Labubus

Apparently there is a stereotype of young men who collect these but also have mullets and wear rings and pretend to be feminists but are scurrilous “fuccbois.”

https://www.tiktok.com/@earthkenansalazar/video/7536642976995478797

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq2_BKd2RYI

I seriously don’t understand adults who collect stuffed animals. Like if this is supposed to appeal to adult women, I am thoroughly confused.

Am I just too old for this?

Today I saw a grown up tourist couple (man and woman) each with a labubu attached to their purse/manbag. Bewildering. For one thing they just look hideous, like someone had a bet to make the most unpleasant looking thing viral & popular.

People like to hang on to aspects of their childhood, even if that aspect is collecting a new thing instead of the old things that were new then. It's fine not to have that impulse!

as for the labubus themselves well 1) they are not a remake/retread of an existing property and 2) they are aggravating to older people so this seems like a best case scenario really

I don't remember it being unremarkable or even fashionable for adults to walk around with trolls or cabbage patch dolls or what have you. This feels like a new thing.

I guess opening post is referring to stupid internet current buzz about 'performative males'; that any man showing any not-stereotypically masculine traits in dress, appearance or activity - must be being performative for bad reasons. This is a straw man who mostly lives in too-online addled brains; it also makes me wonder how men are supposed to act, if being stereotypically masculine is toxic, but doing things outside of that is also toxic. I can only conclude that people are stupid and the internet should be turned off.

just imagined a hip Edinburgh fringe reimagining of No Exit where 1 of the 3 protagonists likes Labubus, but one of them doesn't like Labubus, and the third is a Labubu.

#realengland

In May 2025, Pop Mart announced it had paused selling Labubus in all 16 of its stores in the United Kingdom until June to "prevent any potential safety issues" following multiple reports of customers fighting over them.[30]

also that Gaucho video rules

I've never encountered these in the wild. But I can imagine the audience is more teens and young adults than actual grown-ups, and more-or-less the next thing in line after Jellycats, Beanie Babies, Hello Kitty etc... A collectible mascot, or something fluffy and frivolous to enjoy for no reason other than enjoyment itself. Probably better than collecting vinyl... Although I agree they're conceptually unimaginative when Monchichis have existed forever

I didn't know what these things were at all until my kids told me about them last spring, and now I see them everywhere (including knock-offs being sold on the street). My wife made a labubu pumpkin.

https://i.imgur.com/PbXq71o.jpeg

There are these other collectible things making the rounds right now, Sonny Angel?

definitely a lot of adults wearing these in London. including a relative. main takeaway was that its perfect combination of people who are very susceptible to online influence, like buying things, and have bad impulse control. also much less judgement in general around personal appearance nowadays, and total breakdown of child/adult categories of entertainment consumption.

to be clear, those 2 trends both rule, unless it leads you to buy overpriced weird furry goblins and carry them around all day.

https://i.imgur.com/J8gzHNc.jpeg

why would this be better than collecting vinyl? it's much worse. xp

I always think about how funny this video is because it is so endemic of nu-Katy trying to get that old wacky Katy energy back but it comes off as so tonedeaf and mean, and also when her microphone goes *ponk*

https://www.tiktok.com/@katyperrycrave/video/7527031732403440918

i see these things for sale sometimes, "huggy wuggys." i asked an employee at a gift shop what the deal was, if it was a horror thing, and he said he didn't think so, he thought people found them cute.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71lbW28XRLL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

I seriously don’t understand adults who collect stuffed animals

ok i don't care one way or another about labubus but this is pretty simple to me: stuffed animals are cute, and sometimes it's nice to hold something when you're sleeping

xpost from the Garten Of Banban game series

but are labubus cute?

yeah i learned the origin of huggy wuggy eventually. but they just had them for sale next to other stuffed animals up and down the boardwalk two summers ago.

i let people collect shiny things. it's the crow in us. i am not a collector. some people are hardcore about collecting that's for sure. i really only hear about em here though for some reason. and witness a few in action ;). collecting labubus seems like something you might be ashamed about when you're older. or maybe just nostalgic for, idk. i could see it being kinky eventually. "you're going to run out and buy another labubu aren't you? yeah you're a real labubu slut." sorry, i thought it was funny enough to share.

also not mentioned so far is that sometimes the usefulness/love for stuffed animals is going to be a sensory thing; that may be very helpful for calming certain neurodivergent/mental health symptoms/needs. which we all have to some extent. if having a 5 foot stuffed mermaid helps you sleep at night after dealing with the shitty world we're in; you do you.

but to be clear - Labubus are still bad.

