By Lam Ka-Sing

Copyright scmp

The iconic yellow rubber ducks that visited Hong Kong twice over the past 12 years have joined a parade of intellectual property (IP) characters in Victoria Harbour.
The IP, known as Tolo Founding Duck, also made a return to the city on Saturday. One of the ducks was encased in a three-metre-tall ita-bag at Ngong Ping 360 cable car facility on Lantau Island. Visitors will have until November 2 to check out the display.
The term ita-bag means “painful bag” in Japanese and refers to bags displaying badges, buttons and figurines.
The event is part of a bigger “Water Parade by AllrightsReserved”, which brings together other international IPs such as Hong Kong artist Lung Ka-sing’s elfin Labubu, a version of Sesame Street’s Elmo by American artist Kaws, McDonald’s Grimace and the Japanese manga character Doraemon.
The parade of inflatable exhibits will go on display in October in the waters off Tamar Park, near government headquarters in Admiralty.

AllRightsReserved (ARR), which is organising the event, said the Tolo ducks attracted the attention of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, who grew up with a tiny yellow rubber duck as a bathtub toy.
This triggered him to partner with ARR and hold two large-scale inflatable shows featuring the ducks in Victoria Harbour in 2013 and 2023, events that attracted tens of thousands of local and overseas visitors.
The IP for ducks goes back to 1996 in Hong Kong.
Tolo Toys managing director Tam Chi-meng told the Post that the original design sketch, dating back to November that year, featured a tuft of hair on the duck’s forehead and was modified to a simpler, rounder shape to accommodate the limitations of production technology at the time.
Tam said the company was founded in Hong Kong in 1985 with a factory in Tsuen Wan, before moving production to Zhongshan in the late 1980s.
He said the brand’s name itself was rooted in the city, inspired by the founder’s regular commute past Tolo Harbour.

The company has since remained at the self-owned facility and has no plans to relocate to Southeast Asia despite economic pressures, citing concerns that the quality standards required for its infant-focused toys could not be met elsewhere.
“Many manufacturers are unwilling to make toys for the zero-to-three age group because the quality and safety requirements are too high,” Tam said.
He said Tolo’s products were designed to be extremely durable, with no visible screws, and able to withstand being dropped by a baby without breaking or losing their function.
Tam said his company had sold more than 1 million of the bathtub ducks since the product launched in 1997.
The duck is one of more than 500 products made by the company, but it has become a massive symbol of the business.
Discussing the company’s sales outlook, Tam said: “We try our best to keep things flat, just maintaining it is okay.”
New tariffs by the United States have cut its American sales by half, while the business was also facing headwinds resulting from a low global birth rate, he said.

The company’s renewed focus on its brand identity comes as the Hong Kong government lobbies Beijing to extend the Madrid Protocol to the city, an international system that simplifies trademark protection in up to 131 member countries.
“We would have to apply if there’s a chance, because you still have some licences that belong to you,” Tam said.
He added that while IP was not taken as seriously in the past, his company would now be following the matter more closely.
“We want to see how to do these things, to elevate ourselves, and let people know that Hong Kong actually still has a brand that can achieve this,” he said.
With the ducks turning 40 years old next year, the company would retrieve the old design drawing to see if the company could remake the original duck, Tam said.
Tolo ducks will also go on display at a bazaar near Tamar Park, along with more IP characters such as those from Netflix’s blockbuster series KPop: Demon Hunters, Stranger Things and Squid Game.
The bazaar will run from October 25 to November 1 and offer interactive experiences and IP merchandise.