Retailers dump Baby Three dolls over China illegal territorial claim imagery

The blind box dolls with colorful round faces and imagery suspected to refer to China’s illegal U-shaped line that claims vast swaths of the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea, are facing a boycott in Vietnam.

The U-shaped line, and China’s illegal territorial claims have been internationally rejected and condemned.

Ministry of Industry and Trade market authorities last Wednesday ordered localities to inspect toys which contain images that look similar to the U-shaped line, and punish those found to violate the law.

The order caused sales of Baby Three to plunge at many stores.

A person holds a Baby Three toy. Photo courtesy of Facebook/hothiky.truong

Ngoc Hang, a retailer of the toy in HCMC, said her revenues dropped by half after the inspection was announced.

"Consumers have called for boycotts, and I had to lower prices by 30-50% to liquidate my stocks."

She now faces losses running into the tens of millions of dong (VND10 million = US$390) as she still has 200 unsold boxes.

Her Baby Three boxes are now sold for VND85,000 to VND350,000 apiece.

People look at Baby Three boxes in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City in December 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Hieu

Online sellers have also seen demand drop.

"Everybody wanted to buy Baby Three dolls in the past, but now few buy even with big discounts," Hong Tram, an online seller, said.

The boycott began after Dang Tien Hoang, a popular YouTuber known as ViruSs, announced that he would stop selling the product after finding that the design of the toy contains "sensitive" imagery.

Baby Three was launched in May last year and quickly trended, with prices going up to millions of dong per box.

Between Oct. 15 and Nov. 15 last year, Vietnamese forked out VND8.8 billion (US$345,000) on nearly 37,800 boxes on Shopee and TikTok Shop alone, according to e-commerce data provider Metric.

Sales topped VND40.6 billion within months.

The blind box toy market, which triggers in consumers the thrill of collecting limited items which also remain a mystery until they open the box, is estimated to be worth $14.2 billion this year, with the Asia Pacific region contributing 23% of sales, according to Cognitive Market Research.