Last Updated on 09/12/2025 by Chris Gampat
“They’re Gen Z Yeezys,” is how my Gen Z friend describes Labubus to me. Fascinating, as I’m a millennial who never wanted to get into the sneaker craze despite owning 15 or so pairs of shoes. What these sneakers were to my generation, Labubus are to Gen Z. South Park even parodied the little toys. And being ever the opportunist, Kodak via Reto has decided to get into the trend, too. With the new Kodak Charmera, they’re channeling the same energy — and I haven’t seen this much hype from photographers in a while.
The Kodak Charmera is a small camera designed to look like a toy and like those little 110 film cameras from years ago. But instead of channeling the allure of those old spy cameras, it’s dressed like a New York 9 and immediately puts thoughts in our mind that rizzes the hell out of us.
Inside there’s a sensor that takes us back to the old Nokia flip-phone days. All the images are shot to a Micro SD card, that you have to buy all on your own.
Now here’s the crazy part, they’re only around $30 and you’ll never know which one you’re getting — just like Labubus. It brings back the fun of childhood hobbies in so many different ways. They’re affordable, and random. Sometimes, it may mean that, like Pokemon cards and POGs, you end up trading them with friends. And like the random baseball cards or little Disney toys that you got in cereal boxes with your Captain Crunch, you’ll never really know what you’re getting.
At the same time, who cares? They’re only like $30 and you’re not going to cry about that problem all that much. It’s not like any of us need cameras to live.
However, I have to say, it would be really fun if these camera in cereal boxes. I’d end up buying more cereal again for sure and enjoying the fact that I’m getting a two-for-one deal of some sort.