To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series, Pokémon Trading Cards have landed in the UK as part of a collaborative promotion between McDonald's and The Pokémon Company. Be prepared.
Happy Meals, which are now bright yellow boxes with a little Pikachu's face on the front and pop-up ears, will contain "one pack of 4 trading cards including one holographic card, plus either stickers, a trading card box or frame." The event (which is officially titled Pokémon25) has involved a lot of organisation to commemorate how far the series has come since the 1990s, given the scale of the celebrations. The entire year will hold "themed concerts, exhibits devoted to different Pokémon regions, and more" for fans, from a retro themed Levi's x Pokémon collection, to giveaways in Pokémon Sword & Shield, to a virtual event with Post Malone, and a 25th anniversary album. Katy Perry's song "Electric" is the lead single, and the music video sees her past self go on a wonderful adventure with an adorable Pikachu.
New Pokémon Snap released for the Switch last month, and Tom says it's the Combee's knees. Check out the video review below.
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Forgive me if the anxious tone of this article surprises you - it's simply due to the fact that the Pokémon Happy Meal promotion caused chaos in the United States. People camped outside restaurants to cut through the crowds, and once they'd bought as many Happy Meals as they could afford, they chucked the food onto the ground in favour of the cards. Furthermore, unsealed boxes of cards were materialising on eBay and other second-hand selling services, which means that the cards weren't even getting into McDonald's before they were sold on to the highest bidder. One of these cards fetched an astonishing price, even though it had a defect that should have knocked its value significantly.
Apparently, McDonald's has reviewed its approach from earlier this year. The "Fair Ordering Policy" applies to these Pokémon Happy Meals, which means that "any customer must purchase one or more Happy Meals before becoming entitled to purchase an additional toy in the same transaction and only 1 additional toy is allowed per transaction regardless of the number of Happy Meals bought." Resultantly, it's down to the manager of that McDonald's whether or not they allow a person to buy Happy Meals over and over again in order to get the content inside, so it's hoped that anarchy will be avoided here.
Featured Image Credit: The Pokémon Company, Vincent M.A. Janssen via Pexels