Toy makers in US rush into ‘blind box’ trend for holidays following Labubu craze
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A Miniso retail store selling “blind box” products at Times Square in New York City.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW YORK – While American consumers keep searching for an authentic Pop Mart Labubu, rivals are introducing their own cheaper, easier-to-find “blind box” products for the key holiday shopping season to capitalise on the craze sparked by the fuzzy mini monsters.
Hot gift lists from retailers like Walmart feature a new crop of blind box figurines and trading cards, and US companies, including Hasbro and Mattel, are selling versions of toys like Furby and Barbie in mystery packaging, incorporating the trend.
A blind box toy – like Spin Master’s popular CrystaLynx dragons – generally has packaging that hides the specific product inside so shoppers keep buying until they find the one they want or collect the whole series.
Labubus stoked excitement for the trend this summer, spiking in popularity as retailers finalised their holiday plans.
The “ugly-cute” dolls with toothy grins are not widely available. They sell out in minutes and later turn up on resale sites like eBay for hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Because of their cost and scarcity, they are not on top toy lists published by major retailers and trade magazines. But now, toy aisles at holiday shopping destinations like Target are crammed with goods wrapped in mystery packaging.
Retailers, manufacturers and analysts expect they will be big sellers this holiday season because they are low-cost, inspire addictive shopping and appeal to adults and children.
A Target spokesman said the retailer doubled its assortment of blind box products for the holidays, adding items from brands including Baby Three, MGA Entertainment’s Miniverse, Zuru’s Mini Brands and Aphmau.
“It’s bigger this year, and it’s been getting bigger,” said Ms Juli Lennett, a US toy industry adviser at market research provider Circana.
Ms Lennett added that toy makers love it because when “people buy it, they don’t buy one, they buy 10 and 30. There’s the chase”.
Toy prices have been going up month by month, Ms Lennett said, in part because of tariffs on China, where many of the goods are made.
But many blind box toys remain affordable, adding to their appeal as stocking stuffers or gifts.
Ms Ashley Harseim, 29, of New York, is asking for a gift card to blind box retailer Miniso for the holidays. The China-based chain, which has more than 200 US stores, offers figurines with characters from Peanuts, Care Bears and Disney Pixar, among others, in mystery packaging.
“The surprise is cool. It’s a nice little dopamine boost, and who doesn’t need that now?” she said.
To treat herself, she added, she purchases blind boxes with cats inside that cost between US$6 (S$8) and US$10. She puts them on a shelf at home.
“I look at my phone, I look at the news, and then I look at my little cat, and I’m like, ‘aw’,” she said.
An influencer taking a selfie with a Pop Mart Labubu doll during a press preview at an AliExpress pop-up store in London on Nov 11.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Limited impact
Collectibles overall, including trading cards like Pokemon, drove growth in toys in the first nine months of 2025 after the sector stagnated for the past two, according to Circana.
Circana’s data, which mainly covers major retailers, does not include sales of Labubus.
But despite their popularity, the blind box toys may have a limited impact on driving overall holiday spending. Manufacturers previously marketed them year round as trinkets and impulse buys, meaning holiday sales were less important to their overall annual revenue.
The last three months of 2025 otherwise make up 40 per cent of the toy industry’s sales, Ms Lennett said.
Circana anticipates that a measure of sales volume for toys may fall by as much as 2.5 per cent during the peak shopping months of November and December.
Still, this holiday season is set to be significant for speciality retailers like Miniso, rival Ohku and Canada-based Showcase, which sells authentic Labubus and is expanding in malls and other strip centres across the country.
Ohku introduced a new blind box series for the holidays, a spokesman said, and is planning for its products to soon be available on Amazon.com.
Showcase, which has 41 US locations, has blind boxes from Sonny Angel, a competitor to Labubu, scheduled to arrive in its stores by December, said CEO Samir Kulkarni.
“Blind boxes are going to be very big,” he said. “It’s certainly going to be the biggest category for us in toys and collectibles that we sell.
“Last year, it was a small fraction of the sales. This Christmas will be a record Christmas for that reason.” REUTERS
