McDonald's-Inspired "McVariant" Pokémon Are Actually Genius
Over the years, McDonald's has had several promotional events, mostly involving the fast food chain's Happy Meals. These events have seen a variety of toys or exclusive booster packs for the trading card game included in the kid's meals.
Upon hearing the news that McDonald's had included trading cards in their Happy Meals, Redditor Unibee_Art took to the Pokémon subreddit to share their unique "" Pokémon designs. These designs brilliantly crossed over some of the most well-known Pokémon with McDonald's original mascot characters.
The most well-known of McDonald's mascots is the yellow and red clown, Ronald McDonald, who Unibee_Art opts to crossover with 's Mr. Mime — who already has some clown-esque features — to become "." Secondly, the slimy, amorphous Pokémon Grimer was crossed over with Grimace, a McDonald's mascot who recently saw a resurgence in popularity in 2023 due to the berry-flavored milkshake sold to celebrate the 52nd birthday of the character, sparking a series of memes.
Other iconic mascots who received the "" treatment were Birdie the Early Bird, who was crossed over with Psyduck, and the Hamburglar, who was crossed over with Krookodile. However, the McVariants also included more obscure McDonald's mascots, such as the crescent-moon-headed Mac Tonight — who was crossed over with Lunatone — a character who was only used in marketing for four years in the 80s before reemerging as a controversial meme in the 2000s called «Moon Man», and the Fry Kids, who naturally blended in with Tangela.
Unibee_Art has done a great job with these McVariant crossovers, creating creatures that stay true to the characters they were inspired by, not looking out of place at all as entries in a Pokédeck. McDonald's will likely continue to have more exclusive partnerships with in the future, but it would be great to see them do something unique like crossover designs in a future event, taking inspiration from the McVariant concept and making a limited number of trading cards
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