Kasing Lung and the monster that doesn't apologise
The Monsters was meant to be one illustrator's personal fairy tale. It became one of the most sought-after universes in the history of art toys.
Born in Hong Kong, raised in the Netherlands, settled in Belgium — Kasing Lung grew up between cultures, and it was precisely the space between them that became his language. No consoles, no computers: just drawing and European fairy tales. The fascination with elves and Nordic folklore that began in childhood never faded — it turned into The Monsters, a mythology of his own built from scratch.
This isn't a collection of figures. It's a forest world with its own inhabitants, its own rules and a distinct character — and Labubu is merely its most recognisable face.
A man between cultures
Nordic and Celtic folklore filtered through a life between Asia and Europe — this is neither anime nor Western comics. It's something of its own, impossible to slot into any category. Lung didn't adapt someone else's world or illustrate a ready-made brand. He invented his own visual language and his own pantheon of characters, and only then did the world discover them.
A mythology of its own
Labubu, Zimomo, Tycoco, Pato — each character has a personality, a story and a place in the forest world of The Monsters. Importantly, Labubu has no imposed storyline — that's deliberate. Every collector reads her differently, which turns the figure into something personal, not just an object on a shelf.
Creepy-cute without apology
Too wide a smile. Too sharp teeth. An expression you can't quite read. This is creepy-cute without apology — figures that don't try to be nice. In a toy world full of characters that want to please, it's exactly this contradiction — sweetness and unease at once — that turned out to be the magnet.
A monster that doesn't apologise for looking the way it looks. And the whole world fell in love with it.
How to spot the original — watch out for Lafufu
With this kind of popularity, the market has been flooded with fakes, colloquially known as Lafufu. Before you buy second-hand, check these one by one.
Series worth knowing
Easter egg: Mokoko
A pink Labubu available only at the Pop Land park in Beijing and as an ultra-secret variant of selected blind boxes. Few people have her. Everyone wants her.
The Labubu craze
The moment that changed everything: in 2024 Lisa of Blackpink posted a story with Labubu — and the world went wild. In the UK, Pop Mart stores halted sales after fights in the queues; in Russia, there were proposals for a ban. Meanwhile a 131-centimetre Labubu sculpture went at auction for 173,000 dollars, and twelve days later the record was broken again — an unprecedented journey from blind box to fine art. And a film on the horizon: Sony Pictures has bought the rights, with Paul King directing and Steven Levenson co-writing.
The whole collection of The Monsters, Labubu and Zimomo is waiting here — verified, original.
See the collection →
