‘Yellow fever’ still running high

PETALING JAYA: It is the final week to get a Despicable Me 2 minion toy from McDonald’s before the promotion ends and “yellow fever” is still running high among local toy collectors.

Hundreds of customers were seen queuing outside several outlets of the fast-food chain on Wednesday night and yesterday to get the Happy Meal toy. The customers were only allowed to buy two Happy Meals each.

Such frenzied attempts to get the minion toy have been a common sight over the past three weeks in several states in the country, with some people even getting in line from the wee hours.

The demand is also high because the McDonald’s toy is fetching between RM50 and RM300 apiece on the eBay Malaysia auction site.

Wang Eugene, 20, a student and avid collector of minion toys, was first in line outside McDonald’s in SS2 here on Wednesday night. He started waiting from 9pm and got the toy at about midnight.

“I bought it for myself because I am a huge fan of the minions. I have five others at home,” he said.

Kindergarten teacher Sarojini Shree, 41, arrived at about 11.30pm with her son to get the toy for her daughters.

“We did not get the first few but we really hope to get this one,” she said.

Universiti Malaya intern William Chong, 23, said he waited for an hour and a half because he wanted the toy for his friend as a birthday present.

“I didn’t buy during the first week when the toy was not as popular, so now I am waiting in queue to buy one,” he said.

At the outlet, customers who were only buying the Happy Meal for the toy were given the option of donating the food to local charity homes.

Previously, some customers around the country were taking out the toy and throwing away the food.

In Penang, three college students took advantage of the minion craze to collect more than 50 Happy Meal sets for charity.

Mass Communication students Wong Ben Li, Lai Yan Jun and Khoo Chun Kiat, all 20, stood at the exit of the McDonald’s outlet in Jalan Masjid Negeri from 11pm to 1am to collect the meals from those who only wanted the toys.

The meals were then distributed to vagabonds at the Komtar bus station.

A minion is a “small, yellow, cylindrical-shaped, genetically humanised kernel” which is one of the most notable characters in the Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 movies.

Toys of these characters have taken the country by storm and other licensed minion toys have been flying off the shelves in several shopping centres.