Endless queues to get a Labubu in Barcelona

Barcelona"It's like being little again with stickers, but now this is what jackpot "of toys for grown-ups," Pau admits, holding two cardboard boxes about 10 centimetres in his hands. He and his friend Marc are just two of the more than 2,600 people who flooded Barcelona's Portal del Ángel this Saturday to be among the first to get their hands on a Pop Mart figure. collectors and has now landed in the heart of Barcelona with Labubus – plush toys that hang from your backpack – as its main attraction. And, as with the packs of stickers, you buy a figure for about 15 euros without knowing which character you'll get. Labubu The Monsters Wacky Mars, which is made up of characters dressed as food items such as a pot of Chinese noodles or a tempura-battered shrimp, one of the products that has already sold out on the first day of the new store in the Catalan capital.

The ways and reasons for being interested in the figures popularized by Lisa from Blackpink – a K-pop group that performs on August 9 in Barcelona – are very diverse. "I saw it on Instagram a while ago and my friends and I are big fans of it." blind box –the boxes with surprise products–; we didn't want to miss it," explains Alexia, who is 14 years old and has convinced her parents to come from Hospitalet to queue.

The precious 'secrets'

On the other hand, Jordi, 29, who his friends consider "the lucky hand," has been collecting for years and last year he became interested in Pop Mart figures. "There was a store on Pelayo Street and I often went there to try my luck. There I met other people with whom we had the same thing." feeling and now they are my best friends," he recalls. They call him lucky hand because within his gang they always ask him to be the one to choose which box they buy to try to get the secrets, limited and unknown figures that exist in each collection and are very difficult to find. To do this, Jordi has studied in detail the characteristics of each figurine, which are listed online. "I look at the weight, if they have pieces, if they move..." he explains, shaking one of the boxes, a movement echoed by the customers in the shop.

"This morning my best friend came –she slept in line to be one of the first– and got me a secret; I know they are very valuable, but I will keep it because it is the first and it is special that someone I love has gotten it," explains Jordi. He clarifies that he will keep it because, as Marc explains, "there is also a speculative part within the game." "You pay 15 euros to see which figurine you get, but if you get a secret "From a very limited collection, you can sell it online for 300 or 400 euros," he explains, although he also assures that his intention is not to make money with the figurines. "For me, it's as fun as when I was little, I used to go to one of those machines with balls with surprise toys. It has a magical touch that makes it exciting," he defends.