The Rise of Sonny Angels and Our Obsession with Collectibles
In the past year, I’m sure you’ve seen a small naked baby figure sitting on your friend's shelf, maybe in the background of a Tiktok, or even hidden among the aisles of Hiron’s. I, like many others, was confused as to what exactly this small nude creature was and why he was everywhere and always seemed to be sporting a different hat. Yet, the more I saw of him the more I wanted to have a little angel of my own. After returning home during winter break, I found my favorite store was selling these toys and decided to get some. This is when my Sonny Angel obsession began, and soon I found myself collecting more and more of the dolls, leading me down a rabbit hole of collectibles. It was around this same time that I began to see a spike in Sonny Angels all over my feed and started to realize just how popular the toys really were.
The history behind the ever-popular angel starts with the history of the Blind Box. For the unfamiliar, a blind box refers to a specific type of packaging of a vinyl toy collectible, where the name implies you are blind to which toy you are getting. The origins of the blind box stem from the Japanese “Fukuboro,” where Japanese supermarkets would sell slow-selling goods in opaque bags to attract customers with the element of surprise. This then expanded into mystery coin machines called “Gashapon,” where the machines would dispense a small toy in exchange for coins. The inspiration for the Sonny Angel doll came from the creator, Toru Soeya. Soeya was heavily inspired by the American Kewpie doll character and wanted to create a figurine in the same style. He wanted to make the toy resemble a 2-year-old boy with a sweet smile, and thus, in 2004, the very first Sonny Angel was born. “He is always by your side to make you smile. Sonny Angel will provide healing moments in your everyday life,” Toru said in an interview with Daily Mail. Interestingly, in his first iteration the doll is without one of his signature hats, a later staple of Sonny Angels. In current iterations of the Sonny angel dolls, he can be seen wearing a multitude of different hat styles depending on the collection your angel belongs to. With such a variety of dolls and the compulsive need to collect them all, it's no surprise to anyone that the angels are some of the most popular blind boxes ever. Toru Soeya would also go on to create Smiski, an equally popular blind-box series furthering the blind-box craze.
The popularity of Sonny Angels absolutely exploded around November 2023, reaching the highest number of Google search results for the headwear-loving dolls. This can be attributed in large part to a trend of TikToks being made about the cherub and a range of videos showing off large collections of the dolls, unboxings of different collections, and skits referring to the dolls as “small boyfriends” or “babies.” The craze for dolls has even reached celebrity status, as Bella Hadid and Iris Law posted about their love for the toys. However, with all popular things, especially collectibles, comes the dreaded practice of resellers.
The dolls themselves only cost around $12 for a standard collection figure, and scalpers have been buying entire boxes and reselling individual dolls for upwards of $113. In fact, the problem with resellers has gotten so bad that on the official website for Sonny Angels, you can only buy four at a time. Not only does the act of upselling the once reasonably priced dolls make it harder for stores to keep them in stock, but it ruins the act of buying a blind-box in the first place. Reseller culture, in general, has gotten increasingly worse over the past couple of years. We’ve seen this often with Depop resellers buying clothes from thrift stores and trying to sell them for more than ten times the original price they bought them at. This ruins the once fun and sustainable activity of second-hand shopping that all could afford and makes it so only those who have the funds to pay $350 for a “vintage” Forever 21 t-shirt can enjoy it. What I find particularly upsetting about reseller culture in regard to the angels is that the message and meaning behind the dolls is one of innocence and happiness. Nonetheless, there are plenty of individuals who have a deep admiration and respect for the doll.
As Toru Soeya says, the doll's mission is to watch over you and “give healing, and give more smiles to all of us in the world.” As silly as this sounds, I, like many others who collect Sonny Angels and Smiskis, find great happiness in the toys. I’ve seen a large creative community form from this quirky hobby. People are creating clothes for their dolls, Sonny Angel's influencers have become a thing, and despite the competitiveness of buying and collecting, I’ve seen an overwhelming amount of online positivity come from the community and personally have made real-life friends from sharing my love of the toy. Despite the negatives that have come along with the dolls, I hope to see Sonny Angels on friends' desks, bookshelves, purses, and any nook and cranny they can fit into for a long time.
