Pokemon Toys and Cards Coming to McDonald's Happy Meals

Pokemon are invading McDonald's Happy Meals once again.

McDonald's has confirmed that November's Happy Meal promotion will feature Pokemon from the Alola region to promote the upcoming Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon video games. Rowlet, Litten, Popplio, Solgaleo, Lunala, Grubbin, Yungoos, Rotomdex, Pikapek, and Pikachu will all get toys as part of the promotion. Some of the toys (like Pikachu) light up, while others have movable parts. Popplio's toy notably doubles as a squirt gun.

In addition to the Pokemon toys, each Happy Meal will come with one of 12 promotional Pokemon cards. Each card is a reprint of older cards from the "Sun and Moon" series, but has special promotional holofoil exclusive to McDonald's giveaways. The cards include Rowlet, Grubbin, Litten, Popplio, Pikachu, Crabrawler, Alolan Meowth, Alolan Digglet, Cutiefly, Cosmog, Pikipek, and Yungoos.

The Pokemon Company has a long history of partnering with various fast food companies to promote its various games. Pokemon first teamed up with Burger King when the franchise launched in the United States -- who remembers those "gold-plated" Pokemon cards that came in a Poke Ball? -- but switched to McDonald's in 2011. McDonald's is also a sponsor of Pokemon Go in Japan, and most of its restaurant locations serve as either gyms or PokeStops.

The Pokemon Company also used McDonald's to distribute the Mythical Pokemon Hoopa to all Pokemon trainers in the United States back in 2015.

If you don't want to buy dozens of Happy Meals to get the cards and toys, all of the Pokemon items can be purchased separately at participating McDonald's.

The new toys should launch in November along with a Hello Kitty promotion for those who aren't interested in catching 'em all.