Children’s Day is just around the corner on 1 June. For the special occasion, fast-food chains are, as usual, levelling up their toy game. However, in recent years, toys have increasingly been designed not so much for children but more for young adults, combining playability with practicality, putting the fun back in functionality, so to speak. The KFC x Sanrio collaboration is a prime example of this Children’s Day.
This is not the first time the American fast-food chain has teamed up with the Japanese IP holder, but it is arguably the most practical one. From a Hello Kitty breathing lamp that also produces white noise to help with mindfulness, a Kuromi “fog machine” diffuser, a Cinnamoroll water bottle, a Pompompurin lamp, and even a Hello Kitty digital camera with 1080P resolution, built-in filters and a 64GB memory card. The camera, limited to 129,000 units in China, has seen prices surge to between 600 RMB (83.28 USD) to 800 RMB (111.04 USD) on the second-hand market, up from 129 RMB (17.91 USD) new.
On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “KFC toys” (#肯德基玩具#) reached number 42 on the Hot Search list with an accumulated 150 million views. KFC toys have been making headlines recently, such as the Gundam figurine released earlier this year. These are all aimed at teenagers and older audiences, featuring Gundam variants mostly from the 2000s-era ‘00’ and ‘Seed Destiny’ series, as well as the ‘1979 original series’, appealing to millennials who grew up watching them.
Like the nostalgic bumper car and bubble blower toys from McDonald’s, the KFC x Sanrio offerings this Children’s Day are also aimed at the childhood nostalgia of young adults and perhaps even young parents. Meanwhile, Pizza Hut is offering toy cars, while the Pokémon IP and Manner Coffee have also released a (single-use film) camera, highlighting how the clashes over collaborations and campaign ideas continues.