McDonald’s Is Tapping Two Big Names For A New Collab (But There’s a Catch)

McDonald’s is no stranger to bringing in popular IPs for their toys and partnerships. Just look at their widely popular Kpop Demon Hunters Collab, their newest BTS toy release, the partnership for the World Cup, Mario toys, and so many more. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that McDonald’s has another great IP lined up. 

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Except, it’s not just one IP. McDonald’s is trying something a little different by mashing up two IPs and releasing a completely different and never before seen toy collection. And when you hear the collab, you’re gonna think we’re kidding. But there’s photos―and they are indeed wild―but seem very real. 

One Piece x Spongebob Squarepants x McDonald’s

So just what did McDonald’s decide to smash together? Well, none other than One Piece and Spongebob Squarepants. No, I get it. I was confused, too. They seem like wildly different IPs so why pair them up? Well, we might not know the why, but we’ve seen the toys and they actually kind of look really awesome. 

Before we dive into the toys, there’s a catch. These toys are coming later in August, but they are exclusive to Australia and New Zealand. I know, pretty disappointing. Usually the exclusive Japanese IPs are released in Japan. But the rumor mill is working hard to dig up any info on this collection and there is talk of it having at least a North and South American release too, possibly around August 18th. But there’s nothing official yet. 

Everything About The Toys

So, how did they mash up these toys? They’re Spongebob characters dressed and acting as One Piece characters. They have most of the Straw Hats as well as Big Mom and Black Beard. Of course, our lead plays the One Piece lead. So there are two Spongebob toys: one dressed in Luffy’s classic look and another as Gear 5’s Luffy. We have Patrick as Zoro, Squidward as Sanji, Gary as Chopper, Sandy as Nami, Pearl as Robin, Plankton as Usopp, Larry as Franky, and Mr. Krabs as Jinbe. Big Mom is Mrs. Puff and the Flying Dutchman is Black Beard. That’s right. They’re releasing 12 of these toys. It’s going to be hard to collect them all. 

Now, if you’re a fan of One Piece (like me) you may notice that one member of the Straw Hats appears to be missing. And that’s correct―Brook is missing. Now the rumors are that the 12 toys we mentioned are the ones being released for Australia and New Zealand. A separate post has only 10 of the toys coming to the Americas. That would be the core crew plus Brook as Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen. So the Americas will be missing out on Gear 5, Big Mom, and Black Beard. 

It’s certainly interesting to switch what releases in the two different regions when all the toys already exist. Why not just release the full collection of 13 in both areas? I guess I’ll be shopping eBay for that Gear 5 toy.