I remember the day the "Pin For Love" series dropped. My phone blew up. It wasn't the usual collector frenzy for a secret figure; this was different. It was personal. Friends who never cared about designer toys were suddenly asking, "Can you get me a 'J'?" or "I NEED an 'M' for my girlfriend!" Pop Mart and Kasing Lung didn't just release a new blind box series; they released a 27-piece collection of personal identity charms. And everyone, from hardcore collectors to total newcomers, wanted a piece of it.
Of course, the community immediately gave it a better name: the letter labubu series. Or the labubu alphabet. No one I know actually calls it by its official title. It's a testament to how quickly it became part of the LABUBU lexicon.
But with that hype comes a ton of questions. How do you find your initial without buying 20 boxes? Are they a good investment? Are they even well-made? As someone who has opened cases of these, sold dozens, and hunted for my own initial (a 'T', which was surprisingly elusive), I've got some thoughts.
First, What Are You Actually Buying?
Let's get the basics out of the way, but with details the product pages miss. Each blind box contains one plush labubu letter pendant. There are 26 letters, A through Z, plus a secret ampersand (&).
The first thing you notice when you open one is the texture. They're flocked. It's that soft, fuzzy finish that gives them a premium, almost velvety feel. They're much smaller than you might think from the photos, fitting comfortably in the palm of your hand. They're not squishy plushies; they have a firm, solid core under the flocking.
The hardware is surprisingly decent. It's a solid-feeling metal clasp, not the cheap plastic you sometimes see on keychain-style toys. You can confidently clip it onto a backpack, purse, or your car keys without worrying it's going to snap off. I've had my '&' on my work tote for months, and it's held up to some serious abuse. The only downside? The flocking is a magnet for dust and lint, especially on the darker colored letters like 'X' and 'Z'. A gentle wipe with a microfiber cloth or even a piece of tape usually does the trick.
The Hunt: A Strategy for Finding Your Initials
Okay, here's the real challenge. You want a specific letter. Pop Mart wants you to gamble. How do you beat the system?
The Blind Box Gamble: This is the purest, most painful, and sometimes most rewarding way. At around $15-$18 a box retail, it can get expensive fast. I've seen people buy ten boxes and not get the one letter they wanted. It's the nature of the beast.
The "Shake and Weigh" Myth: With vinyl figures, some collectors swear by shaking the box to hear how the figure moves or weighing it to identify heavier pieces. For the labubu alphabet, this is mostly a waste of time. Shaking tells you nothing; they're all packed securely. Weighing is theoretically possible since a 'W' should weigh more than an 'I', but in practice, it's a nightmare. The weight differences are minuscule, and variations in the flocking, packaging, and even the metal clasp can throw off a sensitive scale. I spent a whole afternoon with a jeweler's scale and a fresh case trying to map the weights. My conclusion? The margin of error is too high. You're more likely to get a headache than the letter you want.
Buying a Full Case: This seems like the ultimate solution, right? Buy a sealed case of 24 and you'll get all 26 letters plus the secret, right? Wrong. This is the single biggest misconception I see new collectors make. A sealed case of the Pin For Love series contains 24 blind boxes. You are NOT guaranteed to get all 26 letters. You will absolutely get duplicates, and you will absolutely be missing at least two letters, not including the secret. The chase for the ampersand is a whole other story; the odds are officially 1/144, so you'd need to buy six full cases on average to find one. Buying a case is a great way to get a lot of letters to trade, but it's not a shortcut to a full set.
The Secondary Market & Trading: This is, honestly, the best way. Collector groups on Facebook and Discord are buzzing with trades. "Have 'G', need 'S'!" is a common post. If you're willing to pay, you can buy your specific letter on eBay or from stores like ours (when we have them open-box). Expect to pay a premium for popular initials. Letters like A, C, J, K, M, and S tend to be more in demand and can fetch $25-$35, while less common initials like Q, U, X, and Z might sell for closer to retail. The ampersand (&) is the true chase, and its price reflects that. I've seen it sell for anywhere from $100 to $200, depending on the initial hype cycle.
