Okay so. We need to talk about Big Into Energy, because my group chat has officially become a Labubu identification hotline and I am tired, but also thriving, so let's just do this properly one time and never speak of it again. Except we will speak of it again. We always do.

If you or your child (let's be honest, mostly you, mama, we see you) ripped open a Big Into Energy blind box and are now staring at a tie-dyed little guy with zero clue what his “name” is or what his whole “deal” is — welcome home. Grab your cold coffee from this morning that's still sitting there, untouched, a monument to your day. We're identifying your Bubu, start to finish, no skipping steps.

This is going to be long, because apparently that's what we're doing now. Buckle in.

Quick lore drop for the uninitiated, because I refuse to gatekeep this information the way certain corners of the internet do. Big Into Energy is a Labubu series from Pop Mart, and unlike some of the earlier drops that went full food-theme — looking directly at you, Sea Salt Coconut, iconic but a snack, not a feeling — this one went feelings-core. Full emotional-support-animal energy but make it collectible plastic.

Six characters, six vibes, all vinyl-faced plush pendants with a built-in keyring so they can live their best life clipped to your bag, your kid's backpack, your gym bag that you swear you're going to use this week, or — no judgment whatsoever — your own diaper bag, adult woman, grown human being with a mortgage.

The whole thing is tie-dyed using a special dye technique, which means every single figure is genuinely one of one. Yours is not the same as anyone else's, technically speaking, even within the same character. This is either extremely special or extremely inconvenient depending on whether you're currently trying to find your kid's “twin” from daycare who also has a Serenity, and honestly? It's both. It's always both with these things.

Collectors sometimes refer to this series as V3, following the numbered lineage that started with Exciting Macaron (V1, the OG, the one that started this whole spiral for most of us) and Have a Seat (V2, short playful double-syllable names, very different energy). Big Into Energy took the naming convention somewhere completely new: instead of cute nicknames, we got actual emotions. Bold move. Respect the bold move.

Let's actually sit with each one for a second, because “six characters, six vibes” was giving surface-level summary and you, personally, deserve better than that from me today.

Love isn't just pink for the sake of being pink. The whole point of her is that fiery-eyed, slightly unhinged devotion energy — like she would absolutely fight someone in a Target parking lot on your behalf and then immediately apologize to the manager afterward. That's the Love Bubu experience, start to finish. Blush tones, warm undertones, main-character lighting even sitting inside a cardboard blind box under fluorescent store lighting. She simply glows regardless of circumstance. We should all be so lucky.

Happiness is the one that gets underestimated because “happy” sounds a little basic on paper, like the participation-trophy emotion of the group. But genuinely, go find me a more solid, dependable, does-not-flake-on-brunch-plans energy than this guy. Golden tones, warm, zero drama, shows up when he says he will. The Happiness Bubu is the friend who remembers your coffee order without you having to remind her every single time, and if you know, you know how rare that actually is.

Loyalty deserves a whole essay honestly, and I will die on this hill. This is not a flashy pull. Nobody is screaming into their ring light camera when they get Loyalty out of the box. There's no viral unboxing moment here. But six months from now, when your kid still has this exact one clipped to their backpack and every single other toy has been abandoned somewhere in the depths of the playroom or under the couch or, mysteriously, in the freezer — you'll understand. Loyalty wins long-term. Loyalty always wins long-term. Write that down.

Serenity is unbothered in a way that should genuinely be studied by researchers. Lush green coat, described officially as having a “doting smile,” and the whole aesthetic reads like she's already done her gratitude journaling for the day, meditated, drank her water, and is now just watching the surrounding chaos with mild, gentle, borderline amused detachment. If your household could use more of that energy — and be honest, whose couldn't right now — this is the one to secretly root for every time you shake a new box.

Hope hits different if you've been in the restock trenches, and I know some of you have. This isn't a character you pull casually on a whim during a Target run. This is a character you pull after weeks of refreshing an app at inconvenient hours, missing drops entirely because life happened, watching other people's unboxing videos at 1am while telling yourself you'll go to sleep after just one more, and finally, finally getting your moment. The lore is genuinely built into the pull itself. Hope means something different depending on how long you waited for her.

