Labubu-Inspired Ideas: Alibaba Lens Customizes Popular Toy Trends

From the 2000s Hello Kitty collectibles to the 2010s Pokémon Trading Cards, viral toys, and their limited-edition or special-edition releases have hit news headlines all over the world time after time. Today, the latest craze in the toy world is apparently the buzzworthy Labubu.

Its life-sized collectible recently made headlines with a record-breaking auction, followed by a ban on popular bank promos that handed it out— halted amid concerns over their exorbitant costs. With all the frenzy, let’s examine the rise of Labubu and how it’s influencing today’s trendy toy market, before exploring how unique AI image search tools like Alibaba Lens can help capitalize on such trends, turning them into customizable ideas.

Table of Contents
1. Why Labubu
2. How Labubu shapes demand for trendy toys
3. Turn trends into customizable products with Alibaba Lens
4. From toying ideas to custom reality

Why Labubu

The above elliptical-style question indeed has a double perspective built-in: Offering two answers from different angles. The first angle: “Why Labubu now?” is sort of self-explanatory, particularly for anyone who has been regularly exposed to news and social media chatter about Labubu over the past months. It is a talking point that most people are naturally curious about, given all its recent breakthroughs.

And that leads to the next perspective of the question: Why can Labubu become so popular? Put simply, the answer can be summed up in one concise sentence: “Because it has everything it takes to be trendy.” These include: limited availability, widespread hype through celebrity and social media endorsements, as well as increasing mainstream visibility and community-driven momentum. All these are reshaping the traditional viral toy success formula, influencing today’s trendy toy market with more details to follow in the next section.

How Labubu shapes demand for trendy toys

The most straightforward way to examine how Labubu influences demand in the global trendy toy market is to look at the very same set of factors that have pushed it to the top of the trendy toy space. They are precisely the same mechanism that has, in turn, made shoppers gravitate toward demanding the same levers, such as the surprise packs and brand collaborations, in other future toy releases. The connection becomes clearer through the following core elements.

1. More than a subversively cute design:

The unique design and appearance of Labubu successfully fuses classic baby-schema cues, like large round eyes and a chubby body, with an ‘ugly-cute’ twist, featuring long pointed ears and serrated teeth, adding a playful edge that defines Labubu’s charm. According to Chinese scholars, the “ugly-cute” aesthetic has the power to turn traditionally unattractive features into a source of delight, using humor and surprise in place of pure prettiness.

Completing its design appeal, Labubu has also proven to be a toy figure with substance as it smartly anchors itself within an enchanted forest-elf universe inspired by Nordic fairy tales and mythology. This gives the toy real narrative depth, transforming it from a mere cute figure into a soulful, story-driven character.

2. Blind-box culture:

Although the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” may sound like a well-worn expression when discussing product packaging, it actually applies in Labubu’s case. As a result of its blind-box marketing strategy, buyers are now unwittingly following this classic advice. Rather than knowing what’s inside the box before purchase, this blind-box model is the norm for Labubu, and in fact, for most toys sold by Pop Mart now.

As the exclusive gateway to purchase new, authentic Labubu figures, Pop Mart has fully optimized this mystery-box system to pique interest and excitement that resonate with collectors. Every purchase is now akin to a “mysterious gift” moment to oneself, making each order naturally filled with anticipation and surprises, further fueling the urge to collect the entire full series.

3. Limited releases and versatility exemplify collectibility:

Labubu’s limited production successfully evoked a sense of exclusivity and prestige, commanding higher price points and driving demand among collectors. This appeal is amplified by the launch of a series of rare figures that triggered a heightened sense of thrill in hunting and completing a collection. Its versatility to function as both a toy and a fashion accessory like a bag charm, keychain, or display figure, further underscores its collectibility.

Pop Mart also knows well that collectibles ride on more than scarcity. It hence strategically pursues collaborations with brands and celebrities like Vans, Instinctoy, and Seventeen to create additional buzz and tap into built-in fanbases. Meanwhile, it also intensifies the range of Labubu variations in size, finish, and character themes to further enrich each release. Together, these synergistic elements elevate Labubu to cultural phenomenon status, making it unquestionably worthy of collection in the eyes of passionate collectors.

4. The power of media and celebrity culture:

Labubu’s rise in the trendy toy market undoubtedly owes much to the power of media and celebrity exposure. Its popularity skyrocketed in 2024 when K-pop star Lisa from BLACKPINK was spotted using a Labubu figure as a bag charm. This kind of endorsement sparks visibility, builds credibility, and generates desire across her massive fanbase.

In the meantime, social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have driven the trend even further. Influencers frequently showcase their Labubu collections, unbox rare figures, and post creative display setups, which spark curiosity and fear of missing out (FOMO) among their audiences. These media-fueled channels have helped transform Labubu from a niche interest into a must-follow trend, appealing across all ages and backgrounds.

