Labubu x Hello Kitty meet-and-greet turns Westfield Century City into live event
Hello Kitty’s Century City visit turned Labubu into a mall-level draw, with a 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Pop Mart meet-and-greet and limited access slots.
Hello Kitty’s stop at Westfield Century City turned the Labubu x Hello Kitty and Friends launch into something closer to a mini convention than a simple product drop. The Pop Mart location in Los Angeles hosted the character on Saturday, May 2, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., giving visitors a photo opportunity, direct interaction, and a commemorative gift tied to the crossover.
The setup made the event feel engineered for collector pressure as much as fan excitement. POP MART rewards members could redeem 200 points through the company’s online portal for a guaranteed time slot, while shoppers who bought at least one item from the Hello Kitty and Friends x THE MONSTERS collection at the Century City store on event day could join a standby line. That standby access was limited by availability and did not guarantee a meet-and-greet, which kept the event exclusive even as it drove same-day store traffic.
For Labubu collectors, the bigger signal was the product itself. POP MART’s U.S. site lists THE MONSTERS × Hello Kitty and Friends Series-Vinyl Plush Pendant Blind Box with an official online release time of March 12, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. PST, and the pendant blind box is priced at $39.99. That places the Century City activation inside a broader release strategy, where the in-person appearance feeds the same demand loop as the online blind-box launch.
The crossover also matters because it pushes Labubu outside its usual blind-box lane and into Sanrio’s much wider orbit. Hello Kitty and Friends includes Hello Kitty, My Melody, Kuromi, Cinnamoroll, Pompompurin and Pochacco, a lineup that pulls in family shoppers, casual mall traffic and longtime character fans alongside the core Pop Mart crowd. At Westfield Century City, that mix turned one store visit into a broader retail moment.
The commercial stakes are hard to miss. POP MART’s 2024 annual report said revenue from THE MONSTERS, MOLLY, SKULLPANDA and CRYBABY each surpassed RMB1 billion for the first time, while audited 2024 results put total revenue at RMB13.04 billion, up 106.9% year over year. Separate reporting on those results said THE MONSTERS reached about RMB3 billion, up 726.6% year over year, making it POP MART’s largest IP and explaining why a Sanrio crossover carries real weight.
Sanrio also enters the moment with new U.S. leadership, after naming Craig Takiguchi as CEO for the U.S. and the Americas effective January 1, 2026. With POP MART operating in more than 23 countries and regions through 350-plus offline stores and 2,000 Roboshops, Century City looked less like a one-off appearance than a test case for how far Labubu can travel when it leaves the blind box and steps into the mall.
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