McDonald’s Happy Meals currently includes special versions of Pokémon TCG cards to celebrate its 25th anniversary. See how they compare.
PokémonThe 25th anniversary is this month and, to celebrate, The Pokémon Company is partnering with cDonald’s to launch a special set of 25 Pokémon cards. The special card set includes the three initial Pokémon of each PokémonEight generations of games, in addition to the initial honorary Pokémon and mascot of the Pikachu franchise.
The set proved to be incredibly popular, but perhaps too popular, as there were so many reports of people hoarding McDonald’s cards to resell them online at a high price that the fast-food giant had to release, encouraging its franchises to buy them a limit on how many Pokémon Happy Meals that a customer can buy.
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What makes these cards special
Still, those who managed to get their hands on the cards and Happy Meal with the special brand posted their love for McDonald’s cards and the incredibly cute packaging online. The set works not only as a celebration of all the early Pokémon in the games, but also as a kind of best for the Pokémon TCG, as the cards are technically reprints of existing cards from previous Pokémon TCG sets. Above is a photo of all the cards in the McDonald’s set, courtesy of Pokellector.com, an excellent resource for Pokémon TCG collectors.
When compared to their original releases, the art, information and attacks are all identical. What makes them special is the seal Pokémonthe 25th anniversary logo in the lower right corner of the art on each card. The other unique feature is that there is also a holofoil version of each of the 25 cards available, and these holofoils have a special pattern of confetti, a pattern used only for special promotions like this.
Where cards come from
Although the Pokémon TCG dating back to 1996 in Japan and 1998 in the United States, the oldest original version of any card in this McDonald’s set is from 2011. Unova’s beginners of black and White, Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, were all originally launched as Black Star Promos in 2011. Black Star Promo cards are cards guaranteed to come for sure TCG products and have a small black star where the icon of the original set of the card would normally be.
Other cards in the set that were originally Black Star Promos are Treecko, Grookey, Torchic, Scorbunny, Mudkip and Sobble. In addition, the Piplup card was also distributed as a Black Star promotion at the now almost extinct US toy store chain, Toys R Us. Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott are also the only cards in this McDonald’s set to feature artwork originally drawn by the original Pokémon artist Ken Sugimori, who has been designing for the franchise since the beginning.
This is far from the first time that there is a McDonald’s Pokémon promotion, or any fast-food company for that matter, as Pokémon was also featured on Subway, Wendy’s and Burger King. In fact, 12 of the 25 cards in the set have been in McDonald’s sets in the past in one way or another, as McDonald’s has had cards included in Happy Meals on at least 10 different occasions.
List of Pokémon cards
Here is a list of the original set that each card comes from, in addition to the year it was released. The cards marked with * were also launched in a previous McDonald’s collection:
- Bulbasaur * – Shining Legends (2017)
- Chikorita – Lost Thunder (2018)
- Treecko * – X and Y Black Star Promo (2014)
- Turtwig – Ultra Prism (2018)
- Snivy * – Black and White Black Star Promo (2011)
- Chespin * – Kalos Starter Set (2013)
- Rowlet * – Sun and Moon (2017)
- Grookey – Black Star Sword and Shield Promotion (2019)
- Charmander – Burning Shadows (2017)
- Cyndaquil – Lost Thunder (2018)
- Torchic * – X and Y Black Star (2014)
- Chimchar – Ultra Prism (2018)
- Tepig * – BW Black Star Promo (2011)
- Fennekin * – Kalos Starter Set (2013)
- Litten * – Sun and Moon (2017)
- Scorbunny – Black Star Sword and Shield Promotion (2019)
- Squirtle – Unbroken Bonds (2019)
- Totodile * – Phantom Forces (2014)
- Mudkip * – X and Y Black Star Promo (2013)
- Piplup – Ultra Prism (2018)
- Oshawott – BW Black Star Promo (2011)
- Froakie – Kalos Starter Set (2013)
- Popplio * – Sun and Moon (2017)
- Sobble – Black Star Sword and Shield Promotion (2019)
- Pikachu – Unified Minds (2019)
These are not the only 25th anniversary celebration cards being released. There is a new Pokémon General Mills cereal that will feature its own line of holofoil promotional cards, which instead focus on Pokémon from Sword and Shield, like Wooloo and Galarian Zigzagoon, but of course Pikachu will have a card on the cereal too. The Pokémon Company is also launching special jumbo prints from the Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle and Pikachu base set, as well as jumbo prints from all other beginners.
For other celebrations of Pokémonthe 25th, a long-awaited restart of the classic N64 game Pokémon Snap will be released on April 30 for Nintendo Switch. The game will feature a new region and a special new type of shiny Pokémon called Illumina Pokémon. Pop star Katy Perry will perform for Pokémon, as well as Post Malone, which has just been announced this week.
There have also been rumors for months that a remake of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl could be announced this month. The fourth generation of Pokémon games were the first to reach the Nintendo DS and introduced Internet commerce. A potential announcement would follow the franchise’s story of remaking each generation, with developer Game Freak already having remade the first three generations of games between the release of each new generation of Pokémon.
Some raise the possibility and hope that there may also be a remake of Switch from Gold and silver in the style of Come on Pikachu! coming soon. This remake simplified the mechanics of the original games and added the capture mechanics for the mobile game Pokémon Go in order to bring more casual fans to the mainline style Pokémon Games
As for Pokémon Go, the game will have a special “Tour Kanto” event on Saturday, February 20, which will celebrate the original Pokémon Game Boy games. The event will also be the first time that the mythical Pokémon Mew will be captured brilliantly in the game. Developer Niantic is also saying that Shiny Ditto may be making an appearance. The event will divide players into two teams, red and green, as Pokémon Blue in the USA it was actually Green Pokémon in Japan when it was released on February 27, 1996.
THE Pokémon TCG Happy Meals are now available at McDonald’s.
Image credit: Pokellector
