Unless you spent your summer off the grid, you’ve likely encountered a Labubu — a small, furry doll with rabbit-like ears and a cute but demonic face. The collector toys, which have quickly become the summer’s most sought-after accessory, are likely to put you in one of three camps: the Labubu obsessives, the Labubu haters or the Labubu baffled.
I belong to the third. When Labubus started showing up in my social media feeds and group chats, often as charms attached to bags and purses, I had no idea what I was looking at — or why. That bewilderment has since turned into a kind curiosity. Why has this doll garnered so much attention now? With this question in mind, I turned to Jason Purcell, poet, PhD candidate and unofficial Labubu expert, for answers.
Purcell is a member of the Labubu obsessed. They have multiple Labubus themself, and have sourced Labubus — which has become very difficult — for family, friends and a few eager online connoisseurs. Purcell acknowledges that the trend is likely on the downswing, but Labubus — and their successors Lafufus — still have a lot to say about the cultural moment in which we find ourselves.
Edify: First of all, what is a Labubu?
Purcell: This answer has two parts. First of all, it’s a character from a series of books. A Chinese artist named Kasing Lung, who grew up in the Netherlands, wrote a few children’s books called The Monsters, based on Nordic folklore. Labubu is one of the characters in this community of monsters. Then in 2019, Kasing Lung partnered with Pop Mart, a Chinese company that produces “blind boxes” (packaging that conceals the product inside, so each purchase is a surprise) with different IP. The Labubu wasn’t very popular until Lisa, a member of the K-pop group Blackpink, was seen with one on her bag. (Lisa, whose real name is Lalisa Manobal, was also a main character on the third season of The White Lotus.) That is responsible for the upswing that we’ve seen since 2024, where people like Rihanna are now wearing them as well.
Edify: And why did this character take off in a way that other characters from The Monsters haven’t?
Purcell: I think it has the most interesting face. If you look at all the other characters, Labubu is the one that has the most appeal when it comes to this cuteness/ugliness. It straddles that line. It’s more complicated than just a cute toy.
There’s also the blind box model. There are a number of Tiktok creators who have grown huge platforms just from unboxing toys — getting ones they want or ones they don’t want. People get a kind of thrill from watching. China’s government has actually issued warnings on blind boxes, comparing them to gambling addictions.
Edify: The Labubu craze seems like the perfect intersection of a number of different present-day cultural phenomena. You have the legalization of online gambling, unboxing videos and Korean pop culture’s growing influence on the world.
Purcell: Many of the people collecting Labubus are millennial or Gen Z, generations for whom a hope for the future feels like it’s sort of been taken from them. Pairing that with this economic moment, where we’re seeing a kind of “lipstick effect” — where, in moments of economic downturn, people are more willing to spend their money on something like lipstick because they can’t afford a vacation or a house — but they can buy things like this that give them a small surge of joy or feeling of control over their world.
Edify: What do they retail for?
Purcell: When I started getting them, they retailed for $29.99 Canadian. Then they increased the price to $37.99. But it’s really challenging to get it from Pop Mart directly, because they’re popular and because there is a manufactured scarcity. Pop Mart will do limited drops. So sometimes they’re scheduled, and sometimes they just drop randomly, and they’ll limit the number of boxes or sets available. There are also bots that comb the company’s website and buy up stock. The more premium Labubus cost $80 to $90 new but can go for anywhere between $200 to $400 on the resale market.
Edify: Were they initially made for kids?
Purcell: On the box it says, “The product is suitable for the collection and decoration of people aged above 15. Not for children under 14 years old.” They’re made for adults who, for whatever reason, have an impulse to collect things. Psychologists call this an “extended self.” So collecting things into adulthood is a way of preserving and reaching back toward, maybe not innocence, but a sense of whimsical, childish optimism and nostalgia.
Among people my age there is also a camp of people who are like, “Fuck Labubus.” They’re ugly, they’re stupid, they’re promoting overconsumption, they’re terrible for the environment. Some of these are really valid criticisms, but in those same critics, I see the inner children who were denied having the “cool thing” when they were kids. Maybe it touches a wound — and I get that too.
This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
