A vintage suitcase packed with treasure maps and ship's wheels. Labubu in full captain's dress, Mokoko as a mermaid, the whole Monsters crew reimagined for the high seas. The De Vliegende LABUBU Series is one of Pop Mart's most visually cohesive Pop Land exclusives ever — and one of the most collectible.
The Story of Labubu & The Monsters
Labubu was born in 2015 from the imagination of Kasing Lung — a Hong Kong-born illustrator who moved to the Netherlands as a child and grew up immersed in Nordic mythology and European fairy tales. Lung created a world he called The Monsters: a tribe of zoomorphic elves living in a great Nordic forest, brimming with curiosity, mischief, and enormous hearts.
At the center of this tribe is Labubu — a small creature with high pointed ears, a round furry body, wide luminous eyes, and nine sharp little teeth arranged in an unmistakable grin. Despite the mischievous appearance, Labubu is deeply kind-hearted, always attempting to help and almost always achieving the opposite. That gap between good intention and chaotic outcome is the character's essential charm — and the reason so many people feel an immediate, unexplainable connection to it.
Labubu's tribe includes other beloved characters: Mokoko, the sweet pink rabbit companion; Tycoco, the skeleton-adjacent lookout; Spooky, the dark spirit; and Pato, the wide-eyed duck — each distinct in personality but sharing the same spirit of wild, curious, forest-dwelling joy.
Pop Mart brought The Monsters to life as a blind box collectible series beginning around 2019. In the first half of 2025 alone, The Monsters generated approximately US70 million in revenue — 34.7% of Pop Mart's total. A Sony Pictures film directed by Paul King (Paddington, Wonka) is in early development. A Sony Pictures film. The Monsters are no longer just toys. They are mythology made material.
From Nordic forest to global phenomenon
Kasing Lung drew on Nordic folklore — a tradition rich in forest spirits, elves, and the thin boundary between the human world and the magical one — to create characters that feel genuinely mythological rather than merely commercial. That depth of origin is part of why The Monsters resonate across cultures: good stories travel.
What Is Pop Land?
Pop Land is Pop Mart's theme park — the world's first park dedicated entirely to designer collectible toys — located in Beijing's Chaoyang Park. It transforms Pop Mart's beloved characters into full-scale immersive experiences: the Labubu Adventure Forest, live character performances, carnival games, AR experiences, and the park's most coveted offering — merchandise and figures available nowhere else on earth.
The park underwent a major upgrade in April 2026, adding a new Labubu Forest Zone with expanded rides and merchandise hubs. Visitor traffic has risen 70% year-on-year, with more than half of all visitors now coming from outside Beijing. A Phase II expansion is planned for 2027, and Pop Land has begun expanding internationally with activations in Singapore — but the most exclusive drops remain Beijing-only.
Pop Land exclusives carry a serious premium in the collector community precisely because of their scarcity. If you can't make the trip to Beijing, the secondary market is the only other path — which is why these pieces are so consistently sought after on resale platforms worldwide.
About the De Vliegende Series
De Vliegende — Dutch for "The Flying" — is a name that nods directly to Kasing Lung's Dutch upbringing and the maritime mythology of the Netherlands. The flying ship, the endless sea, the adventure that begins when you open a suitcase and find it full of maps and compasses and star charts — all of this is woven into the series' visual identity.
The series dresses The Monsters in nautical sailor and maritime costumes: navy blue uniforms with gold buttons, sailor caps bearing the "The Monsters" insignia, striped shirts, ship's wheel accessories, and a mermaid Labubu in shimmering iridescent form that has become the most sought-after piece in the lineup. The aesthetic is simultaneously vintage maritime and achingly cute — a combination only Pop Mart manages to make feel inevitable rather than contrived.
The collection spans multiple product formats: vinyl plush hanging card pendants, fridge magnet blind boxes, enamel badge pins, coin purses, cushion pillows, plush dolls, and a navy captain's hat bearing the Monsters branding. It is one of Pop Mart's most comprehensive Pop Land exclusive series — and one of the most visually cohesive they have ever produced.
As a Pop Land exclusive, the De Vliegende series is not available through Pop Mart's standard retail channels. It cannot be purchased on the Pop Mart website, in Pop Mart stores outside Beijing, or through standard global distribution. Scarcity is built into its DNA — and that scarcity is exactly why it matters to collectors.
The Characters
Every member of the Monsters tribe has been reimagined for the De Vliegende series — each one dressed for their role aboard the great flying ship.
Captain Labubu
Labubu in full navy captain's dress — double-breasted uniform, gold buttons, captain's hat, white gloves. The commanding presence the crew needs, the chaos the crew should probably expect. The most coveted figure in the lineup.
Sailor Labubu
Labubu in classic sailor stripes — the blue-and-white striped shirt, the sailor collar, the cap worn at a mischievous angle. The everyday crew member who is secretly the most capable person on the ship.
Mermaid Labubu
Pink Labubu reimagined as a mermaid — sparkly iridescent tail, shell accessories, the same nine-toothed grin. The series' instant fan-favourite and the hardest piece to find on the secondary market.
