WHY is Pop Mart PULLING US Releases??

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Buckle up because for the second week running things have appeared on the PopMart US website and then just quietly vanished. And rightly the community has some questions. I have some questions.

[00:00:14]We're going to ask those together today.

[00:00:17]Tomorrow is a very busy day for PopMart.

[00:00:20]A new Hatchi PuPu series, a Skullpanda plush with chains, a brand new Peach Riot is being teased, The Mandalorian and Grogu is finally in cinemas, and the Labubu Sony movie has just picked up a Tony winner. There are three new PopMart US stores in one week, and one of them is a former GameStop. And Lisa and the gang has dropped the official FIFA World Cup song, and Labubu is in the music video. This is the crossover moment we have been waiting for. Hi internet friends, and welcome back to my channel.

[00:01:03]Wherever you are, I hope you're having a great day. You may have noticed a few things look a little different around here. There is a new setup, a new angle, but same blazer. It is Thursday. This is Calmly Caught Up. It's our weekly pause to look at what is actually happening in the world of collecting before the algorithm decides how we should feel about it. You know the drill. The blazer is on, even though it is actually a heatwave. We cover the serious news.

[00:01:42]Let's get into it.

[00:01:55]>> [music and singing] >> Before we go any further, we need to talk about tomorrow because the Pop Mart Friday drop is the headline of the week.

[00:02:07]On the confirmed online release wave, we have the Hachi Pop Pop Enchanted Realm Tales. It's this brand new mini action figure blind box series with a larger action doll. But, the one I am most excited about, the Skull Panda Punk Panda plush doll. But, we also have the 1001 Moon Intention series and the Pucky Love Across the Galaxies figurines. And what I think is interesting about this Friday is the spread. So, we have Hachi, a softer character-led blind box series.

[00:02:45]Then, we have Skull Panda pushing into that large-scale plush at a scale for the first time. We have the 1001 Moons, the dreamy narrative-led storytelling IP with a whole new chapter. And then, we have Pucky, the original fairy IP with a standalone figure. But, let's talk about the 1001 Moons first. So, they're dropping a brand new chapter called the Intention series. And for anyone newer to [music] this particular IP, 1001 Moons is this dreamy story-driven world. There's Moona, the guardian of the stars, and Hachi, the little elephant. A crown of stars, a book of worlds, and a dream that blooms into 1001 Moons.

[00:03:39]The Where's the Elephant Slide series late last year was, for me at least on paper, one of the most quietly lovely series that Pop Mart put out last year.

[00:03:49]But, where I struggled with that series was the execution. For me, it just fell a little short. The figurines looked good, but felt cheaper, and dare I say it, a little plasticky. There were plenty of collectors who compared it to a Happy Meal toy. I will be really interested to know, has that feedback been taken on board for this new release? A standalone figure landing this week is Pucky's Love Across the Galaxies. Now, for long-time PopMart collectors, Pucky just needs no introduction. It's the original fairy IP, and Pucky's universe is the Pucky Galaxy. Characters described by PopMart as embodiments of innocence with the power to alleviate unhappiness.

[00:04:40]A new standalone figurine is directly in that universe. It's the kind of release that just doesn't need a blind box format to mean something to people who collect Pucky.

[00:04:53]I'm not going to make any pretense on this one. This Pucky is going straight in my basket and straight on my Pucky shelf across the way. Now, this Friday is not for one type of collector. This is PopMart making sure that whoever you are in this hobby, that this week has something for you. Strategically, and in a business sense, that's kind of a flex on PopMart's part, but emotionally for us, it's a lot to keep track of. Let's talk about Skullpanda. So, the Skullpanda Punk Panda plush doll. Now, this is the first 30 cm sitting plush doll in the Skullpanda lineup. There's a silver-white color scheme, metal accessories, chains, [music] and I have to say it, the promo imagery for this drop, I think is some of the strongest that PopMart has put out this year so far. And here is what is interesting, strategically, that Skullpanda has always, in my mind anyway, sat at the edgier, more kind of more fashion-forward corner of Pop Mart, the Impressionism series was a slight aberration before we returned to You Found Me, that darker, more gothic colorway.

[00:06:10]It's the IP that people reach for in this community when they want something that doesn't look like anything else on their shelf. So, by putting that IP into a 30-cm plush format, is Pop Mart asking a real question?

