Despicable in name only

SOME events simply defy logic. Take for instance the recent craze at McDonald’s outlets nationwide over the little yellow toys from the movie Despicable Me 2.

The Minion fever spread after the fast-food chain launched its Despicable Me 2 campaign. Fans young and old lined up at McDonald’s outlets every Thursday morning to get their hands on the lovable cylinder-shaped mischievous characters offered with every purchase of a Happy Meal.

I was told that some people queued for several hours before the counters were open at the stroke of midnight.

Out of curiosity, I decided to visit the epicentre of the “yellow fever” in Penang to see for myself.

To my astonishment, even before I could get near the counters, all the yellow-coloured toys had been snapped up within 10 minutes at the 24-hour McDonald’s Green Lane outlet.

Some who could not get their hands on the toys complained to the management just to vent their frustration.

As I made my way home after the not-so-fruitful visit to McDonald’s, I heard from my colleague that the eager-beaver crowd had brought down the shutters at the Prangin Mall outlet.

To me, this is behaviour unbecoming of my fellow Penangites.

That night, I visited trading website Mudah.my to see how many of the toys were being offered. I was in for another shock.

Although each Happy Meal set that includes a Minion toy costs less than RM10, some Malaysians capitalised on the craze by offering to sell a Minion threesome for up to RM1,000.

Over at eBay Malaysia, some people were willing to part with the Tim Giggling Minion — one of the first three toys to be released by the fast-food chain — for a cool RM5,050. That’s really mind-boggling!

Fans can also show their love for their mini superheroes by wearing T-shirts printed with the yellow-coloured toys.

Minions are now hot items in other forms such as Apps, parodies and songs that have been created on radio and YouTube.

The best, in my opinion, is the image of the toys being painted on a traffic bollard in Soo Hong Lane, off Armenian Street. Popular Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic has certainly left his mark again.

I was there to witness Zacharevic’s splendid artwork. It’s heart-warming to see so many Penangites queuing up to pose for pictures with the painting of the Minions.

This fad reminds me of a similar craze when I was 12: it was the Hello Kitty frenzy.

Several people were injured while trying to secure the limited edition feline toys at McDonald’s.

Personally, I am not against all that fuss over collectibles but there should always be a sense of decorum.

We should not become “ugly Malaysians” just for some figurine that may end up gathering dust on some bookshelf a few years later.

On the brighter side, there were some civic-conscious individuals who decided to collect discarded Happy Meals and give them to the needy.

In their mission to aid the homeless, a group of employees from an advertising company in Kuala Lumpur set up a Facebook page called The Happiest Meal.

I understand that they managed to collect more than 150 Happy Meal sets in Kuala Lumpur alone.

Thanks to the efforts of this group of young people, it can be safely said that not all of us are ugly Malaysians who are mere minions to a craze.