Forget about fancy bags and expensive sneakers – the hottest collectible on the market now is the three-inch-tall naked baby doll that TikTok can’t get enough of. I’m of course talking about Sonny Angel and its ever-growing fanbase.
I was around 10 years old when my mum came back from a business trip to Japan with a handful of blind box toys – collectibles hidden inside a branded container. I was over the moon as I unboxed each little figurine, a few of which were Sonny Angels, and proudly placed them side by side on a shelf in my room.
Had I known that, 15 years later, Sonny Angels would be harder to get a hold of than a vintage Chanel classic flap bag (trust me on this one), I might have put them in a glass case.
Originally created in 2005, Sonny Angel started as a seven-inch tall figure. The current three-inch size appeared on the market shortly thereafter, as did the collections: animals, fruits, holiday, and a collaboration with the French confectionery house Laudurée, to name a few. Retailing for about $10, dolls could be collected without spending a fortune. But in early 2023, the hype hit – driven largely by Tiktok.
As we know, trends spread on TikTok faster than any social media platform: As if on cue, every one of the 900-million monthly active users is seemingly using the same product. Suddenly, Sonny Angels everywhere, and its collectors were legion. Last April, the community even got featured in The New York Times April (“Why Do People Love This Tiny Doll?”). A children’s clothing boutique owner interviewed for the story reported that in the first four months of 2023, she had sold more Sonny Angels than she had in all of 2022.
Naturally, the price for a doll skyrocketed. Now, people are reselling their Sonny’s on eBay – some listed for nearly $300.Crafty users on Etsy have started their own small businesses reselling the collectibles with a markup, and others are making and selling custom Sonny clothes. A quick search on TikTok generates thousands of videos of users sharing their unboxing experiences. Some spend hundreds of dollars on blind boxes, hoping they’ll get the collectible they’ve been searching for. Of course, each series also comes with a secret and rare design – apparently there’s a-one-in-144 chance of getting one in a blind box – as well as a collectible figure called “Robby Angel” described as being a close friend of Sonny.
But it’s not just Sonny Angels that are crowding shelves these days. Though they might have been the catalyst (or the gateway drug, if you will), toy collecting is having a moment.
POP MART blind boxes have started to spread all over the world, and Smiski, the glow-in-the dark figurine originally intended to make children feel safe and protected throughout the night are extremely popular. Japanese entertainment powerhouse Sanrio continues to reign supreme with Hello Kitty, Kuromi, Cinnamoroll, Purin, and other figures. The Dutch fictional rabbit Miffy has captured hearts and inspired pop-up stores in massive cities like London. Sylvanian Families (aka “Calico Critters”) are selling out, and Snoopy merch is in high demand. There’s also Medicom Toy’s famous BE@RBRICK, Kaws’ vinyl action figures, Superplastic’s Janky and Guggimon, and – the Sonny Angel of the sneaker collector and Supreme fans, if you will – newcomers like Seventh Age’s figure “Sage.”
Right now, toy collectors are collecting. What’s going on?
It is hard to pinpoint why or generalize about who collects things. Some collect because they have a genuine interest in a product, some collect for financial gain, and some as an act of preservation. “Collecting behavior is linked to specific brain regions, such as the basal ganglia, middle frontal lobes, and frontal lobes, which are associated with experiencing rewards, obtaining rewards, and anticipating rewards,” explains neuroscientist and psychologist Daniel Krawczyk in a TEDx talk back in 2016. In short, he says that collecting behavior is deeply ingrained in our psychology, serving various functions that range from survival to forming connections with others. "It's connecting with other people who are like-minded. Our brains are very social."
Enter the current era of social contagion, toys, and Tiktok.
As already noted, Tiktok trends spread faster than you can blink. First there’s a product that shows up on your For You Page, and then it’s on a shelf in the background of everyone else’s videos. That’s because part of being on TikTok is this sort of online, offline participation: In order to feel as if they’re part of a wider community, people jump on trends, sometimes seemingly without thinking twice. We saw it with the skinny brow and the “mob wife” aesthetic’s return; it happened with Stanley Cups and adidas Samba sneakers. There is no trend that flies under the radar. And for so many of us, to be part of the community is to feel compelled to participate in the platform’s current obsession. So if everyone has a naked baby figurine at home, of course you need one, too.
It may seem incredibly random that the Sonny Angel became the must-have item among Gen Z and millennials. Though cute collectibles have always been a thing in Asia, their sudden universal appeal can be hard to grasp at first – they’re toys with little to no use. But it’s their essential uselessness, and cuteness, that’s key.
Those of us in our twenties and thirties have lived through plenty of global life-altering events, from pandemics to the cost of living crisis, and starting from the ages when those growing up in previous eras were just getting out of college or going into high school. In other words: We missed out on some essential carefree years that extend childhood into young adulthood. We also missed out on economies that would have helped us do things like move away from home and have an attitude toward the environment that wasn’t The end is nigh. (Shit is just getting more and more fucked up every day, and because we’re terminally online, we’re constantly exposed to it all.) So, actually, a quote-un-quote “useless collectible doll” is just what we need to take the edge off. Sure, none of us will ever be able to buy a house, but we can collect figurines that return us to those precious carefree childhood moments that were taken from us way too soon, and share them with our micro-communities on the internet.
Personally, I know I’ve consumed hours worth of unboxing content.
I’ve collected knick knacks for years. Part of the reason why is to recreate the joy and happiness I used to feel when playing with toys as a child. Coming home after a long day and seeing my silly little collectibles waiting for me makes me feel good, and I’m certainly not the only one who feels this way.
“Sonny Angel will provide healing moments in your everyday life,” states the official website. “He is a welcome sight at the entrance to your home, next to your bed, on your desk and so many other places.” As ridiculous as it may sound, it’s true. Cute toys are a welcome comfort in the face of the overwhelming realities of adulthood. It is cheaper to spend a few dollars on something fun and cute in the moment than on a future that is uncertain and bleak. We may have to watch the world burn but we’ll do it surrounded by our toy collections.
Don’t knock it ’til you try it.