Luck is the wildcard of the group, no notes needed beyond that. Either you got her on your very first try, in which case, respectfully, we are all a little suspicious of you and your general aura — or you've been chasing her for what feels like actual months, in which case, girl, same. We're in this together. Misery loves company and company loves matching plush keychains.

There's a seventh character hiding in the shadows of this entire series and her name is simply ID. Not the most poetic name in the lineup, sure, but she's the secret pull, she's got roughly a 1-in-72 shot of showing up in your box, and finding her is basically the Labubu equivalent of finding a golden ticket, except instead of a chocolate factory tour you get bragging rights in a group chat and possibly a small existential crisis about your own luck in life more broadly.

If you got ID — genuinely, congratulations, go buy a lottery ticket today, your luck is not statistically normal and you should be taking full advantage of that fact this week specifically.

Since every figure has its own genuinely unique tie-dye pattern, identifying yours isn't always as simple as matching a single color swatch — it's more about reading the overall combo. Pink-leaning tones usually point toward Love, deep greens point toward Serenity, golden warm tones toward Happiness, and so on down the list. But because no two figures are truly identical thanks to that dye process, the honest answer here is: check the little tag if you still, miraculously, have the original box, and if you don't (relatable, tragic, we've all been there at 11pm digging through recycling), compare against official product photos rather than relying purely on vibes alone. Vibes are not always reliable identification tools, unfortunately, much as we'd like them to be.

Quick PSA, because this comes up constantly and I'd rather tell you now than watch you find out the hard way. Real Labubu figures have exactly nine teeth, a specific button nose shape, and that signature snaggle-tooth grin that's become iconic at this point. If yours looks close but something's just a little off — the teeth count is wrong, the proportions feel slightly uncanny, the fur texture is giving something other than intended — you might have what collectors affectionately, or not so affectionately depending on the day, call a “Lafufu.” It happens more than people admit. Nobody's judging you for it. But it's worth checking before you hype up a pull to your entire group chat that turns out, upon closer inspection, to be a very convincing knockoff.

Because obviously we're not just going to leave this thing sitting bare in a drawer somewhere, unloved and unstyled. A few low-effort, high-impact options for actually using the thing:

• ● Clip it to a tote bag strap so it's visible but not constantly in your way while you're digging for your keys
• ● Swap it onto different bags depending on the day's overall energy (yes, this is a real documented thing people genuinely do, no you are not too old for it, let people have this)
• ● Pair two characters together on one bag if you're feeling like a bit of a group project today
• ● If you've got the plush version rather than just the pendant, prop it up somewhere it'll actually get seen — a shelf, a desk, the top of a diaper bag, wherever gets you the most compliments per square foot of visible real estate

Big Into Energy didn't stop at the keychain, unfortunately for anyone's wallet. There's now a phone case featuring five of the characters together, and a wireless charger showing Hope in what can only be described as a full, committed yoga pose, mid-charge, living her absolute calmest possible life while your phone battery slowly climbs from 12% to something resembling bearable. Truly an icon of modern product design. Genuinely considering it purely for the emotional support factor alone.

Is Big Into Energy the same as Big Into Energy V3? Yes — this series is sometimes labeled V3 by collectors tracking the numbered Labubu keychain lineage, following Exciting Macaron (V1) and Have a Seat (V2) before it.

How rare is the secret ID pull, really and truly? Officially, the odds sit around 1 in 72 boxes. So: rare. Not impossible, but rare enough that pulling it is a legitimate main-character moment worthy of a small celebration.

Can I just buy a specific character instead of leaving it up to blind-box chance? Officially, no — that's the entire point of blind box collecting, the mystery is baked into the business model. Unofficially, resale markets exist for exactly this reason, though pricing can vary wildly depending on which character you're after and how desperate the current market happens to be feeling that week.

Do the plush and the phone charm versions include the same six characters? Yes — the same six standard characters (Love, Happiness, Loyalty, Serenity, Hope, Luck) plus the ID secret carry across the different product formats, whether that's the original pendant, the larger plush, the phone case, or the charger.

Whether you got Love, Luck, or you're one of the chosen few clutching ID like it's a newborn fresh from the hospital — you're now fluent in Big Into Energy lore, and honestly? That's more than most people in your life can say about anything right now. Go forth. Clip your Bubu to something. You've earned it, and frankly, so have I, just for writing all of this down.