Why Seventeen’s Joshua Hong Is Done With Labubu

Bad news for Labubu: The viral ugly doll has lost one of its most ardent fanboys, Seventeen’s Joshua Hong.

Hong appeared on an October 10 episode of South Korean actor and singer Lee Hyeri’s talk show, “Hyell’s Club.” On the show, Lee relayed a fan question posed to him via Instagram.

The fan asked if Hong would pick Labubu or Shuasumi, a deer character in Seventeen’s “Miniteen” toy series named after him.

“It’s got to be Shuasumi,” Hong said. “Labubu was just a trend for a while.”

“But why don’t you carry Shuasumi around?” Lee asked.

“I’m going to start carrying it around from now on,” Hong said. “I’m going to carry it when I go to the airport.”

He added that he had accumulated over 20 Labubus while trying to snag the limited-edition “secret” color through the toy’s blind box system. People collect Labubus in sealed packages, with a random toy inside each box.

“I do have a lot of Labubus,” Hong said. “I bought so many.”

Lee then asked if Hong would be willing to buy more Labubus.

“My interest in it has completely dropped,” Hong said.

Before this Labubu revelation, Hong was spotted with the doll multiple times in the last year, hooking them onto his Chanel bags while on airport runs and bringing them out for IG snaps in Seoul Forest.

Seventeen also collaborated with Labubu’s parent company, Pop Mart, in June to create custom Labubu dolls for auction.

Hong hasn’t given up on his other hobby, collecting fragrances. In an August episode of “Yoo Got a Minute,” a Korean-language comedy talk show on Disney+, Hong said he owns 110 bottles of perfume and decides on a unique scent whenever his band goes on a new tour.

Labubu has become a top-trending accessory over the last year. Pop Mart’s “The Monsters” IP, which Labubu is part of, contributed 4.81 billion Chinese yuan, or about $676 million, to the company’s total sales in the first half of 2025, per an August earnings report.

Hong’s bandmate, S.Coups, hasn’t given up on Labubu just yet. S.Coups, whose real name is Choi Seungcheol, was seen at Incheon airport on October 9 toting a “Fried Shrimp” Labubu from Pop Mart’s “Wacky Mart” series on his Chanel carry-on.

Other celebrities, from Lady Gaga to Rihanna, and sports stars like Naomi Osaka, have been seen with Labubus, too.

Seventeen is now on tour in the US, and will hit Hong’s hometown of Los Angeles on October 16 and 17.