Can you tell the difference between a Labubu and its imposter, the Lafufu?
Labubus are plush toys on keychains that are based on characters created by Hong Kong-born Belgian artist Kasing Lung. They typically feature oversized eyes, tall rabbit-like ears and serrated, toothy grins. They have fur-covered heads and bodies but bare feet and hands.
Chinese brand Pop Mart picked up the characters and transformed them into a collectible series in 2019, leading to their current global popularity.
Lafufus are counterfeit versions of Labubus that have proliferated in the wake of the original’s popularity, with everyone from street vendors to Facebook sellers either selling them outright as fakes or attempting to pass them off as originals in order to profit off the scarcity of the original.
The list of authenticated vendors is a fairly short one: Pop Mart retail stores, the Pop Mart app, Robo Shops, the store’s official TikTok Shop, verified third-party retailers like Amazon’s official Pop Mart storefront and official Pop Mart booths at events like San Diego Comic-Con.
Labubus will also come with official branding and packaging, and each figure comes with Pop Mart tags and artist attribution, depending on the series. Lafufus are often easy to spot as counterfeit because of glaring spelling mistakes on the top tag.
The stitching on Lafufus may also be noticeably lower quality than that of the Labubu, with uneven edges, and it may not have the correct number of teeth, which is exactly nine.
Many Lafufus, though, are nearly indistinguishable from their authentic counterparts. One common scam, for example, involves counterfeiters acquiring authentic Labubu boxes but replacing the toy inside with a Lafufu before carefully resealing the flap and attempting to pass it off as authentic.