The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald "The Legend of McDonaldland Loch" (found episode of animated series; 2003)
"The Legend of McDonaldland Loch" is a once lost 2003 episode of The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald. Released to purchase from 2003 until 2005, there is a substantial rarity placed on this VHS. On September 6, 2015, YouTube user "What a Cartoon!" found and subsequently uploaded the entire episode in capture-card quality.
History
The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald is a 1998-2003 cartoon produced by the ka-chew! division of Klasky Csupo, consisting of six episodes. Each episode was released on separate VHS tapes, one of which only being available for purchase online in the mid-2000s.
Since the six volumes' releases, the first five have turned up online in the form of VHS rips. However, the final volume has since become an incredible rarity, with no copies of the tape having turned up for years (though several copies have allegedly been sold on eBay and the like throughout the last decade; this, however, has not been confirmed). Titled "The Legend of McDonaldland Loch" (originally titled "The Monster O' McDonaldland Loch"), the episode was made available for purchase on Klasky Csupo's cooltoons.com (now cooltoons2.com) store on Jan 30, 2003.
According to the Wayback Machine, the tape was available for purchase all the way up until at least March 6, 2005, though for some reason, it appears that not many people ended up buying a copy, skyrocketing its value years later (as it is now practically impossible to track down).[1]
Plot
Ronald and the crew travel to Scotland, where they search for the Monster O' McDonaldland Loch. The crew has trouble finding him, but Birdie finds him, and they keep the existence a secret.
Meanwhile, two professors are building a fake monster of their own, to win the 1,000,000 prize for finding it. It goes on the loose when the McNuggets take control of it.
When the gang goes to visit Sundae's Scottish terrier cousin, they get more than they bargained for when they run into Simon, the legendary sea serpent of McDonaldland Loch!
The episode comes to a head when the real monster and fake monster fight. The real monster wins, and the town enjoys the McDonaldland Loch festival in peace and harmony.
Discoveries
On December 20, 2014, an anonymous poster of the board /co/ on 4chan claimed to have a legitimate copy of the tape.[2]
"If it really is lost, its (sic) neat that I found it or something. Well, by found I mean my older brother looked up to see how much the whole set was worth, and could not find a set of 6."
The anonymous user posted several photos of the tape and its cover, in addition to low-quality photos of the tape playing on a "half-broken" CRT TV screen. The anonymous user has received offers upwards of fifteen thousand dollars for the tape on the condition that it is not digitally uploaded. On May 9th, 2015, the anonymous owner claimed to rip the tape to his PC, willing to sell it and then upload it to YouTube shortly after[3].
Throughout June 2015, Lost Media Wiki user "Inklingboy" leaked several screenshots of the tape, both proving there are multiple individuals in possession of this video, and spurring rumours that the video would soon surface. Following hundreds of pleas for the release of some form of video evidence, Inklingboy leaked two segments of the ending of the VHS on June 28, 2015. The videos can be viewed on his Youtube channel, with specific instructions to never duplicate or reupload the segments.
On July 12, 2015, A Youtube user by the name of "glbracer" uploaded an unlisted new 18-second clip, making a possible third holder for the tape.[4]
On August 14, 2015, A Youtube user by the name of "Austin Solom" uploaded an unlisted new First 4 Minutes.
The tireless, 12+ year-long search finally came to a satisfying ending on September 6, 2015, when the full episode was uploaded in its entirety on YouTube, by the user "What a Cartoon!".
Gallery
Front of VHS + timestamp
Backside of VHS cover
Side of VHS
