McDonald’s “Dragon Discovery” TCG Promotion Coming to Austria in 2025, Hope for the U.S.?

The McDonald’s Pokemon TCG promotion now has an official English name — “Dragon Discovery.” It will launch on January 23rd in Austria (and presumably Germany). The cards will be printed in German.

This means it’s still possible the promotion will come to the United States and other countries in 2025, despite it’s obvious “Year of the Dragon” theming. (2025 is the “Year of the Snake,” but I guess Mr. Rayquaza still fits that.)

There was still some hope the promotion would come to the U.S. later this month, but the next set of Happy Meal toys will promote Sonic the Hedgehog 3 instead. It will run from December 17th to January 13th.

If “Dragon Discovery” is also coming to the U.S. in January, we should hear about it in the next three weeks. Stay tuned!

I previously stated a U.S. promotion has run every year since 2011, but in searching through the stories I’ve written over the last 22 years, I found McDonald’s didn’t have U.S. promotions in 2013 and 2020. In 2013, however, they did release a set exclusively in France. Neither situation will occur this time, meaning we’re in new McTerritory.

In July we revealed France would be holding the promotion in December; unusually, we did not hear about a U.S. release in the ensuing months. The promotion launched in France on December 4th.

Not 100% confirmed yet, as the future promos mentioned here can be altered at any time in future on a whim by the planner of the Happy Meals, McDonald's, but...

If this list is the actual list of Happy Meal toys due for the coming year for its USA restaurants, unless they change the list as the year goes on, as they feel fit, maybe next year's "sustainability" changes mean no Pokémon cards for the USA next year. Sad!

Thanks to Fandom's Kids Meal Wiki for providing this list. However, unless you think there's no rule against posting trusted links to news from unofficial outside channels with the exception of only such that stay within the Pokebeach network OR takes the user to an official source related to Pokémon such as Nintendo, Game Freak, TPC/Creatures, etc., as this info is based on an unofficial wiki site containing info related to this Pokémon subject, it is a shame that I can't post the link to this list here on Pokebeach, or at least outside of my signature if I wished, but at day's end, rules are rules... :( :

...2025​

  • DreamWorks 30th Anniversary (January 11-January 23)
  • Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (January 24-February)
  • Paddington in Peru (February)
  • Win or Lose (February-March)
  • Soul, Turning Red and Luca in Remastered 3-D (March)
  • Snow White 2025 (March-April)
  • A Minecraft Movie (April)
  • Kiff Notebook And Stickersheets (April-May)
  • Thunderbolts* (May)
  • Lilo & Stitch (May-June)
  • Elio (June)
  • The Smurfs Movie (June-July)
  • Disneyland 70th Anniversary (July)
  • The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July-August)
  • The Bad Guys 2 (August)
  • Teen Titans Go! sketchbooks (August-September)
  • Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie (September)
  • K-Pop: Demon Hunters/In Your Dreams (September-October)
  • Mickey and Friends Halloween Buckets (October)
  • Tron: Ares (October-November)
  • Zootopia 2 (November)
  • Toy Story 30th Anniversary (November-December)
  • Avatar: Fire and Ash (December)
  • The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (December-January 2026)
 
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