Pop Toy Show Singapore is back this August featuring Hirono and other collectibles
This year's spotlight falls on Hirono, a beloved character known for its expressive features and intricate details. Designed by a Chinese artist, the whimsical series has since captured the hearts of many Pop Mart lovers.
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Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Labubu fans dote over ugly-cute doll trending at Comic-Con
SAN DIEGO, July 27 (Reuters) - San Diego Comic-Con is the latest location where the ugly-cute dolls named Labubu have been trending, with fans carrying the plushies globally popularized by celebrities Rihanna, Lizzo, Dua Lipa, and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink. The wide-eyed and grinning doll was created in 2015 by Hong Kong artist and illustrator Kasing Lung. In 2019, Lung allowed them to be sold by Pop Mart ( opens new tab, a Chinese toy company that sells collectible figurines, often in "blind boxes". "Blind boxes" are sealed boxes containing a surprise item that is usually part of a themed collection. Naomi Galban, from San Diego, waited in line on Sunday at the Pop Mart booth in the San Diego Convention Center for a chance to get her first Labubu. "Every time I go to a Pop Mart store, they're sold out," the 24-year-old told Reuters. She hoped to buy one for her little sister. Emily Brough, Pop Mart's Head of IP Licensing, spoke to Reuters on Thursday about Labubu fans at Comic-Con. "We love to see how fans are personalizing it (Labubu) for themselves," Brough said next to the Pop Mart booth. While Brough noted that there were many people with a Labubu strapped to their bags and backpacks at Comic-Con, the doll's popularity did not happen overnight. Labubus had a huge boost in 2019 after Pop Mart began selling them, and in 2024, when Blackpink's Lisa, who is Thai, created a buying frenzy in Thailand after she promoted Labubu on social media. Pop Mart saw sales skyrocket in North America that same year, with revenue in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2025 already surpassing the full-year U.S. revenue from 2024, Pop Mart said. When he created Labubu, Lung gave the character, who is female, a backstory inspired by Nordic mythology. He called her and his other fictional creatures "The Monsters." Diana Goycortua, 25, first discovered Labubu through social media, and before she knew it, it felt like a "game" to try and collect the dolls. "It's a little bit of gambling with what you're getting," the Labubu fan from San Diego said on Sunday while waiting at the Pop Mart booth, concluding that her love for the character made it worth trying blind boxes. Goycortua already has three Labubus, and was hoping to score her a fourth one at Comic-Con.
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Scottish Sun
I probe the minds of evil killers… infamous cat slayer signed his letters with sick moniker & lives in cloud cuckoo land
True crime expert Teemu Saarenpää admits Magnotta was not the most evil person he became pen pals with BEHIND BARS I probe the minds of evil killers… infamous cat slayer signed his letters with sick moniker & lives in cloud cuckoo land HE'S the psychopathic killer who filmed himself feeding a live kitten to a python and suffocating another in a plastic bag in a chilling bid for internet notoriety. But the sickening videos were a prelude to monstrous Luka Magnotta's final act - stabbing a lover to death, chopping up his body and posting out the severed body parts to schools and politicians. Advertisement 13 Luka Magnotta, a model and porn actor, was dubbed the 'Canadian Psycho' Credit: AFP 13 Jun Lin was violently murdered by Luka Magnotta in 2012 Credit: Rex Features 13 Magnotta used a python and other cruel methods to kill kittens in videos he posted online Credit: Collect Yet the Canadian, now 42, who was jailed for 25 years in 2014 for murdering Chinese university student Jun Lin, 33, remains remorseless according to true crime expert Teemu Saarenpää. After exchanging letters with Magnotta, real name Eric Newman, he believes the 'extremely ego-centric' killer 'lives in la la land' and remains in denial that he committed any wrongdoing. Advertisement Teemu, 41, who runs blog Forenseek, tells The Sun: 'He lives in a totally upside-down, candy land world where he believes he's accused of something he didn't do. 'He's in denial, doesn't take responsibility for what he did and portrays himself as someone misunderstood by an evil society that set him up. 'He was unreflective of his deeds and is clearly a wannabe celebrity who wanted to be famous and a glamorous god. 