Can CJ Hendry break Pop Mart’s monopoly?

What happened Renowned Australian artist CJ Hendry’s Juju collectible series made a bold entrance in Hong Kong from November 29 to December 2, marking her first venture into art toys and extending her practice beyond hyperrealist drawing into character-driven sculpture. Presented with Phillips Hong Kong, the installation transformed the auction house’s West Kowloon Asia Headquarters into an immersive pink “supermarket,” turning the debut into an experience as carefully crafted as the objects themselves. Known for her meticulous, large-scale renderings of luxury objects using a self-developed scribbling technique, Hendry has long explored the overlap between desire, branding and contemporary culture. A colorful bunny-like character, Juju is her newest expression of that world. Entering the world of Juju At the installation’s center was the Juju Edition Sculpture, a handcrafted vinyl artwork housed in bespoke wooden packaging, conveying the fine-art sensibility behind the character. Surrounding it, rows of Juju blind-box keychains in 24 vibrant colorways invited visitors to participate in the thrill of art toy culture. Hendry describes Juju, with a single flower draped over one eye and gentle, rounded features, as a figure embodying curiosity, kindness and subtle magic. The Hong Kong debut introduced Juju as both personality and universe — a marriage of art, retail fantasy, and the blossoming emotional appeal of handbag charms. The Jing Take The rise of Juju represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of luxury art toys, revealing how artists can now independently harness a market once dominated by large collectible corporations. The Labubu craze, where Kasing Lung’s mischievous character was propelled to global cult status through Pop Mart, proved that designer toys could command the same speculative and emotional fervor as streetwear, sneakers, or limited-edition prints. Pop Mart perfected the blind-box, hype-driven format, but Juju demonstrates how an artist can now build this same ecosystem without corporate infrastructure. While art toys have long existed and performed particularly well in the Chinese market, from Kaws to Be@rbrick, the Labubu blind-box keychain propelled charms to the center of fashion in 2024 and 2025. Commercial artist potential Hendry is entering the market with the advantage of an already established art audience, and her approach also reflects a shifting commercial landscape: artists are no longer confined to galleries, and character IP has become a powerful extension of artistic identity. The early response underscores that potential. On Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote), #juju has nearly one million impressions (992,700), with users posting the Hong Kong installation and styling their Juju charms on designer bags, a behavior that mirrors the Labubu handbag trend popularized by Blackpink’s Lisa.The enthusiasm suggests the market for cute, high-design charms remains not only resilient but expanding; especially among style-conscious consumers who treat toys as luxury accessories. Another factor shaping Juju’s commercial appeal is Hendry’s transparent use of AI, including ChatGPT and image-generation tools, to develop early design concepts. By openly engaging with AI as an assistive creative partner, she taps into a broader cultural conversation about how artists can leverage technology to accelerate world-building and IP creation. However, the use of AI in Juju’s creation has sparked online controversy. This transparency positions Juju as a product of contemporary aesthetics, yet also exposes the culture behind art toys. If artists combine hype, aesthetic value, commercial product potential, and physical, photogenic activations, the creativity behind an art toy becomes secondary. In 2025, art toys succeed by leveraging cultural signifiers to build community, rather than through the intricacy of design — a shift that luxury fashion should note. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

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Can CJ Hendry break Pop Mart’s monopoly?