By Scarlett Tarango
If you’ve been anywhere on social media recently, or even just been in public somewhere, you’ve probably seen one of these bunny-like, creepy looking creatures hanging off of people’s bags. Pop Mart’s newest hit, Labubus, have taken the internet by storm. From mile long lines outside Pop Mart stores to insanely high resell prices, these little collectable beasts have the entire world losing their minds. What started this frenzy? What’s all the hype about Labubus? Here’s everything you need to know.
Labubu’s are the internet’s newest favorite collectable keychain toy. There’s currently 3 different series to choose from, the original Macaron series, Have a seat (or version 2), and Big into Energy (or version 3). Each series has 6 different colored characters and 1 secret mystery character to collect by random chance. Just how popular are these little critters? Currently there are 1.3 million videos under the hashtag ‘Labubu’ on Tiktok. Their overwhelming popularity has caused mass financial success for Pop Mart. In 2023 there was an increase from about 6.3 billion yuan to over 13 billion in 2024, which equates to around 1.8 billion U.S. dollars according to Statistica.com. Despite their recent spike in popularity, Labubus have actually been around for quite awhile. It all began with artist Kasing Lung, who originally debuted the characters in 2015 for a book series called The Monsters. It wasn’t until 2019 when Lung partnered up with Pop mart to launch the toy series we know and love today. If these little monsters have been around since 2019, what caused their sudden rise to fame within the last year? There are quite a few factors that contributed to it.
Kpop star Lisa from Blackpink may be partly to blame. In 2024 she appeared onstage wearing a custom made Labubu pinned to her waist as an accessory to her outfit. This appearance caused fans racing to get their hands on their very own Labubu. Soon enough all the uproar created a worldwide frenzy for the things. People began rushing to Pop Mart locations at dawn just to wait in line. People also made it practically impossible to buy them online, keeping them constantly sold out on the Pop Mart website. During restocks, the website would frequently crash just because of the mass amount of users on it at the same time. To say these things are in high demand would be an understatement. Since Lisa’s public affection for the toy, other celebrities have also shown their love for Labubus, including Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, and Kim Kardashian. Besides a big celebrity bringing them to light, what else could have made Labubus so popular?
There isn’t much of a clear answer, however, this isn’t the first thing to blow up online practically overnight. Other popular collectables have also been blown up, like Sonny Angels, Smiskis, Skull Pandas, and plenty others. Despite these items being nothing more than a collectible, they all have one thing in common, the mystery and anticipation of not knowing what you’re going to get. Blind bags as a whole have increased in popularity over the last few years. Other than that, with the right amount of traction the internet tends to do its own work of making something as mainstream as it is, which now has Labubus as one of the most wanted collectibles in the world right now. Whether you think these creatures are cute or terrifying, Labubus have untied people across the globe over their love, or hatred towards them.
beniciapaw.com 