What Is A Labubu? Everything To Know About The Trendy Toy
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Excitement as hundreds queue for new Trafford Centre store - some for 12 hours
Labubu fever hit The Trafford Centre today as hundreds of people queued - some for more than 12 hours - for the opening of the new Pop Mart store. Located in the shopping mall's Lower Regent Crescent, the store threw up its shutters at 10am today (Saturday) after a flash mob performed for excited customers. The retailer sells a range of collectable items that have gained internet fame and trending status over the last few years, most notably The collectible doll and character comes from 'The Monsters' series, created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung. Other brands sold by Pop Mart include SkullPanda and Crybaby. Around 300 people were in the queue ahead of opening, keen to get their hands on the famous dolls and trinkets. At the front of the queue were Susan Ghosh, from The Wirral, with daughter Ajaya, 13 and her pal Lily Hardy, 13. Susan, Ajaya and Lily at the front of the queue (Image: NQ) They had queued since 10.15pm on Friday night and the trip ended up being well worth their while as they spent £900 once inside. Ajaya said: 'We've been chilling, watching movies, trying to sleep in a chair. 'I just love how cute they are. I have some on my bag.' Emerging with bags full of goodies, the trio were also delighted to have been rewarded with some free gifts for their effort. Delighted with their haul, including a £215 The Monsters - Labubu - Let's Checkmate Vinyl Plush Doll that is a rare and sought-after collectible (Image: NQ) Jenni Owen had been queuing with twin sons, Eddie and Hughie, eight and Ralphie, nine, since just after 4am. Jenni, who had travelled from Poynton, said: 'They did a queuing system outside for us. We came yesterday to know what door was open, what the queuing system was going to be like. 'It was all set up and quite organsied. 'I just wish it was like a normal shop that opened at 9am but The Trafford Centre opens at 10am. 'But it's been good, everyone has been really friendly.' Identical twins Eddie and Hughie, both eight, with brother Ralphie, nine, and mum Jenni Owen (Image: NQ) More: 'I stayed at Blackpool's luxury hotel - and there was just one problem with my visit' More: Spellbinding ghost story with real-life Strictly couple brings chills on hottest day Once the shop opened, a first wave of 30 patient customers spilled into the store as the queues got thicker throughout the morning. People had travelled from across the North West and the country for the opening, as far as London.
Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Buzz Feed
34 Bizarre Little Products You Will Treasure Forever
A mini inflatable tube guy for your desk to cheer you on (or remind you to take a lil' dance break whenever you overwork yourself). A NeeDoh "Dream Drop," another release from the *elite* Needoh sensory fidget toy line for anyone who wants to add more calm and focus to their day. This goo-filled, delightfully colorful fidget has a satisfying squish with a "slow rise" before going back to its original shape. Reviewers also love that it doesn't have the kind of stickiness that picks up debris and makes it hard to clean. A guided visual sloth "breathing partner" you can use for meditation and calm to shift your mindset. This is designed to guide you through either the popular 4/7/8 or 5/5 "calming breaths" to help reduce stress and anxiety, using colors that fade in and out softly as cues. Bonus: it's kid friendly! A waterproof retro-style Bluetooth speaker designed like a mini radio so you can blast your favorite songs as adorably as possible. Reviewers love how portable this little gizmo is, and how well the sound carries despite its size! A set of cheerful Lego botanical "happy plants," aka your new favorite coworkers. How can capitalism bring you down when these two are smiling up at you all day long? All the joys of having an office plant without the shame of your coworkers being like, "Shouldn't you ... maybe ... water that??" A "Gracula" garlic crusher, because you know what? If a 108-year-old vampire lurking moodily in the trees in the Pacific Northwest isn't going to fall in love with you and grant you immortality, one might as well make your life in the kitchen a little easier. A dainty Labubu outfit if you want to make your favorite sleep demon feel like a pretty pretty princess. And a Labubu-shaped candy, chocolate, and ice mold so you can celebrate your (haunted) companion by turning them into a little TREAT. This is also a great option for a Labubu-themed cake — it's heat-safe up to 446℉! A sword-shaped grater for anyone out there who isn't just a cheese lover, but a cheese gladiator. Fight valiantly, my dairy-tolerant friends. A set of lil' cat butt coasters