[00:06:28]Can Skullpanda do soft? Can it carry the same weight at a larger size that it carries in a vinyl figure? And I think the answer here is yes, because they've not tried to make Skullpanda look cute. They've made it cuddly, but with attitude and accessories that say, "Look, this is not going on a child's bed." I do think this is going to move quite quickly. So, if you've been wanting an entry point into Skullpanda without the whole secondary market chase, then this may be the piece for you. Let's talk about Hacchi Poopoo because Hacchi's been having kind of a quiet, but a little bit of a stellar year. So, StockX is reporting a triple-digit growth on Hacchi pieces. The resale community is treating it as one of the most durable post Labubu performers in the entire Pop Mart catalog. And on Friday, the brand new series is landing globally. It's the Hacchi Poopoo Enchanted Realms Tales. It's mini action figure blind boxes. And Pop Mart's own framing of this series and I'm going to paraphrase is a hidden world quietly opens something small is starting to move. The characters they are quite cute. It's Hatchi in fluffy fantasy outfits. Think forest creatures, woodland animals and I do want to say this about the design language for Hatchi and for this series as well is I think Hatchi is the gentlest IP in the Pop Mart family right now. There's just no edge to Hatchi. There's no irony. It's just a character with what Pop Mart describes as this vivid inner world where stuffed animals have names and every moment is a quiet adventure and in a week where we have Skullpanda getting chains and Peach Riot is having a new series teased Hatchi is almost completely the opposite of that and I think that is the bet.

[00:08:48]There is a part of this audience, maybe an enormous part of this audience who do not want their shelves to look like a punk gig flyer. They just want soft.

[00:08:58]They want kind. They want a small adventure. Hatchi is for them and the numbers, the resale data, the secondary market durability say that that audience is probably a lot than this hobby gives a credit for. I think when we look back at 2026, I think this is going to be one of the most loved drops of the entire year. Now, Pop Mart has been teasing a new Peach Riot series and the leak community is doing the rest of the talking. So, a little quick refresher.

[00:09:30]Peach Riot is the three-member punk rock girl band IP. There's Frankie and Gigi and Poppy and they've done, you know, figurines and accessories. And the teaser this week is the official teaser, a new chapter of Peach Riot is finally on the way. But the leak imagery is also doing the rounds and has been pointing towards a series name Fruit Punch. Now, I do want to be careful here because Pop Mart has not confirmed the name as of me sitting down to film this video. So treat that as an unconfirmed leak until we see it on official sources, but what we can say is Peach Riot, a brand new Peach Riot is finally coming. And the teaser energy, I think, points at something maybe a little more playful, possibly more pop, less punk than in previous series. And I am going to say something that might be a little unpopular because I know Peach Riot has a really devoted core, but for a long time, Peach Riot has felt like the IP that people kept telling me was about to break out. Look, oh, look at the design. Look at the lore. Look at the the band concept. It has everything. And yet, for whatever reason, Peach Riot has not had its LoL Boo Boo moment.

[00:10:55]It's not even had its Hatchimals moment.

[00:10:58]It's stayed quietly loved by the people who love it and largely off the radar of everybody else. So if the new series is the one that breaks Peach Riot through, I think it will be because its naming is fun and the visuals finally lean into something really playful. But do let me know in the comments, are you team Peach Riot?

[00:11:24]Are you Frankie, Gigi, or Poppy? And if the leaks are right, which one excites you for this one? Now, this next story we need to spend a little bit of time on because it's genuinely the biggest crossover moment that I think this hobby has had all year. So, last Thursday, May 21st, FIFA Sound released the official 2026 World Cup song. So, it's called Goals and it's performed by Lisa, Anita, and Reema. We have K-pop and Afrobeats and Latin pop all in one track. And around 30 seconds into the music video, a giant Labubu in full FIFA World Cup merch appears in the crowd cheering Lisa on. Let's just sit with the symmetry of that for a moment.

[00:12:16]Lisa, by almost any universal agreement, is the single person most responsible for turning Labubu from this obscure designer toy into a global cultural phenomenon.

[00:12:31]The photographs of her with her Labubu charms on her bag back in what, 2024?

[00:12:38]They're the moment the resale market just broke. And that's the moment we all date the Labubu era to. And now, the official FIFA World Cup music video, Lisa is the artist and Labubu is in the crowd. It's this full circle moment. The character she helped make global turning up to cheer her on. And it gets even bigger because on June 12th, Lisa performs Goals live at the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup at LA Stadium. She's going to be the first Thai artist to ever perform at the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony. And we need to talk about what this means for Pop Mart because we've been talking on this channel for months now about the Pop Mart and FIFA partnership, the Labubu FIFA blind boxes, the merch lines, the football audience that PopMart is trying to reach for the first time.

