Pokemon Psyduck toy triggers online tidal wave in China
Print Edition
A dancing Pokemon Psyduck toy included in KFC China’s Children’s Day kids meals has gone viral online with its cute features and funny moves. However, it is available in only certain parts of the country.
A Shanghai netizen inquiring about the toy’s availability in the city was told by KFC that it isn’t available yet locally.
KFC told Shanghai Daily yesterday that the Children’s Day meals are released in different regions at different times.
The American restaurant chain advises people interested in the Pokemon toy to check with KFC outlets in their respective cities via the KFC app.
On Saturday, KFC China introduced three new Pokemon toys to celebrate Children’s Day on June 1. The toys are randomly distributed in Children’s Day meals, the prices of which range from 69 yuan (US$10.30) to 115 yuan.
Each of the three toys has its own features. The male Pikachu toy can serve as a water bottle. The female Pikachu toy is like a music box, and the Pikachu doll rotates and dances.
The Psyduck, however, seems to have captured the most hearts. It turns into a “square-dancing king” with “brainwashing” background music when it is moved up and down.
Short videos and memes about the duck are sweeping Chinese social media platforms. The hashtag “why the Psyduck toy has gotten so popular” has been trending on the microblogging platform Weibo, chalking up more than 27 million views by yesterday noon.
In these videos, netizens use the duck to call on people to take nucleic acid tests, urge students to hand in their homework, ask husbands to go home and tell bosses there’s no way to make them work overtime.
A man surnamed Du living in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, said he visited nearly every KFC store near his home the morning the fast food chain launched its Children’s Day meals but failed to get one of the coveted toys.
“I went to KFC outlets on both May 21 and 22, and found the Psyduck toy was sold out, but the other two Pikachus were available,” he noted.
A woman surnamed Chen visited a KFC store in Jinhua, east China’s Zhejiang Province, on Monday and had the same experience.
“The staff told me that they started selling the meals at 9:30am, and there are only 10 sets every day,” she said.
Shanghai resident Qian Weishun told Shanghai Daily that due to the city’s COVID-19 lockdown, he asked a friend in Chongqing in southwest China to get one for him. However, there, too, the Psyduck was sold out, so his friend got him a Pikachu.
“I’m a big Pokemon fan. Since we have to stay at home, we have no way to go to KFC. I asked my friend to help get me one, but the Psyduck is so popular and he got me a Pikachu instead, which is also good,” Qian said.
Some local residents even tried to get the toys through group-buying.
Shanghai Daily checked secondhand e-commerce platform Xianyu yesterday afternoon and found that the Psyduck toy was on sale for prices ranging from 50 yuan to 2,000 yuan.
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