I didn't have a problem with them until someone explained that the online store for the physical labubu dolls employs predatory lootbox tactics

happy for everyone who never encountered an adult beanie baby collector/speculator back in the day

labubu seems to have hit the cross section of people who have a little tchotchke hanging off their bag or purse, or in a smaller version, keychain. all the hyper-monetized street art hypebeast junk has had this tendency for years, little figurines that'd hang off a keychain. imo it's just a little accessory that's goofy

the whole blind box thing combined with having some of them be more rare than others makes sense in a gatcha game-primed culture, too

i can imagine being a scurrilous "fuccboi" bamboozled by the online store for the physical labubu dolls's predatory lootbox tactics.

I think it's cool, you have a little monster guy as an accessory. people seem to be actually taking them out of packaging and doing goofy social media stuff. seems about a thousand times better than being a wall-of-funko adult and most of the kids seem to be just owning a couple of these

total breakdown of child/adult categories of entertainment consumption.

I think this captures the 'new thing' feeling I was getting. Yeah you had adult collectors of beanie babies but they were their own niche demographic, now everyone's at it.

I only really object to the blind box aspect and the price. People should make their own DIY gremlins instead.

why would this be better than collecting vinyl? it's much worse. xp

― treeship., Monday, 3 November 2025 16:37 (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was being facetious. But it was largely in response to some of the mock bewilderment upthread: "People LIKE collecting things? Things that don't have an immediate purpose? Wow, how freakish!"

i am indifferent to labubus and find it quite funny that they are getting the predictable right wing devil associations but now it has been mentioned, can i say i fucking can't stand the funko things. they are hideous, no-one seems to enjoy them and they seem to just be a sign of peoples insipid tastes that take up more space than a dvd collection used to. but people used to buy more dvds than the most basic films that have very popular replica characters, and so you could see more to their personality to them than a large headed plastic jar jar binks in a box or whatever the fuck it is.

I think this is related to the devaluing of art and artists, as well as communal creative practice… so it makes me perhaps irrationally angry.

In terms of sleeping with stuffed toys … maybe that’s a sleeping habits/position issue that seems too fraught to really argue about without saying hurtful things.

People should make their own DIY gremlins instead.

Yes! OTFM

Funko Pops as a way to replace our walls of DVDs, books and CDs is an astute observation. The digitisation of media doesn't mean people don't want to own stuff and show it off in their houses. Funko Pops are, in that respect, the millennial equivalent of a china tea set

labubus hit a little broader but it made me wonder if kidrobot is still around. yup, been a purveyor of "vinyl art toys" for over twenty years now

I feel like I'm halfway between deej's on board brand of pedantry and charlie's stringboard on always sunny here, but this doesn't seem overly new to me, just larger and less gatekeeping-ish in that people aren't shamefully displaying these in a glass case at home. there's a rough line in my head from people collecting expensive toys for adults -> takashi murakami's aesthetic -> adults raised on pokemon ---> labubu

I see the Uniqlo/Labubu t-shirt collaboration's already happened

The nice 60-something lady who works at the B&M around the corner from me was dressed as a labubu for Halloween when I went in last week, so I assumed they must have moved way past their “these are kooky and fashionable” phase, and into the realm of “your auntie on facebook likes them so nobody cool should, any more”?

Re: predatory tactics...is there worse to that aside from you don't know which ones you'll get, some are very rare and so you're incentivized to get more? I agree that sucks but it's also been used for many, many toys before this.

Funko pops are absolutely hellish garbage and unlike labubus entirely based on pre-existing ip. Do kids even like those? I thought they were only for adults with bad taste.

