Labubu doll
Who created the Labubu dolls?
What contributed to the global popularity of Labubu dolls?
What challenges has Pop Mart faced regarding Labubu dolls?
Labubu doll, line of globally popular collectible plush dolls and figurines created by Hong Kong-born illustrator Kasing Lung and marketed by the Chinese toy company Pop Mart. Labubu dolls come in many colors, have furry bodies, rabbitlike ears, and vinyl faces, and are known for their mischievous nine-toothed grin. The dolls became a global craze and viral trend in 2024, after celebrities such as Rihanna, David Beckham, and Kim Kardashian began posting about them on social media sites.
Background and creation
When Lung was seven years old, his family moved from Hong Kong to the Netherlands, where he read Nordic fairy tales about elves and other fantastical creatures. These stories inspired Lung’s illustrated book series, The Monsters, comprising three books: The Story of Puka, Pato and the Girl, and Miró’s Requiem. The books focus on an all-female tribe of elflike creatures called Labubus living in the forest; the name Labubu has no inherent meaning. More than a hundred varieties of Labubus feature in the series. They are portrayed as ancient creatures who are kindhearted, playful, eager to help, and well-intentioned, though they often cause chaos.
Retailing
Lung first worked with the Hong Kong-based designer toy brand How2work to create Monsters figures. In 2019 he signed a deal with Pop Mart, a Chinese variety store and toy company, to create an artistic toy series based on his Monsters stories, leading to the Labubu dolls.
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The dolls come in more than 300 different colors, shapes, and sizes. They are sold mainly in blind boxes, a format that hides the contents of the box, so customers do not know which doll they have until they open it. For many consumers, the blind box format has added to the fun of purchasing the Labubus, lending a sense of mystery and surprise. While most dolls retail for $30 in the United States, limited-edition items often sell for much more. Videos of buyers unboxing their Labubus have gone viral on social media. The dolls’ popularity has spawned both online and real-life fan communities, where collectors talk about and share photos of their Labubus. Some fans dress their Labubus in clothes made to fit the dolls, purchased from sites such as Etsy and AliExpress. Labubu fans also buy tiny car seats, handbags, and other accessories for the dolls.
Surge in popularity
Initially popular only in China, the dolls spread to Southeast Asia by 2023 and went global in April 2024 after celebrity posts on social media featured the dolls. The dolls became wildly popular, especially with younger adults, some of whom began wearing them as fashion accessories. In October 2023 Pop Mart released the Exciting Macaron, its first Labubu key ring series. Since then consumers have begun clipping the dolls onto belt loops or on the handles of designer handbags. Pop Mart has sold the dolls online and through brick-and-mortar stores in more than 30 countries; it also operates vending machines, or so-called “roboshops.” Some consumers have bought the dolls and resold them online for inflated prices, leading Labubus to become unaffordable for many people. In June 2025 a life-size Labubu figurine sold at a Labubu art auction in China for $170,000. The dolls are also one of Pop Mart’s top-selling items, with more than $400 million in sales in 2024; Pop Mart’s share value on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rose by more than 500 percent the same year.
The rising popularity and sales of the dolls have led to some companies making counterfeit Labubus—sometimes called “Lafufus”—and selling them worldwide. Many of the fake Labubus are manufactured in China’s Guangdong and Hebei provinces. The fakes are similar to the genuine article in appearance, but some show poor craftsmanship. Some of the counterfeit dolls are manufactured to perform actions, such as singing, dancing, and lighting up, that real Labubus cannot do. A crackdown by customs authorities has not succeeded in reducing the prevalence of fake Labubus in the market. Pop Mart has taken legal action against 7-Eleven, alleging trademark infringement with the convenience stores’ sales of counterfeit Labubus.
The dolls featured prominently in a September 2025 episode of the TV series South Park. In March 2026 Sony Pictures and Pop Mart announced a live-action Labubu movie based on Lung’s works.
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Labubu dolls were the subject of debate in Russia in 2025, as the country proposed banning them because of their “scary appearance” and alleged negative impact on children. The same year Iraqi authorities banned the dolls and confiscated existing stock, alleging “demonic spells” and negative effects on children. Despite their origin in Nordic stories, the dolls were linked to the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu (the antagonist in the movie The Exorcist) after a 2025 social media post went viral; this led to several owners destroying their dolls.