McDonald's UK Happy Meal Pokémon card promotion begins in August

The annual bunfight over Pokémon trading cards available from McDonald's Happy Meals is about to begin anew.

The promotion has began today, 27th July, in some European countries - but it's not available in the UK yet.

According to reliable fansite Pokébeach, the cards will finally reach British shores on 23rd August. So mark that date in your diaries to get ahead of the scalpers.

Welcome to the Paldea region! | Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet

This year's selection of McDonald's Happy Meal Pokémon cards features 15 cards, focused on new species introduced in last year's Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

All three Starter Pokémon from those games - Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly - are included in the new cards, alongside other species such as Tandemaus, Klawf and Cetitan.

And Pikachu is featured too, of course.

As ever, these cards are reprints of existing designs, mostly from the TCG's Scarlet and Violet set. Six will be available as holos: Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly, Cetitan, Pikachu, and Klawf.

Each Happy Meal includes a booster pack with four cards, one of which will be holo.

Previous years have seen stocks of the cards run out swiftly - with many customers attempting to buy multiple Happy Meals (and some cards ending up on eBay). McDonald's has resorted to limiting Happy Meal purchases in the UK to try and cope with demand.

If you have a young Pokémon fan eager for these, it's well worth acting quickly.

The full card list is available below:

1. Sprigatito
2. Fuecoco
3. Quaxly
4. Cetoddle
5. Cetitan
6. Pikachu
7. Pawmi
8. Kilowattrel
9. Flittle
10. Sandaconda
11. Klawf
12. Blissey
13. Tandemaus
14. Cyclizar
15. Kirlia

Over in the world of Pokémon Go, the app recently rolled out its new Routes feature - although it's currently only available to some players.