When 26-year-old healthcare consultant Michelle Keller peeled open the shiny packaging to reveal a chestnut furry gremlin baby staring back at her, she squealed. She had completed the mission. After hours of elbowing her way through central London crowds last month to find a Labubu, a wildly popular keyring doll originating from Hong Kong, she had successfully located the highly coveted “rare special” Labubu. In addition to its brown fuzzy coat, it comes with freckles, a red nose, rabbit-like ears, and spiky, menacing gnashers (imagine a crossover between a creature from Where the Wild Things Are and an evil Teletubby). Keller had, essentially, won the collectable toy lottery.
There’s no denying she worked hard to get there. Tension filled the air inside the Soho store belonging to Chinese retailer Pop Mart when the staff emerged with fresh Labubus from the stockroom. “Everyone rushed over and grabbed multiple boxes. I was like, ‘I didn’t know that today I had to fight... I was not mentally prepared for this,’” Keller laughs. “I just made sure the child in front of me had secured one, and then I was like, ‘Grab two, grab two!’” She proudly wears the dolls attached to her handbag, and takes it everywhere she goes.
