Latest news with #Bedlam
Buzz Feed
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Fake 'Lafufus' Are Flooding The Labubu Market – Here's How To Spot One
Chances are you've heard of Labubu by now – after all, celebs like Cher, Rihanna, David Beckham, Kim Kardashian, RuPaul (he dubbed his the 'LaRuRu,' of course), and Dua Lipa have been seen with the toy. Invented by artist Kasing Lun as part of his 'monsters' collection, the little toothy creatures are most often worn as a bag charm. Though 'Blind Box' Labubu pendants can sell for less than £20, choosing a specific version of the grinning gremlin is more pricey – one on Pop Mart's site will run you £164, while limited-edition collabs caused 'Bedlam' at Art Basel and have sold for hundreds of thousands at auction. No wonder fake Labubus, sometimes called 'Lafufus,' have flooded the market. This month, for instance, hundreds of fakes were seized in Ayrshire. But why are the toys so popular, and how can you spot a fake? Why are Labubus so popular? Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, Mandy Saven, a content director at consumer trends publication Stylus, said, 'The 'lottery' style of acquisition – what's in my blind box? Will I get the doll I desperately want? – provides a hit of dopamine that consumers are craving.' The limited runs and one-off collabs also provide 'a sense of rarity and exclusivity.' Then, there's social media 'hype' to consider – this 'turbocharged the Labubu appeal, and then algorithms did the rest,' Savern told us. Lastly, 'Labubu can tap into consumers' desire for nostalgia, reassurance and joy in these troubled times.' In other words, Beanie Baby-style collector frenzies combined with TikTok virality and simply the toothy-chic appeal of the charms have made them popular. How can I spot a fake Labubu? According to business insurance comparison site Bionic, there are four signs a Labubu is fake: 1) Packaging quality 'Genuine Labubu figures come in high-quality packaging with sharp printing, embossed logos, and secure seals,' Bionic told us. 'Poorly printed or flimsy boxes are a major red flag.' 2) Finish and detail 'Authentic Labubu figures have clean, precise detailing and consistent paintwork,' Bionic continued. Watch out for sloppy paint, uneven edges, or 'off' proportions. 3) Branding and stamps 'Check for the official Pop Mart and Kasing Lung markings, including serial numbers or authenticity stamps typically located on the base or packaging,' the insurance experts added. You should expect a 'Pop card' with the character name and illustration, along with a QR code and serial number, in the pack. 4) Pricing If the price sounds too good to be true, especially for a limited-edition Labubu, the pros say it's likely a fake. How many teeth does a Labubu have? All real Labubus have exactly nine fang-like teeth. If yours have more or less, that might also be a sign it's fake. Where can you buy an authentic Labubu in the UK? Pop Mart's official site is the most straightforward way to get a legit Labubu. But the company also works with TikTok on their own shop, Which? shared, while the consumer advocacy publication says you may also be able to nab yours from the 'Pop Mart Robo Shop pop-up on the fourth floor of Selfridges London.' The brand has also opened a new flagship store at 262 Oxford Street in London, while Pop Mart outlets are also available in Manchester, Birmingham, London, and Cambridge. The company's official vending machines, also known as Robo Shops, are in London and Reading. Pop Mart also has an Amazon storefront.
USA Today
7 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Bedlam Women's basketball back on for 2025-2026 per report
Bedlam is back on the docket for the 2025-2026 women's basketball season, according to a report from The Norman Transcript's Davis Cordova. Women's Bedlam basketball will take place on December 13 as part of a doubleheader with men's Bedlam. It'll be the first time the two teams have played since Oklahoma moved to the SEC. The Sooners won both matchups in the 2023-2024 season. The Sooners are coming off their first Sweet 16 appearance under Jennie Barancyzk and rode that momentum into landing the No. 1 prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, Aliyah Chavez. Oklahoma State made the NCAA tournament last season, but lost to No. 10 seed South Dakota State. Jennie Baranzcyk is 6-0 against the Cowgirls in her tenure as the Sooners' head coach. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on X @john9williams.
