At what age is it too late to play with dolls?
The sky’s the limit for Gen Z fans obsessed with Sonny Angel, the 3-inch-tall Japanese miniature figures that are captivating young people around the world.
Young New Yorkers, obsessed with the compact, angelic dolls, have been known to wait in long lines for the latest releases. On Wednesday, miniature doll merchant Emma Tollison, 20, was patiently waiting outside Anne Me, an East Village toy store, to be among the first to get her hands on a new dinosaur line of dolls.
Sonny Angel figures, displayed in their original packaging in the window display at an.me in New York, are sold in blind boxes. William Farrington
“It seems ridiculous to wait an hour and a half, but it was fun,” Tollison told the Post.
The proud parent of 13 Sonny Angels explained that although he could have ordered the figurines online, “there’s something special about sharing the experience with others.”
Amazingly, these $10 fun-sized figurines aren’t a new invention, but after 20 years, the phenomenon seems to have reached its climax.
Ana Ruiz, 23, is proud of the 30 angel statues she has neatly arranged in a rainbow of colors on the shelves of her New York City bedroom, which she says bring her “great joy.”
“Kids these days are dying to grow up, and I think my generation and others my age are just trying to grab what little joy there is left of childhood,” Lewis, a content creator and market researcher, told The Washington Post, calling the enthusiasm “contagious.”
On the release date, a large number of customers flocked to the an.me shop in New York, which sells Sonny Angel, to get their hands on the latest dinosaur series of mini figures. William Farrington
Angel enthusiast Kayla Holt, 20, estimates her collection is “worth easily over $500.”
“I used to think it was ridiculous, but once it started to catch on social media I couldn’t resist and had to find out what everyone was talking about,” Holt, a content creator and disability advocate from Melbourne, told The Washington Post in an email.
Jackie Bonheim, marketing director for Dreams USA, which sells Sonny Angel, said the dolls’ popularity has soared, especially in the past two years, a trend that has led to shortages around the world and the company struggling to keep up with surging demand.
Emma Tollison, 20, of the East Village, said the long wait was worth it after she got the minifigure she “really wanted.” She told the Post that she made some friends while waiting in line and swapped dolls with other fans afterward. William Farrington
According to Toy Insider editor-in-chief Marissa Silva, TikTok has been a driving force behind the recent stardom of cute, crowd-pleasing toys, and a quick search reveals thousands of videos of users enthusiastically unboxing their latest finds or showing off their extensive collections.
Local Facebook groups for buying, selling and swapping have swelled to hundreds, if not thousands, of members. There are city-specific meetups, Discord servers and Instagram pages dedicated to the pantyless dolls. On a recent episode of “Saturday Night Live,” they were called “little boyfriends,” while others have described them as “emotional support” dolls.
On second-hand sites like eBay, limited-edition Angels without boxes are fetching handsome amounts, with some going for hundreds of dollars a piece, and Silva noted that collectibility and rarity are part of the appeal, despite the company’s frustration with the high-priced resale market.
“It’s frustrating because I hate seeing people paying a lot for something online,” Bonheim said, referring to the company’s efforts to thwart scalpers by limiting the amount of Angels purchased online.
On “Saturday Night Live,” Dua Lipa went crazy for the figures, which she called her “little boyfriend” in a skit. Will Heath/NBC The craze is part of a growing trend of “kidult” collectors, who have overtaken preschoolers as the biggest toy consumers of all time. Paige Kahn/NY Post
Sonny Angels are currently displayed on workstations, desks, bookshelves and more, and some variations of the figurine, called “Hipper,” can be attached to smartphones and laptops.
Some die-hard fans can even purchase angel-adorned phone cases from Casetify, which just released a limited-edition Sonny Angel collection last week.
Fans who are drawn in by the cuteness of the dolls are also indulged in the blind box element of purchasing Sonny Angel, where they bet on which figure will be inside the mystery packaging.
In the toy industry, this is called the “reveal.”
“Their entrance is like walking onto a stage, the curtains opening, and they say, ‘Yay!’ and everyone knows who it is,” Lynn Rosenblum, an assistant professor of toy design and toy historian at Otis College of Art and Design, told The Post, likening it to a gumball machine or a surprise prize at Cracker Jacks.
“If you have a toy and it has the ability to reveal, then you’ve got something really cool.”
“You’re just part of this cute little community,” says Lewis, who says the color-coordinated collection brings her “so much joy.”
“Think about it: If you collect antique cars, you can’t take them with you,” Rosenblum said.
“But these little items are portable, so you can take them with you to show people, keep them on your desk at work or take them with you when you go for a bike ride,” she said.
And unlike antique cars, there’s always room on the shelf — and in the budget — for one more.
“Part of the fun is finding something you really want,” said Lewis, the collector.
Since buying her first Sonny Angel last fall, she has joined online groups to trade or buy figures missing from her collection, scouring the internet for ultra-rare figures that may no longer be made.
A typical weekend afternoon for the New Yorkers and their friends involves buying multiple Sonny Angel blind boxes and opening them together in Lewis’ apartment, haggling and trading for the pocket-sized angels.
The Sonny Angel craze has even led to a collaboration with popular phone case brand Casetify, which released its Sonny Angel collection this summer. Sonny Angel resembles the Kewpie doll, a classic novelty figure popular decades ago. William Farrington
“If someone owns your dream thing, you’re like, ‘I’ll give you two of my things in exchange for yours,'” she said.
“It makes you feel like a kid again a little bit.”
