‘We deserved better’: Some fans disappointed by KPop Demon Hunters pop-up in Singapore, Lifestyle News

KPop Demon Hunters has taken the world by storm this year — and Singapore is no exception.

Many were excited when they heard that the official pop-up for the animated film was coming to Singapore, rushing to book their slots the moment they were released.

When the pop-up opened on Monday (Dec 22), however, some fans found that it did not live up to their expectations.

A TikTok account by the name of @Sakuradaydream posted a video on Tuesday which has since garnered nearly 58,000 views.

Calling the pop-up held in *Scape a “scam”, she wrote: “We were expecting full-on displays and photo spots like Korea’s set up, but it was just a merch store.”

“We all set aside an hour to go through everything only to arrive around 12.23pm and be done by 12.36pm,” she said, adding that they had booked the 12.30pm slot.

She also said that the merchandise sold at the pop-up was “overpriced”, pointing out that the postcards she had been eyeing turned out to be “blurry screencaps from the show”.

“As fans, we deserved so much better than this… the audacity of them to offer timeslot bookings as well,” she wrote.

“I saw so many young kids all dressed up and felt bad because there was nothing much for them.”

The TikTok user added that she should have “seen the red flags beforehand” as no floor plan had been released and the merch store was located at the front of the pop-up.

This is unlike the ongoing pop-up in Seoul, set to run until Dec 28, which has life-sized set ups of scenes from the film, such as Rumi’s bedroom and Huntrix’s private plane.

A detailed layout was released for the Seoul pop-up and merchandise was displayed at the end.

https://www.instagram.com/bstage.in/p/DR0_ucNDYFN/

Many netizens agreed with the sentiments expressed in the video, and some thanked the TikTok user for saving them from disappointment.

One comment read: “Oh my! Both my daughters were looking forward to this… they even thought of wearing the Huntrix costume just for the event! But after reading this review and the comments… I shall not waste time.”

“They really should’ve just called it a pop-up merch store instead. I went to the one in Seoul last week and it was actually so cool! I think they had at least five different activities. Even as a parent, I genuinely enjoyed it,” another netizen commented.

“Sure, they were clearly pushing their overpriced merch, buying it was literally part of the ‘missions’, but at least there was more to do than just shop.”

Another netizen said: “I don’t think pop-up booths in Singapore will ever be that big. Even the ones for Zootopia and One Piece were mainly merchandise, so yeah, eye-shopping only for me.”

The KPop Demon Hunters Pop-Up in Singapore is organised by fan community platform B.stage, which is managing the Seoul pop-up as well as upcoming ones in Bangkok, Tokyo and Taipei.

AsiaOne has reached out to @Sakuradaydream and B.stage for more information.

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bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com