Name: Who is Labubu? The Story Behind Pop Mart's Global Phenomenon
Uploaded: 2025-05-02T03:13:20.000Z
Duration: 16 min 53 s
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This video is intended for adult gift givers and collectors.

Have you recently noticed a particular fuzzy, grinning critter invading your social media feed, creating huge checkout lines and rapid online sellouts, or dangling from the designer bags of some of your favorite K-pop idols?

In this video, we'll be discussing the lore and meteoric rise of La Boo Boo, inarguably the most famous character from retailer Popmart's line of collectibles.

From her creation to her controversies, we'll cover everything you need to know about this adorable and wildly popular little monster.

Yes, even the Thailand government and royal family got involved with this toy's hype.

Whether you're a longtime La Boo Boo collector or are somehow just now learning of her existence, some of La Boo Boo's secrets just might surprise you.

If you're new to our channel, make sure to hit that subscribe button and notification bell for the adult collector perspective on a variety of popular dolls and toys.

Check out the video description for the sources used in this video and where you can learn even more about La Boo Boo and the monsters.

Popmart collaborates with a variety of different artists for its diverse assortment of characters, which is also why each one sports a unique design style.

Just looking at her, you have to wonder, what exactly is La Boo Boo anyway?

La Boo Boo is a species of mythical creatures created by artist Ka Sing Loong.

She is part of a larger series simply called The Monsters.

Ka Sing Loong was born in Hong Kong, but his family moved to the Netherlands while he was young and it was there he gained inspiration from folklore and mythology.

His professional career as an illustrator began in 2011, where he first went on to illustrate books and collectible figures.

Of note in 2020, Loong held his first large-scale solo art exhibition in Tokyo, Japan called This Is What It Feels Like.

The Monsters began as a storybook series in 2015 as a group of tiny elves living in mystical Nordic forests.

It was in 2019 that Ka Sing entered an exclusive licensing contract with Popmart to mass-produce his creations as collectible toys.

The first series launch generated record-breaking art toy revenue.

There are many characters in The Monsters, but we'll start with the star of this video, La Boo Boo.

Similar to Toad from Super Mario Brothers, La Boo Boo represents a group rather than a single character.

Also similar to the Toad we see in most media, however, it's loosely implied that there's one main La Boo Boo to serve as a series mascot, commonly appearing with brown fur in promotional content.

This group of mischievous little elves are known for their devilish toothy smile and pointy ears.

Believe it or not, each one is no than a house cat.

They are also playful, full of energy, and always playing harmless pranks.

La Boo Boo is always well-meaning and always wants to help, but often accidentally achieves the opposite.

Although some collectors have assumed otherwise, yes, La Boo Boo is a girl.

While all La Boo Boos are females, the leader of the tribe is male.

What distinguished him from the rest is his long tail with spiky ridges and a taller height that has him towering over others.

His toy releases sometimes reflect this, as his version 1 I Found You edition figure stands at 58 centimeters tall.

Creator Ka-Sing Leung explained in an interview that this concept of many La Boo Boos with one male leader is inspired by the Smurfs, with their own leader Papa Smurf.

Some American collectors have drawn similarities between La Boo Boo and the 1963 children's book Where the Wild Things Are.

While we couldn't find any direct evidence confirming it provided inspiration for La Boo Boo, these two worlds did meet in 2017 at the Ka-Sing Leung solo exhibition at Paradise Toyland in Taiwan.

At this event, a La Boo Boo design in the style of Where the Wild Things Are was unveiled, and we even got to see Leung's own iteration of the story's main character, Max.

There's another notable La Boo Boo who sports a unique appearance and goes by a different name, Makoko, said to mean special in Elvish.

Though she's part of the La Boo Boo tribe, Makoko is indeed special with her pastel pink fur, white belly, curly eyelashes, and adorable heart-shaped nose.

To date, there have only been a handful of Makoko plush released, and all have been sold exclusively at Pop Mart's Pop Land theme park in Beijing, China.

She must certainly be an elusive character with her latest appearance in the Finding Makoko blind box vinyls, featuring a storyline of other Pop Mart characters like Skullpanda and Dimu trying to hunt her down.

It's fitting that she is the ultra rare secret figure of that series.

While the La Boo Boo tribe members all share a similar appearance, the other cast members of the monsters look unique from one another.

Up next, we have Taikoko, a petite spooky cute skeleton who's also the boyfriend of one of presumably our aforementioned main mascot.

Taikoko is known to be shy and gentle, often on the receiving end of La Boo Boo's mischievous antics.

Their interactions and silly love story are showcased on lots of Pop Mart merch, particularly around the season of Valentine's Day.

They got their own series together this year titled Mischief Diary, which of course came complete with a collection of blind box figures.

This acrylic stand in the same theme was offered as a free gift with certain purchase amounts around the same time.

If you're a collector of K-pop photo cards, it was a perfect fit for those.

Pato is a pinkish skinned creature with droopy ears, known to be a sensitive dreamer.

Spooky is next, and they live up to their name, often showing up under moonlight.

Their head looks like a dumpling or a bundled white cloth to us.

Yaya is also a character that frequently appears.

This imp-like creature has pointy ears and a devilish smirk.