so all your beverages can come with a side of 😳🐱😳🐱😳. A cloud-shaped magnetic key holder for an absurdly cute storage option for keys that will prettttyyy much guarantee you never lose them again. A Grim Steeper silicone tea infuser to remind you that life is, in fact, too short to skip on your delicious morning cuppa. A Jellycat-inspired coffee mug so precious that you'll shed a tiny tear into your coffee every morning, overwhelmed by its cuteness. Look at those itty bitty legs and that wee happy smile!! A Godzilla microwave cleaner you can fill with water and vinegar and stick in the microwave. After five minutes, the gunk will be so loose that you can DESTROYYYYYY it all the way this big dude came after Manhattan. A Frenchie-themed cheese board to serve some top notch char-woof-erie at your next party. A dino nugget pillow set that is actually a mandatory purchase for anyone born or raised in the '90s, I don't make the rules. (But I do enforce and eat them.) A "Penny the Penguin" silicone measuring cup designed with an easy grip, an even easier spout pour, and a design so adorable that you'll bake yourself out of house and home just for an excuse to use her. A cloud-shaped utility knife you will *need* in your life if you're a person who gets a lot of packages — this will save you a whole lot of time and effort (and DESPAIR over your ruined nails) with quick, easy cuts. A little tomato light reviewers compare to the (out of stock!) $89 Urban Outfitters version, and swear by to cozify their kitchen space. Is it a fruit? Is it a vegetable?? Whomst can say, but whatever it is, it's adorable. Birdie, an indoor carbon dioxide monitor that — bless her dramatic heart — flips over and "dies" if the air quality in your home goes down, prompting you to open a window or run an air purifier so you can breathe easier. Once Birdie is happy with the air quality again, she'll pop back up! A set of cowboy straw toppers to add some much-needed "yeehaw!" into your hydration regimen, and keep your straws safe from germs out here in the wild, bacterial West. A set of itty bitty ceramic rice ball vases that all onigiri lovers deserve to have on their desk as a delicious aesthetic. LOOK AT THESE HAPPY BUBS. A pet cloud because honestly ... some of us were *not* cut out for the pet and plant parenthood, and this is our next best bet. This lil' bub does require "a lot of love and attention," plus a 30-minute walk and a steady diet of "tears of joy," but one look at that precious face and you'll be able to swing it. A darling "Candle By The Hour" beehive candle with an absolutely genius concept — once you light it, it only burns until the flame reaches the tip of the little extinguisher, so you don't have to worry about forgetting an open flame. This version is especially cute because you get to decorate the little bees on it yourself! A clever bee-shaped toothpick dispenser designed so that the toothpicks come out of the "stinger." Everyone will simply be ~~buzzing~~ over how adorable this looks on your dinner table. A set of french fry clips that not only secure your food bags, but rest in their own little magnetic fry pouch that sticks onto the fridge. Just further proof that there is nothing the humble potato cannot do. A set of cat-themed tarot cards purrrfect for first-timers, complete with a guide on how to pull the cards and how to interpret them. You'll be doing readings for everyone from yourself to your BFF to your actual cat, by the end of the week. A shaved sheep plushie that is so! darn! FLUFFY!!!! that you will not be able to resist the adorable siren call of zipping its fuzzy little "coat" on and off when your brain needs a cozy vacation. A set of Goldfish fridge magnets — aka "Holdfish" — to instantly assert the superiority of this cracker to anyone who enters your home and dares to think they can suggest a snack food that doesn't smile back. A platypus jar scraping spatula so you can get every!! last!! MORSEL!!! of your peanut butters, Nutellas, and mayos, just as international super spy and legendary hero Perry the Platypus would have wanted. A reusable silicone cactus dryer ball that pet owners especially love because it catches hair like nobody's business. These lil' desert bubs will also help soften fabric, reduce wrinkles, *and* save drying time, so they'll put all the decorative but useless succulents in your home to shame. A stackable set of sheep toilet roll holders so you'll never be caught in a baaaaaaaa-d situation without an extra bit of TP to spare. A set of adorable plush shark coin holders that will de-fin-itely get you a lot of compliments when you're ~fishing~ for change at the grocery store. A dimmable sad duck night-light because sometimes you just have to look at this emotionally deflated creature on your desk and be like, "Welp. At least I'm doing better than that little dude."
