How Many Teeth Does a Labubu Have? Nine, and How To Count

A real Labubu has 9 teeth in a single row: one centre tooth with four on each side. Fakes show 7 to 11. Count twice under a lamp before you pay.

“How many teeth does a Labubu have” is the most searched Labubu question after the price, and the answer has not changed since Kasing Lung drew the character in 2015. Pop Mart moulds nine teeth into every Labubu face it sells. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the UK Chartered Trading Standards Institute, GamesRadar, USA Today and Gulf News each repeat the figure in their fake-spotting guides. This page adds what those guides leave out. It covers how the nine are arranged, how to count them without error, which counts turn up on fakes, and which related characters share the grin.

Why the Internet Answers 8, 10 and 12

The confusion comes from auto-generated pages, not from Pop Mart. A search for the tooth count in September 2026 returns marketplace “product insight” articles hosted on Alibaba domains that give four different answers. One headline states the answer is 12. Another says 10. A third says 8, and a fourth says 9. None of them cites a Pop Mart listing or a measured figure. The pages exist to sell wholesale lots, and the number in the headline shifts to match whatever the searcher typed.

Sources that inspected real figures agree on nine. The CPSC safety alert of August 18, 2025 lists exactly nine teeth among its authentication markers. The CTSI warning of August 13, 2025 names the wrong number of teeth as a counterfeit sign and gives nine as the correct count. Wikipedia’s Labubu entry describes nine sharp teeth. Feltify, a fan reference site, published a page titled “Does Labubu Have 10 Teeth?” in order to answer no. When two government agencies, a newspaper and a fan wiki land on the same number independently, the number is settled.

The ten-tooth claim has a likely origin. A counterfeit with ten teeth photographs well, and thousands of those photographs sit in marketplace listings. A buyer who owns a ten-tooth figure searches for reassurance, an auto-generated page supplies it, and the wrong count spreads. Pop Mart has never sold a ten-tooth Labubu. A figure with ten is a copy, whatever the listing says.

How To Count Labubu Teeth Without Miscounting

Most miscounts come from the two end teeth, which sit deep in the corners of the grin. Counting from the middle outward avoids the problem. The method takes under a minute and needs no tool beyond a lamp.

1. Light the mouth from the front. Hold the figure at arm’s length under a desk lamp or in daylight. Side lighting throws shadows between the teeth and hides the end ones.
2. Find the nose tip and drop a line. One tooth should sit directly under the nose. That is the centre tooth. If a gap sits there instead, the count is even and the figure fails.
3. Count outward to the left. Four teeth should run from the centre tooth to the left corner of the mouth. Touch each one with a toothpick if the paint makes them blur together.
4. Count outward to the right. Four more. Four plus one plus four is nine.
5. Count the whole row once more, corner to corner. The two totals must agree. A different answer on the second pass usually means a fused pair, which is itself a fake sign.
6. Check separation, not only number. Real teeth are separate points with paint that stops at each edge. A white bar with nine painted lines across it is a fake with the right number.

Nine teeth on a plush pendant are small. On a 17 cm Big Into Energy figure the whole row spans a mouth a little wider than a thumbnail. A phone camera at 2x zoom makes the count easier than the naked eye, and it leaves you a photo to compare against the seller’s pictures.

Labubu Variants: Which Teeth Change and Which Never Do

The count never changes; the size of the head around it does. Every Labubu face, from the 8 cm vinyl figures to the 79 cm Mega edition, is a scaled version of the same sculpt, so the nine-tooth row is constant. The table lists the mainline releases plus the two characters most often confused with Labubu.

Zimomo is the figure most often mistaken for a Labubu with the wrong body. Pop Mart lists the 10th Anniversary Zimomo at 33 x 25 x 58 cm, and the two earlier releases share that height. Zimomo has nine teeth according to Labubu.city and Labubu Collector, so the count cannot separate the two characters. The tail can. A spiked tail with an internal wire is a Zimomo feature and never a Labubu one. A 17 cm “Labubu” with a tail is a copy that borrowed the wrong reference photo.