Finally, we have Pippo, a party-loving winemaker with big ears who seems to be a little larger than the other monsters.

Just like many other Pop Mart characters, La Boo Boo collectibles come in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from vinyl figures to plush dolls, towering statues, branded apparel, and much more.

Although many series focus on the monsters as a whole, just La Boo Boo herself has been released in over 300 different iterations.

There have been toy figures of La Boo Boo and the monsters prior to 2019, like 2018's The Monsters and Friends BTS collection.

Some of the early Pop Mart and The Monsters collabs were the Flower Elves series and the Carnival series.

You can tell how popular La Boo Boo's were even early on, as they made several Earlier La Boo Boo appearances had her sporting a more square-shaped head and narrower, bunny-like ears.

In the early years, this head shape differentiated her more so from Zimomo, but in the present time, the characters share similar head shapes.

Over time, we see La Boo Boo in a variety of colors, dressed in fun costumes and disguises, even morphed into different kaijus and occupations.

La Boo Boo and the Monsters will go on to be made into plushies and accessories.

The Exciting Macaron series was released in October of 2023, and it was a smash hit.

Themed after sweet macaron flavors, this collection introduced plush La Boo Boo's in a variety of soft, neutral colors.

This series also marked the beginning of several popular improvements to the La Boo Boo plush keychain collections.

These La Boo Boo's stand at a travel-friendly size of roughly 7 inches tall, with gold-toned ring clasps hanging from their heads, to encourage using them as a bag or backpack accessory.

They also feature a few slight articulation points at the head and arms and legs.

The Have a Seat series expanded La Boo Boo's appeal and versatility even further, featuring a new variety of facial expressions like side-glancing eyes and adorable closed eyes.

Each of these La Boo Boo have their own name, and bright pastel fur.

You may also notice that the material used for this fur is softer and fluffier than previous releases.

Like the namesake implies, all of these La Boo Boo are in the sitting position, a first for the plush keychain collections.

They still have articulation at the neck and arms, but lose the ability to bend the legs.

Just like the first series, the rare, secret figure is the dark brown La Boo Boo that calls to mind the mascot of the tribe.

If you can't find that one, Pop Mart has released a similar La Boo Boo to celebrate Halloween this year.

She has on a super cute jack-o-lantern costume.

There's also a skeleton charm by her ear that resembles Tycoco.

This one is a close match to the Have a Seat secret, but the pumpkin body is completely made of plush with arms and legs sewn on.

Which also means this La Boo Boo has slightly more limited articulation than the other keychain figures.

Although La Boo Boo was often readily available in her earlier years, if you take a look at the official Pop Mart U.S. website today, you'll notice that a simple search of La Boo Boo's name often results in a long list of sold-out merchandise.

If you're interested in picking up La Boo Boo's latest plush drop or restock by official means, you'll need a combination of lightning speed and luck on your side.

With desirability at an all-time high, official online drops are snatched up as soon as they're listed, with some media outlets even making comparisons to the hype and competitiveness of Taylor Swift's eras tour tickets.

Attempts to purchase in person at Pop Mart stores prove similarly difficult, with upwards of hundreds of collectors lining up almost overnight for a shot at La Boo Boo's latest release.

Certain variations of this hot collectible even sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars on eBay.

Both in and outside the U.S., there have been multiple reports across social media of La Boo Boo waiting queues getting intense in scenarios of especially coveted drops.

In some cases, local security or police had to be called to settle down the huge crowds.

So what exactly made La Boo Boo so incredibly popular?

Although Pop Mart's general popularity has been on the rise for years now following the success of other characters like Molly and Skullpanda, the masses seem to agree that K-pop idol Lalisa of super group Blackpink was responsible for the turning point of La Boo Boo's fame.

Earlier this year, Lisa shared a video on her Instagram story hugging a La Boo Boo plush from the Monsters Fall in Wild series.

In the following months, she was seen decorating her Birkin and other designer bags with more La Boo Boo's.

Her Blackpink bandmate Rosé even joined in on the fun with Lisa offering her whichever plush she pulled from the exciting Macaron blind box series, which ended up being the gray Sesame Bean.

More recently, Vanity Fair released a full interview dedicated to Lisa's Pop Mart obsession, where she revealed it was to her by a friend in Thailand.

And she wasn't into it at first, but the cute collectibles quickly grew on her.

This organic promo from global celebrities caused a buying frenzy in Lisa's home country Thailand, with even other local celebrities beginning to follow suit and using La Boo Boo as a trendy designer bag accessory.

In an interview with Tatler Thailand this past May, creator Kassim Loon shared that he gifted Lisa a Mega La Boo Boo Tech to thank her for her support.

La Boo Boo's mainstream notoriety didn't stop there, as both she and Z-Momo made appearances at this year's Milan Fashion Week, a part of the show hosted by Chinese designer brand Pronounce.

This partnership with Pronounce resulted in multiple toy collaborations featuring La Boo Boo and Z-Momo plush with flashy designer pieces.

The most recent collab featured a dark purple La Boo Boo with extra smooth textured fur wearing a gold dress and a large 15-inch figure sporting a trendy denim outfit and sunglasses.