'Because he wasn't able to obtain that fame through any real talent, he decided to become infamous instead.' Magnotta, who was the subject of hit 2019 Netflix docuseries Don't F*** With Cats, is one of many monsters Teemu has been able to see inside the mind of by writing letters to them in prison. Advertisement Other notable inmates he's probed include Charles Bronson, who made a distasteful quip about hostage-taking, and 'Night Stalker' serial killer Richard Ramirez, who was the 'most evil person' he's spoken to. Speaking to The Sun for our Meeting a Monster series, Teemu admits he was particularly surprised by Magnotta's absolute refusal to acknowledge his callous crimes. In one letter Magnotta, known as 'Canadian Pyscho', refuted claims he was an animal killer - despite being captured on film - and brushed it off as jealous rivals who were 'very good with Photoshop'. Pathetic last days of Rose West revealed as serial killer monster can barely walk, has no friends & has new fake identity 13 Police say Magnotta had up to 80 aliases online Credit: Collect 13 Magnotta had aspirations of being a model Advertisement 13 A dead dog along with other incriminating things were found near to Magnotta's flat Credit: Splash News 13 The Canadian stabbed his lover Jun Lin to death with a screwdriver after tying him to a bed Credit: AP:Associated Press Among the incriminating clips was '1 Boy 2 Kittens', which showed him putting the animals into a plastic bag before using a vacuum to suffocate them. Yet Magnotta told Teemu: 'I never in my life harmed any animals – I actually adore them… I was falsely accused of willingly participating in some bizarre animal videos. I'm completely bewildered.' Chillingly, he also signed off his letter: 'Luka, aka cuddle cat'. Advertisement Magnotta snubbed doctors, who diagnosed him as schizophrenic, claiming they were 'self-serving' and created 'misleading reports'. One medical professional, he alleged, was 'obsessed with making a name for himself' - when in fact, according to Teemu, it was Magnotta who possessed a 'desperate obsession with getting a personality cult on the internet'. Magnotta, who says he has a 132 IQ score, also denied having created multiple online aliases - despite police reporting as many as 80 existed - claiming it to be the work of deranged fans. I never in my life harmed any animals – I actually adore them… I was falsely accused of willingly participating in some bizarre animal videos. I'm completely bewildered Luka Magnotta in a letter to Teemu Saarenpää 'If these idiots copied photos of me and impersonated me online, that's on them, that's their problem… I'm told people posing as me is an epidemic online,' he told Teemu, who's from Finland. 'I find it so pathetic and have always ignored it. I never, I repeat NEVER had any fake accounts, nor did I ever pose as anyone other than myself.' Advertisement When Magnotta was snared for murdering Jun Lin, cops discovered an 11-minute snuff film titled '1 Lunatic 1 Icepick', which showed him repeatedly stabbing his victim with a screwdriver and dismembering him. Sickeningly they revealed the killer used one of Lin's body parts to perform a sex act, then carved up his body with a knife and fork and fed bits of it to a dog. Teemu considered Luka deluded, describing him as 'in his own munchkin world' - unlike his other killer pen pal Richard Ramirez, who 'was aware he was evil and didn't give a s***'. 'The most evil person I've written to' 13 Monster Richard Ramirez murdered at least 14 people in the 80s 13 Ramirez was known as 'The Night Stalker' killer Credit: Netflix Advertisement 13 Ramirez proudly flashed a pentagram he had drawn on his hand in court Credit: Getty - Contributor The monster, dubbed 'the Night Stalker', murdered at least 14 people and raped multiple women at knife-point, often in front of their partners and children. Teemu wrote to Ramirez, who plagued California during the Eighties, in a bid to understand how someone 'so tangibly evil' thought. 'He was definitely the most evil person I've written to,' Teemu says. 'Ramirez embraced being as depraved, as horrible, as deplorable as a human being could be. 'He was a Satanist. He embraced everything evil and spoke about worshipping the Devil, who he believed to be a real entity. Advertisement 'He didn't give a s*** about anything, killing was for fun for him, and even after he received the death penalty, he said, 'Big deal, death always came with the territory, I'll see you in Disneyland'.' But in Ramirez's letter, Teemu claimed he came across 'more like a chilled Californian surfer' or 'Keanu Reeves in the Bill & Ted movies' than a depraved murderer. He says: 'There are some killers who are very verbose and self-reflective, but Ramirez was the exact opposite. "He liked AC/DC, Eighties muscle cars, chicks, beer, that sort of thing.' I wouldn't want to be anywhere near him. If he was in a 10km radius, I'd get on a bus in the opposite direction Teemu Saarenpää Teemu suspects Ramirez was either not very intelligent or masquerading with a 'mundane mask of sanity' to pretend he was normal. Advertisement Teemu found one element of Ramirez's letter particularly chilling - the question: 'So any nieces or nephews in your life?' 'It was such a weird and specific thing to say that I looked it up online and Ramirez has a habit of asking penpals that question before trying to get them to send pictures of them,' Teemu explains. He fears this was a ploy to solicit snaps of underage children - and suspects it shows Ramirez - who died of natural causes in 2013 - was a paedophile. The death row inmate was known to have previously molested two kids in a lift and forced a three-year-old boy, who he tied up, to watch his mother being raped. Shock discovery Teemu's fascination with dark subject matter began after meeting a sweet old lady who he became friends with during his childhood - only to discover she was a murderer. Advertisement 'Sometime later I heard from my parents that she killed her husband and buried him in the garden of her home,' he says. 