Pokemon TCG enthusiasts have a reason to celebrate as trading cards make their way back to McDonald’s! This latest collaboration features a selection of beloved Pokemon, with an unexpected focus on Dragon-type creatures. For long-time fans, this shouldn’t come as a surprise since McDonald’s and Pokemon have teamed up quite a few times over the years, offering everything from collectible cards to themed Happy Meal boxes. In the good old days, you could even score exclusive in-game Pokemon by visiting McDonald’s with your Nintendo handheld device. Although that has become a thing of the past, the anticipation for new promos at the fast-food giant remains sky-high.
Reports from PokeBeach reveal that this exciting Pokemon TCG event will kick off in France, running from December 4 to January 21. During this period, customers can snag booster packs containing four cards from a pool of 15. Here’s the exciting part: each pack promises one of six possible holo cards, all featuring the exclusive McDonald’s confetti holofoil design. Some fan-favorite cards include Charizard, Dragonite, and Pikachu, among others.
International releases of these promotions often happen at different times. Currently, the US hasn’t seen a release, possibly due to McDonald’s focusing on other major promotions, like bringing back the fan-favorite McRib sandwich. This comes with an extra twist of offering half-gallons of McRib BBQ sauce, attracting a plethora of customers. Pairing that chaos with the excitement for Pokemon cards might be a bit too much all at once, so fans might have to wait until the end of this year or early 2025 to catch them stateside.
Interestingly, this rollout deviates from McDonald’s usual pattern. Typically, new cards hit the US first, with France following suit. Initial predictions suggested an October release in the US, but that came and went without any Pokemon-related buzz. Instead, McDonald’s ran a limited-time Chicken Big Mac promotion, which might have contributed to the delay of the Pokemon cards here. After all, running two major promotions simultaneously isn’t a smart move business-wise, so Pokemon fans just have to be patient a little while longer.