Turn trends into customizable products with Alibaba Lens

As highlighted in the following examples, while not everyone is a toy designer, and new ideas may not always emerge simply by looking at images of Labubu or any popular trends, the ability to learn, discover, and customize is made accessible through the capabilities of Alibaba Lens. This free AI image search tool is available as a Chrome extension now. Once pinned, the orange icon can be clicked directly for immediate use on the browser.

Design customization

Any toy maker and designer seeking inspiration from Labubu can certainly explore the customization options in terms of its most prominent and distinctive design features: the ugly-cute aesthetic trends achievable through even the slightest silhouette tweaks.

For example, to gain more design ideas and guidance related to these designs when sourcing customizable toy suppliers, simply search for existing ugly-cute toy images and put Alibaba Lens into action as follows:

At the same time, a more granular and precise way for those aiming to create their own ugly-cute design adaptations and variations is to explore individual features and minute details. For example, from ear shapes, and hairstyles, to facial-expression tweaks, as illustrated below:

What’s more, the above screenshot highlighted how users can add terms like “plush toys” to further filter search results, beyond simply relying on matches that support customization. In fact, this is a function that truly magnifies the power of the AI-powered multimodal search capabilities of Alibaba Lens.

Meanwhile, toy sellers or aspiring designers may also draw inspiration from Labubu’s authenticity-checked “glowing” foot-logo emblem, which illuminates vividly under UV conditions, and instead, creates glow-effect or bling-bling designs of their own as demonstrated in the pictures below:

Packaging customization

As proven in so many generous social media sharings, thousands of delighted customers have shared Labubu’s brilliance in blind-box marketing and unboxing joy. Yet toy sellers can expand beyond such blind-box concepts to explore more flexible packaging variants such as blind bag options. Using Alibaba Lens, users can uncover customizable options in one click on preferred images, for example, those emphasizing cute designs as follows:

In fact, surprise packaging can come in many forms, even including custom tin packaging as featured in the screenshot below. As portrayed here, Alibaba Lens makes finding such customizable tin packaging effortless, simply capturing the mystery tin packaging image and letting the AI search do the rest to show supplier details and prices instantly.

Apart from that, users may also explore other mystery packaging options such as surprise ball and egg packaging, which are all well-received among the buyers for their hidden surprise effect, all accessible through Alibaba Lens, as demonstrated in the image here:

Better yet, the suggested additional text filter feature provides highly relevant and targeted text suggestions to help refine the sourcing journey, as shown below:

Concept customization

It’s clear by now that Labubu’s success and popularity stem not just from its looks but from a carefully crafted story and character development. In other words, it’s an overarching full concept. From its brand DNA to the entire marketing strategy; there are many innovations that most other toy designers and brands can take cues from.

For instance, two recent best-selling concepts illustrate this: many Labubu products have prices inflated to an astronomical level and instantly upgraded to “investment-grade.” thanks to two main concepts: The plus-size (Labubu 400% and 1000%) versions as well as retro, vintage streetwear tie-ins with fashion brands like Vans.

As presented in the image above, toy makers can hunt for creative sparks among the ugly-cute toy images on the market and activate Alibaba Lens to find suppliers that support enhanced customization. Simply add keywords like “large size” to spot suppliers instantly and leverage both the unique design and plus-size comfort concepts of Labubu.

In the meantime, to build on the retro toy concept, type “retro style” alongside the chosen design and Alibaba Lens will display all suppliers offering similar retro-style variants, as referenced in the screenshot below:

In fact, a recent Singapore study shows 40– to 50-year-olds are among the top spenders in the hobbies and toys category. This makes collectible toys with vintage or retro sentimental appeal a natural focus. In line with such a strong interest in vintage design appeal, toy marketers may also proceed to draw inspiration directly from popular vintage toy pictures instead and activate Alibaba Lens to source suppliers in real-time, as shown here:

From toy ideas to custom reality

All in all, what’s being said and discussed here is to emphasize two key points: 1) the power of viral trends in the collectible world and 2) the emergence of AI image search tools, especially specialized B2B tools like Alibaba Lens, in empowering the customization of practically any trend based on its key design elements and visual cues.

For example, Alibaba Lens can turn any screenshot containing similar designs, concepts, or packaging from viral trends like Labubu into a search for wholesalers capable of enabling similar customization possibilities, thereby magnifying the unlimited potential of creativity. While it’s literally a journey from toying with ideas to turning them into tangible reality, it’s worth noting that such customization functionality is not limited to toy products only, but applies to virtually any trends that emphasize designs and visual elements.

For more tips on how to get started with Alibaba Lens and creative strategies for maximizing its utility, visit Alibaba.com Reads regularly and gain more insights on the wholesale market, logistics updates, as well as sourcing ideas completely free of charge.