The Labubu delulu: connection or overconsumption?
With their wide, fanged grins and fluff-covered bodies, Hong Kong illustrator Kasing Lung's collectable Labubu dolls are exceptionally ugly—or very cute, depending on who you ask.
Produced by Pop Mart, the Labubu became a global sensation and a status symbol for celebrities and diehard collectors alike.
In Australia, the Labubu frenzy peaked around June 2025. Despite more demand than ever for the "ugly-cute" figurines, Labubus were being criticised as the poster child of overconsumption.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) warned consumers in late 2025 to avoid being "bitten by fake Labubu dolls," citing health and safety concerns for young children.
About two years earlier, Information Access and Collection Management Coordinator at the ANU Menzies Library Nithiwadee (Wan) Chitravas began collecting Labubus in Thailand.
"I went to visit my cousin, and she loves to collect the blind boxes... and then she gave me one."
Wan is no stranger to collecting items. Her first collection was an assortment of pre-paid telephone cards she gathered as a university student.
"I think I have more than 200 cards. Because I studied outside my hometown, I had to call my mum quite often... it's like the whole set."
"When you study library science, you love to do that cataloguing thing," she says.
By creating artificial scarcity, Pop Mart's "blind box" marketing strategy encourages repeat purchases of their products.
Rare and special edition Labubus can be expensive; the Mega Labubu 1000% Tenth Anniversary figure currently retails on the Pop Mart Australia website for AU$1,580.
With people spending thousands of dollars to acquire full sets of the dolls, Labubus have been linked by media outlets to environmentally harmful overconsumption and the same neuro-chemical rush induced by traditional gambling.
Wan says that she avoided buying "common" varieties of Labubu dolls once they became trendy.
"During that period, they can sell up to sixty or ninety dollars. I don't support that."
"Now, it's reduced in cost. For example, this one's only thirty-two dollars," she says.
The economic golden age of Labubu appears to be over. In September of 2025, Forbes estimated Pop Mart founder Wang Ning's personal net worth had dropped by over US$5 billion. As of September 2026, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index puts Wang's net worth at US$12.9 billion, down from $27.5 billion in August 2025.
For Wan, however, the act of collecting means more than simply owning the item. She loves that the dolls provide a point of connection with her colleagues.
"I'm not a big collector; you can see I'm not buying thousands," she says.
"It's about stress relief... my focus is on building the team. When you have something fun... your hobby or whatever, the topic’s not about work... [you can] talk about something, not boring stuff."
Like many of the internet trends linked to consumer overconsumption, the global obsession with Labubus was short-lived.
Wan's enthusiasm, however, has not flagged. She still collects them for the people in her life, including her colleagues.
"During Christmas people say: 'Oh Wan, I love this one,'" she says.
"That’s why sometimes I tend to collect double...because you can give it to someone and I still have one for myself."