Real Talk: Are Letter LABUBUs a Good "Investment"?
This is a question I get a lot at PopNya. People saw what happened with the Exciting Macaron series, where certain figures went from $15 to $300, and they want to know if the new labubu alphabet series is the next big thing.
My honest seller's take? No, not in the same way.
And that's okay! The Pin For Love series serves a completely different purpose in the LABUBU ecosystem. The Macarons, especially the early ones, were lightning in a bottle. Their value came from scarcity and a specific aesthetic that defined the peak of the LABUBU craze. I wrote a whole buyer's guide on the Macaron hype because the market got so wild.
The letter labubu pendants are different. Their production numbers feel higher, and they're more widely available. Their value isn't in their rarity; it's in their utility and personal connection. No one is buying a Macaron to clip onto their keys. That's a display piece. But the alphabet pendants are meant to be used. They're accessories. They're gifts. They're a way to fly your LABUBU flag out in the real world.
Think of it this way: * Macarons / Zimomos / Big Toys: These are the art pieces. You display them on a shelf. They're for appreciating Kasing Lung's design. Their value is tied to the art market. * Letter Pendants: These are the merchandise. They're for personal expression. Their value is tied to their function as a personalized accessory.
So, should you buy them? Absolutely. But buy them because you love them. Buy your initial, your partner's initial, or spell out a word that means something to you. Don't buy a case of them thinking you're going to flip them for a huge profit next year. This series is more about personal joy than financial gain, which is a refreshing change of pace in the current designer toy climate. It brings the fun back to collecting, something that the general LABUBU craze sometimes overshadows.
Quality, Fakes, and Future-Proofing Your Collection
As with any popular release, quality can vary, and fakes are inevitable. Here's what I've noticed from handling hundreds of these.
The flocking is generally well-applied, but I have seen a few with tiny bald spots or areas where the flocking is a bit thin, especially around sharp corners on letters like 'M' or 'N'. It's a minor cosmetic issue, but something to check if you're buying an opened one in person.
The biggest tell for a potential fake will be the hardware and the flocking quality. Fakes will likely use cheaper, lighter metal for the clasp that feels flimsy. The flocking on counterfeits is often patchy, uses a cheaper material that sheds easily, and the color might be slightly off from the official Pop Mart release. Always check the box art and the foil wrapper for crisp printing. Fuzzy logos or blurry text are huge red flags.
Will there be a "Version 2" of the labubu letter pendant? I would bet on it. Pop Mart loves to release new colorways of popular series. I wouldn't be surprised to see a pastel version, a candy-colored version, or even a glow-in-the-dark new labubu alphabet set in the future. For that reason, if you're a completist, you might want to secure the original set now before the market gets flooded with variations.
The community's creativity with these has been the best part of the release. I've seen people use them as Christmas ornaments, stitch them onto jackets, create elaborate charms for their Ita bags, and even use them as zipper pulls. A friend spelled out "HOME" with four of them and hung it from a pinboard in her office. It's proof that these toys are more than just collectibles; they're a medium for creativity.
So if you're on the fence, I say go for it. Try your luck with a blind box or two. It's a fun, relatively low-cost entry into the world of LABUBU. The thrill of opening a box and finding the exact letter you wanted is a special kind of magic. And if you don't, the trading community is one of the best parts of this hobby.
My hunt for the letter 'T' ended with a trade. I opened a 'G' and a 'P', and a collector in a Discord group needed a 'G' and had a spare 'T'. We swapped, and it was a simple, friendly interaction that reminded me why I love this community. It wasn't about the money; it was about helping each other complete a personal collection. And that's what the letter labubu series is all about.
Com/collections/labubu) at PopNya. You never know what you might find.
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