Labubus and “anything K-Pop Demon Hunters,” said Jane McEntyre, general manager at Learning Express Toys & Gifts in Crestview Hills, are top gift asks from kids this year, although that’s not the only that will make kids happy this Christmas.
Any parent who’s familiar with the Labubu trend won’t be surprised. Ditto for K-Pop Demon Hunters, a Netflix-produced animated movie released earlier this year. It has since become the most-watched movie in Netflix history at over 325 million views, according to Netflix’s own numbers.
If you don’t know what Labubus are, you probably don’t have kids. They’re small monster figurines that were first sold in a Chinese retailer, Pop Mart.
They took off in popularity after a member of the K-pop group Blackpink was spotted with a Labubu key chain on her backpack last spring. They have since taken over the world.
They’re sold in blind boxes, meaning you don’t know which figurine you’ll get when you buy a box, and there’s a (very small) chance that you might get a secret Labubu that hasn’t been advertised. Over 300 different figurines have been released, as of 2025.
“In one of the series, [there’s] like a chance of getting one that’s black, and everyone wants that one,” McEntyre said, although she didn’t know off-hand what that figurine’s name was.
“We have adults that collect them,” McEntyre said.
All right, all right, there’s got to be other things the kids want.
McEntyre said that fidget toys and board games tend to sell well in her shop, as well as science education kits.
One fidget toy that does well is called a NEEDoh, which is a soft squishy fidget that comes in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes.
As far as games go, one of the best-selling games, especially among adults, is a game called Tapple.
In Tapple, players compete using a wheel stocked with cards with letters of the alphabet on them. Players choose a category and then have to name items in that category starting with a letter available on the wheel. So, if the category is animals, and the letter S is still available on the wheel, you could say snake.
A letter can only be used once, though. So, as the game’s turns progress, there are fewer and fewer letters to choose from. The last player left in each round wins.
“That one’s a lot of fun,” McEntyre said.
Check out some local NKY toy shops below.