McDonald's Japan's Kirby Happy Meals prove incredibly popular, campaign forced to end early

We’ve seen plenty of Nintendo tie-ups with McDonald’s over the years. There have been countless Pokémon Happy Meals released, and the same goes for collaborations featuring the Mario line of characters as well. Just a few weeks back, we learned that McDonald’s and Nintendo were working together once again, and this time we’d be getting a slew of Kirby goodies.

As of February 23rd, 2024, McDonald’s locations in Japan have been offering Kirby-themed Happy Meals. This line will feature a whopping eight mini-plushies, with seven different Kirby designs and one lone Waddle-Dee. Not surprisingly, Kirby fans in Japan were incredibly eager to pick these Happy Meals up.

McDonald’s Japan has announced that their Kirby Happy Meal campaign has already come to a close, ending much sooner than originally scheduled. The initial plan was to release wave 1 of the toys on Feb. 23rd, followed by wave 2 on March 1st, and then finally wave 3 on March 8th, 2024. With fans swarming McDonald’s locations to get these Happy Meals and Kirby stock being gobbled up, McDonald’s was force to call off the campaign.

McDonald’s said the first wave of Kirby toys went incredibly quickly, and with the launch of the second wave just today, multiple locations were met with instant sell-outs. This means the third wave, which was planned to offer leftover Kirby toys from wave 1 and 2, is now impossible. If you were hoping to get some of these Happy Meal toys, it seems your only option now is online auctions from third parties, as McDonald’s has made no announcements of a second run.