Pokemon’s 25th anniversary is this month, and to celebrate, The Pokemon Company is partnering withMcDonald’s to release a special set of 25Pokemoncards. The special set of cards includes the three starter Pokemon from each ofPokemon’s eight generations of games, plus honorary starter Pokemon and franchise mascot Pikachu.
The set has proved to be incredibly popular, but perhaps too popular, as there have been so manyreports of people hoarding the McDonald’s cards to resell them onlineat a high markup that the fast-food giant has had to release a statement encouraging its franchises to set a limit on how manyPokemonHappy Meals a customer can buy.
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What Makes These Cards Special
Still, those who have been able to get their hands on the specially branded Happy Meals and cards have beenposting their love for the McDonald’s cardsand the incredibly cute packing online. The set functions not just as a celebration of all the starter Pokemon from the games, but also as a kind of best-of for thePokemon TCG, as the cards are all technically reprints of existing cards from previousPokemon TCGsets. Above is a photo of all the cards in the McDonald’s set, courtesy of Pokellector.com, an excellent resource forPokemon TCGcollectors.
When compared to their original releases, the art, information, and attacks are all identical. What makes them special is the stamp ofPokemon’s 25th anniversary logoat the bottom right corner of the artwork on each card. The other unique feature is that there is also a holofoil version of each of the 25 cards available, and these holofoils have a special confetti pattern, a pattern only used for special promotions such as this.
Where The Cards Come From
Though thePokemon TCGdates all the way back to 1996 in Japan and 1998 in the United States, the oldest original version of any card in this McDonald’s set is from 2011. The Unova starters fromBlackandWhite, Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott, were all originally released as Black Star Promos in 2011. Black Star Promo cards are cards guaranteed to come with certainTCGproducts and feature a small black star where the icon for what set the card comes from would usually be.
Other cards in the set that were originally Black Star Promos are Treecko, Grookey, Torchic, Scorbunny, Mudkip, and Sobble. Additionally, the Piplup card was also given out as a Black Star Promo at the nowmostly defunct US toy store chain, Toys R Us. Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott are also the only cards in this McDonald’s set to feature artwork originally drawn by originalPokemonartist Ken Sugimori, who has been drawing for the franchise since its inception.
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This is far from the first time there has been a McDonald’sPokemonpromotion, or any fast-food company for that matter, as Pokemon has also been featured at Subway, Wendy’s, and Burger King. In fact, 12 of the 25 cards in the set have been in McDonald’s sets in the past in some form or another, as McDonald’s has had cards included in Happy Meals on at least 10 different occasions.
Pokemon Card List
Here is a list of the original set each card hails from, in addition to the year it came out. The cards marked with a * were also released in a previous McDonald’s collection:
These are not the only 25th anniversary celebration cards being released, either. There is anewPokemoncereal from General Millsthat will feature its own lineup of holofoil promo cards, which instead focus on Pokemon fromSwordandShield, like Wooloo and Galarian Zigzagoon, but of course Pikachu will have a card in the cereal as well. The Pokemon Company is also releasing special jumbo prints of base set Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and Pikachu, in addition to jumbo prints of all of the other starters.
For other celebrations forPokemon’s 25th, a long-awaited reboot of the classic N64 gamePokemon Snapis releasing on April 30 for Nintendo Switch. The game will feature a new region and a new special type of glowing Pokemon called Illumina Pokemon. Pop star Katy Perry will be performing a concert forPokemon, as will Post Malone, which was just announced this week.
It has also been rumored for months thata remake ofPokemon DiamondandPearlcould be announced this month. The fourth generation ofPokemongames were the first to come to the Nintendo DS and introduced internet trading. A potential announcement would follow in-line with the franchise’s history of remaking each generation, with developer Game Freak having already remade the first three generations of games in between the release of each new generation ofPokemon.
Some hypothesize and hope thatthere could also be a Switch remake ofGoldand Silverin the style ofLet’s Go Pikachu!coming soon. That remake simplified the mechanics of the original games and added in catching mechanics from the mobile gamePokemon Goin order to bring more casual fans into the mainline-stylePokemonGames.
As forPokemon Go, the game will be having a special “Tour Kanto” event on Saturday, February 20 that will celebrate the originalPokemonGame Boy games. The event will also bethe first time the mythical Pokemon Mew will be catchable in shiny form in the game. Developer Niantic has also been teasing that Shiny Ditto may be making an appearance. The event will break players into two teams, Red and Green, asPokemon Bluein the US was actuallyPokemon Greenin Japan when it first released on August 09, 2025.
ThePokemon TCGHappy Meals are available now at McDonald’s.
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