By Pham Tran
The universal family of blind box toys has officially welcomed a new member: the Labubu!
Labubu said “Hello world!” in 2015. The father of this elf-like PopMart toy was Kasing Lung, a Hong Kong artist. Starting from his childhood love for fairy tales, he transformed the love in his heart into words on paper. Labubu, inspired by Nordic mythology and folklore, was initially chosen to be one of the main characters in his story, “The Monsters.” Just like the fairy tale of his dream, the world of “The Monsters” was a place full of magical creatures with many goods and a few villains.
Design
Famous for her mischievous look, you can easily recognize Labubu if you ever get the chance to purchase. She will always be grinning at you with her nine serrated shiny teeth making it look like she is putting a spell on you if you don’t call them pretty. Her high, pointed ears were created because of Lung’s interest in European elf stories, not to pretend to be any granny and eat her granddaughter up. Another point to prove that our Labubu is not like the evil wolf or any four-leg predators in nature is that she doesn’t have a tail.
Her fur always comes in different colors with a soft texture that you just want to keep petting. The big oval and glossy eyes of Labubu could make your heart skip a beat any second!
Fashion accessory
Labubu has two jobs. While she works full-time as a lovely plush toy on your bed for you to hug at night or decoration on the shelf, she also works part-time as a bag charm. Every Labubu comes up with a keychain hoop on her head that you can put on your purse or backpack wherever you go out. The toy works incredibly well as a fashion accessory to give that unique touch to your outfit of the day. This makes Labubu a win-win!
Market and popularity
Pop Mart adopted the blind box technique to market the boy. Every Labubu blind box costs around $85 for larger sizes and $15-$20 for smaller ones. By using this strategy, Labubu, the “Jack” in this box, will bring customers many surprises and emotions upon opening the package since they could never predict which Labubu they are going to get in the series. This makes customers keep wanting to come back to the store and buy until they get the Labubu of their dreams.
The toy flies off the shelves due to its limited availability and consistent new releases of different themes every time. Since this little friend comes from Asia, it is greatly adorned by K-Pop idols such as Lisa from Blackpink. Through this influence, Labubu’s popularity is boosted to a VIP level since now everyone has to hunt down sites that still have them in stock and bring them home as soon as possible before anybody else lands hands on them.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Labubu is worth the hunt, and patience is needed to obtain if you are a blind box lover or a professional PopMart toy collector. But opposite views will always exist and think that their prices are unreasonably high, if you are one of them then let me tell you, I think that Daiso plush on your bed is totally sick!
