McDonald’s Boo Buckets are making a comeback in 2024 with a new look.
“This year, the nostalgic pails are getting a refresh with our new Monster designs in white, orange, green and a brand-new color, blue,” McDonalds wrote in a press release.
The Halloween-themed pails haven’t officially been released — they won’t be until Oct. 15 — but fans are already expressing big feelings about this year’s Boo Bucket makeover.
“Boo Buckets are returning to landfills on October 16th just in time for Halloween!” a Boo Bucket fan panned on X.
This year, the four characters represented are all monsters. They come in green, blue, orange and white. In past years, Boo Buckets featured an array of spooky characters such as a mummy, skeleton, jack-o’-lantern and a vampire.
In addition to the change in Boo Bucket characters, each McDonald’s pail comes with stickers so guests can give their bucket a unique, “truly monstrous makeover,” per a McDonald’s press release. McDonald’s also dropped lids from the Boo Bucket design — another detail change fans aren’t pleased with.
“Can we PLEASE bring back the tops?” an X user griped, with a video of the original 1986 Boo Bucket design, lids and all.
The complaints continued.
“Seriously McDonald’s? These aren’t the iconic boo buckets!! Give me the witch, ghost and vampire any day! These are horrible,” wrote another fan of the original design, per X.
Another said the new design has “no originality” and asked that the original design be resurrected.
“Strong pass on these,” wrote an Instagram user. “Worst boo bucket designs released yet.”
On the other end of the spectrum, some McDonald’s fans are pleased with the updated Boo Bucket design and report that kids are happy with the new look.
“I don’t love them, but my 3 year old got excited when I showed her,” one parent wrote on Reddit. “It’s nice for McDonald’s to have a happy meal toy that’s actually aimed at kids for once.”
In response to Snackolator’s post of the new Boo Buckets, another parent commented, “Thank god they look like this so I’ll actually be able to get one for my kid since adults won’t be snatching them all up.”
McDonald’s isn’t the only fast-food chain riding the Halloween bucket train this year. Tim Hortons and Dunkin’ are selling their own Halloween pails, too.