Fake or Real Labubu?

Why You Probably Can't Tell Anymore if Your Doll is Original ?

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The Labubu craze isn’t just alive, it's mutating. With its weird-cute design, never-ending variants, and a blind-box model that preys on FOMO, POP MART's Labubu isn’t just a toy. It's an addictive collectible, an emotional rollercoaster, and for many: a portfolio asset.

But where there’s hype, there’s hustle — and Labubu is now drowning in fakes, maybe it's even intentional part of the game.

Labubu Hype = A Counterfeiter’s Dream

Labubu is too perfect a victim. The product is:

• Simple in construction, yet artistic in appeal
• Highly demanded, yet basic enough to mass produce by anyone
• The wave of artificial scarcity fuels the secondary market (that doesn't happen anymore in controlled environment)
• Supported by a resale market that operates in the grey zones of the internet

And worst of all? It’s ridiculously easy to fake.

There are hundreds or thousands of factories in china or rest of the world, that are capable to pump out fake Labubus (or "Lafufus") that would fool even experienced collectors. Blind-box culture, hologram + normal QR code and product design simplicity are fertile soil for counterfeiters thrive and POP MART seems unable — or unwilling — to keep up. They only can take a victim position.

Grey Market, Collectible Resale or Criminal Playground?

With demand far outpacing official Pop Mart's supply, buyers turn to eBay, Taobao, Discord servers, or Telegram groups — places where legitimate collectors rub shoulders with counterfeit rings. And while some resellers are just flipping doubles, others are dealing in fakes so well made, you’ll need a forensic lab to spot the difference.

POP MART’s anti-counterfeit measures? Toothless:

• Holographic stickers — available on Alibaba
• Normal QR codes — linking to an unauthenticated webpage anyone can spoof, although the codes are serialized, requiring typing in 14 digit number and "destroying" the collectability of your item.
• No Authentication Agent on the official Pop Mart website (more on PiQR Authentication Agents here)

There’s essentially no way to authenticate!

The Lafufu Flood: Legal Threats in a Fog of Fakes

By mid-2025,  the internet is a circus of conflicting advice:

• Count the teeth (10 or 9?)
• Feel the fur
• Glossiness of the box or bag or plastic.
• Look for typos and printing nuances (but what if the counterfeiter’s grammar is better than yours?)

If that worked with the very first generation of lousy fakes, with the recent ones it’s pure guesswork. And worse: it’s really not working.

Meanwhile, fake Labubus are saturating the market to the point where even official retailers can't tell real from fake.

POP MART recently responded with legal threats. They’ve started targeting resellers — some of whom had likely no way to verify anything. The amount of money they can spend on lawyers to prove the mens rea (guilty intent) will be ridiculous and this approach seems to be lost in the brand’s desperate attempt to regain control.

So it is a sad conclusion, but as of August 2025: No. You can’t.

the options for buyers?

• #1 - Buy directly from POP MART or trusted, accountable retailers (sorry they are sold out)
• #2 - The 2nd best option is to buy from reputable retailer that gives you proof of purchase & has return policies — and pray it’s not forged too (at least you have someone to go after)
• #3 - Stop pretending you can “feel” authenticity. You can’t.

Until proper authentication tools are deployed, POP MART might be losing the battle for its own brand. The longer they wait, the more Labubu risks becoming a cautionary tale: a brand that got milked to death by criminals while its real fans got punished for trying to participate (wasted energy on scanning their normal QR codes). Brands need to integrate proper authentication measure on the product and close the loop with Authentication Agent on their homepage - that way anyone can trust the agent, and agent will recognize the original production via consumer's smartphone.

In a world of Lafufus, trust is the only collectible that really matters.

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To learn more about Authentication Agents or other brand-protection strategies read our other blog posts or book your free consultation.

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Keywords: fake or real labubu, how to tell if labubu is original, labubu counterfeit, lafufu, lapopo, pop mart authentication, collectible toys, blind box figures,

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