This Strange Doll Has Become A Gen Z Obsession. Could The Trade War Make Them Even Harder To Get?

Has there ever been a toy that walks the line of “cute ugly” more than the Labubu monster?

The plush toys, which Gen Z can’t get enough of, have toothy little grins with serrated teeth, an aggressive brow ridge, and shiny black eyes that seem to stare into the depths of your soul.

But the stuffed animals, which come in mystery boxes so you never know which one you’re going to get, are equally cute, with fur in various colors and rabbit-like ears that shoot up mischievously. (Would you look at this little guy, with freckles? So evil looking, but also, clearly a sweetheart.)

Even some fans of the doll don’t quite know why they’re so taken by them.

“Someone needs to do a psychological study on what it is about ugly plushie dolls that make humans go crazy,” Simedar Jackson, a copywriter with a growing Labubu collection said. “I think people just love little weird alien looking things that are slightly cute. Furby and Ugly Dolls walked so Labubu could run.”

Last week, Pop Mart, the Beijing-based company that produces the toy, released Labubu 3.0 “Big into Energy,” a colorful set of seven figurines that quickly sold out worldwide.

The dolls retail for $27.99 per blind box or $167.94 for a set of six, although resellers on sites like eBay have already listed them for more than double those prices. But Labubu’s core customers are adults, not kids, so many of them have the money to pony up.

They’re not just a toy, either. For the women who affix them to their purses as charms, they’re a veritable fashion accessory. (They’ve also got a disco-tinged theme song that will lodge itself in your head for days.)

In cities throughout the country, fans lined up as early as 4 a.m. to get their fix last week. Others queued up online. Jackson was among those who tried to nab one on Pop Mart’s site. “About to go to war (i’m trying to get the new Labubu launch),” she joked on Threads. Sadly, she wasn’t among the lucky.

Sabrina Fiveash, a mom in Texas, scrambled to get one, too. She got a blue one named Hope, but only after spending two and a half hours on the Pop Mart website.

Fiveash admits that she’s a little stressed that the ongoing trade war might stand in the way of her getting more Labubus. She’s not alone; on the Labubu subreddit, fans discuss in detail how President Donald Trump’s placing tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese goods could impact their beloved Labubus. (China has hit back with a 125% tax on US products.)

“When I saw my order shipped from China on the tracking, my heart sank a little,” Fiveash said. “But luckily, it seems they raised the prices on the ‘Big Into Energy’ Labubu enough to offset the tariffs.”

She’s a well-informed shopper; Pop Mart did indeed hike prices of the Labubu line in the US, according to a report last week from the South China Morning Post. With this new release, the dolls rose from around $22 to $28 per figure. Pop Mart has also shifted more production to Vietnam to offset the effects of the trade wars.

Pop Mart products are just one example of Chinese goods in the crosshairs of Trump’s trade wars. According to the Toy Association, almost 80% of the toys sold in the U.S. are sourced from China. It is anticipated that there will be a 15-20% rise in the cost of toys like games, dolls and cars.

“Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30,” Trump said Wednesday about the prospect of empty store shelves due to his trade war with China.

“With the Labubus, the price is still low enough to allow me to be able to purchase comfortably in this economy,” Fiveash said. “Consumerism in the U.S. is so uncertain and confusing right now, I’m really glad Pop Mart took the steps to protect their buyers and make sure we can all access a small ounce of joy in these trying times.”

So far, Pop Mart has found a creative way to soften the impact, but prices could still edge upward if Trump decides to raise tariffs again, said Dominick Miserandino, a consumer expert and CEO of Retail Tech Media Nexus. Still, he thinks Labubu lovers will ride it out and be willing to pay.

“They’re tiny figures, but they make a big emotional difference,” he said. “For many collectors, these aren’t just impulse buys — they’re daily doses of dopamine. So while the cost may rise, the connection stays strong.”

It wasn’t love at first sight for toy collectors and Labubus. It’s actually a 10-year-old property that has only recently gained attention.

Labubu is a character from the “The Monsters” series, created in 2015 by Kasing Lung, a Hong Kong-born artist based in Belgium. The series is inspired by Nordic mythology and features other characters, including Zimomo, Pato, Tycoco and Spooky.

