The first time Labubu went truly viral, it wasn’t in a toy store. It was in a TikTok clip that showed a plush, wide-eyed creature clipped to the side of a teenager’s tote bag as she filmed a haul video. She barely mentioned it. But the comments lit up.
“Where’d you get the thing on your bag?” “What is that creature?” “I need it.”
That was 2023. Since then, the Labubu doll—a furry monster with haunting eyes, created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung—has become a collector’s grail, a resale jackpot, and now, the subject of a strange and spiraling conspiracy theory.
Depending on who you ask, Labubus are adorable, chaotic sprites or demonic talismans ruining people’s lives.
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“I went to a store with my Labubu on my bag and as I was checking out, one of the workers came up to me and said ‘you know those things are really cute, but if you knew what they stood for you’ll no longer want it,’” one user posted on Reddit. “They followed by telling me it was a demon.”
Stranger warned me that my labubu is evil?
byu/phatskellie222 inlabubu
That post sparked a firestorm of replies. Some shrugged it off. Others said they’d experienced the same thing—random strangers issuing ominous warnings about the dolls.
The alleged culprit? Online whispers linking Labubu to Pazuzu, a demon from Mesopotamian mythology, also featured in The Exorcist. While there’s no factual connection between the toy and the ancient entity, the rumor has taken on a life of its own. TikTokers claim the dolls bring bad luck, glitch electronics, and even cause nightmares. Posts tagged #LabubuCurse have racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
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Meanwhile, Pop Mart UK quietly suspended in-store and roboshop Labubu sales in May, citing “a significant rise in customer turnout on restock days” and “concerns for customer safety.” Online speculation suggests a more chaotic truth: mobs of fans fighting scalpers, brawls breaking out at drop locations, and parents worried their kids could be targeted for having one visible on a backpack.
In one Reddit post, a Londoner described pulling their plushies off their bags “under house arrest,” fearing they might be harassed in public. “I don’t even feel that happy anymore when I look at my Labubus,” they wrote. “Just stress and confusion.”
So how did a toy become a target for paranoia?
Labubu’s creator, Hong Kong-based artist Kasing Lung, designed the character as a mischievous but lovable forest creature. With their big ears and haunting eyes, Labubus have always walked the line between cute and uncanny. But add in social media’s appetite for creepypasta-style lore, and suddenly the dolls became something darker.
The fervor hasn’t hurt their value. On June 10, a human-sized Labubu doll sold for 1.08 million yuan (approximately $150,324) at a Yongle International Auction in Beijing, making it the most expensive toy of its kind in the world, according to the BBC. The 131cm (4ft 4in) figurine headlined a Labubu-only auction that raised over 3.37 million yuan in total, fueled by the dolls’ skyrocketing popularity after celebrity endorsements from Lisa of BLACKPINK, Rihanna, and Dua Lipa. Even David Beckham was spotted with one clipped to his bag.
In June, a plush Labubu toy sold for $31,250.
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This LABUBU just sold for $31,250 USD at JOOPITER presents: sacai x SEVENTEEN, breaking the record for highest-selling LABUBU plush toy at auction pic.twitter.com/5E0H9nYOic
— HYPEBEAST (@HYPEBEAST) June 19, 2025
Labubus, which usually retail for around $7 in mystery blind boxes, have become global status symbols and chaos magnets all at once.
Despite the backlash, fans are standing firm. “He wanted your Labubu for himself.🤣😂” one Redditor said. “
