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Moon Retzer | Feature | October
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Labubu.
Labubus have taken the world’s keychain hooks by storm, becoming the hot new accessory to add to all of one’s bags. But what makes these fuzzy little creatures so high in demand? More importantly, what is a Labubu?
The Labubu is a line of collectible plush toys created by Hong Kong illustrator, Kasing Lung. It’s a monster-like creature with a wide smile, showcasing nine teeth. Its body is fluffy, and it comes in many different colors.
The popular plush keychain started to gain its popularity in April of 2024, but they have actually been around since 2015. The creator, Kasing Lung, featured Labubus in a book called The Monsters. This book also contained many other characters, Lung stating that these creatures were inspired by Nordic folklore. Labubus in particular were inspired by the nordic folklore of elves.
Photo of a students Labubus
Photo taken by Moon Retzer
Photo of Lisa from BLACKPINK with one of her giant Labubus
Photo sourced from Instagram
Labubus stayed as just book characters until 2019, when Lung made a contract with the brand Pop Mart. Pop Mart is a Chinese toy company, known for selling collectible items like figurines and plushies in a blind box format. They have many deals with other brands such as Disney, Powerpuff Girls, Hello Kitty, Harry Potter and more. They wanted to make plush keychains of the Nordic creatures and Lung agreed.
For almost 5 years, Labubus were popular, but not widespread. It generated about $51 million for Pop Mart. In April of 2024, Lalisa Manobal, also known as Lisa shared her obsession with Labubus on her social media. Lisa is in the girl K-pop group, BLACKPINK, being the main rapper. Her fame and her passion towards Labubus is what shot them into popularity and suddenly many people wanted one.
Another thing that made them popular was the fact that it was a blind box format. The idea that anything could be inside that box peaks the curiosity of most people. “The appeal draws heavily from slot machine mechanics with a combination of randomness, surprise, and anticipation. Variable rewards trigger dopamine, making them more compelling than predictable ones,” said Pamela Rutledge in an interview with Mental Floss. She is the director of the Media and Psychology Research Center
When it comes to Labubus, the color you could get is completely randomized, which adds to the excitement. When someone buys a blind box and gets the item they were hoping for, this triggers a large dopamine rush. This satisfying feeling of a win is what pulls people into addictions like gambling. People will continue to buy these blind boxes, searching for that “winning” feeling again until they find it.
“The thrill of not knowing taps into the brain’s reward circuits,” Rutledge explains. “Randomness reinforces the possibility of a future reward, which can reinforce the cycle, similar to near-misses in gambling.”
Labubu sales have skyrocketed, making Pop Mart over $418 million, which is about a 700 percent increase compared to the original numbers. Unfortunately for those who wanted to get their hands on a Labubu, wherever they were sold, they were wiped off the shelves. People clambered to the Pop Mart website until those too were sold out. Next, was second hand sellers. Due to the supply not meeting the demand, many people looked to buy cases and cases of Labubus and resell them. This made a Labubu box, that originally was priced at $27.99, was now $50-70 for one. Many, who didn't care what they had to pay, paid this price increase just to have these little keychains.
Since then, Pop Mart claims that their sales revenue has more than doubled according to USA Today. Pop Mart also states that their revenue is continuing to go up. Labubus brought in more attention to their other products like the SkullPanda series and the DIMOO series, so even if Labubu starts to fall off, they have those other products to count on.
Photo of the "Big Into Energy" Labubu series
Photo from Pop Mart
About The Writer: Moon Retzer, Editor-in-Chief
Moon Retzer is one of two Editor-in-Chiefs of the 2025-2026 Courier Staff. They have been writing for The Courier for 3 years. In addition to being the Editor-in-Chief, Moon is also the editor for the new Arts and Entertainment section. Moon's favorite articles to write are Opinion and Feature pieces.
Moon Retzer is one of two Editor-in-Chiefs of the 2025-2026 Courier Staff. They have been writing for The Courier for 3 years. In addition to being the Editor-in-Chief, Moon is also the editor for the new Arts and Entertainment section. Moon's favorite articles to write are Opinion and Feature pieces.
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