Minions are invading a small town, and the dark mastermind behind the invasion is proving harder to unmask than any cult-cartoon criminal mastermind.
Scrap metal sculptures of Minions, the subservient race of short, yellow minions for the James Bond-esque super villains in the Despicable Me series of children’s films, have been mysteriously turning up in the western Victorian town of Warrak.
Locals like Mountainside Wines co-owner Shane Goninon are baffled as to who made the 24 sculptures and why.
“We’re (Warrak) just a small venue of about 70 people and they’ve just turned up and nobody knows who’s doing it so it’s quite funny,” he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
Goninon said that the first Minion appeared after almost everyone in town attended a Christmas party.
“One of the people on the street, John, went home from the party and in front of his house he was the first and no one knew what was going on,” Mr Goninon said.
Sculptures of cult cartoon characters, the Minions, have mysteriously appeared overnight in the small Victorian town of Warrak.
The Minion that appeared outside the property belonging to the local racecourse stewards donned appropriate jockey garb.
They just put on the community Facebook page that ‘we got home last night and Santa Claus left a mailbox’.
“Since then every couple of weeks they’ve been showing up overnight and we now have about 24 of them.”
Goninon said the manufacturer had to be local because of the inside knowledge that went into tailoring the Minions for each recipient.
The second to appear was outside the property of a Melbourne Demons AFL club supporter, so he was kitted out in the red and blue colors of the jersey.
“Someone higher up is a crazy Collingwood supporter, so his is black and white,” Mr Goninon said.
A specially thoughtful Minion was delivered to Gwen Pilgrim’s house.
“They knew that Gwen was really into gardening, so she has a plant growing on top,” Mr. Goninon said.
“Which was really good because she’s fighting cancer right now, so she was really happy to have one.”
A specially designed potted Minion has appeared on the property of a keen gardener who has been battling cancer.
This Minion has adopted the armor of Australian Ranger legend and folk hero Ned Kelly.
Since last December, the Minions have been showing up roughly every fortnight in the Victorian town of Warrak.
Other examples of purpose-built Minions include a jockey outside the neighboring houses of a father and daughter who act as butlers for the local racing club and a firefighter who appeared under the town’s central fire warning sign.
Outside the property of Mr. Goninon and his wife Jane is Minion serving a bottle in a wine glass balanced on his head.
“We’re a small boutique winery and this one came along and it’s pouring a bottle from one of our old labels, we ran out of that vintage so they did quite well,” Goninon said.
The town doesn’t have many children, but Mr. Goninon said one family ‘down the road’ has two young children.
“When we were 12 or 13 (Minions) they would actually go out every morning to see if they had one and after a couple of weeks one showed up there so they were wrapped up,” he said.
Goninon said the city’s Facebook community page was abuzz with speculation and Minions sightings.
Jane and Shane Goninon say they’ve noticed more cars passing their warehouse since the Minions started showing up.
Some of the Minions, like this reindeer, act as mailboxes, while others are simply ornamental.
“As soon as they go up, they put it up there and they get all the feedback,” he said.
‘Two or three people blame each other and it’s all in jest. Everyone is talking and laughing about it.
With the Minions starting to attract attention from across Australia and around the world, Mr Goninon said they were starting to prove a local attraction.
“We have noticed more cars passing by, families passing by looking,” he said.
“Some of the local nursing homes and schools have brought minibuses to take a look.”
As for who is the real culprit behind the junk sculptures, Mr. Goninon points the finger at native Daniel Buckingham, who has a sculpture of Gru, the criminal mastermind who leads the Minions in the movies.
“He’s the one some of us are suspicious of because he’s quite community-minded, he’s got the chops to do it, but he’s passionately in denial.” Mr. Gonimon said.
But Buckingham and others have pointed the finger back.
“Some of the people are teasing us that we’ve done it to get more people to go to the warehouse, but anyone who knows me knows that I don’t have any skills in that area,” Mr. Goninon protested.
I couldn’t make them to save my life.
The Minions are made of different sized gas canisters with eyes that appear to be metal dog bowls with reflectors attached to the inside and arms welded to the outside of the pipe.
The Minion maker has been able to remain anonymous leaving them under the cover of darkness as there are no street lights in the region.
However, the mysterious figure has been captured on a property’s CCTV.
“Whoever did it was dressed up as Santa Claus in a bear suit,” Goninon said.
“It seemed like it only took them two and a half minutes to drill the hole, put the Minion in, and fill it with concrete.”
‘They have a big jug of water and they put in a couple of handfuls of quick-drying cement.’
When the time came, Mr. Goninon admitted that some mysteries are best left unsolved.
“Nobody wants to know,” he said.
Everyone is laughing with him.
