China's blind-box boom is giving Japan a run for its money

If the only collectibles on your radar are from Japan, you are missing where the real momentum is. China's designer toy industry is on track to top 110 billion yuan, more than US$15 billion, in retail sales this year, and Pop Mart's revenue has doubled in a single year. The part almost nobody mentions is that the whole model was borrowed from a Japanese toy in the first place.

How big has China's collectible boom actually gotten?

Pop Mart's total revenue reached about US$1.81 billion two years ago, roughly double the year before. The Monsters line, the IP that includes Labubu, alone brought in 3 billion yuan, about US$419 million, up 726.6% year on year. By last year the company had sold more than 100 million Labubu units, and overseas revenue grew 475% year on year in a single quarter. This is one of the fastest-growing corners of the toy industry, and it is coming out of China.

What is happening at the China Toy Expo this October?

You do not need to take our word for how big this has gotten. The China Toy Expo runs 21 to 23 October in Shanghai, and last year's edition, held alongside three sister fairs, drew a record 128,768 professional buyers from 185 countries. This year the organizers are targeting 110,000-plus. "Art and Collectible Toys" is now one of the expo's own headline categories, official proof that blind-box collectibles have become a serious enough business to build a trade show around. 52TOYS, the company behind LILITH, is a confirmed exhibitor there. So is BANDAI NAMCO, one of Japan's biggest toy companies, showing up as a guest on China's biggest toy stage.

Where did the blind box idea actually come from?

Pop Mart's founder found the format roughly a decade ago, by discovering Sonny Angel, a Japanese mini figure line that was already selling fast across Asia. He studied why it worked: scarcity, hidden variants, constant new releases, and built that thinking into Molly, then Labubu. Pop Mart took a Japanese idea and scaled it into a category worth billions. Today it runs flagship stores in Tokyo alongside London, Paris and Los Angeles, and Labubu itself sells inside Japanese stores for about 990 to 1,100 yen, a Japanese idea, grown in China, sold back into Japan as an import.

Is 52TOYS just a Pop Mart copycat?

No, and this is the brand actually worth watching. Pop Mart built a mainstream, plush-forward hit machine around Labubu. 52TOYS went the other way: more detailed sculpts, licensed collaborations, the kind of craftsmanship serious collectors bring up when they want more than a soft toy. Its newest line is the most different thing it has released yet.

What is LILITH: Nocturnal Shroud?

LILITH: Nocturnal Shroud is 52TOYS' first gothic blind box series, a real departure from the usual cute character mold. The lineup has six regular designs plus one secret figure, with odds of 1 in 72. Every figure carries a small glow-in-the-dark ghost, and the boxes themselves are styled like little coffins. It is playful horror, not scary, and it is a clear signal that Chinese collectible brands are opening entirely new categories, not just competing with Japan on cuteness.

FIRST LOOK TONIGHT

LILITH: Nocturnal Shroud

We picked up our own box from 52TOYS to bring into Bazu Mart. It is our first pick that is not from Japan, and we are showing the actual figure live for the first time tonight on the TikTok LIVE @bazumart, 8PM (UTC+8). Message us on TG: @bazumart if you want first word when it lands.

Bazu Mart has always been the Japan importer, bringing in the drugstore finds and fan favorites you cannot easily get in Singapore. LILITH is the first time we are looking past Japan, because the thing genuinely worth chasing right now happens to be Chinese. China's collectible industry spent a decade learning from Japan, and it has more than caught up. The next honest move is to bring in whatever is actually good, wherever it comes from. Follow along, and come say hi at 8PM (UTC+8) tonight.