The pails have traditionally pictured stock Halloween characters like vampires, ghosts and mummies. The 2024 collection appears to have the faces of furry monsters. They look more like Muppets than something recognizably seasonal, but an included pack of stickers will allow kids to make their pail as Halloween-y as they want.
Grown adults on social media are not having it. While some pointed out the decline in quality and impracticality of no longer including a lid, others seemed to hate the new buckets simply for not being the ones they grew up with.
“Please stop changing the look and bring back the old ones from the ‘90,” reads one comment on the Instagram post announcing the designs.
“These are…not correct,” another comment read. “Get out. Go. Scram. Denied. No.”
“Bring back the McRib,” wrote one user hoping to attach their separate grievance to the controversy.
While there is a community of Boo Bucket and Happy Meal toy collectors who are inclined to have strong feelings about this sort of thing, most detractors seem to be your standard nostalgia-starved millennials who throw around phrases like, “My childhood is ruined.”
As with all internet discourse, there is now backlash to the backlash.
“Bro, why y’all complaining,” read a comment. “Y’all grown adults. Let the kids rate them.”
“The green one is my spirit animal,” wrote a commenter who actually liked the new characters.
We’re looking forward to a few decades from now when McDonald’s rolls out yet another redesign and the now-grown Generation Alpha demands they cater to their nostalgia by bringing back the iconic monster buckets they grew up with. Such is the circle of life.
McDonald’s new Boo Buckets will drop on Oct. 15 and be available while supplies last.
