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GOODBYE, POPEYE. HELLO, LABUBU

The Straits Times

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November 30, 2025

It was the 99th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Gone was Popeye. Gone, too, his beloved Olive Oyl.

- Sarah Maslin Nir and Vincent Alban

GOODBYE, POPEYE. HELLO, LABUBU

Down Central Park West, between the cheering grandparents and children, floated a giant leering Labubu and the Demogorgon one based on the insanely popular collectible plush toy, the other a demon with a fang-crusted orifice that flaps open and closed.

There have always been confetti, marching bands and Santa, but the 2025 parade was not the parade of yesteryear - deliberately.

New characters like the animal sidekicks from the wildly popular KPop Demon Hunters (2025) animation film on Netflix, and giant versions of Labubu purse charms, whose fame might be over by the time the parade reached Columbus Circle, flew in to replace fixtures from another generation's childhood.

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