'You absolutely wouldn't believe it if you met her. It made me realise there is no 'killer gene' or anything categorically different in the brains of killers to the rest of the public, which I found really intriguing.' The revelation set him on a path to try to get inside the minds of famous killers, initially through reading books and watching documentaries, before deciding to write to them. 'I find the dark side of human life, full of stories so different from my lived reality, so fascinating,' Teemu says. 'I'm a normal, middle class dude, a bit like Milhouse from The Simpsons, so finding out about these people is like looking into the inverse mirror. Advertisement 'It makes me think how my life could have been if I was born in a warzone, watched people die, gone through a traumatic childhood or lived in an abusive family.' 'Violent psychopath' 13 Charles Bronson wasn't as intimidating in letters, as Teemu predicted 13 Bronson sent Teemu a painted postcard Credit: Supplied Teemu also exchanged letters with Charles Bronson, who he says came across like a 'jolly British bloke' and acted like 'someone you'd meet in a pub after an Arsenal match'. He wrote to the crook because he found his 'totally relentless one-man war against the authorities' fascinating. Advertisement 'If you told him, 'You can turn right to gold and chocolate and left to hell', he would turn to hell and refuse to obey, even if the decision did not help him,' Teemu says. Bronson sent Teemu a piece of artwork depicting himself topless on a beach musing about no longer being in prison. It featured the Latin phrase 'Candor dat viribus alas', which translates to 'Candour gives wings to strength', and the sketch of a book titled 'Freedom is Wonderful by Charles Bronson'. Additionally he sent a short letter quizzing Teemu about his life, and was 'charismatic, verbose and always making jokes'. 'You can see how he would have a certain magnetism and women would want to be with him,' he says of the lag, who has married twice while behind bars and had several girlfriends. Advertisement You can see how he would have a certain magnetism and women would want to be with him Teemu on Charles Bronson But beneath the surface, Teemu noted a darker side. Bronson made a distasteful joke in response to him disclosing he had worked with refugees from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. Bronson wrote: 'You mention that you work with folks from the Middle East. That's funny because you reminded me of a story where I took someone hostage – that person was Middle Eastern.' Teemu adds: 'He didn't elaborate but... he said it like someone would say, 'I went to Italy the other day,' but being Bronson he's like, 'Oh yeah, I took an Iranian guy hostage'.' He adds he would never meet the "violent psychopath" in person, admitting: 'I wouldn't want to be anywhere near him. If he was in a 10km radius, I'd get on a bus in the opposite direction.' Read more about Teemu's interviews with serial killers and murderers at Advertisement 13 Teemu's fascination with dark subject matter began after meeting a sweet old lady who he became friends with during his childhood - only to discover she was a murderer Credit: Supplied
Time Out
3 days ago
- Time Out
Giant Crybaby installations take over Festival Walk, with a Pop Mart pop-up store
Among the toy keychains that have taken over hearts and social media feeds recently, Crybaby has always been a particularly cute brand, with endearing characters that are instantly recognisable from the tears on their faces. This summer, these weeping cuties are taking over Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong with multiple giant installations. Themed after a playground, eight oversized blind box characters from Crybaby's Crying For Love series are dotted around the main atrium of the mall for fans to admire and take photos with. The centrepiece is the giant Love You Cherry Much figures, sitting side by side in their cherry outfits above a red-and-white ball pit. Other cute installations include the angel and devil Kiss Kiss characters pouting towards each other in a smooch, a Stupid Cupid heart-shaped swing set, and a translucent red box housing a Heart Broken Crybaby. It's not all just photo ops, as Pop Mart also brings a pop-up store to this event, with plenty of goodies to keep all collectors and shoppers satisfied. Aside from products from the Crying For Love series – like the gift box containing the angel and heart plushies, an adorable straw cup, and vinyl plush hanging dolls – this pop-up also stocks Crybaby's other lines, such as the animal-themed Wild but Cutie series, the tutu-wearing Shiny Shiny series, their Powerpuff Girls collab, as well as scented candles and fragrances. If there's an out-of-stock product on the Pop Mart website you have your eye on, it's worth checking out this event to try your luck. There will also be plenty of other merch from Pop Mart's most popular characters, including Molly, Dimoo, Pucky, and more (no Labubus, though). Don't leave without snapping some selfies at the Crybaby photo booth with Crying For Love photo frames. During the pop-up event, visitors can also register as My Festival members for free and use their bonus points to redeem Crybaby stickers or a Crybaby Playground single-use film camera. Crybaby Playground will be at Festival Walk from July 25 to August 31.
