McDonald's Happy Meal POG 2019 - Superman in Daily Planet
Welcome back, Happy Meal hunters! 🍟 Pull up a chair, because today we're diving into one of the most surprisingly collectible promos to come out of the Golden Arches in recent memory - the McDonald's Happy Meal POG 2019 set, with a close look at the Superman in Daily Planet disc.
If you were picking up Happy Meals in France in the fall of 2019, you may already know exactly what I'm talking about. Starting September 4, 2019, McDonald's France launched a massive POG collaboration in partnership with Warner Company, creating a set of 200 collectible discs (POGs) spread across four distinct Warner Bros. themes. Yes, you read that right - 200. This is not a small wave. This is a full-on collector's commitment, and I mean that in the best possible way.
The POG 2019 Set - Four Themes, One Big Wave
The set was organized into four themed groups, each containing 50 discs numbered in sequence. The four themes were:
- DC Justice League (DC1-DC50) - Featuring Superman, Batman, The Joker, The Flash, and more iconic DC heroes and villains.
- DC Super Hero Girls (DCG1-DCG50) - Spotlighting Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and other fan-favorite heroines from the animated series.
- Looney Tunes (Loo1-Loo50) - Starring Tweety, Sylvester, Taz, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Wile E. Coyote in a range of fun and playful poses.
- Scooby-Doo (Sco1-Sco50) - The Mystery Inc. gang in full disc form, complete with spooky and comedic imagery.
Each pack included 10 POGs and one token (jeton). The tokens were color-coded by theme: DC in one color, DC Super Hero Girls in blue, Looney Tunes in orange, and Scooby-Doo in purple. The game rules were included with each pack, making this feel like a real, functional game - not just a collectible novelty. That combination of playability and collectibility is exactly what makes this wave stand out from a lot of Happy Meal promos.
Superman in Daily Planet - Up Close
Today's focus, Superman in Daily Planet, is reference JL15 in the DC theme. As a standalone disc, it carries everything that makes a good POG - a clean, graphic image, vibrant print quality, and a scene that tells a small story in a very compact format. The Daily Planet setting gives this particular disc a civilian-world energy that you don't always see with Superman imagery. Most superhero promos lean hard into action poses and cape-flying drama. This one takes a quieter approach, placing the Man of Steel in the context of Clark Kent's world, which makes it feel a little more grounded and a little more interesting to display alongside the more action-heavy discs in the DC run.
The disc itself is a standard POG format - lightweight, circular, and printed on a slightly rigid cardboard-style material. It holds up well to casual play and display use, which is exactly what you want for something that was designed to be stacked and launched. The print is sharp enough for shelf display while still having that unpretentious, game-piece charm that POG collectors appreciate.
There's something genuinely nostalgic about holding a POG again. The format brings back a very specific kind of 90s energy - the thrill of flipping discs, building stacks, and hunting down the ones you needed to complete a set. Seeing McDonald's revive the format in 2019 with a massive 200-disc wave tied to Warner Bros. IP felt like a real treat for anyone who grew up playing the game the first time around.
Collector Notes
The sheer size of the POG 2019 wave is what makes it genuinely challenging and rewarding to complete. Four themes of 50 discs each means you're looking at a substantial project if you want the full set. The Superman in Daily Planet disc holds its own as a single-item display piece, but its real appeal is as part of the DC run. Seeing the full DC1 through DC50 sequence laid out together - heroes, villains, emblems, action scenes - creates a much richer visual impact than any one disc can deliver alone.
For collectors who focus specifically on DC characters in Happy Meal history, the 2019 POG wave is one of the more unusual and overlooked releases. It's not a figure, it's not a vehicle - it's a disc game with genuine playability, and that separates it from almost everything else in the McDonald's archive. Long-term, the complete set has strong shelf appeal simply because of its ambition and the width of its character roster across all four themes.
Storage-wise, POG sleeves or disc pages work well for keeping these organized and protected. Grouping by theme is the most logical approach, and having the numbered sequence in order makes the DC run especially satisfying to flip through. The color-coded tokens are a nice visual anchor for separating themes in a mixed display.
I actually grabbed my Superman in Daily Planet disc on a Happy Meal run with the kids when this promo was live - spotted it in the pack and set it aside immediately. It's been logged in the Collectiblz app since, and if you're tracking your own POG 2019 collection, the app is a great way to keep tabs on which of the 200 you still need.
Whether you're a DC fan, a POG revival enthusiast, or simply a Happy Meal completist, the 2019 wave is one worth hunting down. Superman in Daily Planet is a quiet standout in a set full of personality. 🧸
- K.M. ✨