Fox Sports
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Top Performances Joel Klatt has called: Baker Mayfield shows out in Bedlam
The college football offseason is not only a great time to look ahead, but it's also a great time to do some reflection. In the latest episode of my podcast, I did a little reflection thanks to a mailbag question. A fan named Roy L asked me which player had the best performance in a game that I've called. Honestly, that's such a difficult question to answer. I can't pick just one because there have been so many incredible performances. So, I'm going to share my top five individual performances I've ever called instead. Throughout this week, I'll go one by one through my top five, in descending order. I have a pair of honorable mentions that I want to give shout-outs to. Kyler Murray in the 2018 Red River Showdown was phenomenal. Texas won that game, but the former Oklahoma quarterback had a run down the sideline in that game that's still probably the singular best play I've ever seen. The other honorable mention I had was Ohio State quarterback JT Barrett's comeback performance against Penn State in 2017. If you remember, Saquon Barkley took the opening kickoff for a touchdown, but Barrett was incredible in that game. I just couldn't find a spot for him on that list. Here's the full list to this point: 5. Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr. & Edge JT Tuimoloau @ Penn State (2022) 4. Michigan edge Aidan Hutchinson vs. Ohio State (2021) No. 3 on this list features another performance in one of college football's best rivalries. 3. Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield vs. Oklahoma State (2017) This was an incredible game in an incredible environment. Really, it's one of my favorite games I've ever called. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State traded absolute haymakers for 60 minutes in the 2017 Bedlam matchup in Stillwater. It was a wild offensive game, with Oklahoma winning, 62-52. And for the first time, I remember experiencing the Baker Mayfield swag. It didn't matter what Oklahoma State did in that game. Mayfield rolled out there and practically did the Conor McGregor strut, owning Oklahoma State's defense. He wasn't picking Oklahoma State's defense apart. He was torching them on deep passes. Mayfield's stat line was incredible, too. He completed 24 of 36 passes for 598 yards to go with six total touchdowns. As Mayfield nearly threw for 600 yards, he averaged just under 25 yards per completion (24.9). I've never seen someone throw for a higher yards-per-completion in my life. Also, if I'm not mistaken, I believe this was the game that my partner, Gus Johnson, gave Marquise Brown the "Hollywood" nickname. He had nine receptions for 265 yards and two touchdowns in that game. But Mayfield was dropping dimes. In almost every offensive series for Oklahoma, I remember watching Mayfield drop back and putting my hands on my head in amazement because I couldn't say anything while Gus was calling the game. At one point, I had to hit my mute button because I was uttering "no way!" at one of Mayfield's throws. Gus went wild, nicknames were born, and major numbers were put up. That's what helps make this one of the great performances I've called. A month after Oklahoma's win over Oklahoma State, Mayfield was named the Heisman winner. He also helped the Sooners reach the College Football Playoff. Joel Klatt is FOX Sports' lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast " The Joel Klatt Show. " Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the "Joel Klatt Show" on YouTube . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily. recommended Item 1 of 3 Get more from the College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more in this topic
New York Times
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Initial reacts to College Football 26, plus CFB's hardest rivalry to rank
Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic's college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox. Today in college football news, this week's audio fixation is 'To Someone Else' by Kacy Hill. Last night at 1 a.m., my daughter was semi-sarcastically cheering her heart out for a two-star center from Hawaii to finally agree to take his talents to the University of Delaware for the next 10 months or so. Why was she so invested? Because his name is 'Junior Mama.' We simply couldn't miss on a guy with that name. Advertisement And why just 10 months or so? Because on default settings, College Football 26's transfer portal is absolutely merciless toward small schools — making Dynasty mode feel like a Dark Souls-ass challenge for the first time in series history, pleasing those of us who want roster management to deliver fighting-for-my-life panic sweats. (You can tone down the max number of players who can leave each school per season.) My other favorite stuff so far in the game that releases on Thursday: And the stuff I hope can be fixed, in this life or the next: Overall, this game made a thousand little improvements, and for now, I'd end this mini-review by giving it a A-. Oh right, that includes the gameplay itself. The actual football