The Nostalgic McDonaldland Characters We Need to Make A Comeback

In case you somehow missed the announcement—though we’re not sure how you could have—McDonald’s brought back one of its iconic McDonaldland characters to celebrate his birthday the old-fashioned way: at a Mickey D’s. This summer, Grimace is returning to McDonald’s for a special Grimace Birthday Meal, complete with a purple, berry-flavored shake, for a limited time.

Grimace’s return marks his first reappearance since the early 2000s—following the Hamburglar's resurgence to promote the new burger changes earlier this year.

“We’re excited to put a modern spin on these memories to continue to drive McDonald’s relevance with a new generation. Grimace is the perfect lovable icon to have McDonald’s meet our fans at the intersection of nostalgia and culture,” McDonald’s Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Tariq Hassan said of Grimace’s return.

Even though Ronald McDonald is great, we’re a sucker for nostalgia, so seeing Grimace—and so many other McDonaldland faces—in the new Mickey D’s commercial got us really excited for a potential revamp of the beloved (and slightly wacky) campaign. Who would have thought we could miss fictional McDonald's-themed characters so much?

In the commercial and subsequent McDonald’s stories, there were mentions of a few familiar McDonaldland characters, including the Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, Uncle O’Grimacey, and The McNugget Buddies, which gives us hope we could see more of them in the future.

So, while we have McDonald’s attention, we’d love to request a comeback for these fan-favorite characters.

The Hamburglar

Before Grimace made his long-awaited return, the Hamburglar was spotted at McDonald’s. Earlier this year, Mickey D’s announced it was changing its burger recipe—and that the new burgers had drawn the Hamburglar out of McDonaldland. We were promised new commercials featuring the burger thief, but we’re still waiting to hear the iconic “Robble, robble” on our screens.

We know the Hamburglar’s a villain, always stealing hamburgers from Ronald and his crew, but we can’t forget that Grimace started out as a villain too, and now look at him. Even the most mischievous of McDonaldland characters deserve a revival.

Uncle O'Grimacey

If you don’t remember, Grimace has a pretty large family—all hailing from Grimace Island—including his Grandma Winky, Aunt Millie, Aunt Tillie, and (our favorite) Uncle O’Grimacey.

Though from Grimace Island, Uncle O’Grimacey is Irish, and every March, he comes around to deliver Shamrock Shakes to his McDonaldland friends. The leprechaun-esque Uncle O’Grimacey is a green version of Grimace, complete with a four-leaf clover-covered frock and shillelagh.

We can always count on McDonald’s bringing its beloved Shamrock Shakes back every year, but we’d love to see Uncle O’Grimacey deliver them just one more time.

The McNugget Buddies

The life-sized McNugget Buddies—members of The Happy Meal Gang—are such a fun little group of pals. They were the comedic relief of McDonaldland, always seeming to be pushing Ronald’s buttons somehow.

Now, we’re not saying The McNugget Buddies need their own McNugget meal, but a little retro McNugget Buddy Happy Meal Toy could be pretty fun.

Mayor McCheese & Officer Big Mac

You can’t talk about McDonaldland without bringing up the two slightly incompetent head honchos of the town: Mayor McCheese and Officer Big Mac. It seems all these two giant cheeseburger heads ever did was fail to catch the Hamburglar and Captain Crook—but it sure was entertaining.

We’d love to see a McCheese and Big Mac return as a deal with their respective menu items (cheeseburger for the mayor and Big Mac for the chief of police).

The Bottom Line

Truthfully, if any McDonaldland characters make a permanent return, we’ll be happy. But, please, Mickey D’s, we beg of you, do not bring the creepy dog puppet, "Sundae" to the commercials—an animation, a real-life dog, or literally anything else will do for Ronald’s pup.