The McDonald’s Halloween Bucket was one of those rare Happy Meal Toys that kids got to keep for a while, because they were too large to lose and too durable to break easily. These iconic buckets were repurposed by generations of kids to store candy, crayons, other toys, and more, so it's a little spooky that they've been missing from McDonald's lately.

When they debuted in 1986, the McDonald's "Pumpkin Pails" were orange with curved pumpkin-like tops, and came in three different designs: the McBoo, McGoblin, and McPunk’n. 1989 added three new designs, 1990 introduced a glow-in-the-dark bucket, 1992 featured cookie-cutter lids, and later years brought Mr. Potato Head and "Minions" tie-ins.

Sadly, 2016's "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” bucket was the last bucket to be offered at McDonald's, as of September 2022. According to McDonald's archivist Mike Bullington, the popularity of the buckets isn’t lost on the company, so perhaps kids (and kids at heart) will get to eat their Happy Meals out of Pumpkin Pails once again in the near future.