Who Owns Sonny Angel?

Sonny Angel began in 2004 as a wide-eyed doll, created at Dreams Inc. under founder Toru Soeya, who has described wanting a small healing figure that would bring comfort. In May 2005, the company reimagined the character as a palm-sized mini figure wearing themed headgear, sold in a sealed blind box so buyers did not know which figure they would get. That format, decades before "blind box" became a global toy industry term, defined Sonny Angel.

For its first decade and a half the brand was a quiet success: a staple of Japanese gift shops and a cult favorite among collectors in Asia and Europe, with themed series like Animal Series, Fruit Series, and regular limited releases building steady demand without mass marketing.

Everything changed around 2020-2023, when Sonny Angel exploded on TikTok and Instagram. The small figures, photogenic, collectible, and priced under $15, became a phenomenon among Gen Z and millennial collectors, who filmed unboxings, trades, and shelf displays. Sellouts became routine at retailers like Urban Outfitters and independent toy shops, and secondary market prices for rare figures climbed. The brand expanded distribution across more than 70 countries and launched Sonny Angel USA as a direct channel.

By 2024-2026, Sonny Angel had become the reference point for the global blind-box collectibles boom, a category that Chinese rival Pop Mart, with its own character IP like Labubu, scaled even larger. Sonny Angel's twentieth anniversary in 2024 and continuing themed series sustained the momentum, positioning the Japanese original alongside the newer giants it helped inspire.