This trend never got me or my kids and i never understood the fuss around it , I mean they are not pretty , they are not playable , or maybe it is because I am just getting old ? Born in 1988 here , maybe I just don't get the new generation .
On Labubu and the Hyperreal
51–60 of 102 posts
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#52This trend never got me or my kids and i never understood the fuss around it , I mean they are not pretty , they are not playable , or maybe it is because I am just getting old ? Born in 1988 here , maybe I just don't get the new generation .
They are key-chain Furbies.
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#53Once something catches on, jumping on the bandwagon gives people a sense of community.
But, the nature of what makes something viral, like how the article mentions pandemic, seems agnostic to what actually becomes viral. Why did labubus go viral and not something else[1]? It’s luck and timing, and we can try to reverse-engineer it, but it’s just being prepared & luck. We’re seeing a survivor bias and thinking the survivor is special inherently.
So what enabled Pop Mart to be prepared?
[1]Actually, there’s also sneaker hype, meme stocks, etc.
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
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. I…
> I’m referring specifically to the cards, which exploded in popularity after Logan Paul paid $5 million for a rare card in 2021. the cards have been popular for significantly longer than 5 years. my kid's entire class (the entire school, really) brought their binders of pokemon cards to school every day in ~2002 until the school banned pokemon cards on premise because they were such a distraction and causing issues…
They have long been popular, but the popularity has increased more than 5x since the pandemic. They were printing less than 2 billion a year before then [1], and are now selling more than 10 billion a year despite shortages, scalping, etc [2].
Perhaps "boom" is a better word for it than "fad". But my point is just that this demand seems to be largely driven by artifical scarcity, speculation, influencers - similar to Labubu.
And eventually prices will hit a peak and I expect we will see demand fall off rapidly.
[1] https://www.pokebeach.com/2021/06/pokemon-tcg-sold-3-7-billi...
[2] https://www.ign.com/articles/10-billion-pokemon-cards-were-p...
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#55This trend never got me or my kids and i never understood the fuss around it , I mean they are not pretty , they are not playable , or maybe it is because I am just getting old ? Born in 1988 here , maybe I just don't get the new generation .
I was born in 1986 and I got excited finding them in stock for retail price at a store before the holidays, my daughter’s favorite color is blue and they joy she had at pulling a blue one then clipping it to her blue backpack and her calling it her “Lablublu” made me really happy. We got another one for my nephew’s girlfriend for Christmas and she called my girls on FaceTime and thanked them for the present. That felt like a good use of $80 in my opinion.
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#56This trend never got me or my kids and i never understood the fuss around it , I mean they are not pretty , they are not playable , or maybe it is because I am just getting old ? Born in 1988 here , maybe I just don't get the new generation .
They are key-chain Furbies.
key chain furby lootboxes
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#57This trend never got me or my kids and i never understood the fuss around it , I mean they are not pretty , they are not playable , or maybe it is because I am just getting old ? Born in 1988 here , maybe I just don't get the new generation .
Remember Beanie Babies?
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#58another example of a fabricated hype.
who cares about this?
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
10 years older than pokemon isn’t even Gen X, it’s millennial…
They probably meant "Boomer" in the colloquial sense of "somewhat old person" like how "Boomer Shooters" are for GenX and older Millenials.
Thanks! I didn't know that. That's... really unfortunate that the slang has gone that direction.
Re: On Labubu and the Hyperreal
#60extrapolated 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…
The lack of actual photos of Labubus "in the real" (usually on a keychain at a pant's belt loops) is jarring. The topic of the "performative male" has been regurgitated in social media for quite some time. Still the author ignores that and misses the overall bigger picture. I think any argument made here with regard to Baudrillard's hyperreality could be made about most trends, not only Labubus. Actual insight into t…
Hyperreality is a bogus concept altogether, inasmuch as it's supposed to be something new in human history that only happens because of computers. Prehistoric/ancient humans also had fashion trends and myths and symbols and deep context