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Pokémon Japanese summer festival toys to make Happy Meals extra-happy at McDonald’s Japan【Pics】

Casey Baseel Aug 8, 2023
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Pikachu wants to bring you some matsuri fun and style.

The goal with McDonald’s Happy Meals is to make people happy – it’s right there in the name, after all. And it’s a pretty safe bet that McDonald’s Japan will be hitting that target with the newest batch of Happy Meal toys, which combine traditional Japanese summer festival fun with the adorable appeal of Pikachu and other Pokémon.

The Pokémon Natsumatsuri Happy Set (natsumatsuri being the Japanese word for “summer festival” and “Happy Sets” being what the chain calls Happy Meals in Japan) will be a three-stage release, with four toys in the first batch, which will be available from August 11 to 17. The most matsuri-like are the Festival Pikachu Taiko drum and the light-up Poké Ball Chochin lantern.

▼ The taiko features an illustration of Pikachu in traditional festival-wear, a happi coat and braided headband, and makes different sounds depending on if you strike the drum’s face or rim.

▼ The Poké Ball Chochin appears to be a glow-in-the-dark design, and has a compartment with stickers inside that opens with a push of its button.

Also part of the first round are yo-yo-fishing and ring toss toys, recreating a pair of popular games played at summer festival booths,

A different group of four toys comes in round two of the Pokémon Natsumatsuri Happy Set (available August 18-24), with arguably the cutest of the whole lineup in the form of the Pikchu Target Shooting squirt gun set, once again featuring the festival-version Pikachu.

▼ The water shoots out of the Poké Ball.

The uchiwa fan is the most practically useful item, seeing as how this is one of the hottest summers in Japan in several years.

And rounding off round two are pinball and disc-fishing games.

▼ The disc-fishing set seems to be meant to make one recall goldfish fishing, a traditional Japanese festival game in which players try to scoop goldfish out a tank using thin, flat paper nets and get to take the fish home as pets.

McDonald’s Japan is also saying that there will be a round three for the Pokémon Natsumatsuri Happy Meals in which you have a chance of receiving any of the above eight items. However, with round three scheduled to start on August 25 and run for an indefinite time, it sounds like it’s going to be limited to remaining stock left over from rounds one and two. Given Pokémon’s immense popularity in Japan, such quantities are likely to be small, so if there’s a particular prize that’s pulling on your fan heartstrings, the best plan is probably not to wait, and to try for it during round one or two.

Source, photos: Press release
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