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
A Harry Potter-Inspired ‘Return to Hogwarts' Party Is the Best Way to Fend Off the Back-to-School Scaries
PureWow editors select every item that appears on this page, and some items may be gifted to us. Additionally, PureWow may earn compensation through affiliate links within the story. All prices are accurate upon date of publish. You can learn more about the affiliate process here. You can learn more about that process here. Yahoo Inc. may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Read the original article on Purewow. Heading back to school can bring a wave of excitement—and anxiety. What will my teacher be like? Will I make friends? What if everyone is over Labubu and I get laughed out of class for my prized Lafufu collection dangling off my backpack?! Sixth grade was a huge adjustment for me, so much so that I dreaded every day of it, those first few weeks—but Harry Potter got me through it. Immersed in a world so fantastical, with characters so oddly relatable (despite the giants and thestrals and a certain immortality-seeking, murderous wizard), I devoured each book so quickly that I had to ration how many chapters a day I'd read, just to extend the storyline a bit longer. So, when my daughter, nieces and nephew seemed less than thrilled at the idea of summer ending—and teacher friends described combatting the 'back-to-school scaries'—I thought, what if we could turn some of that magic into a back-to-school party? Thus, the Return to Hogwarts party was born. Armed with a little creativity, a modest budget (my goal was to spend $150 or less) and roughly three hours to throw it all together, here's what I did—along with some ideas if you want to take things to the next level. (If you do, please send me your photos! I'd love to see them.) What to Make 1. Send the Invites Paperless Post Nobody has time to train a snowy owl to deliver personalized, wax-sealed letters of acceptance (though for $25, you can score a customized Hogwarts letter and supplies list that's frame-worthy). As a cheaper—and more timely alternative—might I suggest modifying Paperless Post wizard party invites (26 cents each) or creating and sending your own for free with Canva? 2. Create Your Own Platform 9 ¾ original photos: candace davison Cover the door—or even a portion of it—with brick bulletin board paper ($12), then tape a Platform 9 ¾ sign to the outside to set the tone of the party as people arrive. I made the Platform sign using the DM Serif Display font within a large circle on Canva (which I'll share here), which I printed and cut out. It took less than 10 minutes, but it made a big impact. 3. Set Up the Great Hall original photo: candace davison Confession: I had aspirations of buying Poly-fil, sheets and LED lights to create a stormy sky, like this phenomenal TikTok, but given my time and budget constraints, I wound up pointing my projector toward the ceiling, playing a loop of a starry sky, and hanging floating candles ($35; $25). Nobody seemed to mind; they were too busy passing around the wand that came with said candles—it functioned like a remote, allowing you to flick on and off the lights with the press of a button. There are a few designs like this sold online, but I've found Michaels Ashland candles are the most reliable and easiest to use. (On that note, shoutout to Michaels in general, because their Ashland line inspired half the decor—like this LED-lighted mantel scarf, $25, LED pillar candle set, $30, and ceramic cauldron, $12, all of which I can re-use for Halloween. Also, I saved 30 percent on my entire order by ordering online for a curbside pickup, which saved me time to boot, since I didn't have to scour stores for what I needed.) original photo: candace davison To further my theme while remaining budget friendly, I bought eight sheets of felt (67 cents apiece), in each of the four Hogwarts houses' colors. I cut them into four flags, using the other four pieces of felt to cut out a giant letter for each house's name, and glued it on top as decorations to hang on the walls. 