On 22 March, American fast-food chain KFC launched its latest collaboration. This time, the KFC collab is with a long-running popular anime series, Detective Conan (名探偵コナン, or 名侦探柯南 in Chinese, Case Closed in the US). Since the release, Chinese social media has been flooded with diners showing off the merch they received with their meals and there is even a guide for takeaway customers on how to get their desired merch.
The collaboration, like many these days, is mostly focused on the merch, or goods (谷子, guzi). As an anime collaboration, the merch this time is, of course, toys. With a meal starting at 39.9 RMB (5.5 USD), you can get one of 5 toys in the image of the iconic characters and 1 special-edition 6th one. The regular 5 toys are mostly character figurines with movable props around them e.g. the protagonist Conan’s figurine can double as a water pistol. The special edition toy is a version of Conan’s voice-changing bowtie.
On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, the fast-food chain’s official topic, “KFC Detective Conan” (#肯德基名侦探柯南#), gained a modest 2.93 million views. Many netizens, however, are posting their toys on the platform without the hashtag. On other platforms, such as WeChat, there are guides for takeaway orders to use notes to get the toy you want to mitigate the disadvantage online orders have, as many offline ask the staff members for the model they would like.
With the special edition, the release is similar to blind boxes, while the interactive toys go beyond usual blind box figurines with a playful twist. The KFC collaboration leverages not only the current popularity of the animated series but also the Y2K nostalgia, as many who queue for and collect these toys are not children or parents but young adults who grew up with Conan (who does not age).
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