For many fans, their love affair with the dolls started in April 2024, when Lisa, a member of the popular K-pop girl group Blackpink, posted a video on Instagram of her hugging a large Labubu plush doll. The 28-year-old singer isn’t a brand spokesperson, just a mega fan and Labubu mom. (She refers to hers as “my baby.”)

“Labubu is a fine example of an ‘overnight success’ that took a decade to get here,” said James Zahn, the editor-in-chief at The Toy Book and senior editor at The Toy Insider.

Zahn said the little monsters hit all the right notes with consumers of all ages: There are countless variants (different colors, different sizes) so you feel like you’ve “gotta catch ’em all.” There’s also a perceived scarcity with the toy and a digital gotta-have-it hype.

“Pop Mart is doing an incredible job of marketing ‘The Monsters’ by gamifying the experience via the excitement of blind boxes and the chance at a rare figure, paired with limited drops, licensed collaborations, and in-store events,” he said.

Collectors love a community, and Labubu has a vocal, close-knit one. There are currently 1.2 million posts with the #Labubu hashtag on TikTok, and Pop Mart’s Instagram page has over 1.2 million followers.

Fiveash, the Labubu fan from earlier, said she fell down a rabbit hole with the dolls on TikTok.

“I kept seeing people post videos of decorating their Trader Joe’s tote, and I kept seeing the Labubu as a common keychain to put on there, and it created the want for me to have one,” she said.

Fiveash admits she found them a little weird at first ― her mom, who’s 50, really didn’t get them at first, calling them “demonic” looking ― but she quickly came around to their creepy cuteness.

“The more I kept seeing them, the more it triggered that ‘I need one’ switch in my brain,” she said. “I dove deep into the Labubu community and a week later, the new ‘Big into Energy’ came out and they sold out in seconds.”

“The more inaccessible they’ve become, the more I want one,” she explained. “I think this goes along with the FOMO phenomenon that our generation has.”

Now, her Gen X mom wants one. “The more she saw the different variations of them, the more she grew to find them cute!” Fiveash said. “She loved how their little toenails and fingernails matched whatever color their fur was.”

Chris Byrne, a toy historian who runs the site The Toy Guy, isn’t surprised that such a strange-looking monster is the toy of the year; when toy trends like this happen, the design is almost immaterial. What matters is having the hot new thing.

“In the ’80s, there was the cuteness epidemic with Strawberry Shortcake and Holly Hobbie,” he said, before name-checking a few other iconic toy lines from the past, some cute, some less so: Care Bears, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Precious Moments, and Hummel figurines. More recently, there were Furby dolls, Trash Pack, Squishmallows and Jellycat plush toys.

“Collecting is very much a human characteristic,” Byrne said. “It’s how we identify ourselves within a time and a culture.”

In the case of Labubu, Byrne thinks the dolls also reflect a new global trend in how fads reach the U.S.

“They used to begin here, but now, thanks to anime, and Asian art, and, frankly, excellent design and storytelling, many of these things come from Asia,” he said.

Labubu fever has spawned a flipper frenzy with resellers hawking the dolls at crazy markups. However, toy experts Max and Sang, who run the YouTube channel Toy Chat, recommend shoppers avoid inflated prices from scalpers.

“If you’re willing to be patient, Pop Mart is constantly restocking, and some series do get steadily more common with time,” Sang said. “The ‘Have a Seat’ and ‘Wings of Fortune’ Labubus, for example, are much more obtainable at retail now than they were several months ago.”

Also, be aware of fakes, Max said. “Counterfeit Labubus ― Lafufus, as the toy community calls them ― are shockingly rampant, especially among third-party retailers.”

As much as Jackson, quoted earlier, loves the dolls, she tries to be mindful of participating in consumer trends.

“I can only imagine what’s happening on the production side for Pop Mart to try and fuel the growing demand for these dolls,” she said. “More raw materials, more plastic, more water.”

As listings with hefty prices go up on eBay, Johnson thinks the Labubu community should stay rational about their purchases. Just think of what happened to Beanie Babies and those rabid collectors.

“Just like with those, this trend will die down. What will happen to all the Labubus when people don’t like them anymore, or they don’t command an expensive resell price?” she said. “Everything in moderation, including Labubu.”