Labubu.

A modern chimera of Monchichi, Beanie Baby, and… maybe a demon.

Yes, I said demon. And before you clutch your pearls, I’m not alone. There are people genuinely unsettled by these mischievous, monkey-bunny creatures. Something about the eyes. Something about the grin. Something that makes you wonder if they’re watching you when the lights go out.

And if Labubu is the demon, then let me introduce its even more disturbing cousin…

Fuggler’s.

Misfit plush creatures with nearly human teeth. And let’s be honest — if you thought dentures, you might not be wrong. There’s something deeply unsettling about them. The kind of toy that makes you question the designer’s sleep schedule, childhood, or both.

Some people are repulsed.
Some laugh.
Some consider burning sage.

Me?

I find them refreshing.

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Totem Lens — The Empty Vessel

Here’s the thing that hit me — and it hit me sideways.

These toys don’t come with a story.

No cartoon.
No movie.
No cinematic universe.
No decades of canon telling you who they are, how they behave, or what they represent.

That alone makes them radical.

For most of my life, my imagination was fueled by licensed worlds. Brilliant ones. Powerful ones. But they were still someone else’s story. I was invited to play inside a narrative already built, already mapped, already defined.

Labubu and Fuggly don’t do that.

They hand you the keys and say nothing.

They are empty vessels.

And that’s rare.

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Totem Role — The Trickster (Creative Catalyst)

In the Toys Are Totems framework, these figures carry Trickster energy.

Not chaos for chaos’ sake — but disruption with purpose.

They unsettle expectations.
They break aesthetic comfort.
They force the imagination to wake up.

The shadow side of collecting is passivity — letting someone else do all the meaning-making. Trickster totems flip that script. They don’t tell you who they are.

They ask you.

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This isn’t really about creepy-cute plush.

It’s about what happens when we stop being handed meaning and start generating it again.

Our grandparents understood this.
Generic composite dolls.
Our fathers understood it.
Little green army men.

They weren’t “empty.”
They were open.

Open to absorbing a moment.
Open to holding a feeling.
Open to becoming memory containers instead of lore containers.

Somewhere along the way, we traded that openness for preloaded mythology. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, something vital gets lost when imagination only reacts instead of initiates.

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Spark Action — One Small Act of Reclamation

Here’s the invitation for today:

Pick one object — toy or otherwise — that has no assigned story.

Sit with it.
Don’t label it.
Don’t Google it.
Don’t explain it.

Ask one question only:

“What do you want to become in my hands?”

That’s how sparks reignite.
That’s how creativity stops borrowing and starts building again.

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Closing Reflection

Labubu doesn’t scare me.
Fuggler’s don’t repulse me.

They remind me.

That imagination doesn’t need permission.
That meaning doesn’t need canon.
That sometimes the most powerful totems are the ones that refuse to explain themselves.

They’re not demons.

They’re vessels — waiting to be filled.

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Thanks for joining me on this never ending journey of recapturing the moment, memories and feelings.

Now, Go Play!

Jim
01/02/2026

P.S. Don’t be afraid to subscribe, share, comment and just enjoy what you love. You have permission,

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