Labubu

What I learned

Cat Mode On dropped and the whole hobby got pulled back in

Pop Mart's new The Monsters Cat Mode On Series - the Vinyl Plush Pendant Blind Boxes where Labubu comes dressed as different kittens - is the single biggest story in the window. The series turns Labubu into 10 different cats including a secret Maine Coon Kitty, per blindboxreviews, and it launched in the UK on Friday at £21 for a single blind box or £189 for a full set of 9, while the US release landed October 15, 2026 at 8 PM ET with a nine-cat-breed lineup, according to EVORETRO Canada. @popmart_us posted the official rollout on Instagram October 9 with the tagline "Squish it, cuddle it, wear it." @libraryofsofia's cat-hunting video pulled 941,498 views and 70,538 likes, @popmartuk posted the official "LABUBU is Back" reveal under the Pop Mart The Monsters banner, and @disneyfoolishmortals summed up the trap: "When you think you're done with the Labubu Monsters, @POP MART SHOP UK comes out with new ones, and you get drawn back in." @whoopea01 and @kevy0h both posted unboxings asking "which kitty did you get," and @whoopea built a whole "top 10 Cat Mode On plushies" ranking pointing fans to confirmed styles. UK shoppers also got a discount window, with blindboxreviews flagging that Cat Mode On launched right into Pop Mart's Super Brand Week sale (16 to 22 October), with 8% off available through release day.

The cat clips are breaking the second they get worn

The top r/labubu complaint thread, "Cat labubu broken already" (31 upvotes, 15 comments), is already warning buyers the attachment hardware is flimsy. Top comment from u/stop-following-me-2 (4 upvotes): "The little fabric clips do not seem particularly sturdy. I have a sad feeling that, as more people wear these on their bags, we will be seeing sad stories of missing cats." Over on X, @ValGal1212 (28 likes) bought her first cat one and "made the mistake of opening the order confirmation" - buyer's remorse before the box even arrived.

"Your LABUBU is worthless now" is the thesis video of the window

Statrys's breakdown lays out the collapse: the franchise pulled ~$430M in 2024 (up 700% in a year), one Labubu auctioned for $170,000, and now "search interest is down 90% from its peak last August" with resale prices at a fifth of June's. The top comment from @rstorm7568 (7,100 likes) is brutal: "This video proved to me one thing, people are way more mindless and idiotic than I gave them credit." @DoublePlus-Ungood (6,300 likes) added: "They were never worth anything in the first place." Reuters adds useful nuance to the "dead" narrative: Chinese resale platform Qiandao showed the Labubu character "Luck" peaking above 500 yuan ($70.20) in June before sliding to around 108 yuan, and Reuters frames the drop as being "more about supply than demand," since Pop Mart has been flooding shelves with new releases rather than demand simply vanishing.

The resale floor has actually fallen through

Closo's Poshmark tracking of Labubu Toys (updated Oct 13) now puts the median at $12 used and $30 new-with-tags, with a 12-month median of $25 - a far cry from the speculative peak. A separate cross-platform tracker, Collectible Compass, pegs the current "complete in box" price estimate at $24, drawn from over 11,000 eligible sales with 2,157 auctions in the past month alone, last sold October 2026, which roughly confirms the Closo numbers from a different data set. USA Scoop framed the macro picture on Pinterest: "cooling demand and counterfeits are putting the trend to the test as billions in market value disappear." The frenzy that built the brand is visibly deflating, even as adjacent lines keep moving, listings for the Pop Mart The Monsters "Pin for Love" Vinyl Plush Pendant Blind Box are still being hawked as "Action Figure Birthday Gift" packs on resale marketplaces.

Counterfeits are muddying the cooldown story

With resale prices sliding, fakes ("Lafufus") have become a parallel headache. ABC News reported Pop Mart's own guidance urges buyers to purchase only through the company or verified retailers, and Pop Mart's official authenticity page walks customers through scratching off a Box Label Code and running it through a QR verification step. Scripps News echoed the same scan-and-verify advice, and The Post-Crescent reported that fake Labubus are now facing a lawsuit over safety concerns, with the CSPC advising that a too-good-to-be-true price is the first red flag and that genuine units carry a holographic Pop Mart sticker and scannable QR code. It is a reminder that "counterfeits" isn't just a side note in the USA Scoop framing, it is an active consumer-safety story running alongside the price collapse.

The Oxford Street flagship opened into the cooldown

Pop Mart launched its London flagship at 149-151 Oxford Street, billed as the biggest store in Europe, right as the hype was fading - and creators showed up anyway. @bethpuxley's budget-shopping walkthrough hit 52,540 views and 3,941 likes ("This store is insane!"), and @blindboxjude caught the pre-opening sneak peek noting Oxford Street "becomes pedestrianised." The same creator later filmed a Smyths blind-box haul where she credited @nikki and @sofia for the "lama tama" method of picking boxes, a sign the shopping-as-content format is spreading well past Labubu itself. Shelf-sharing is part of the story too: @evanngobrol described a Pop Mart haul mixing Crybaby, Labubu, and Hello Kitty blind boxes in the same bag, and @denizstephanie sent followers running to Pepco for Hello Kitty & Friends boxes riding the same blind-box wave.

The diehards are quietly relieved the trend hoppers left

The r/labubu reflection thread "Did Labubu ever stop being fun for you?" (28 upvotes, 129 comments) is where the real collectors are regrouping. Top comment from u/flutterr0se (11 upvotes): "The hype has faded and it makes me happy because when your hobby is flooded by trend hoppers it just makes it horrible. Causes inflated prices and scalping." The community that stuck around - @fa8fulfa8 finally got one as a gift (23 likes, 13 reposts), @obungugadaisuki curious-adopted her first (41 likes) - is the post-hype core. That same collector-protectiveness shows up in adjacent fandoms too, where threads on communities like r/HonkaiStarRail have swapped notes comparing blind-box burnout across hobbies, a reminder that the "please don't let this become the next flooded fandom" anxiety isn't unique to Labubu. Even @Mintitacos has chimed into the broader blind-box conversation, a small but telling sign the fatigue talk has spread beyond the core subreddit.

The crossover merch keeps multiplying

Beyond the cats, Pop Mart's calendar is stacked: @popmart_us pushed the Peach Riot Sugar Mode series, @msjsc racked up over a million views on a Hirono Ice Cream Pop Bakery clip from Shanghai, and even fast food is circling the orbit, fan edits and wishlist posts keep pairing Labubu with Burger King promo tie-ins as the kind of crossover collectors half-joke, half-hope is coming next. r/labubu regulars are also tracking what's next on the drop calendar, with a "Pumpkin Labubu is dropping in the livestream tonight" thread picking up traction alongside a tongue-in-cheek "Comrade Labubu" post, proof the meme energy hasn't faded even if the resale prices have.