Prepare to see many grown adults desperate for McDonald’s Happy Meals over the next few weeks. A new collaboration with The Pokémon Company sees Happy Meals at the fast food franchise stocked not just with dragon-themed Pokémon cards, but also free Pokémon TCG Pocket hourglasses.
To access this part of the promo, you need to order a Happy Meal via the McDonalds app. This will then give you a code you can use to unlock 24 pack hourglasses and 12 wonder hourglasses.
That’s enough to do one wonderpick and two pack openings with no waiting required. Though if you’re anything like me, you’ll be doing your absolute best to save up that precious currency for the next Pokémon TCG Pocket release, expected at the end of January.
McDonald’s senior marketing director Guillaume Huin revealed a little more of the fine print in a tweet on Tuesday. You’re limited to one code redemption per Pokémon Pocket user, so don’t go gorging on fast food to feed your pack-ripping addiction. To get the code you also have to opt in to emails on the McDonald’s app (presumably, if you want, you can cancel immediately afterwards).
While we’re keen on this first-of-its-kind online promo, there are also physical rewards worth mentioning. Along with fun new box designs and packaging, the Happy Meals contain miniature packs of four cards. There are 15 available to collect in total, most of them themed around dragon Pokémon like Hydreigon and Dragonite. They’re all reprints from past Pokémon TCG expansions, but feature a different collector number, marking them out as the special promos.
This is not the first brand collaboration McDonald’s has done with Pokémon, as the company also gave out miniature packs of cards at the start of the Scarlet & Violet era. In 2023, this promotion seems to have been marred somewhat by scalpers, and with the Pokémon TCG as hyped up as it is at the present moment, it seems like they’ll be out in full force once more.
But I think resellers may be left holding the bag on this one. The 2023 promos are now dirt cheap – the Pikachu is $7.50, everything else a dollar or less – and you can bank on McDonald’s providing plenty of stock.
The promotion is exclusive to participating stores in the US, and has no set end time: it’s available while products last.
For more Pokémon news, check out our guides to the newest Pokémon sets, and our enormous list of the most expensive rare Pokémon cards ever sold.
Source: Wargamer
