Food plushies and merch: Whetting appetites for SG60

SINGAPORE – Give yourself a pat on the back if you walked away from 2025 without a single plushie in the shape of local food.

Kaya toast, in particular, was ubiquitous in this SG60 year, appearing on so many forms of merchandise that it is a wonder we did not collectively grow sick of the breakfast favourite.

“Kaya toast” was even added to the Oxford English Dictionary in March, defining it as a popular breakfast dish or afternoon snack typically served in Malaysian and Singaporean kopitiams, accompanied by a half-boiled egg.

As to be expected during a milestone birthday for Singapore, the appetite for all things hyper-local soared. And retailers were happy to leverage that.

For better or worse, Singapore food-themed merchandise dominated retail consciousness.

Collectors might trace the start of the obsession to April, thanks to Milo plushies that sparked a nationwide rush to the supermarket – the likes of which we had not seen since the early days of Covid-19.

The chocolate malt beverage-maker released eight toy collectibles – in shapes ranging from a kaya toast to a Milo tin – to jointly celebrate its 75th anniversary and SG60.

Singaporeans of all ages camped out at FairPrice and Sheng Siong supermarkets across the island, hovering around staff members restocking the prized plushies contained inside Milo bags and cartons, waiting hungrily to pounce.

While half of social media was filled with General Election content those few weeks, the other half showed Milo plushie hauls and live updates on which supermarket outlets were freshly restocked.

The positive reception opened the floodgates for a tsunami of

Singapore food-themed plushies

, mostly in the style of the smiley soft toys from British company Jellycat.

Among them were Old Chang Kee curry puffs, bags of flour from Prima Flour and a full suite of kopitiam-inspired dishes from gameplay and entertainment brand Play Nation.

Many came packaged like a randomised blind box, likely to incentivise multiple purchases.

And then there was food merchandise of the non-cuddly variety. Keychains, T-shirts and even pimple patches sported beloved local delights – peddled by brands ranging from Chin Mee Chin Confectionery to Adidas.

With so many overlaps in source material, it was only inevitable that there would be some fallout over seeing double.

In June, Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo came under fire for its local food campaign launched in May as part of its annual Thank You Festival.

Singaporean brands Musoka Club and PointyRice alleged intellectual property (IP) theft over the campaign, highlighting similarities between their products and Uniqlo’s.

Apparel brand Musoka Club questioned the

UTme! Local Delights Collection of local food-themed T-shirts

, comparing it with its own Dress Code: Kopitiam Series T-shirt collection launched in July 2023.

Lifestyle brand PointyRice compared Uniqlo’s

customisable cai fan (economy rice) keychain

and pop-up stall activity with its sticker line of mixed rice dishes, which it debuted with a pop-up stall concept in April.

Uniqlo rejected both claims and denied taking inspiration from either brand.

The incidents, which garnered attention on social media weeks apart, reignited a conversation surrounding shared heritage, intellectual property and

who gets to own the rights to local food culture

.

Food, argued creatives and artists, is a part of shared cultural identity that no one person or brand should lay exclusive claim to. That said, protecting original artistic or conceptual treatment should not be taken lightly either.

The bottom line, many agreed, was: Culture is shared, but artistic interpretation is not.

As this year’s amped-up patriotism winds down, hopefully we can leave kaya toast on our plates and off our bodies in 2026.