[00:13:39]This was a strategic bet, and it the bet just got the biggest global music and sport moment of the entire 2026 calendar. A giant Labubu is the official FIFA video Lisa performing at the opening ceremony, a worldwide audience that does not need to know what a blind box is to walk away knowing who Labubu is. That's the moment that the FIFA strategy stops looking speculative and starts to look kind of inspired. Now, a few little quick caveats. The song has had a mixed critical reception. Some fans on social media have called the body goals lyrics corny, and some have said it doesn't feel particularly football. I think the criticism is fair.

[00:14:32]On my first listen through, I was in the car, and I was with my husband, and we just kind of looked at each other in confusion, because it's not really the sporting event songs that we are used to, but I do have to say that chorus is a little catchy. But, the cultural significance of this video is much, much bigger than the lyrics.

[00:14:53]For the people in this hobby, the headline is not really the song itself. The headline is that Labubu is now on the same global stage as the FIFA World Cup.

[00:15:08]Introduced by the artist who put Labubu on the map in the first place. It is the loop closing, and it is by any measure an extraordinary moment for PopMart.

[00:15:22]So, this next story is, it's fair to say, complicated. So, on one hand, PopMart announced three new US stores this week. Plus, there's that wider Simon Property Group deal that puts more than 20 PopMart stores into Simon-owned malls across the US in 2026 alone. So, the three stores this week, we have Salt Lake City, the City Creek Center. We have Lawrenceville in New Jersey, the Quaker Bridge Mall, and Grapevine in Texas, the Grapevine Mills. But, it's the Grapevine one that I think is particularly worth noting because the local Texas press is leading on this, and it's replacing a former GameStop unit at the Grapevine Mills. But, let's just think about what that actually means for a second. So, a blind box collector toy brand from Beijing is taking over GameStop shelf space in suburban Texas. That is, I would argue, one of the more quietly significant cultural shifts of the year because it tells us who is winning the discretionary spend wars. So, on the one hand, we have PopMart popping up in malls in middle America, and yet for the second week running, products have appeared on the PopMart US website, and then quietly just disappeared. Not sold out, not back soon, not coming soon, just listed and then gone.

[00:17:02]Sometimes within hours, sometimes overnight. And the community has definitely noticed.

[00:17:09]There are screenshots flying around group chats across the world, and Reddit has predictably entered the chats on this one. Now, Poshmark has not commented, which means, naturally, all we're going to do is speculate wildly, at length, with very minimal information. Theory one is stock. So, the simplest explanation is that listings are going live before warehouse allocation has caught up, and the US team is pulling them to avoid an oversold mess. It's a very boring, very plausible answer, but it doesn't feel to me like the whole story, because this is now the second week running, and the same pattern looks less like an accident and more like a process. So, theory two is tariffs. Now, this is the one that the comment section have been leaning into the most. So, the current US tariff environment on goods coming out of China is, if we put it mildly, moving. If Poshmark is recalculating landed costs mid-launch, pulling a listing while pricing is reworked is exactly the kind of operational move you would expect to see. Now, that could explain why specific SKUs are vanishing rather than the whole site going down. But, if we think about theory number three, someone is editing the website, and I do say this kind of affectionately, but anyone who's ever worked in a fast-growing e-commerce business knows the answer to a lot of these mysteries is just one slightly overworked person with the wrong permissions and a preview button that doesn't actually preview. Now, it would not be the first time, and the inconsistency of what is appearing and disappearing actually would fit that theory quite well. But, the final theory, theory four, is my personal pick. So, there have been credible reports for months now that Popmart has been quietly shifting some manufacturing into Vietnam. Now, not all of it, not Labubu, at least not for now, but specific lines. Now, if you're migrating production geographies, your codes for your products change, your custom paperwork changes, your pricing changes, and the systems that talk to your website do not always change in the same order. Plus, Vietnam has a lower production efficiency than in China, and reports suggested it was only at 10% output capacity back in the spring. So, if we have a small amount of goods, then we probably need to send them to regions where they will do the most in terms of profitability. So, in my mind, that's not necessarily the states. So, I think that is the most boring, but the most likely cause of products quietly appearing and quietly disappearing. And it's also the most strategically interesting theory in the room because if Popmart is diversifying production into Vietnam, and the timing maps onto the tariff conversation, then it's not a website glitch, it's a structural decision about where the brand is going. If you've been refreshing the US site this week and wondering why the thing you saw at lunchtime is suddenly gone by dinner, you're not imagining that. But, let me know in the comments, have you seen the appearing and disappearing items? When did it disappear? And if we start to get enough timing information, we might be able to start see a pattern. And Popmart, if you are watching, just a sentence or two would really help to clear this up. A very quick update on something that has been quietly developing and just got a real piece of news. So, the Labubu feature film at Sony Pictures with Paul King directing has now officially a co-writer, Steven Levenson.

