McDonald's is once again teaming up with the Pokémon Trading Card Game for a new Happy Meal promotion. Large fast food chains like McDonald's often team up with movie studios and toy makers for cross-promotional campaigns. Many of these campaigns involve putting toys inside children's meals like Happy Meals, which serve to introduce the toy (or movie/TV show) to kids while also incentivizing parents to buy the meal for their kids. Because of this, Happy Meals are sometimes the first way that a kid gets introduced to iconic brands.
Later this month, McDonald's will run a new Pokémon TCG promotion at participating stores in the US. Although McDonald's skipped this promotion in 2024, Pokémon trading cards have been a nearly annual tradition in Happy Meals. In recent years, McDonald's and The Pokémon Company have found little ways to give kids more than just Pokémon cards in their Happy Meal, with mini-games and other prizes occasionally featured alongside the card.
McDonald's Happy Meals With Pokémon Cards Are Back
A Major Promotional Opportunity Returns
According to the Pokémon TCG news site PokéBeach, the Pokémon TCG promotion features a "Dragon Discovery" theme and several new items like stickers and posters. Not every Pokémon in the new promotion is a Dragon-type, as popular Pokémon like Pikachu and Charizard also appear in the promotion. Every Happy Meal will contain a promo card pack with four cards, one of which is holofoil. In total, the promotion includes 15 cards, with seven holofoils in the set. The Dragon Discovery promotion will run from January 21st to February 24th.
The Pokémon Trading Card Game will be reprinting Prismatic Evolutions over the next few months in response to shortages of the new card set.
One interesting wrinkle with the Pokémon TCG promotion at McDonald's is that the set uses a special "confetti pattern" holofoil. This type of holofoil pattern is exclusive to McDonald's promotions, which provides a bit of incentive to collect all the cards. Additionally, this year's Happy Meals also includes new stickers and double-sided posters. Some of the posters come "incomplete," with stickers that kids use to finish various half-blank Pokémon. These posters replace the Match Battle spinners found in the last Pokémon TCG promotion.
Which Pokémon Are Featured On The Dragon Discovery Happy Meals
Popular Pokémon Like Dragonite & Rayquaza Appear On Pokémon TCG Boxes
Traditionally, the Pokémon TCG Happy Meals are accompanied by a Pikachu-themed Happy Meal box, complete with Pikachu ears. This year, McDonald's is switching things up with four different Happy Meal boxes, each with a different Pokémon. The new boxes feature artwork of Charizard, Dragonite & Pikachu, Rayquaza, and Roaring Moon. It's not exactly a surprise that Pikachu is appearing on a Happy Meal box, and Dragonite and Rayquaza are both popular Dragon-type Pokémon. However, Charizard isn't a Dragon-type Pokémon, and Roaring Moon has only appeared in one game as a version-exclusive Pokémon.
Charizard's Mega Evolution Mega Charizard X is the only form of Charizard that qualifies as Dragon-type.
Other Pokémon featured on promotional posters include Hydreigon, Miraidon, Eevee, and Umbreon. Both Hydreigon and Miraidon are at least Dragon-type Pokémon, but Eevee and Umbreon are odd inclusions. Of course, Eevee is probably the most popular Pokémon outside of Pikachu and Umbreon is one of Eevee's most popular evolutions. Dragapult also appears on sticker puzzles alongside Pokémon like Rayquaza and Charizard.
Which Cards Are In The New Pokémon Happy Meals
15 Cards Are In The New Promotional Set
As mentioned previously, all the cards in the Happy Meal promotion are reprints from past Pokémon card sets. Many of the cards come from early Scarlet & Violet sets, although a few others are from the Sword & Shield era of cards. Over half of the Pokémon in the promotion are Dragon-types, with most of the remaining Pokémon pulled from the list of most popular Pokémon in the franchise. The strangest inclusions in the set are Hatenna and Quagsire. Hatenna may have been chosen because it's featured in the Pokémon Horizons anime, but Quagsire just feels like a very strange choice.
The following cards will appear in the new Happy Meal promotion:
#001: Charizard
#002: Pikachu (holo)
#003: Miraidon (holo)
#004: Jigglypuff
#005: Hatenna
#006: Dragapult
#007: Quagsire
#008: Koraidon (holo)
#009: Umbreon
#010: Hydreigon (holo)
#011: Roaring Moon (holo)
#012: Dragonite (holo)
#013: Eevee
#014: Rayquaza
#015: Drampa (holo)
None of the cards featured in the Pokémon TCG promotion are especially meta-relevant, but the holofoil cards have a bit of collectability. For comparison, the 2023 Pokémon TCG McDonald's cards almost all sell for less than a dollar. The only exceptions to this are the Sprigatito and Pikachu cards, with Pikachu selling for about $2.50.
The Pokémon TCG’s Twilight Masquerade set includes several beautiful rare cards with striking illustrations that are worth quite a bit.
The low returns on the cards should mean that scalpers will be less likely to try to buy the cards and re-sell them. However, the Pokémon Trading Card Game is currently going through some supply shortages and these are popular promotions, so it's best to try to grab cards as soon as possible.
Custom image by Christian Hoffer
English (US) ·