4. Conjure Up a Sorting Hat Photo Opp original photo: candace davison If you have a statement armchair—or in my case, a swing chair—use it to your advantage. If you don't, you'll have plenty of leftover brick bulletin board paper you can use to cover a wall as a backdrop. To make more of a statement, I flanked the chair with these floating acceptance letter garlands I found on Amazon ($15). They come pre-strung on clear nylon, though I found I needed to use clear packing tape or string them from my curtain rods so they wouldn't immediately (and constantly) fall down. Still, it was worth it, especially when paired with the Official Sorting Hat (at $32, it was my 'splurge,' but it was a must). What to Serve 5. Concoct 2-3 Semi-Spooky Snacks original photo: candace davison There's no shortage of Harry Potter-inspired treats you can serve at your party (Snitch-inspired chocolate bon bons! Butterbeer fudge! Pumpkin Pasties!), but that can get pretty time-consuming. I try to stick to two or three 'statement' snacks (I made green chocolate-drizzled, candy-eye topped "Madeye Moody's popcorn" and pretzel-rod wands) and then round things out with a few kid-friendly basics, like tater tots, pizza cut into two-bite pieces and a basic crudité platter. 6. Rebrand a Few Tried-and-True Classics original photos: candace davison To that end, just because you're not constructing the Marauder's Map out of puff pastry doesn't mean you can't infuse a little magic into the food table with a few creative name cards. That veggie platter? Well, it's Professor Sprout's garden, of course, and the mango-pineapple juice? Trade out the bottle for a pitcher and some test tubes; it's a Polyjuice Potion now. (And, as my niece declared, it was 'the key' to turning her into Hermione Granger—not the costume that my brother-in-law had brought her in.) Even pigs in a blanket can be, uh, Basilisks in a Blanket, with the right signage. What to Do 7. Make Grade School Pennants (or Charm Bracelets) original photo: candace davison Since I was entertaining a gaggle of kids entering second through fourth grade, my crafts were relatively low lift. I put out colored pencils and crayons, along with these printable 'I'm entering ___ grade' pennants our PureWow team designed (which you can use too; just save this PDF). After decorating them, the kids could cut them out and tape them to a bamboo chopstick for their Sorting Hat photos. If you're entertaining an older crowd, they may be down with a goofy sorting hat pic…not so much coloring flags. In that case, pivot! Backpack charms are having a major moment, and if my crew were a bit older, I would've scooped up these Hogwarts and Horcrux charm sets ($15), basic beads in Hogwarts colors and a few Keyring Lobsters ($5). 8. Visit the Wand Shop original photo: candace davison Bamboo Chopsticks ($6) were another Hogwarts party MVP: Not only did I use them for the pennants, but I broke them apart and used them as the base for my wand-making station. Before the party, I used a hot glue gun and glue sticks to design swirls, criss-cross patterns and polka dots along the bottom half of several chopsticks, to give them the engraved and knobby looks of the wands from the Harry Potter series. I covered my table with posterboard, and let each witch and wizard take turns playing with the wand options, as they searched for their perfect fit. Once 'the wand chooses the wizard,' the kids got to paint them, then we moved onto snacks before returning to embellish them with metallic Sharpie markers. In hindsight, I would've added some rhinestones and glue, just for some extra flair for the Luna Lovegoods and future Beauxbatons transfers among us. 9. Get 'Sorted' into Your New Grade original photo: candace davison You're not a regular mom, you're a wizard, 'Arry! Oh, wait, I'm conflating quotes, aren't I? Ah, well. While other parents opt for the standard First Day of School chalkboard sign, I vote that you give your kids a different cheesy photo opp to cringe over in five years! We had fun putting on the Sorting Hat and having kids shout out which grade they were going into, before flashing their pennant (and biggest grins) for a pic. 10. Watch the Movie original photo: candace davison One of the nice things about Harry Potter is that the series grows with its audience, so my younger crowd appreciated seeing the first movie, whereas older kids—as in, 10 and up—may prefer to watch later films, like Prisoner of Azkaban and beyond. (Funny enough, we didn't even get through the movie—the kids were having too much fun pretending to be witches and wizards with their new wands.) The Bottom Line: Don't Overthink It original photos: candace davison It's so easy to turn Pinterest into a Portkey, racking up so many DIYs that you'll need three weeks' time and five figures to create The Core Memory of a Lifetime. But the thing is, all you really need are some floating candles, a wand-making station and solid snacks to have a great (and unforgettable) back-to-school party. Promise. 15 Harry Potter-Inspired Airbnbs You'll Want to Apparate to, Stat