[00:21:23]Now, if that name does not immediately mean anything to you, Levenson is the writer behind Dear Evan Hansen. He has a Tony Award. So, we now have the Paddington director, a Dear Evan Hansen writer, and a Pop Mart owned IP. That is, by any standard, a very serious creative team. My understanding is the film is going to be a live-action CGI hybrid with pre-production beginning late 2026 being aimed at the family audience. Now, there isn't a release date as of yet, but what we have right now with the addition of Levenson is a real Hollywood project, not just a brand extension, not just a marketing exercise, but a real film.

[00:22:17]And I think when we look back at 2026, we might find this is the moment that Labubu stopped being a hype, a a fad, and started being a franchise. We need to spend a moment talking about something that is genuinely shifting in this space, and I don't think we particularly talk about it very much on this channel. And that is the line between collector hobby and affordable luxury lifestyle has more or less dissolved. Because 5 years ago, if you were buying a designer toy, you were in a very specific demographic, in a very specific kind of shop. But now, the same person is on Casetify, on Jellycat, on Crocs, in the Smiski end cap of a bookstore. It's one shopping basket.

[00:23:11]It's not several. And there are four things landing this week that I think proves that point. So, first up, we have Jellycats. Now, Jellycat dropped their high summer collection on May 12th. So, we have Bart Bear in a striped sailor shirt, knitted seafarer cap, yellow dungarees. Kelly Pelican with the curious grin and the tuft on top. The manatee with that signature short textured fabric. And the reviews are unanimous. These are going to go. Now, I think Jellycat is quite interesting because it sits exactly in the same retail space as Pot Mar does. Certainly in the UK, we have Selfridges and Liberties and John Lewis, independent gift stores. And the customer is broadly the same person.

[00:24:07]Someone who wants something soft for their shelf or their bed or their sofa that costs more than the supermarket equivalent and is genuinely beautiful.

[00:24:18]That is affordable luxury. Though, I take that the concept of affordable is debatable, especially where Jellycats are concerned. But Jellycat is quietly one of the most dominant brands in this space. And certainly compared to Pot Mar, is a massive market here in the UK.

[00:24:40]The next one I find genuinely exciting because the drop is tomorrow, same day as the Pot Mar wave. It's a limited Casetify Tamagotchi collection landing on May 29th. Now, there is going to be a pop-up at Shibuya in Tokyo with phone cases and airpod cases. It's a full product range with proper Tamagotchi IP. And you might be asking, why does it matter? I'm not in Tokyo. Well, Casetify has spent the last few years quietly becoming the affordable luxury accessory brand of choice with collabs from Sanrio and Pokémon and Disney and now Tamagotchi.

[00:25:20]It's the same playbook as PopMart. It's the same playbook as Miniso. License the IPs that people already love. Make beautiful products at premium but attainable prices. Drop it in a limited window.

[00:25:36]Now, if you're a Tamagotchi person or if you collect Casetify generally, I would set an alarm on this one. I think it's going to sell out. Next up, we have the Hello Kitty Crocs spring collection.

[00:25:48]Now, this actually dropped on April 29th and is still moving through the shelves.

[00:25:52]There are two shoe styles and a full set of Jibbitz. And for the first time on a Sanrio Crocs collab, there are Swarovski crystal accents on some of the pieces.

[00:26:03]But the one thing I want to flag about this is the Anti Social Social Club and Hello Kitty drop earlier in the spring leaned into that gothic typography and you know, the metal motifs.

[00:26:17]The Crocs collab leans more into the Swarovski kind of sparkly cute kind of end. That is Sanrio doing something genuinely very clever. They're not pinning Hello Kitty into one aesthetic.

[00:26:30]They're letting their IP move across registers from cute and gothic and glittering and sporty depending on their collab partner. And the fourth one in this is a Smiski is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2026. So the strap accessory series 3 dropped earlier this year and a new touch light edition is on the market. Now, Smiski plushies have entered the chat. And honestly, I think Smiski is the most under-discussed brand on our channel.

