Well said, Otto. - Stephen Mack

a box house or fort was always the best - VAL D. Zone

I posted on this thing a couple of years ago. I'm stlil at loss about it. When we were kids, we played doctor, astronaut, even class (someone was a teacher and bossed the others around). We never played McDonalds. - Admiral Anika

The way it's posted, the photo is funny. However, FYI, "Just Like Home" is the company that produces these toys (along with quite a few others). - Curtiss Grymala

Regarding all of the comments about playing with cash registers and the comments about branded toys: a) I think playing with cash registers is actually a good thing. They help teach young children basic math, they help them understand that things actually cost money, etc. Some of the newer cash register toys are really pretty amazing, having realistic bar codes that can be scanned, allowing sales tax to be added and more. b) It's actually fairly easy to find unbranded toys if you look in the right places. Kmart carries a lot of plain old, generic toy food sets, toy kitchen appliances, etc. with no recognizable brand names anywhere on them. Normally, they're much less expensive, too. - Curtiss Grymala

To your first point, Curtiss, I agree, toys that promote imaginative play or math-related play are usually good toys, and that includes toy cash registers. I don't even think this toy illustrated is a "bad" toy, just not one I'd choose or recommend because of the associated branding. - Stephen Mack

I agree with you, Stephen. I, personally, wouldn't buy a McDonald's-branded toy for my kids (and I definitely would not pay extra just to get the McDonald's name on it). However, I am guilty of buying other "branded" toys (and collectibles), for me and for my kids. I've always been a fan of branded Pez dispensers, and have also collected M&M-branded toys for most of my life. I can speak with authority on cash register toys, though, because that's been one of my daughter's favorite types of toys for a few years, now. We've owned an unbranded one that talked and had a calculator built in, we've owned an ATM toy/piggy bank (complete with ATM card and balance tracking), a Dora cash register with scannable barcodes (also, since it was Dora, it was bilingual) and now she plays with an actual cash lockbox with real money in it. She seems to be obsessed. :) - Curtiss Grymala