The world's most expensive Labubu. When a toy stops being a toy

There's a moment at every auction when the room goes quiet. The auctioneer raises a hand, someone on the other side of the world taps a phone screen — and a small, toothy creature that began life as a drawing in a sketchbook turns into something no one ever promised it: a work of art worth more than a flat.

Labubu wasn't meant to be an investment. It was meant to be a prank — an imp from a Nordic fairy tale that Kasing Lung dreamed up before anyone knew little monsters could be fashionable. And yet in June 2025, Beijing hosted the first-ever auction devoted entirely to these creatures — and the world found out how much people are willing to pay for a little childhood, rarity and magic all at once.

Mint green. One of a kind

He stood upright at a hundred and thirty-one centimetres — the height of a ten-year-old. Mint green, with that grimace somewhere between a smile and a warning. First generation, made before Lung had even signed his licensing deal with Pop Mart. The auctioneer said just one sentence: the only one in the world. The rest happened in silence and on the screens of more than a thousand phones.

The price including premium reached 1.24 million yuan — around 170 thousand dollars. That day set a record not only for Labubu but for Kasing Lung himself. The same man whose acrylic painting had gone to a Christie's evening sale just a few weeks earlier. From sketchbook to collectors' walls — in a single generation.

The brown giant. One of fifteen

Right behind the mint one stood his bigger brother — a hundred and sixty centimetres tall, brown, massive, one of only fifteen in existence on the entire planet. Where the mint one was unique, this one was a limited-edition legend: rare enough to set the room alight, real enough to actually be within reach.

The three wise men who tripled in value

The most beautiful story of this auction wasn't about size. The "Three Wise Labubu" set — three small figures from 2017, an edition of a hundred and twenty sets — had sold at Sotheby's a month earlier for 186 thousand yuan. It came back up for auction in Beijing and in a single evening reached more than three times that price. That's not inflation. That's the speed at which desire can grow.

The whole auction — forty-eight lots, all sold, not one without a buyer — brought in 3.73 million yuan. A room for two hundred people and more than a thousand bidders who never set foot inside, because they were bidding from the other side of the world, with one thumb.

Why would anyone pay that much for a toy

It's easy to laugh at this. Easier than admitting we understand. Because the truth is, you're not paying for vinyl or fur here. You're paying for the same thing people have always paid for in art: rarity, authorship and a story you can carry as your own.

• Rarity — "the only one in the world" isn't a slogan, it's a promise that no one else has it.
• The artist's hand — first generations and prototypes painted by Lung are now treated like original paintings, not like products off a production line.
• A cultural moment — buying a Labubu like this, you buy a piece of the exact moment a little monster became an icon.
• Emotion, not calculation — experts warn plainly: these aren't financial instruments, but pop-culture artefacts. Buy with your heart, not a spreadsheet.

And maybe that's the most tender part of this whole story. That in a world that reduces everything to numbers, people can still spend a fortune on something that does nothing — it just stands there, looks at you with that toothy grin and reminds you that once upon a time we knew how to be enchanted for no reason at all.

The magic is closer than you think

You don't need a hundred and seventy thousand dollars to start. These records are the extreme — the highest notes of a song that also has its quiet, accessible tones. Every Labubu figure you hold in your hand belongs to the same family as the mint giant from Beijing. The same character, the same story, the same thrill when opening a blind box — just on a scale you can afford.

Because a collection doesn't start with a fortune. It starts with one thing that makes you feel a little warmer. And if you want to be sure your Labubu is original, long before it ever thinks about an auction room — we've written about that separately: how to recognise a genuine Pop Mart.