Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong have queued for Chiikawa toys that come with McDonald’s Happy Meals as part of a promotional tie-up between the fast food chain and an exhibition featuring the famous Japanese manga.
Some 20,000 customers were in line on the McDonald’s reservation website at certain points on Monday after sales opened at 11am, and hundreds showed up at different outlets to queue for the special meal sets hours before they were made available.
The promotion was related to a three-week event called “Chiikawa Days Exhibition”, organised by Hong Kong studio AllRightReserved, which will begin in the city on August 1 at K11 Musea in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Chiikawa, which means “something small and cute”, is the name of the titular hamster protagonist created by Japanese artist Nagano.
As part of the promotion, eight different Chiikawa toys will be given away with Happy Meal purchases on Mondays and Fridays between July 28 and August 22 at 40 McDonald’s outlets in the city.
At a McDonald’s branch in Causeway Bay, Heiman Chan, 40, dressed in a Chiikawa T-shirt and carrying a Chiikawa plush doll on his shoulder, waited in line with his prepared QR code to collect the toy with his meal set.
“I found out online that McDonald’s was selling Chiikawa Happy Meals, so I came especially to buy one today,” he said.
