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On Labubu and the Hyperreal

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Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#11

Post by john_strinlai »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #10
freetime2 wrote: post #5

My kids never had any interest in Labubu, but have been caught up in other fads like Pokemon cards. My sense is that these kinds of trends are mostly driven by scarcity. If you manage to get your hands on one, then you get the feeling of owning something rare, exclusive, and desirable amongst your peers - which is enough reason on its own to want something. You can also convince yourself that paying the normal MSRP i…

Haha what would Pokémon have to do to convince you it's more than a fad? It's already the world's biggest IP, it's been around for 30 years...

indeed, i always understood a "fad" to mean some short-lived trend. meanwhile, pokemon is probably around the same age as the average HN user.

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#12

Post by alephnerd »

john_strinlai wrote: post #11
doctorpangloss wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha what would Pokémon have to do to convince you it's more than a fad? It's already the world's biggest IP, it's been around for 30 years...

indeed, i always understood a "fad" to mean some short-lived trend. meanwhile, pokemon is probably around the same age as the average HN user.

> probably around the same age as the average HN user.

Based on the references and speech patterns I've seen on HN, I think the average HNers is at least a decade older than Pokemon. The first Pokemon videogame only came out in 1996.

Y'all are boomers - nothing wrong with that, but HN has become an older monoculture.

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#13

Post by john_strinlai »

alephnerd wrote: post #12
john_strinlai wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

indeed, i always understood a "fad" to mean some short-lived trend. meanwhile, pokemon is probably around the same age as the average HN user.

> probably around the same age as the average HN user. Based on the references and speech patterns I've seen on HN, I think the average HNers is at least a decade older than Pokemon. The first Pokemon videogame only came out in 1996. Y'all are boomers - nothing wrong with that, but HN has become an older monoculture.

>Y'all are boomers.

i am! but i see a fair amount of people just starting their careers, students, etc. as well. and, based on some of the comments ive seen, i think there is a lot of young folk. most of my students are active, or at least browse, HN. they are mostly 18-20.

i took a wild guess that ~30 would be the average. maybe 35-40 is closer. either way, i think my point stands: 30 years seems too long to be classified as a fad.

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#14

Post by [deleted] »

nkrisc wrote: post #8
alephnerd wrote: post #4

Alternatively - who cares? If some people feel happy playing with Labubus, mechanical keyboards, or why do you care? It's their life and not yours. Additionally, this article also clearly fails to deep dive into how Pop Mart basically exported Asian style marketing strategies to the West. Back in Asia, conspicuous consumption and quick commerce is not viewed negatively the same way it is amongst Western HN/Redditors,…

Unfortunately many products that “make people happy” are nothing more than plastic trash pollution. How many resources have been used and how much damage done to ship plastic trash across oceans, that doesn’t even do anything? > why do you care? It's their life and not yours. Because ultimately it does affect me, it affects all of us.

[deleted]

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#15

Post by freetime2 »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #10
freetime2 wrote: post #5

My kids never had any interest in Labubu, but have been caught up in other fads like Pokemon cards. My sense is that these kinds of trends are mostly driven by scarcity. If you manage to get your hands on one, then you get the feeling of owning something rare, exclusive, and desirable amongst your peers - which is enough reason on its own to want something. You can also convince yourself that paying the normal MSRP i…

Haha what would Pokémon have to do to convince you it's more than a fad? It's already the world's biggest IP, it's been around for 30 years...

I’m referring specifically to the cards, which exploded in popularity after Logan Paul paid $5 million for a rare card in 2021.

The prices are completely driven by artificial scarcity - obviously they could easily print any card in unlimited numbers, but they intentionally print some cards in limited quantities that can only be obtained by getting lucky with a random pack.

Most buyers don’t even play the card game.

In February Paul resold the card for $16 million. [1]

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/16/americas/pokemon-card-log...

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#16

Post by alephnerd »

john_strinlai wrote: post #13
alephnerd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> probably around the same age as the average HN user. Based on the references and speech patterns I've seen on HN, I think the average HNers is at least a decade older than Pokemon. The first Pokemon videogame only came out in 1996. Y'all are boomers - nothing wrong with that, but HN has become an older monoculture.

> Y'all are boomers. i am! but i see a fair amount of people just starting their careers, students, etc. as well. and, based on some of the comments ive seen, i think there is a lot of young folk. most of my students are active, or at least browse, HN. they are mostly 18-20. i took a wild guess that ~30 would be the average. maybe 35-40 is closer. either way, i think my point stands: 30 years seems too long to be cla…

> i think my point stands: 30 years seems too long to be classified as a fad.

Yep! Completely agree! I'm not that much older than Pokemon, and most of my peers have been influenced by it heavily and their kids will be influenced by it as well. If Pokemon is a fad, so are smartphones.

In classic HN fashion, I decided to kvetch about something completely irrelevant to the larger convo ;)

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#17

Post by Karrot_Kream »

alephnerd wrote: post #12
john_strinlai wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

indeed, i always understood a "fad" to mean some short-lived trend. meanwhile, pokemon is probably around the same age as the average HN user.

> probably around the same age as the average HN user. Based on the references and speech patterns I've seen on HN, I think the average HNers is at least a decade older than Pokemon. The first Pokemon videogame only came out in 1996. Y'all are boomers - nothing wrong with that, but HN has become an older monoculture.

Agree with this FWIW. The music and movie references here are largely from the 80s. Nostalgia here tends to be rooted in the 80s to the early 90s. This place feels solidly GenX to me which makes sense as the first web-forward generation.

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#18

Post by tolerance »

alephnerd wrote: post #7
maxbond wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could apply this same logic to your comment. "If Labubu discourse makes them happy, who cares? It's their life." We should live and let live but that doesn't preclude discussion.

Sure, but the article is going from discourse into direct moral judgement. If you write an entire blogpost making a moral judgement on personal choices yeah I'd flame you.

> I'd argue Labubu and TikTok are both significant milestones in Chinese IP and cultural exports [...]

Interpret this article as an attempt at criticizing or curtailing this effect instead.

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#19

Post by skyyler »

yieldcrv wrote: post #2

extrapolated all of this not only 7 months too late beyond the trend’s implosion, while missing the way more obvious fact that being trendy attracted women of the same age range this was also the tail end of the fashion trend based on muting masculinity in favor of catering to the female gaze, an adaptation once again for women’s comfort until women realized they hate feminine men more than they thought they briefly…

>this was also the tail end of the fashion trend based on muting masculinity in favor of catering to the female gaze, an adaptation once again for women’s comfort until women realized they hate feminine men more than they thought they briefly hated masculinity.

Am I missing something? They're cute little dolls.

Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal

#20

Post by the_af »

I couldn't suspend disbelief after the author called Labubu "cute".

My daughter owns one. It's not cute. It's terrifying. It has a monster's grin. It looks like something out of "Child's Play". You know it will murder you in your sleep.

Thankfully, she got bored of it pretty fast, as I suppose do most children (and adults).

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