How to make a labuba with your own hands: why people no longer run to the store to get the monster

While resellers are mourning the collapsed prices for labuba, a parallel trend is gaining momentum on social networks — fans are simply sewing, knitting and sculpting their monsters at home. Let's figure out where the fashion for homemade labuba came from and how to make it yourself.

From the queue at the store to the queue for yarn

Just a year ago, there were actually queues for labuba: lots were sold out in the first minutes after release, and resellers dictated prices on the secondary market, xrust states. According to Yandex Search analysts, in May 2025, interest in the toy soared from several hundred requests per day to one hundred thousand per day, and at the end of the year, labubu completely surpassed Kuromi and Huggy Waggy, becoming the toy of the year — according to the same logic by which the spinner and pop-it were previously included in this list. CNewsCNews

It was not only the Pop Mart company itself that set the wave: in 2024, a photo of BLACKPINK member Lisa with a monster on her bag spread across social networks, followed by Rihanna, Dua Lipa and Kim Kardashian. Even then, along with requests for “buy labuba,” people were massively looking for something else—how to draw or make a toy with their own hands. Retail

By 2026, the situation has turned upside down. Pop Mart sharply increased production — by some estimates, almost tenfold — and the shortage, on which all the resale hype was based, simply disappeared: there was no need to pay resellers twice as much. And where previously there was easy money to be made from shortages, counterfeits have flourished: in the UK alone, in the first nine months of 2025, counterfeit labubu worth £3.5 million was seized, of which about 90% were copies. They were popularly called «lafufu». Mail.ru

Why the original is annoying at the price

In the official Pop Mart store, a blind box costs about $22 — at the current exchange rate this is approximately 1.7 thousand rubles. The problem is that there are no official stores of the brand in Russia. Therefore, in reality the prices are completely different: a regular blind box costs 3.5–15 thousand rubles, and rare and collaboration models cost 50–70 thousand. Individual lots mentioning labubu — T-shirts, bags, accessories — reached up to 85 thousand rubles. At the same time, an outright cheap price for a thousand rubles will almost certainly turn out to be the same “lafufu”. RBC Life + 3

It is not surprising that part of the audience decided: since the original is a lottery for the price of a fur coat, and the fake is still not “real,” it is more logical to make the monster yourself. Moreover, the final craft, if you try, turns out to be almost indistinguishable from the prototype.

What they now sew, knit and sculpt instead of buying

On TikTok and Instagram, the number of handmade labub videos goes into the thousands: authors show how to assemble a monster from felt, crochet it or mold it from polymer clay, and the comments are full of requests to post a pattern. One of the authors honestly summed up the essence of the trend with the caption “do-it-yourself labuboo for 0 rubles” — and this is not an exaggeration: the basic materials for one toy are several times cheaper than any blindbox version.

Below are three working methods, from the most accurate to the simplest.

Method 1. Felt and fur: sewing a classic monster

This option gives the closest resemblance to the original.

• You will need: flesh-colored felt for the muzzle, fluffy shaggy yarn or faux fur for “fur,” holofiber for stuffing, black beads or felt for eyes, glue gun.
• First, the muzzle, ears and paws are cut out from thick felt — the character’s recognition depends on the accuracy of these details.
• The muzzle and ears are sewn to the head from fur, forming a characteristic toothy smile from white felt.
• The body is sewn separately, stuffed with stuffing and connected to the head.
• Finally, the eyes are glued on, blush is painted on with acrylic paint — and, if you add a metal ring, the finished monster can be hung on a bag like a keychain.

Method 2. Labubu crochet

The knitted version is softer and “plush”, and not as sculptural as the original, but captivates with its coziness.

• The body, head and ears are knitted using the amigurumi technique in separate parts in the round.
• The muzzle and teeth are either knitted with a contrasting thread or embroidered on top of the finished part.
• The parts are stuffed with synthetic down and sewn together.
• Separately, you can knit “clothes” for the monster — many craftswomen make entire wardrobes: hats, sweaters, even mini-suits for the holidays.

Method 3. Modeling from polymer clay class=»notranslate»>__GTAG5__

The most sculptural and most temperature-sensitive method.

• The body and head are sculpted from baked polymer clay — it is important to accurately maintain the proportions: large ears, an elongated muzzle, a characteristic row of sharp teeth.
• The figurine is baked in the oven at low temperature, following the instructions for a specific brand of clay.
• After cooling, the parts are sanded with fine sandpaper and painted with acrylic paints.
• For durability, the finished figurine is coated with glossy or matte varnish.

What time does a homemade product come out

A set of felt, yarn or clay for one toy usually costs 500-800 rubles — even taking into account tools like a glue gun or hook that will last not just for one craft. This is several times cheaper than not only a rare collectible model, but also an ordinary blindbox box on the secondary market. You have to pay with time: it takes a beginner several hours, and sometimes more than one evening, to create a neat felt toy.

What they say online

The audience reaction is ambivalent. Some are delighted: the authors of the videos claim that when carefully assembled, a homemade monster is “almost indistinguishable from the real thing,” and share step-by-step lessons with tens of thousands of likes. Others are ironic about the situation itself — hence the captions like “Labubu for 0 rubles, no problem,” where the authors themselves laugh at the absurdity of the race for a trendy toy. Still others use the handmade version as a reason for customization: in the comments under master classes they regularly ask to show how to make a monster in the style of their favorite character — from Five Nights at Freddy's to Marvel superheroes.

Editorial

It is significant that the fashion for homemade monsters coincided not with the peak, but with the decline of the excitement around the original — they usually copy what is still in short supply, and not what is becoming cheaper before our eyes. It seems that it’s not so much a matter of savings, but rather the character itself: the recognizable face with sharp teeth turned out to be a convenient “blank” for handicrafts and customization, and a trendy name guarantees attention on social networks. A separate nuance: Labubu is a character with a trademark owned by Kasing Lung and Pop Mart, so we are talking about crafts for yourself and gifts, and not about selling copies as goods under this name — this is becoming more and more strict in Russia, as well as around the world.

Sources:

• https://www.rbc.ru/life/news/683ed6f09a79473fe7a3d6a2
• https://www.retail.ru/news/poisk-yandeksa-interes-k-labubu-i-smesharikam-vyros-do-100-tysyach-zaprosov-v-de-3-iyunya-2025-265376/
• https://burninghut.ru/labubu-svoimi-rukami/

Xrust How to make a labubu with your own hands: why there is more behind the monster don't run to the store