QR barcode scavenger hunts garner great publicity for the company running them if excuted successfully. This week, in NYC, online rare toy and art retailer Kidrobot is running one of the most clever mobile scavenger hunts I’ve seen. Using mobile barcodes, players have to scour the streets of NYC this week (Aug 31 – Sept 4) to find secret Dunny Hunt codes and win prizes.

Players must download a free QR Code Reader program to their iPhone, Blackberry or other smart phone. There are codes that can be found online, as well as in Manhattan. The more virtual “Dunnys” collected, the better chance of winning prizes. The website offers a map which gives clues to the locations of the hidden Dunnys.

Many Kidrobot toys are extremely rare and collectible and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Toy artists often choose to create a series of only a few hundred or a few thousand pieces, so once a toy is sold out, it’s sold out forever. Kidrobot toys retail from $6 to $20,000, and may appreciate in value over time. The Dunnys don’t come cheap, so the prizes, though they may look like toys, are also pricey collectors items worth scouring the city over.

According to Media Post, the company, whose products sell in over a thousand stores around the world, is using the New York program as a test, and plans to roll it out in the four other cities in which it has stores — and perhaps elsewhere.

Ad firm We Are Plus’s principal Jeremy Hollister and co-creative director Judy Wellfare at got the idea after spending time in Japan. “This technology has been used in Japan for some time, but it’s still relatively new here in America,” Hollister told Media Post.