A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation.

Shanghai Disneyland may be having too much of a good thing on its hands.

In September, the Chinese theme park introduced a pink fox character called LinaBell — a fox “with an inquisitive mind and the intelligence that supports it. She finds joy and excitement in solving problems and mysteries,” according to the park’s website.

“When I saw LinaBell, my brain released so much dopamine. She is such a hardworking and energetic female celebrity!” exclaimed one LinaBell fan in a Weibo post in early November, per Radii China translation.

But it has become so popular, racking up more than 410 million mentions on Weibo, according to Radii China, that resellers began emptying Disney Shanghai’s LinaBell toy shelves to wipe out the aftermarket.

On Sunday, the stage came to a head after Disney began requiring advance reservations for 3 LinaBell express toys. Only those who controlled the online e-book can buy the toys at the site later in the week, Disney said on its Weibo social media. He said the sales plan was to comply with pandemic measures.

Disney did not release charges for LinaBell stuffed toys in its online booking exercise, however, the pieces in the theme park’s permanent lineup typically charge between one and three hundred Chinese yuan ($16 to $47 each), according to the Shanghai Daily.

When the e-booking window opened on Sunday night, avid consumers outpaced the network. Many took to Weibo to complain that they couldn’t click on the eBook or that the page just didn’t load.

They were further angered when they discovered LinaBell stuffed toys had been relisted on reseller websites at exorbitant prices. In one case, a set of all three LinaBell toys were priced at 10,000 Chinese yuan ($1,570,) Shanghai Daily reported.  

Apparently, other people are also willing to pay for the toys. The outlet reported that a fan presented a Rolex watch and a gold bar to get their hands on a set of LinaBell.

Angry enthusiasts blamed Disney for not making more toys and accused the company of marketing the famine by generating such limited quantities. They also asked how resellers were going to get their hands on so many LinaBell stuffed toys and wondered if the booking link had been leaked in advance. .

“Wouldn’t you have so many if you produced a little more?”asked the Weibo user with the nickname “Secretly Speaking”, whose comment garnered more than 40,000 likes.

It was so bad that the Shanghai Consumer Council stepped in to ask Disney to report on the situation.

Disney apologized and attributed the shortage to production bottlenecks amid the pandemic, according to a company posted on Shanghai Consumer Watchdog’s Wechat account. the coming months.

Shanghai Disneyland did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.