Their Labubus are fake, and they do not care
Knockoffs of the wildly popular elflike doll, which are collectively called The Monsters and are sold exclusively by the Chinese toy retailer Pop Mart, have become almost as popular as the real thing - and they are much easier to find.
Many of the real Labubus come in blind boxes with limited availability, so you do not know which one you are going to get until you open it, fuelling a sense of scarcity and surprise that adds to the appeal - and a growing resale market, where the dolls can go for much more than their US$20 (S$25.50) to US$30 retail price range.
As keychains, the dolls have been
wholeheartedly adopted by the fashion set ; it is not uncommon to see a $20 Labubu hanging from a $20,000 Birkin.
The hype is real: A life-size version of one of the dolls recently sold for more than US$170,000 at auction, and Pop Marts in Britain briefly halted sales of the dolls in May after reports of chaotic crowd surges and fights among customers hoping to snag new releases.
Yet 'Lafufus', as the fake figures are affectionately called, are also trending. Sold both in person (been to New York City's Canal Street recently?) and online at cheaper prices than their brethren's, they are much easier to find, even if they look a little… off.
Ms Victoria Bystritsky, a 25-year-old analyst who lives in California, bought her first box of three real Labubus off the e-commerce platform Mercari for US$150 back in April.
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'I saw a bunch of articles and people posting about them, so I was like, 'OK, I must have one,'' she said in an interview. But it was when her fiancé unwittingly purchased her a Lafufu at a gas station that her obsession with the dupes started.
'I was actually really excited to see what it would look like, because I'd seen TikToks of people unboxing the scariest looking Lafufus,' Ms Bystritsky said. 'And when I unboxed that Lafufu it was just so funny looking that I was like, 'Oh my gosh.''
Ms Bystritsky said that for her, the appeal of the Lafufus was to see just how terribly they mirrored the real thing. Her gas station Lafufu, for example, has crooked ears and bright pink eyes that are not available in any of the real dolls, which she said made it look 'freaky'.
'Honestly, the more botched they look, the better,' she added.
Representatives for Pop Mart did not respond to a request for comment on the fakes.
Perhaps the Lafufu appeal is rooted in the
rise of dupes and super fakes , a growing trend among millennials and Gen Z-ers that seeks to normalise and destigmatise buying and owning counterfeit luxury products.
There is no shame in this game. On the Labubu community on Reddit, users flock to share their secrets on the best places to score Lafufus (Shein and Alibaba are two favorites).
And on TikTok, people proudly post Lafufu unboxing videos. 'Labubus? Nah I'm fully invested in my bald Lafufus,' Ms Bystritsky recently posted in a TikTok video showing off her dupes that's been viewed nearly 3 million times.
Spotting a Lafufu requires a discerning eye: The real version should have exactly nine teeth and a peach pink face and should come in a matte box with an official QR code and a seal on its right foot that is visible only via UV lamp. Some of those qualities make Lafufus obvious, but when it comes to the truly good fakes, the differences can be as minimal as the stitching on the doll's accessories.
Still, to some fans of Lafufus, they are just as covetable as the real thing.
'I've had people offering to buy it off of me,' Ms Bystritsky said of her pink-eyed gas station Lafufu. 'Someone offered me $200, but it's priceless to me.' NYTIMES
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