Leaving Labubus

In search of the Holy Grail

Don’t you smile at me

There are many things that can strike fear into the heart of a girl’s father. But many of the ones you might be thinking of are still issues to come given that my daughter Keira is aged 8; the sentence she uttered recently that hit me hard was…

“Can you get me a Labubu?”

Ok so let’s set the stakes here. For those of you who either a) don’t follow the latest fashions amongst global youth culture, or b) just don’t have a tween daughter, the Labubu is a somewhat freaky-looking doll, with 9 (never more, never fewer) protruding teeth. Although the doll was originally invented in 2015 by Hong Kong-born designer Kasing Lung, the design became more popular after 2019 when they started selling through the Asian toy store Pop Mart. But they really took off in 2024 when various celebrities, notably firstly Lisa of Blackpink, started attaching them to bags as a keychain. The brand is now absolutely huge around the world, and so, of course, the toys are impossible to find.

Popularity had reached the stage that I had heard stories of parents in the UK queuing up for three hours for a new batch to go on sale, only to get five minutes from the front of the queue to be told the shop had sold out. I somewhat casually thought “ah this is China, I’ll be fine,” and popped off to my nearest Pop Mart. Even these shops are prevalent now, I think there are three within five minutes’ drive of our home. I walked into Pop Mart, past the huge “Labubu” banner outside, right up to the display cabinet full of Labubus smiling their toothy grin. On the side of the cabinet was a note, which, my Chinese characters not being quite what they should be, Keira translated for me.

Pop Mart. Shops everywhere. Labubus less so

“We are sold out. No Labubus for sale in the shop. Please try online.” Oh.

But then here you can buy pretty much anything online, so we hightailed it to Taobao, the domestic eBay/Amazon behemoth. Sure enough there were plenty of Labubus being advertised, so Keira picked one, and I ordered it.

Day 1: “Daddy, when is it going to arrive?”

Day 2: “Daddy, is it here yet?”

Day 3: “Daddy, is it coming tomorrow?”

Day 4: message on Taobao — “sorry, sold out. We will refund you.” D’oh.

I am showing my age somewhat by looking at these toys and just thinking, “why?” They are unquestionably ugly, with wide scary eyes and an overbite of sharp pointy teeth. There doesn’t seem to be much cuteness going on, more the likelihood of losing a finger. Yet popular they are. I suppose then it is the latest in a long line of generational trends that only work to confuse parents, such as the Cabbage Patch Kids in the ’80s, or later that decade the short-lived but extremely energetic snatching of VW logos from the front of cars that teenagers could wear as pendants or accessories.

Also, you are not always sure which one you are going to get. One of the biggest drivers for the toys is that they are often sold in ‘blind boxes’, where you can choose the theme, but you take potluck as to which Labubu you actually end up with. Cleverly the producers throw in the very occasional collectible, meaning that many fan goes back time after time in the hope that they will pick up the rarest of the range. These collectibles are of course now worth thousands.

You can look…but you can’t touch…

Because this is China, there are inevitably fake versions as well. Known informally as “Lafufus” these are made in China — probably in the same factory as the real ones — and are sold off at much lower prices despite in some cases being almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Could I get one of these and tell Keira it was the real thing? Would she be able to tell? I mean it might be worth the risk…There was one shop near us selling them across the counter for the equivalent of five pounds each, clearly as real as a three pound note, but I bought one anyway. It did at least have nine teeth. This gift was appreciated, but you can’t fool an 8-year old when they are obsessed. Thank you, but not real.

Pop Mart’s next door rival. More toys. No Labubus. Strange name.

After hitting the wall in China, we were back in the UK over the summer. We now (tragically) have a tradition of going to Hamley’s, the huge toy stoy in Central London, on the last day of the trip as a reward for any homework or reading done whilst on holiday. Blindly ignoring the stories of the 3-hour queues in the UK, when we saw that there was a Pop Mart department in the basement, we ran down the escalator (yep, literally) to buy a genuine Labubu.

Want to buy one? No chance

“Labubus are not currently on sale. Please scan this QR code, and register online. There will then be a lottery every week for the lucky recipients of the Labubus.”

So even the biggest and most famous toy shop in the UK didn’t have any. Well I say didn’t, more like that they wouldn’t sell them. Behind the counter was a black cloth, which one of the staff moved when tidying up, and I could clearly see hidden underneath was a big pile of Labubus. Real ones. Actual ones. Right in front of us. But not for sale. Ah the teasing…(To make it worse, Keira spent her money on a Dimoo, which is also a Pop Mart doll, and apparently the second-best option if Labubu-less. She loved it. She left it on the train within a day🤯).

When you can almost touch them…

Having negotiated both the ordeals of a child-rampant Hamley’s and an 11-hour flight home (choose your poison), we came home to a surprise. A box on the doorstep. Delirious with jetlag I let Keira open it without really paying attention, only to hear a squeal. Worried that she’d managed to hurt herself on the box I looked over, only to see her grinning. She held a Labubu in her hands.

Was this it? A real one? In a scattergun effort before we’d left, I had tried a couple more online sources, only to get bounced back by most of them. But was it all of them? I checked my phone and no, sure enough, one had not refunded the money. They actually really had an actual doll, and had taken the time and effort to send it to us. We had one.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. All that work, and it dropped in when we weren’t expecting it. One less thing to worry about, maybe some brownie points on the parenting scale. Might even make up for the missing Dimoo.

“Daddy this is great! Can we get another one?”

The eventual haul. The red one is the real one, the blue / black ones are Lafufus. But if you can’t tell then does it matter…🤷‍♂️