[00:27:02]The glow-in-the-dark figures have become the desk decor lifestyle thing in a way that very few other small collectibles have managed. And the interesting thing about Smiskis is they sit in bookshops, in Urban Outfitters, in gift stores, in the same lifestyle and retail real estate as Jellycat or Casetify. If you're not paying attention to Smiski, yeah, I do think this could be a year it changes for the brand. But, the reason I wanted to make space for those pieces of news is because we spent so much time on the inside of this hobby, on the leaks and the drops and the prices and the resale market that sometimes I think we risk missing the bigger picture. But, the bigger picture is simply this. There is now a category called affordable luxury collectibles. It did not exist as a category what, 5 years ago? And now it contains Pop Mart and Jellycat and Casetify and Crocs collabs and Smiskis and Sonny Angels and Loungefly and the Sanrio and a dozen brands that we haven't even started talking about yet. They are competing for the same wallet. They sit on the same shelves. They are being marketed to the same person. And simply put, the brands that win are the ones that understand that the customer is not a collector anymore. They are a person with a Jellycat on their bed, a Casetify on their phone, a Labubu on their bag, a Smiski on their desk, and a Hachipupu in the post. And that is, I think, the most important shift happening in this whole space right now. Let's whiz through some of the other news stories this week. So, We Bare Bears and Pop Mart, they have finally arrived in the UK. So, the We Bare Bears and Mega Space Molly has been available globally for quite a while now, but it has only just hit the UK Pop Mart stores last week. It's Space Molly and these bear-themed spacesuits, the Cartoon Network IP meeting Pop Mart's premium figure format. It's silly and great and exactly the kind of crossover that makes this whole hobby feel a little fun.

[00:29:30]If you've been waiting for this in the UK, now is your moment to walk into a store, but I have to be honest with this. I struggle with this as a concept in terms of blind boxes at this price point. I would love that panda. I really would, but I don't think I could risk it as a blind box. The next one is just a quiet warning flag. So, we had the collab between XG and Skull Panda. There have been rumors circulating that this is going to be discontinued. Now, going to flag it carefully because it is a rumor, not a confirmation, certainly nothing official that I have seen yet, but I saw it from fairly credible creators. The rumor is loud enough this week that it is worth talking about. And here is what we know on the price side. So, when this piece was released last year, prices on the secondary market shot up almost immediately.

[00:30:27]XG's Alpha's fandom is global and they move really fast. And since then, prices have been quietly tumbling, a slow drift from that launch peak down to much more accessible price points.

[00:30:44]That is the normal pattern for a limited piece. Once the initial rush has started to settle, but this is where it gets a little interesting because if the discontinuation rumor turns out to be true, I would expect a squeeze. So, if you've been watching this piece and the price drop has been tempting you, it might be the moment to think about that decision. And if you're sitting on multiples, then maybe do the math on whether you list this now or wait for that squeeze to come. But, again, I need to stress this is a rumor, so we need to treat it as such. One small thing worth flagging is Who What Wear published a piece this week arguing that the bag charm trend is shifting away from Le Boubou and towards the Mirai style sound sensing charms or the Monchhichi plushes. And what they'd called kind of charm as necklace kind of styling. Now, honestly, Le Boubou being treated as the established thing that the fashion press is now trying to dethrone is in itself its own kind of arrival because Le Boubou hasn't left the conversation.

[00:32:06]Le Boubou has become the benchmark.

[00:32:09]Before we finish though, in among all of the news, this hobby holds two things at once.

[00:32:17]It is at the macro level a business doing extraordinary numbers, but it is also at the human level a tiny thing on a shelf that made you stop and smile in the middle of an otherwise hard week. Both of those things are true and both of them are why I love doing this. So, the week in summary, we have the Hatchimals Enchanted Realm Tails Friday globally.

[00:32:48]Skullpanda Pop Panda Friday, perhaps not globally. A new Peach Riot being teased.

[00:32:56]Leaks are calling it the fruit punch.

[00:32:58]Treat that as unconfirmed for now. Three new US PopMart stores, a Simon Property mega deal. PopMart's US website quietly playing peekaboo with us all week. Jelly Cat high summer, Casetify Tamagotchi on the same Friday. Hello Kitty doing Crocs and gothic streetwear in the same season. Smiski quietly turning 10. Bratz turning 25. We Bare Bears finally in UK stores. And Steven Levenson on the Labubu movie. And all of it, every bit of this is optional. You can follow one corner of this hobby and ignore the rest. You can be excited about one thing and completely unmoved by the next. You can collect what you collect at the pace that works for you and let the rest wash over. But do comment down below of everything dropping this week, which is the one you have set an alarm for, if any. And for me, I've got to be honest, it's that Skullpanda and the Pucky. Let me know yours in the comments. And that's it. You are officially calmly caught up. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your company. And I'll see you in the next one.

[00:34:22]>> That's our song.

[00:34:24]I'll stay.

[00:34:25]I'll make you stay.

[00:34:30]That's our song.

[00:34:32]I'll stay.

[00:34:32]awake. It's a brand new day.

[00:34:35]>> I I I I