Pokemon fans are getting hyped up for the McDonald's Happy Meal promotion, each of which includes a pack of four Pokemon trading cards. Fans are sharing the cards they've pulled from the Happy Meals packs, and some of them even include Rare Holo Pokemon cards.
This year is the Pokemon franchise's 25th birthday. To celebrate, some select McDonald's locations participating in the celebration are giving out Pikachu-themed Happy Meals with 25th-anniversary trading card booster packs inside. There are a total of 50 Pokemon trading cards to collect, including all starter Pokemon from Pokemon Red and Blue all the way to the most recent generation, Pokemon Sword and Shield. The other 25 cards are the shiny versions. But like all Pokemon trading card packs, the cards are entirely random, but it sparks the joy many older Pokefans felt when pulling cards at younger ages.
Many more casual fans seemingly didn't realize 2021 is Pokemon's 25th anniversary until McDonald's began the Happy Meal promo. It was only recently that The Pokemon Company announced some upcoming events and merchandise to celebrate, but fans are widely enjoying the celebration thanks to the collaboration with McDonald's. Others are reminiscing the Pokemon-themed Happy Meals from back in the 90s.
The Pokemon cards in the 25th-anniversary packs will be notated by The Pokemon Company's 25th-anniversary logo in the bottom-right corner of the image; similar to past anniversary logos, Pikachu's cheeks are stylized to look like a "2" and "5." Because there are 50 of these special anniversary cards in total, and because many McDonald's stores have still not capped how many of these themed Happy Meals fans can order, it's resulted in a number of greedy Pokemon fans and scalpers taking home all of the loot.
So while some Pokemon fans are posting their love for the trading card packs to Twitter, others are using the platform to warn others of resold packs. It looks like some black market merchants are selling false products, putting fake or otherwise non-25th anniversary packs inside the Pokemon Happy Meals packs.
However, some of the excited adults have good intentions while they hunt for their favorite starter Pokemon by purchasing several McDonald's Happy Meals. Two users bought 10 happy meals once their local McDonald's started the promotion, but instead of keeping all of the food to themselves in addition to the Pokemon cards, they gave out the Happy Meals to the homeless people in the area.
Alongside the four-card packs, the Pokemon Happy Meals will also include some other items, such as sticker packs.