November 1971- The Birth of an Icon. 

Grimace made his very first appearance in November 1971 as a part of the newly launched McDonaldland campaign designed for young children. Grimace originally had two pairs of arms, for four in total, and was a malicious beast. Grimace used his arms in his first three appearances to steal milkshakes form the unwitting citizens of McDonaldland, and was known simply as "The Evil Grimace". Even in this primal state, some of Grimace's key characteristics were present, such as his slightly dopey, calm nature. 

1972~1974- A Startling Reimagining

Legal issues however, threatened to put a halt to the valiant efforts of McDonald's groundbreaking campaign. A popular children's television show at the time's creators, Sid and Marty Krofft, began to sue the big M for plagiarizing their most popular character, H.R. Puf'N'Stuf. They claimed that Mayor McCheese, the mayor of McDonaldland, was too similar to Puf'N'Stuf. The result of this lawsuit was a 50,000 dollar payout from McD's and a reassessment of the rest of their characters. One of these characters was Grimmy, who was deemed too similar to Seymour Spider, a bad creepy puppet boy who deserves no place in our hearts.

A gross bad, bad spider (left), and a primitive version of the worlds greatest super star (right)

But what should you do when your prized character is under the threat of "laws" about "copyrights" and "intellectual property"? Well you could just ditch the character entirely, or, luckily in our case, you could change them just enough to avoid the government and a small independent production studio, creating a better character in the process. Grimace ditched two of his arms, and became a good guy, a dopey sidekick to Ronald McDonald and every kid's best friend. This new Grimace is the one who stole all of our hearts.

1977- A Hint at Something Larger

This year saw the incorporation of the first known family member to Grimace, a kindly uncle coming every March to sell Shamrock Shakes named Uncle O'Grimacey. This is notable because it shows that he is A: Part of a larger species, B: That species can reproduce, and C: Grimace has parents. This was revolutionary at the time for showing off a hint at something larger, sparking the later flame of us Grimlets. (To Be Continued)