Labubu turned "ugly-cute" blind boxes into a mainstream obsession, and now half of them are sold out or resold at triple the price. If you're here, you probably want that same hit without the scalper tax. The good news: the art toy world is a lot bigger than one character. Here are the series worth a look if Labubu is what got you collecting, a few of them ours, several of them not.
First, what actually made Labubu work
It helps to name the appeal before chasing it. Labubu, the toothy little monster from Kasing Lung's The Monsters, hit three things at once. It's ugly-cute, so it reads as personality instead of generic kawaii. It comes as a plush pendant you can clip to a bag, so it's a collectible you wear in public. And it's sold in blind boxes, so there's a chase built into every purchase.
Match those three and you've basically got a Labubu-shaped itch scratched. Miss them and you've just got another cute figure. So that's the lens for everything below.
If you want the clip-it-to-your-bag plush energy
GISMOW (ours). GISMOW is a family of cat-eyed creatures with a flocked, peach-fuzz finish, sold as both blind boxes and plush charms. The bag-charm format is the direct overlap with Labubu: something soft, characterful, and made to hang off a strap where people see it. The expressions do a lot of the work here, which is the same reason Labubu's face carries it. If the plush-pendant part is what you liked, start with the GISMOW collection.
Sonny Angel (external). Worth knowing your history. Sonny Angel, the little headgear-wearing cherubs from Dreams in Japan, basically invented the small-blind-box-surprise category back in the mid-2000s. They're figures rather than plush, so the texture is different, but if you like the ritual of opening a sealed box for a tiny character, this is the original and it's still going.
If you want ugly-cute with an edge
TARTI (ours). Where GISMOW is soft and playful, TARTI leans darker: ghostly hotels, gothic-soft characters, a bit strange and off-kilter. If what pulled you to Labubu was the not-quite-cute part, TARTI is the closer match in mood. Browse the TARTI collection.
Crybaby and Hirono (external, via Pop Mart). Same shelf as Labubu, different feelings. Crybaby leans into teary, emotional charm; Hirono is the quieter, more melancholic, art-leaning one. Both are Pop Mart lines, so availability and resale dynamics look a lot like Labubu's, for better and worse.
If you liked the "hide it around the house" fun
Smiski (external). Also from Dreams, Smiski are small green figures that glow in the dark and get posed in odd corners: peeking off a shelf, clinging to a wall. It's a different kind of play than a bag charm, more about living with the thing than wearing it. If the collecting-and-arranging part is your favorite, this one's underrated.
Where Labubu still wins (worth being honest)
No alternative fully replaces the hype. Labubu's community is enormous, the drops are events, and the resale market, annoying as it is, means there's always chatter and content around it. If part of the fun for you is being in a big active fandom, nothing here matches that scale yet. What you trade up for is easier access, lower prices, and characters that aren't picked over.
How to buy without the scalper tax
The whole reason to look past Labubu is usually price and availability, so don't recreate the problem. Buy sealed boxes from the brand or an official store rather than resale listings, where markups of 2 to 3 times are normal. For our own lines, everything ships sealed in official packaging straight from Funcinating, the studio behind GISMOW, TARTI, CALOR and KOUCOMI, so there's no middle markup. For external brands, their official stores and verified stockists are the safer route than marketplace resellers.
FAQ
Are these actually like Labubu, or just "also cute"? The closest on format are plush bag charms like GISMOW, and on mood the darker series like TARTI. Sonny Angel and Smiski are figures, not plush, so they scratch the blind-box itch more than the wear-it-out one.
Are alternatives cheaper? Usually, yes, mostly because you're buying at retail instead of resale. A sealed blind box from a current series typically runs well under what a resold Labubu goes for.
Where do I buy without getting scalped? Official brand stores and verified stockists. Sealed, retail price, authenticity marks on the box.
Do blind boxes mean I can't pick the character? Right, that's the format. If you want a specific one, look for single-design figures instead of sealed boxes, or buy a full tray for the base lineup.
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