Mokoko is easier. Pastel pink fur, a white belly and a heart-shaped nose make the character unmistakable, and no published source gives a tooth count. This page does not invent one. Compare Mokoko’s teeth against a Pop Mart product photo of the same release, not against the number nine.

What the Teeth Cannot Tell You

Nine correct teeth do not prove a figure is real; they prove the factory copied the mould well. The Australian consumer group CHOICE bought five counterfeits and one genuine figure and set them side by side, finding patchy or misaligned paintwork, scuff marks, loose stitching, over-saturated vinyl and widely spaced ears. It names the tooth count as a giveaway and then keeps going, because the count was one failure among several on those five. The better copies now get the number right. Treat nine as the entry ticket to the other checks, not the finish line.

The teeth say nothing about the box. Counterfeiters copy genuine box label codes and print them across a production run, so a fake with nine teeth can arrive in a box whose code verifies. Pop Mart’s authenticity page returns Genuine, First Scan only for a code nobody has entered before. A sealed box that returns Multiple Scans carries a copied code. That failure shows up most often on live selling, where the box is held to a camera and the scan happens after the sale; the Whatnot review sets out what recourse a buyer has when it does.

The teeth say nothing about safety either. The CPSC alert exists because counterfeit Labubus break into pieces small enough to block a young child’s airway. CTSI found detachable eyes and feet plus missing CE and UKCA marks on seized stock. A fake with nine well-painted teeth and loose eyes is still the product those warnings describe. If the figure is for a child, the tooth count is the least important check on this page.

The count cannot date a figure or name its series. Every series has nine. Use the pose, the loop, the fur pattern and the box art for that, and use the Lafufu vs Labubu guide for the full set of height, foot stamp and box measurements.

Where To Get a Labubu’s Teeth Checked by Someone Else

Pop Mart guarantees only what it sells, so buying direct removes the question. Pop Mart’s official website, its stores, its ROBOSHOP vending machines and its authorised online storefronts are the four channels the company stands behind. Pop Mart runs no authentication service for dolls bought elsewhere. Its customer service will look at a verification code that fails, and nothing beyond that.

For a resale purchase, three routes exist. A collector shop that stocks Pop Mart can hold your figure next to sealed stock and compare the teeth, the fur and the weight in one look. StockX and eBay run in-house checks on some Labubu listings; a seller who refuses to ship through those programmes has answered your question. Photo-based services such as Legit App return an opinion for a fee, and the opinion is only as good as the photos you send.

Legitly belongs before those steps rather than instead of them. It pre-screens a listing from your photos and flags the tooth count, the face colour, the ear spacing and the box details, and it says so when the images are too small to count from. It does not scratch codes, weigh figures or issue certificates. Use it to reject a bad listing in a minute, then run the count and the code check yourself before money moves.

Report a confirmed fake with ten teeth rather than binning it. U.S. buyers can file at SaferProducts.gov or call the CPSC on 800-638-2772. UK buyers reach Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer helpline. Both agencies point to consumer reports as the trigger for enforcement visits like the 2025 North Tyneside seizures.

Every Pop Mart guide on this site is collected on the Pop Mart hub, and the collectibles category covers trading cards and other blind-box lines as they are added. For sealed trading cards the equivalent page is how to tell if Pokemon cards are fake, which reads print registration and foil the way this page reads teeth.

Verdict: Nine Teeth Is a Gate, Not a Certificate

Count nine and move to the next check; count anything else and stop. A wrong tooth count has no innocent explanation. Pop Mart has never released an eight-, ten- or twelve-tooth Labubu, factory variance does not add teeth, and wear does not remove them. One failed count is enough to walk away.

A correct count needs company before you pay. Pair it with one check the seller cannot fake in a photo. The UV mark on the right foot, a first-scan result on a sealed box, or a height measurement against Pop Mart’s listing all qualify. Two passes from that list plus nine teeth is a figure worth buying. Nine teeth alone is a figure worth photographing.

Price sets the order of checks. A sealed pendant box under $20 has no reason to exist when Pop Mart charges $27.99 and resale runs higher, so count the teeth in the listing photos and expect to find ten. A box at retail or above deserves the full routine, because the profitable fakes are the ones priced like the real thing.