Pop Mart teams up with Sanrio for Labubu blind boxes
$40 mystery keychains and $150 plush drops turn toys into unboxing content, randomness does the work that ads used to do
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Pop Mart will sell a new Labubu collection dressed as Sanrio characters in blind boxes priced at $39.99, with larger 15-inch plush versions listed at $149.90, according to Business Insider. The release goes live on Pop Mart’s online store on Thursday night US time, with in-store availability slated for April, combining two brands that already draw crowds for launches.
The mechanics are the product. Blind boxes conceal which character is inside, turning a purchase into a small wager and making duplicates part of the business model rather than a failure. That uncertainty also creates a second market—resale, trades, “complete the set” chasing—and a steady stream of user-generated marketing as buyers film unboxings and post pulls. What used to be shelf-space competition becomes feed competition.
Business Insider notes that Pop Mart’s The Monsters IP, which includes Labubu, generated about $700m in revenue in the first half of its latest reported period, nearly half of the company’s IP sales. That scale helps explain why the collaboration matters: Sanrio contributes globally legible characters and decades of licensing infrastructure; Pop Mart contributes a distribution format engineered for repeat purchase. Jefferies analyst Shunsuke Kuriyama told Business Insider the deal could “pool” fans from both sides and introduce each audience to the other’s IP.
The line between toy retail and platform economics is thin. Pop Mart has already partnered with mass brands such as Uniqlo and Coca-Cola and with franchises like One Piece, using collaborations to keep the drop cycle moving. The company has shifted launches online to manage physical crowds, but the scarcity dynamic remains: limited releases, fast sell-outs, and a sense that missing a drop means paying more later.
For licensors, the appeal is measurable. A character collaboration is no longer just a design exercise; it is an acquisition channel. Each Labubu dressed as Hello Kitty or Kuromi functions as a branded ad unit that a customer pays to distribute, photographed on keychains, backpacks and desks. The cost of customer attention is pushed onto the buyer, while the brand captures the data point—what sold out, how fast, and at what price.
The same loop has long existed in digital games under the label “loot boxes,” where randomness, collection pressure and social proof drive spending. Here the legal category is different—physical goods rather than in-game items—but the behavioural pattern is recognisable: uncertain reward, variable reinforcement, and a community built around revealing what you got.
Pop Mart’s new Sanrio Labubu drop will be sold as cute collectibles. The pricing and packaging ensure that the most valuable item is the moment of opening, recorded for someone else’s screen.