New Zealand's most beloved human-sized animatronic vegetables have found a new home.
The mechanical food items were an iconic part of the Big Fresh supermarket until the chain shut down in 2003. While in their glory days they played music and waved at customers, they've spent years languishing in a Mt Eden junk shop.
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But no longer. Eleven of the characters were listed on TradeMe earlier in September, and on Sunday evening they were sold to a new owner.
The top bid came from a user identified only as Helene from Dargaville. She paid $4520 for the rare haul - just $20 more than the reserve price.
Despite a flurry of nostalgic interest in the Big Fresh characters after they featured on series Get It to Te Papa, the unusual auction ultimately attracted just three bids.
Seller Junk & Disorderly told potential bidders that while the characters are no longer capable of singing and dancing, they'd be "pretty easy to return to their former glory".
They expressed a desire for the new owner of the Big Fresh cast - which includes a carrot, a banana, a jar of jam, a slice of cheese and a pat of butter with a distressing human face - to store them somewhere they can be seen by the public, just as they were in the good old days.
Newshub.
