McDonald’s just brought back a nostalgic favourite — but there’s a big catch

If you’ve been a long-standing McDonald’s fan, you might remember the collectible cups.

Throughout the 90s and 00s, the fast food chain often included these in Happy Meals – everything from Coca-Cola glasses to Disney cups.

These were all limited-edition and made especially for Maccies, but we haven’t seen anything like it in years… until now.

Those who’ve been hoping for McDonald’s to bring back cups have finally got their wish…

McDonald’s UK has put a new spin on the nostalgic favourite, as part of its Warner Bros collab, unveiling four brand new Friends x McDonald’s mugs for customers to collect. 

How to get the Friends x McDonald’s mugs

There are 4,000 limited-edition Friends-themed mugs up for grabs, but there’s a pretty big catch – you can’t just buy them from restaurants.

The only way to get them is to win them.

To be in with a chance of winning, you need to have the McDonald’s app and buy a Friends meal using it. From here, you’ll be offered the chance to win the mug set, which features four different designs.

One mug shows off the orange couch, another has Monica’s yellow peephole frame, the third features the fountain from the opening credits, and the final one is adorned with the Central Perk logo.

These feel like a real throwback to when Maccies used to offer collectible cups, and we’re sure they’ll prove very popular with fans.

How long are the mugs available for?

Fans can only win them by purchasing the Friends Meal through the app, which means they’ll likely only be available while that’s on the menu.

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The meal launched on February 3 and will be sticking around for six weeks.

But actually getting your hands on the mugs will be tricky, as there’s only a limited quantity available. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, so you’ll have to be quick if you want them.

Those looking for more exclusive Friends x McDonald’s merch might want to check out Friends Festival this weekend in London.

What is the Friends Meal?

Dubbed the ‘ultimate adult Happy Meal’, the new Friends meal features a McPlant, Big Mac or 9 McNuggets, with fries, a drink and a collectible figurine of your favourite Friends characters.

There’s a mini Monica, Phoebe, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, and Ross, and each one features a cute nod to the iconic 90s sitcom.

Rachel is serving coffee, Monica is dressed in her chef whites, Chandler is holding the chick while Joey has the duck, Phoebe is playing guitar, and Ross is joined by his monkey, Marcel.

If you miss out on the mugs, you can always collect the Friends figurines instead, although this won’t come cheap. 

In the past, McDonald’s has often allowed customers to buy individual Happy Meal toys at restaurants when fans were collecting an entire range or hoping for a specific one. However, the chain has confirmed to Metro that with this release, people won’t be able to purchase the Friends figurines separately. 

You’ll have to buy the meal, and prices start from £9.09 for a medium Big Mac or McPlant meal, and rise to £9.19 for a 9-piece medium Chicken McNugget meal.

For those who want large meals, it’s going to cost £9.99 for the Big Mac and McPlant and £10.09 for the McNuggets.

So if you were to do the math, buying six medium Big Mac meals would cost you £54.54, while six large McNugget meals would be more than £60. 

There’s no guarantee that you’d get all of the characters this way, as they are added randomly to each meal, meaning you could end up with duplicates. You’d likely have to buy more than six meals in order to actually collect them all, and the price would stack up substantially.

You can try asking McDonald’s staff for a specific character when you buy a meal, but Maccies isn’t encouraging staff to do this, as stock levels will vary at each restaurant.

If there’s one you really want, we suggest trying your luck; the worst that can happen is they say no.

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