The digitisation of media doesn't mean people don't want to own stuff and show it off in their houses

This is what art is for. Like you can actually have a fairly unique object to display and signal your personality/aesthetics … but instead people buy this kind of thing idgi.

I mean, I understand the desire to display family photos, personal artifacts… totally get that. Or collections of items that have other purposes— books you read, records you listen to, movies you watch, even like things that have a nice smell …

yeah but it's a slightly different mindset to art really, no? it's more a "this is the stuff I'm into" showcase, in the way people used to proudly have their book or recrod collection on display. it also speaks to the collectors' instinct. so instead of having a bunch of DVD cases in a rack, people replace these with Funko Pops of the films and shows they like. I don't particularly like the aesthetic, each to their own, but I think it's quite a canny idea on the manufacturers' behalfs to realise people will always want to show off their tastes (and also a good gift for the nerd who has everything)

why would this be better than collecting vinyl? it's much worse.

Depends. If you collect but don't listen I think collecting vinyl is worse.

Labubu vs. Sonny Angel is the big competition, apparently?

I only really object to the blind box aspect and the price. People should make their own DIY gremlins instead.

― jmm, Monday, November 3, 2025 11:01 AM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yup this is the bit I find appalling because I feel like there's been a real effort lately to get kids hooked on gambling from an early age. I realize that was kind of the case when I was young, I mean Magic: the Gathering has the same sort of model and obviously we had arcades where you'd gamble your tokens for tickets to try to win shitty toys but it feels like everything new marketed towards kids has that sort of aspect to it now

p also, a lot of people have terrible taste in art, and a lot of art can be expensive, even if it's a framed movie poster. so shit like Funko Pops fills that void on the shelf where the DVDs used to be

Depends. If you collect but don't listen I think collecting vinyl is worse.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 3 November 2025 17:39 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

This too. A lot of people collect media and don't use it. Why do people have shelves full of books when really, when it comes to fiction, you only need one actual book in your life at a time

The Holy Bible.

If the point is to communicate one’s tastes, then one would proudly display the art they like, because it’s what they like, right?

I remember when M:TG came out and my housemate had a friend that actually had a side hustle as a rare Magic card dealer.

I realize that was kind of the case when I was young, I mean Magic: the Gathering has the same sort of model and obviously we had arcades where you'd gamble your tokens for tickets to try to win shitty toys but it feels like everything new marketed towards kids has that sort of aspect to it now

You can add kinder eggs and panini stickers to that list for the Europeans. But aiui the worst offendere these days are gatcha within video games.

I had a coworker once who collected kinder eggs.

This was at an art museum… so it was kinda funny in a good way that he had a shelf of kinder eggs in his office.

This was even prior to the Nam Jun Paik exhibition where our department was responsible for egg procurement.

Xps yeah but some people aren't into art. Some people are into Funko Pops. But nm, I fear this is a cyclical conversation

As in they prefer mass produced items to communicate their personal taste because they are insecure?

Ok I need to chill … so, is there a labubucoin yet?

labubu is art

my brain is fried from the neurodivergent-in-a-particular-way early blog web where people who did menial graphic/web design got really into the "design is art" talking point, which I am like... sure, there is cool architecture that's not explicitly aligned with engineering, print media has some interesting ways of conveying images and information, who am I to question what's a matter of art and aesthetics?

art in the age of mass reproduction etc

Labubu Oscillator

Labubu II: Electric Labubugaloo

mentally saying this in the voice of yogi bear

ladubuses

I am mostly confused by why labubus are one of the signifiers of this modern version of a hipster. The “performative male” archetype also involves tote bags and reading literary fiction. In 2015 when I used to go to readings at molasses books and smoked american spirits or whatever — when I cared a great deal about my image and was certainly worthy of mockery — I was never carrying around beanie babies.

beanie babies?!! more like 1998

NO LABUBUS *ponk*

is Benson Boone one of these?

No he is not a labubu

Do they poll them?

is this the thread where I admit I've been saying "labubu" to my cat for months in the same intonation I'd say "I love you" and now he blinks at me when I say the former