Love her or hate her, there’s no denying that pretty much everyone, even celebs, has caught the #Labubu bug. Designed by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung, it’s not unusual to see the toothy little furry monsters adorning bags by the multiples. Not to mention the uber long queues just to get into a Pop Mart store to bag one. What was once only known to toy collectors has since exploded into a global craze. And if your feed is like mine, no doubt you’d have seen loads of videos of fans doing blind box unboxings.
Recently, celebs like Raymond Lam’s wife Carina Zhang and Du Chun’s wife Wang Can showed off their Labubu displays. Chen He literally had a custom shirt made just so he can wear his and his wife’s Labubu collection. Even Luhan is a collector having nabbed the coveted “secrets” – the rainbow secret Labubu from the Big Into Energy series and the one from the Have a Seat collection.
Right: Carina Zhang on her Labubu collection : These little guys have gone up in price
Thanks to some clever “limited edition” marketing and the numerous celebs who’ve been snapped toting them, Labubus (as well as other Pop Mart characters) have continued to go viral and skyrocket in popularity in China. So much so that stock has been flying out of the stores like hotcakes. Even the resale market is booming as the exorbitant prices demanded by scalpers didn’t appear to hinder collectors from shelling out a ridiculous amount just to secure one.
