It's an inoffensive little doll thing that Chinese schoolgirls have had clipped on their school bags for a few years. Made by a Hong Kong designer based on Nordic folk creatures, wasn't really a big deal. My younger cousin in Wuhan has had one since... 2019? Sometime around then. It was in the background of WeChat calls during lockdowns in 2020, it's when I first became aware of their existence.

Last April, however, KPop star Lisa of BLACKPINK was photographed with one clipped to her handbag. This suddenly caused them to explode in popularity among Kpop stans. After a couple months, regular people discovered them and their popularity which created a feedback loop of people who don't listen to BLACKPINK buying them because they're (somewhat) adorable and popular. This led to shortages, resale markets, counterfeiting, etc.

[–] Luffy879@lemmy.ml 19 points 4 months ago

And once again, the Kpop fans are ruining everything

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 24 points 4 months ago

It's Chinese funko pop but cuter.

[–] Krem@hexbear.net 14 points 4 months ago

are labubus popular in the west right now? they became a thing in asia like autumn last year? and had pretty much died out a few months ago. it's weird seeing a lot of references to them on western social media.

the inverse of this is i guess the teddy bear from toy story 3 which became weirdly popular like 2022/23? and whose cultural stock value still hasn't completely crashed somehow