What Is a Lafufu? Lafufu vs Labubu, the Risks and What to Do

A Lafufu is a fake Labubu doll. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says fakes are sometimes called Lafufu (warning 25-438, 18 August 2025). Australia's ACCC says they are commonly known as Lafufu's (5 November 2025). EU Safety Gate records use the name too. One German record, SR/00958/26, has a product name that begins "LAFUFU, The Monsters Big into Energy Series".

Sixth Tone, a news site based in China, says the name began as a nickname among overseas fans. It also reports, citing the company records service Tianyancha, that Beijing Pop Mart applied on 7 July 2025 to register Lafufu as a trademark under fitness equipment. The outcome was not checked for this guide.

The real Labubu is a character in The Monsters, created by the Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung and sold by Pop Mart. Kasing Lung's own website says Monsters figures were also released from How2Work. Genuine How2Work figures are not Lafufus.

Here is what the records say, side by side. The Labubu column comes from Pop Mart, the US CPSC and the real doll that CHOICE, the Australian consumer group, examined. The Lafufu column comes from regulators, customs, police and the five fakes CHOICE bought.

To check your own doll step by step, use our Labubu real vs fake guide.

Regulators have found choking, strangulation and chemical hazards in the fakes they examined. Each finding below covers the products named in it, not every fake.

Stop using it now. The US CPSC says to stop using lookalike dolls immediately. The UK IPO says not to give a fake to a child, and to check toys for loose parts, stuffing or unsecured batteries.

Small parts matter because of the size of a child's throat. The CPSC says its small parts cylinder approximates the fully expanded throat of a child under three, and its photo shows mini fakes fitting inside it.

CHOICE's children's product test coordinator says that, genuine or imitation, these are not toys for babies and toddlers. Each of the eight Monsters product pages read on Pop Mart's US store on 2 November 2026 says not suitable for persons under 15.

Other Labubu-style products can carry risks too. UK OPSS report 2510-0156, dated 23 December 2025, describes a Labubu-style wrist strap with eyes that came off easily and a battery pack in the head that was easy to reach. The record does not call it counterfeit.

If you think a child has swallowed a part, get medical help straight away.

No recall of genuine Labubu dolls was found in the US, UK or EU records checked on 2 November 2026. The UK recalled counterfeit Labubu plush in August 2025. The US CPSC issued a warning about lookalike dolls, not a recall. On 2 November 2026, its recall database returned nothing with Labubu or Pop Mart in a recall title or product name. That search only covers those two fields.

In the UK, counterfeits were recalled. OPSS recall 2507-0062, dated 18 August 2025, covered counterfeit Pop Mart Labubu plush in four designs, sold by retailers in Scotland. Buyers were told to return them to the store for redress.

In the EU, Safety Gate alerts record the measures taken, such as stopping sales, withdrawal, recall from consumers and removal of online listings.

No record found for this guide makes a finding against genuine Pop Mart dolls. Seven of the EU alerts are flagged unknown, so do not call them genuine or fake. An alert that names the brand POP MART does not mean the doll was genuine, because several such records are flagged counterfeit. A brand name on an alert proves nothing either way: SR/01219/26 names the brand THEMONSTERS and is flagged counterfeit. So never read an alert as a recall of genuine dolls.

To check for alerts and recalls yourself, use these official searches.

Fakes are sold in ordinary shops as well as online. CTSI reports fakes seized from local shops, and UK Border Force stopped hundreds of thousands at the border. Here is what to do.

Report injuries and dangerous products to the safety body where you live, and report the seller to the platform. The phone numbers below cover the US and the UK only.

No regulator page was read for Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Brazil or Mexico, so this guide names none there. Contact your national consumer authority.

Customs agencies have seized fakes in very large numbers. The figures below have different scopes and dates, so do not add them up or compare them. Most are from 2025.

CTSI, the UK professional body for Trading Standards, says many of the fakes Trading Standards seized from UK shops were found after tip-offs from parents, so fakes also reach ordinary shops. Pop Mart's 2024 annual report says it intercepted over 1.3 million infringing products at customs that year, across all its characters, not only Labubu.

The US CPSC tells consumers not to buy lookalike dolls. Customs in the UK, the Netherlands, France, China and the US have seized them in large numbers. This page gives no legal advice about buying or owning one.

Not every Labubu-style product is called counterfeit in the records, such as the wrist strap in UK OPSS report 2510-0156. The safety checks below apply to any plush, whoever made it.

If your home has young children, check any plush for warnings and a contact you can trace. In the UK, CTSI and the IPO say to look for a UKCA or CE mark and a UK address. In the US, the CPSC says to look for choking hazard warnings and independent safety certification marks.

A mark is not proof. The European Commission says the CE mark is the maker's own declaration. So a copy can print one too. Under the toy safety rules in Great Britain, a toy with the mark is only presumed to comply, and that can be challenged. A shop name with the word official does not make a seller part of Pop Mart. Check the seller as our buying guide explains.

Alerts describe the products that were tested, not every fake. No source gives a reliable failure rate for Lafufus alone. The only Labubu-only figure, 2 of 5 fake key rings in South Korea, is too small to generalize. The IPO's figures, 75% of seized counterfeit toys failing and 21 of 28 tested, cover all brands. No independent safety test data on genuine Labubu dolls was found.

Looking at a doll, or at a photo of it, cannot show that it is safe. A Vereev result is an opinion on authenticity only. The count of 39 EU alerts is a minimum, dated 2 November 2026, because two searches by series name failed on the portal.