McDonald’s Happy Meal toys tend to run to boring movie-tie-in figurines these days. But get ready to get your nostalgia on: The fast-food chain finally confirmed rumors that its McDonald’s Halloween pails, aka Boo Buckets, are returning this Halloween. The pails will be available at participating McDonald’s locations nationwide in the US starting Oct. 18, and here’s what you need to know.
What are McDonald’s Halloween Boo Buckets?
Back in 1986, McDonald’s started offering its Happy Meal kids meal in cute little Halloween-themed buckets, which can double as a kid’s trick-or-treat pail — if they’re not out for maximum candy, that is. Happy Meals usually come in cardboard boxes shaped kind of like little houses, so the buckets were a spook-tacular treat.
What do the 2022 Halloween Boo Buckets look like?
McDonald’s is offering three different colors — the white ghost, orange pumpkin, and green witch, aka McBoo, McPunk’n and McGoblin. One notable difference from past years: The lids are unusual. Looks like there’s a raised decoration for each lid — a witch’s hat for McGoblin, a pumpkin top for McPunk’n, and what appears to be a white pumpkin top for McBoo. But it’s not clear from the photo if that decoration is part of a lid that covers the top, or just a separate piece of plastic, and the bucket itself is open. Guess we’ll find out soon.
Also, customers should know that these Happy Meals don’t come with additional toys. The bucket is the toy. But McDonald’s new adult Happy Meals do come with toys — classic McDonald’s figures, plus one new creation, that all have four eyes.
How and when can I get a Halloween Boo Bucket?
The nostalgic meal containers will return on Oct. 18 in three colors — pumpkin orange, slime green and ghostly white. All you have to do is order a Happy Meal at your local participating McDonald’s, and the bucket comes along with it. You can choose from a hamburger, cheeseburger or Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal. In addition to the main item, the meal includes fries and another side dish, such as apple slices, plus a small drink.
Prices vary by restaurant, but at my local McDonald’s, Happy Meals cost between $5 and $7. The bucket replaces the toy that normally comes with the Happy Meal, so there’s no extra charge for it.
Will Halloween Boo Buckets sell out?
Be warned: The Boo Buckets have received so much advance press they’re likely to sell quickly. And we don’t yet know how the colors will be distributed — will restaurants sell only one color at a time until they run out? There are likely to be collectors angling to get all three colors, which could mess with restaurant inventory.
Yahoo reports that some McDonald’s employees are already struggling to fulfill orders for the wacky “adult Happy Meals” with strange four-eyed McDonald’s character toys. Boo Buckets could face a similar crush.
What did the original McDonald’s Halloween buckets look like?
The three original designs were all orange, and had the names that McDonald’s is reusing in 2022 — McPunk’n, McBoo and McGoblin. All looked like jack-o-lanterns, just with different faces. McPunk’n looks happy, McBoo looks slightly started, and McGoblin looks … sleepy, but he’s probably supposed to look scary.
Ghost and witch McDonald’s Halloween buckets
A few years later, McDonald’s added white ghost and green witch designs. They all looked pretty happy — even the supposedly spooky witch. Here they are in an ad from 1990. As the commercial explains, the ghost bucket even glows in the dark. (Don’t think too much about how the Chicken McNuggets are busying themselves making sauce, presumably to be used in their own consumption.)
When did McDonald’s stop making Halloween buckets?
Nightmare Nostalgia has a wonderful timeline of the history, if you really want to delve into a fast-food chain’s promotional past. (Not knocking you if you do, because I am one of you.) Some of the bigger changes involved a switch to vinyl glow-in-the-dark trick-or-treat bags, called McBoo Bags. In 1992, the buckets were redesigned to include cookie cutters that popped off the top. That had to be a high-water mark for McDonald’s Halloween bucket creativity. Hope somebody got a raise that year.
After that, the pails kept being tweaked, and finally vanished in 2016, going out with a It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, design.
Unreleased Halloween buckets we’ll never see
According to YouTuber Consumer Time Capsule, there were six proposed Halloween buckets that were never released, including this purr-fect black cat. Whoa, we missed out on some pop-culture goodness here. There’s also a wonderful McMummy.