parts are noticeably better in just about every way, from having much fuller control over substitutions to RECEIVERS ACTUALLY COMING BACK TO THE BALL 🍾🙌📈. Almost forgot about those parts. This week, Scott Dochterman took on the difficult challenge — both in terms of the studying required beforehand and the inevitable internet hollering afterward — of ranking college football's 100 best rivalries. I think Scott's top five is as close to indisputable as can be, with the only potential disputes in this opening cluster being the order of its middle three: It might seem odd to include that No. 5 game among the other no-doubters, considering it's been mostly skippable for a while now. But the OG interregional rivalry has altered so much CFB lore. On that note: One of the coolest things about Scott's list is how it mixes history (former Game of the Year machine Nebraska-Oklahoma at No. 6 even though they've barely met since 2010) with recency (Alabama-LSU at No. 13 despite that series being nothing special until Nick Saban coached each side). It's after that obvious top five when the fun really begins. That's when all the quibbles happen! Everybody's gonna have a few! In a followup explainer, Scott addressed both his detailed research process — and the hardest snubs, led by the frequently lopsided Michigan State-Ohio State. As for the feuds that made the cut, I had one question for him: What was the hardest rivalry to rank? 'No. 25 Bedlam, by far. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were ranked in 19 of their matchups and three times battled in the top 10. They played for 114 consecutive years. Those numbers are almost identical to Michigan-Michigan State. But Bedlam's win-loss disparity was shocking. Oklahoma owns a 71-win advantage (91-20-7) and has gone 55-10 when at least one side has been ranked.' It's true. For a long time, all Bedlam had to offer as a supposed top-shelf rivalry was a cool name (more on that name below). But then in 2023, the Cowboys won what might be the final edition, so now it's retroactively a great rivalry. Regardless, here's Scott's full list again. Now it's your turn. Proclaim your No. 1 rivalry, and list your top 10. Here's my top 10 as of today — and I think I'm mostly good with this order, too: 😡 More rivalry! Chris Vannini explains his 25 picks for the best rivalry names in all of college football. 💰 Texas Tech's lengthy NIL splurge has gone from fodder for 'yeehaw oil money' jokes to 'OK, hang on, everybody pay attention to this.' 🐏 'Travis Burgess, the 17-year-old son of a retired U.S. Army captain.' As soon as I saw those words in Bruce Feldman's profile of Bill Belichick's QB prospect, I felt pretty good about the young man's chances. 🍀 Speaking of sons, prepare to feel old: Notre Dame's list of a million sons of former players now includes a commitment from three-star WR Devin Fitzgerald, son of Larry. Oh, and there's more: 🅾️ 'Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione will retire this upcoming school year, he announced Monday, ending the longest active tenure for an AD in major college sports. It will also end the run for one of the most successful and respected administrative voices in college sports.' That's it. Email me at untilsaturday@ to tell me which new rivalry has the most potential to become great in this (currently) post-realignment era. Last week, your emails informed me Billy Napier will be this season's first head coach to be fired, and reader Lance argued the Big Ten is actually a somewhat accurate conference name, since it is indeed 'Big.' Last week's most-clicked: Seth Emerson on why Georgia Tech is good again. 📫 Love Until Saturday? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters, too.
USA Today
04-06-2025
- General
- USA Today
Oklahoma OF Maya Bland enters the transfer portal
Oklahoma OF Maya Bland enters the transfer portal Two days into the offseason, the Oklahoma Sooners have lost two players to the transfer portal, with more likely to come. On Tuesday, true freshman catcher Corri Hicks announced via social media that she's entering the portal. On Wednesday, it's Maya Bland looking for a new home. Bland stated via Instagram, "Thank you Sooner Nation for the love and support you've shown me these past two years. I greatly appreciate it. God's got a new path for me but I will cherish my time as a Sooner." The sophomore appeared primarily as a pinch runner for the Sooners in her two years in Norman, but she did have some big moments at the plate in 2025. She hit a two-run home run in Oklahoma's 5-1 win over Alabama back in April. Against Oklahoma State, Bland hit a game-winning three-run home to secure the run-rule win over the Sooners' Bedlam rivals. During her career with Oklahoma, Bland hit .277 with two doubles, three home runs, and 14 RBIs. She had 11 stolen bases, including eight as a true freshman in 2024. The Oklahoma Sooners are set to return the key pieces to their outfield in 2025. Kasidi Pickering, Abigale Dayton, Hannah Coor, Tia Milloy, and Chaney Helton will be back. Oklahoma's also bringing in the No. 1 player in the 2025 recruiting class, outfielder Kai Minor. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on X @john9williams.
