Which McDonaldland character was introduced in 1971 as a hamburger-stealing figure?

The Hamburglar was introduced in 1971 as McDonaldland’s hamburger-stealing character.

The character was part of the fictional McDonaldland cast created for McDonald’s advertising. In the earliest version, the Hamburglar looked more menacing and spoke in a stylized, difficult-to-understand way. Later redesigns made him shorter, friendlier, and more clearly aimed at children.

His role was simple and memorable: he tried to take hamburgers, while Ronald McDonald and the other characters reacted to his antics. That behavior connected the character directly to the company’s core menu item and made him easy to recognize in commercials and promotional material.

The Hamburglar is often confused with Grimace, who began as a milkshake-related character, or Mayor McCheese, whose design centered on a cheeseburger head. The Hamburglar’s defining branding trait was always his attempted hamburger theft.