Earlier this week, McDonald’s launched a new promotion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise. Fans can receive TCG packages within Happy Meals for a limited time, or as a separate purchase from participating venues. Unfortunately, Pokemon cards are currently very popular and merchants have snatched up the promotional cards. There were even whole card auctions on eBay! Following ComicBook.com’s previous article on the situation, McDonald’s contacted us with a statement about its plans to ensure fans can enjoy the current promotion. This statement can be found below.
“We love to see fans’ passion for our limited time Happy Meal promotion celebrating 25 years of Pokémon. With such a huge demand for our Pokémon TCG cards, and some fans even go to great lengths to get it,” we work quickly to address shortages and also strongly encourage restaurants to place a reasonable limit on Happy Meals sold per customer.We want to provide the full Happy Meal experience to as many families as possible, and help to make sure everyone is able to have fun! “
According to McDonald’s, individual restaurants may decide whether they want to sell a-la-carte toys, but it is the company’s policy not to sell boxes of Happy Meal toys. The company also does not condone the sale of the toys through ‘unauthorized channels’. Instead, he believes that the cards should be offered exclusively through the promotion.
Some stores have apparently already placed restrictions on the number of toys that can be offered to each customer, with many being limited to four or five. Since the company encourages stores to place these types of restrictions, it will be interesting to see if that will prevent some retailers from catching them first before fans can do so.
For those unfamiliar with the promotion, McDonald’s Happy Meals currently offers 25 Pokémon cards celebrating the history of the franchise. The cards are presented in blind suits of four, although each card also has a hologram variant. The TCG packs are accompanied by additional items, such as card holders, stickers, and more.
Did you pick up any McDonald’s Pokémon cards during the promotion? Have you noticed any restaurants that are sold out? Let us know in the comments or share it directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to play all games!