The Fastest-Selling Art Toy: Meet the Talented Girl Designer Behind POPMart’s SkullPanda
Since I started making videos about Popmart, the company behind Labubu, I’ve become interested in a character called Skullpanda. As a result, I did some research on its background, including the designer, and discovered that this beautiful girl designed Skullpanda. Her facial features are quite similar to the character’s. Now, let’s take a closer look and see how much resemblance there is. Share your thoughts in the comments below!
This beautiful girl has an impressive range of talents, including 3D game and toy design, as well as architecture skills. Her first art toy series, Skullpanda Jungle Castle, was officially released on Taobao on September 16, 2020. It broke the record for the fastest-selling Popmart series, with 60,000 units sold in just one second.
Labubu Isn’t My Style, But Skullpanda Is, Unboxing
Last weekend, I asked a friend to buy me two Skullpanda Sound Series blind boxes from the Popmart official store in Bangkok. Before unboxing, let me give you some details about the series.
This series represents various emotions, such as sadness, vigilance, fear, joy, anger, disgust, fearlessness, and calmness. Honestly, it’s hard to choose because each one is so beautiful! Buying an entire series seems a bit too expensive, so I decided to select the characters that best resonate with me. I believe Vigilance and Terror are the most suitable for me because fear is something everyone experiences in life, and to succeed, you must learn to overcome it. Additionally, whether it’s in friendship, love, work, or life in general, no matter how much you trust and love someone, you should always be cautious because things don’t always go as expected.
Without further ado, let’s start unboxing and see if I’m lucky enough to get the characters I want. Wow, this Popmart blind box strategy is really thrilling, and it’s easy to see why some people become obsessed with it.
PopMart “Skullpanda” Art Toy Concept
Why am I more interested in Skullpanda than Labubu? Skullpanda has a bit of a human-like and monster-like appearance. It has a chubby face with different expressions, an O-shaped mouth, and its outfits are designed to highlight its curves. Have you noticed? Skullpanda always wears an astronaut-like helmet with a sleek hairstyle in every series.
Speaking of concept design, Skullpanda is a small creature created in this universe with extraordinary abilities. What makes it special is that it can travel through time and space. However, it still struggles with a sense of loss and uncertainty about its identity. This is why it continues to search for itself despite the uncertainty, constantly exploring its capabilities. Through experience and effort, it eventually discovers itself.
Her Success Wasn’t Instant: Different People, Different prefers,Different Toy Desires
Since Skullpanda was first created, not everything has gone smoothly. Up to now, 13 series have been released. In each series, there are 12 characters. When the 4th series was released, Skullpanda’s design shifted from a dark and gothic style to a sweet and cute style, which disappointed fans who liked the original look. Later, Skullpanda returned to its original dark style.
This market has shown that unique and distinctive items are rare and highly attractive, which is why most fans don’t want the design to change to a soft, cute style. I, for one, am interested in this toy because of its unique and cool design with earthy colors. People have different tastes, like my brother, who collects beautiful, sexy toys, while my parents collect wooden sculptures. In short, half of our house is filled with wooden furniture!
This Girl Designer Knows Toy Production Inside Out, Even in the Factory
This beautiful Chinese girl, Xiong Meow, is the designer of Skullpanda. She has loved drawing since childhood and pursued art studies in college. She also has 10 years of experience in game design.
In 2017, she participated in a fashion exhibition with several industry experts, and that’s when Popmart became interested in her work and partnered with her. Designing the Skullpanda art toy is just one of the many projects she has in hand. In the design world, Xiong Meow is a young artist skilled in drawing, 3D design, crafts, and working with various materials. She is truly multi-talented.
Skullpanda’s vibrant and lively appearance is due to Popmart’s use of advanced technology and production resources. Each Skullpanda figure is made up of more than 200 small parts, and Xiong Meow is involved in every step of the production process. Xiong Meow describes herself with one word: “contradiction.” This word has deep meaning, encompassing balance, perseverance, and integration, essentially finding solutions to problems.
This self-description resonates with me because I also have a contradictory nature. How about you?
People Buy for Attitude, Not Just for a Beautiful Design
I like Skullpanda more than Labubu because of these descriptions. As I said about myself, seeing darkness and problems as beauty in life makes it more captivating, especially with the cool, confident, and unique vibe. You can look deeper into the design of each character. For me, I think the uniqueness and perseverance of the Skullpanda toy make it worth spending $27 on these two blind boxes without any regrets. I’ll keep these two Skullpanda figures on my desk as a motivational boost.
That’s all I have to share about my thoughts on Skullpanda today. What do you think? Feel free to comment below.
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