It has been almost two years since BLACKPINK member Lalisa Manobal, or more commonly Lisa, was seen with a Labubu attached to her bag. Since then, the toy has been everywhere, dominating the market and social media feeds.
In just the first six months of 2025, toy manufacturer Pop Mart earned a whopping $677 million on “The Monsters” blind box series alone. While “Labubu” is just one character from the series, her name has become all-encompassing for the rest. Sources like BBC and NBC have credited Lisa as being a large reason for the toy’s overwhelming success.
Labubus are not the only blind box that has become a widespread trend. “Sonny Angels,” “Calico Critters” and other Pop Mart collections have also increased in popularity in the past couple of years.
“I think you can directly correlate that to influencers and Twitch streamers like Vanillamace,” said Lilliana Cassells, a junior majoring in marketing.
Cassells first saw a Labubu hooked on a friend’s bag while they were out shopping. Pop Mart offers a series of “Plush Pendants” that come with a key ring for easy attaching to purses, backpacks and even jeans.
“I was like, ‘That thing on your bag is ugly. I kind of love it,’” she said.
Blind boxes have become so appealing partly because of their mysterious nature. They typically list the possible contents on the outside of the box with the probability of getting each item. According to Narineh Hartoonian at the Rowan Center for Behavioral Medicine, the anticipation someone feels before opening a blind box is what hooks consumers, not its contents.
“There is an expectation of: I could get what I want or I could not, but I’m still going to have fun with it either way,” said Sara Kate Watson, a sophomore neuroscience major.
This secret nature keeps buyers wanting more, even if they don’t get the item they want. Julia Clark, a junior public health major, compared collecting blind boxes to gambling.
“It’s fun to take a chance,” she said. “I think that people try to find joy in cheap, little suspenseful mysteries because we can’t afford bigger surprises.”
For collectors, however, buying blind boxes can become an expensive task when trying to complete certain collections. Resellers buy blind boxes in bulk and resell them, or their contents, at much higher prices. These “scalpers” have made it nearly impossible to get certain items or characters, Cassells said.
For casual buyers, though, blind boxes can offer the excitement of getting a cute character without having to choose the “best.”
“For me, it kind of eliminates the stress of picking what toy I want,” Cassells said.
Blind boxes have now expanded to appeal to a wide range of interests and hobbies, with companies making makeup blind bags, and stores like Barnes & Noble wrapping books and writing short descriptions to eliminate customers from having to choose their next read.
“You know you’re going to get something you want out of it,” Watson said. “You’re always going to receive a good surprise.”
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