Wakuku: The 'Labubu rival' K-pop stars are buying gets its first Korean pop-up

"Celebrities and influencers like Jang Won-young (IVE), Jennie (BLACKPINK) and Miyeon ((G)I-DLE) have all chosen this character." — a Wakuku store representative

On the sixth floor of IPark Mall's Living Park in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, an unfamiliar character store stood out among well-known toy brands such as Pop Mart, Lego and Tamiya. Chinese art toy brand HERE has been running its first Korean pop-up store there since Friday.

Large, shaggy dolls with thick straight eyebrows and mischievous eyes lined the front and center of the store. Though they all share the same face, colorful hats and furry outfits made each one look like an entirely different character. They are Wakuku, HERE's flagship character.

Wakuku is a character IP that HERE has sold exclusively through Miniso — the Chinese equivalent of Daiso — since last year. Miniso has been aggressively building up Wakuku as a rival to Labubu, the character that sparked a global craze. Like Labubu, Wakuku is sold in blind boxes whose contents are hidden, fueling the urge to collect.

The pop-up also features other HERE characters, including Sinono, Jiyuri and Xiaoao. All characters are available as blind boxes priced in the 10,000 to 20,000 won ($13) range, or as keyrings priced between 10,000 and 30,000 won. The blind boxes give shoppers odds of pulling a desired character ranging from 1-in-8 at best to 1-in-192 at worst.

The pop-up was relatively quiet, as the characters remain largely unknown in Korea. A 39-year-old man who bought a Xiaoao blind box on Thursday said he picked one up after a friend bought one first. "My friend got one and it was so cute, so I followed," he said. Social media reviews have included comments such as "I went not knowing much and ended up buying one because it was adorable" and "It's the character Jang Won-young and Jennie have."

HERE said many young consumers are trying to buy in early, before the characters become widely known and harder to find. Some Chinese tourists have also been visiting specifically to stock up on blind boxes for popular characters that have sold out back home. Labubu, for its part, remains so popular that a keyring originally released at 21,000 won now sells for 97,000 won on Kream, a limited-edition resale platform.

Lee Ho-jun, a director at ASL, HERE's domestic agency in Korea, said Wakuku ranks second only to Labubu in recognition and popularity in China. "There are still many consumers in Korea who don't know the brand, so HERE's headquarters opened the pop-up for promotional purposes," he said.

IPark Mall decided to bring in the pop-up after concluding that Wakuku could be the next character to ignite a Labubu-style craze. The decision to run the pop-up for three months through Sept. 28 is also a deliberate play for MZ and Alpha generation consumers who are passionate about character IP. A Pokémon concept store held from June 5 to 11 sold out every time slot after the mall introduced an online reservation system for the first three days to manage crowding.

Meanwhile, global character IP is spreading across retail, fashion and beauty, with a growing number of brands entering the Korean market. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the domestic character IP market grew from 13.6 trillion won in 2020 to 16.2 trillion won last year, and is projected to reach 21 trillion won this year.