Labubu and the blind box craze: why half the world is opening boxes blind

If you have set foot on TikTok this year, you have seen it: people queueing at dawn, unboxings with more tension than a cup final, and a little pointy-eared monster with a toothy grin hanging off very expensive handbags. Its name is Labubu, it is the star character of the Chinese company Pop Mart, and it has turned the blind box into a global phenomenon.

What exactly is Labubu?

Labubu is a creature created by the artist Kasing Lung for his "The Monsters" universe: half elf, half little devil, one hundred percent addictive. Pop Mart sells it mainly in blind box format, meaning you do not know which version you got until you open it, and that mechanic, plus collaborations and celebrities parading it around, did the rest: series selling out in minutes and resale at silly prices.

The psychology of "which one did I get?"

The craze is not (only) about the doll: it is about the format. The sealed box turns a purchase into a small event: suspense, opening, surprise, and if the secret drops, euphoria. It is the same chemistry that has powered the Japanese gachapon for decades: contained price + chance + collection. The Japanese have known since the sixties; the world just found out.

How to enjoy the craze without paying resale prices

• Run from inflated resale: paying 5 times the price for a chance-based figure breaks the whole point of the game.
• Explore beyond the hype: the blind box universe is huge. Cat series, anime, miniature food, premium Japanese absurdity... plenty with the same "poison" and no queues.
• Golden rule: the box arrives sealed and nobody, not even the shop, knows what is inside. If someone sells it to you "opened and picked", it is no longer a blind box.

The Don's verdict

Labubu may go out of fashion or it may not, fads are like that, but the blind box format is here to stay, because it presses a very old and very human button: surprise. If you want to try that feeling, our surprise boxes section has series to start today, with the sacred rule intact: you choose the series, chance chooses the figure.

See available surprise boxes →