I choose you, Pikachu Pokémon Happy Meal toy!

If you were making an evolution chart of McDonald’s items, does the Cheeseburger evolve into a Quarter Pounder with Cheese? And then does a Quarter Pounder with Cheese evolve into a Big Mac? And is the McRib basically the McDonald’s equivalent of Mewtwo?

Sorry, these are the questions that the Pokémon Happy Meal has me asking.

The fast-food restaurant’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pokémon went live on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The Pokémon Happy Meal features not only one of 15 Happy Meal box-shaped keychains, but you also get two genuine Pokémon trading cards with each meal. (Last year’s Pokémon Happy Meal only came with cards and stickers.)

“Fan-favorites like Pikachu, Eevee, Charmander, Squirtle, Umbreon and more are ready to join your team,” McDonald’s writes about this Happy Meal. “You’ll have to work to catch them all!”

Out of the several Pokémon promotions that Snackology has covered this year, this is the least edible of any of them, but I think it’s the highest quality one we’ve seen so far.

OK, Filet-O-Fish, use Thunderbolt!

What it costs

The Pokémon Happy Meal should cost you the same as any other Happy Meal. At my McDonald’s, a Hamburger Happy Meal is $4.79, a 4-piece McNugget Happy Meal is $4.99 and a 6-piece McNugget Happy Meal is $5.49.

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My thoughts

For this Snackology review, I was able to secure six different Pokémon Happy Meal toys. If you’re familiar with the modern Happy Meal, you know that sometimes you have toys that are completely blind-boxed and sometimes, like with this summer’s World Cup toys, the box makes it super clear which toy is inside.

In the case of the Pokémon Happy Meal, we’re somewhere in between. The boxes don’t feature pictures of which Pokémon is inside, nor do they print their names or official numbers. (The 15 available toys aren’t even numbered 1 through 15.) But each Pokémon comes in its own distinct box color, so if you know what box pairs up with the character you’re looking for, you might be able to kindly ask the staff at your McDonald’s for that specific toy.

I love when McDonald’s does something special with the Happy Meal boxes themselves. All of my Pokémon Happy Meals came in Pikachu boxes. (Umbreon and Torchic are the other possibilities.) As the flagship mascot for the franchise, I’m not complaining about getting Pikachu.

Pikachu’s ears were printed on the side of the box, and I was able to pop them out and stick them into slits on the top of the box.

There are 15 Pokémon featured in the Pokémon Happy Meal. I got Pikachu, Charmander, Umbreon, Munchlax, Weedle and Sobble. You can also get Espurr, Bulbasaur, Eevee, Minccino, Sprigatito, Squirtle, Rowlet, Piplup and Torchic.

Pikachu #0025

Pokémon Yellow was the first Pokémon game that I owned, which meant I played that game with a Pikachu as my starter Pokémon.

Each of the Pokémon Happy Meal toys has a keychain loop that pops up from the back. This seems to be a common feature on Happy Meal toys these days.

Charmander #0004

All three of the original Pokémon Red/Blue starter characters are available in the Pokémon Happy Meal. Charmander was the only one I got in my mix.

Umbreon #0197

As someone who only played the original generation of Pokémon games, my knowledge of the list of characters pretty much stops with Mew at #0151. (I do remember when Togepi was #0152 for a short period.) There are now more than a thousand Pokémon species, and as our daughter has discovered the franchise, I’ve tried to educate myself on some of the post-Red/Blue/Yellow additions. Umbreon looks super cool.

Munchlax #0446

I love Munchlax. I have a soft spot in my heart for Snorlax thanks to a keychain of the character hanging from the rearview mirror in the van that belonged to one of my best friend’s parents, which we would often take on road trips. I was thrilled to get the Pokémon that eventually evolves into the big sleepy fella.

Weedle #0013

Oh. It’s Weedle.

I erroneously told my daughter that this was Diglett, and now she won’t accept that it isn’t.

Sobble #0816

I have no idea who or what Sobble is.

I’m not sure how rare the cards are that McDonald’s has included in the Pokémon Happy Meal, but I got a 50/50 mix of regular and holographic cards.

There are a total of 15 cards available in the Pokémon Happy Meal, but the characters don’t sync up with what species are available as keychains. These selected cards are marked and numbered in a way that’ll let you find them if you mix them into your overall card collection.

Pulling off the Pikachu hat trick gave me a real sense of accomplishment when it came to collecting the Pokémon Happy Meal.

As modern Happy Meal toys go, the Pokémon Happy Meal toys are done very well. The colors are vibrant, the printing is high quality. I love that some of the characters have ears or horns that add an extra bit of dimension to the keychains. But they’re still just keychains. I’m from the era of McNugget Buddies and transforming food. I know that, no matter how great the Pokémon Happy Meal toys are, they could be even better.

snack score

Pokémon Happy Meal
Snack score: 4 out of 5

🍪 About the Snack Score

Pokémon Happy Meal toys were provided to Snackology for this independent review.

Snackology is a publication of The Omnicosm.
Issue No. 386

Snackology is written and produced by Bill Kuchman.
Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.

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