What Is A Labubu? Everything To Know About The Trendy Toy

Buzz Feed

7 days ago

In the era of sweet little treats and trying to ignore the dumpster fire state of the world with whimsical little trinkets, it's no surprise blind boxes are having a moment. Coming off the heels of Sonny Angels, Labubus are scratching that nostalgic and ugly-cute itch for those of us that grew up collecting Troll dolls or Beanie Babies back in the day.
Now, I bet you're probably thinking, 'Okay, cool, but what the heck is a Labubu?' Well, the furry little creatures hail from a series of books called The Monsters by artist Kasing Lung. Lung — a Hong Kong-based artist living in the Netherlands — took inspiration from Nordic folklore and mythology to create these little mischievous elves, with their huge eyes and jagged little teeth. Lung struck a deal with Pop Mart to bring his creations to life off the page, and the rest is history.
Besides Labubus, Pop Mart also sells collectibles of other creatures from the books. There's Zimomo, who is bigger than the Labubus and has a tail. He's the leader of the Monsters (fun fact: Labubus are canonically girlies!) and is described as being more mellow than the others. There's also Mokoko, who is pink, has a heart-shaped nose, and is described as a total sweetheart.
All these characters — plus a ton of others from Pop Mart's various blind box collections — can be found IRL at the PopLand theme park in Beijing.
While it's not too hard to find Pop Mart's other iconic collections, like Skullpanda, Crybaby, or Peach Riot (a personal favorite of mine, TBH), I'm sorry to say you won't be able to get your hands on a Labubu right now without putting up a bit of a fight first. That is unless you're A-OK with paying a boatload for resale or getting a Lafufu instead — the internet's teasing name for the plethora of decent-to-horrifyingly-botched Labubu knockoffs that have taken gas stations and flea markets alike by storm in the wake of the Labubu craze.
I've gotta be honest with you, Lafufus are kinda iconic.
As of right now, you can't simply walk into a Pop Mart store and buy a Labubu blind box off the shelves, unfortunately. If you happen to live near a Pop Mart Robo Shop (like the one off of Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles, which is essentially a vending machine), they occasionally restock them IRL, but they tend to sell out in the blink of an eye, so you've gotta be fast. Your best bet is to try and snatch one in their online drops — either on their website or through the TikTok Shop during Pop Mart's livestream — for face value (which is about $30), then have it shipped to your home or pick it up in-store.
In my experience, I was only able to add one to my cart and cross my fingers as I checked out in hopes of it not selling out before I was able to press 'confirm,' but others have reported being able to use Pop Mart's virtual 'pick one to shake' option, which hints at which Monster might be inside (and confirms which one definitely isn't), allowing you to increase your chances of getting the one you want. This seems most common with Pop Mart's latest Labubu collection, Big Into Energy. In general, though, I've heard through the grapevine that the Pop Mart website tends to restock in small quantities around 7 p.m. PT daily, and that's how I got mine.
On the slim chance that they do find their way to a store near you, like they did a little over two months ago when Pop Mart opened a new physical store in Culver City, be prepared to go into battle. I truly wish I were exaggerating, but the turnout for their Big Into Energy collection was so overwhelming and chaotic that they had to cancel it until a later time according to those who attended.
All that being said…have you hopped on the Labubu bandwagon? Are you dying to get your hands on one or are you rolling your eyes at everybody losing their minds over a plushie? Or are you simply enjoying the secondhand serotonin from watching other people unbox theirs? Tell us your take in the comments below.