Before Labubu

My son Yaman is 11, and he loves figures. Whenever we pass a POP MART, we go in.

Not just for Labubu. He wants to see all of them. If I let him, he would stay for hours.

On our last trip, a POP MART showed up in front of us again, and in we went. To be honest, I am just as into it.

Then the investor reflex kicked in. How did this company start?

I ran a few agents and read the whole founding story, in the founders' own words. I thought I should share it, so I made an animation.

I sent the first draft to a small WhatsApp group of friends. They liked it. So I am making the rest.

Here is the first part.

Wang Ning runs a shop in Beijing that sells a bit of everything. For years the answer to every problem is to add more.

At the end of 2014 he does the harder thing. He starts cutting. Fewer categories, more collectible toys.

One of them is selling well. Sonny Angel, a little figure from Japan.

But any shop can sell Sonny Angel. A customer buys one from Wang, then the next one somewhere else. Why come back?

So in 2015 he flies to Japan. He wants to be Sonny Angel's exclusive distributor in China.

The Japanese company says no.

Part 1 ends right there. A shop, a hit he does not own, and a no.

Part 2 is coming. Before it does, a question.

If you were Wang in 2015, what would you do next?

Hit reply and tell me. I read every answer, and I will share the best ones next time.

P.S. A quick Upto36 update. The game is now out in Japanese, on PLiCy, a Japanese site for indie games. It passed 100 plays in its first four days.

Know someone in Japan? Send it their way: plicy.net/GamePlay/237588