Like many fans of Mother28 -year -old Joselyn Chamorro is tired of the craze. Wait in lines at night to buy the $ 30 dolls or pay $ 100 to resellers lost the charm.
So when she saw that a gas station in Lakeland, Florida, she was selling fake toilets – known as Lafufus – For $ 20, she didn’t hesitate to buy one.
Trying to get a true toilet “it’s almost like ” the hunger games,” said Chamorro.
Like an authentic toilet, it still came in a closed box, which means the buyer doesn’t know which specific doll is acquiring.
The manufacturer of the labubu, the Pop Martit seems unstoppable. The toy company based in Beijing It expects your revenue by 2025 to exceed 30 billion yuans, or $ 4.2 billion.
Only in Americasthe revenue fired more than 1,000% over the previous year, according to the semiannual pop report Mart report in August. Globally, the revenue only from Labus fired 668% in the first half of the year.
But just as the toils have grown rapidly in popularity, they can fall as quickly. The scarce of frightening and cute dolls, added to the price of $ 20 to $ 40, led consumers to look for alternatives.
Pop Mart’s strength lies in its creations that attract a faithful audience – Labus, Cry Babies and Molly dolls – but the company still needs to grow beyond virality, said Morningstar analyst Jeff Zhang.
“Compared to global leaders such as Disney and Sanrio, Pop Mart still needs to demonstrate a long enough history of surplus return on capital invested from its own intellectual properties,” Zhang wrote last week.
And in a turnaround, Lafufu owners are not afraid to share that they have an imitation.
Chamorro imitation is smaller than original toil, and your hands and face can have two different shades. But the palm -sized toy teddy bear has the same malicious and soft smile that made the original incredibly viral.
“My little monster, even though it’s not authentic, is still very cute in his own way,” said Chamorro.
Pop Mart is not for a joke
Pop Mart has been holding the trademark “Labubu” since 2019 in the United States and at least since 2016 internationally, according to the company’s legal records. And the China It is suppressing the lafufus, with its customs bodies by apprehending large amounts of counterfeit products.
There is a certain irony in China’s possessiveness regarding its Labubu intellectual property. The country is known for producing falsifications of virtually all known brands, accounting for 45% of all seizure of counterfeit products in 2021, according to the organization for economic cooperation and development. The country also does not have a very high classification in the intellectual property index of the US Housewhich measures the strength of intellectual property between different nations.
A Pop Mart Americas recently processed a group of stores 7-Eleven na California for selling counterfeit toil. Zhang said more companies may face pop Mart lawsuits because of Lafufus, but falsifications can also decrease as pop Mart increases its production.
An organ of consumer patterns in the United Kingdom warned that counterfeit labubu dolls may pose a risk of asphyxiation for young children. The US Consumer Product Security Commission, which issued a similar warning, noted that a real toilet will have a holographic Pop Mart sticker, a scanable QR code with link to the official pop Mart website and exactly nine teeth; The younger toils will also have “a subtle UV seal on one foot.”
What is boosting demand for the Labus?
Nowadays, you can see more Lafufus on the streets than Labus, especially because social networks have destroyed the shame of having counterfeit toys.
Lafufus have “a much more original look, with minor imperfections and peculiarities … People like it,” Cassandra Harrison, 32, told New Jersey, CNN.
Many of her friends are starting Lafufus collections, and she recently found a full wall of them at a cell phone repair shop inside the local Super Walmart. But in the end, Harrison ended up buying an original toilet.
Turning Labubu, originally a children’s book character, into a beloved plush was not exactly luck, said Mark Tanner, managing director of the China Skinny consumer insights.
More and more Chinese companies are overcoming their western competitors with rapid product development, he told CNN.
Pop Mart worked hard behind the scenes to make the “Surprise Box” approach work. Like most current consumer trends, the surprise boxes attract buyers who are sailing through Tiktok hyperespecific algorithms.
“(Pop Mart’s strategy) aligns very well with how people are consuming information today, when the algorithm does all the work for them. When you buy a toil, you don’t have to make any choice,” said Tanner.
Pop Mart also does not have a history of decades like some of its western competitors. Therefore, the company is not so concerned with retaining loyal customers – it is still busy building its base.
Pop Mart opened at least 50 stores in 2025 worldwide, Morningstar said. Morningstar analysts estimate that business outside China will be responsible for 70% of pop Mart revenue in 2034 compared to 39% by 2024.
And in relation to fake toil, pop Mart still has some tricks in the sleeve to keep the spotlight on the original products.
Last week, pop Mart CEO Wang Ning announced an even smaller version of the character, similar to the popular Sonny Angel statuettes who hang on the devices of many Z Generation members. Wang said the mini-labubus can be released later this week, a quick delivery time, reports.
With the news of the tiny toy, Pop Mart shares rose 14%, reaching levels as high as those of December 2020, when the company opened capital.
For some, the toils are already beaten
Madonna recently presented a slightly scary birthday cake called “Madu” to celebrate her 67th birthday. Labubu costumes were seen on the event dance tracks. And why does a 24 carat gold gold toil seem to exist?
But what is unprecedented is the absolute ridicule of the lafufus. Some have faces glued aside. Others have tests that are definitely not proportional to their tiny body. All of these imperfections are a source of joy for users of social networks.
Chamorro, Florida’s wife, also has a toil. But she said her cool lafufu conquered her. The fact that she was able to buy it at a local gas station makes everything even better.
Therefore, at least for now, Chamorro is not worrying about official pop Mart releases.
“I don’t know if in a year they will still be so popular,” she said. “I think this is another passing trend and, honestly, I don’t think I’ll buy another. They are very difficult to get.”
