The latest must-have collectables for trend-setting college students is a tiny figurine with angel wings on its back—the Sonny Angel.
Students are collecting the miniature vinyl dolls, which are sold in blind boxes so buyers can’t choose their favorites—they get what they get.
“I think because it’s cute, it’s different every time,” fourth-year hospitality student Rachel Boord said. “It just brings me a little something.”
Third-year entrepreneurship student Cameron Millar agreed.
“It makes me happy, and I think they are cute,” Millar said. “I wish they weren’t so expensive, but I love them, and it makes me happy to have … joyful little things surrounding me.”
Japanese toy designer Toru Soeya designed the figures as companions for working women in their 20s. Released in 2005, the toys’ website describes them as “cute and angelic little boys” who wear various headgear and can be placed anywhere to bring a smile.
The figurines cost approximately $12 a piece.
Fans hunt down specific figures by identifying which series, like fruit, vegetable, birthday or cat life, their favorites belong to. Then they purchase blind boxes, hoping to find the style they were looking for.
“You have to, like, hunt them down to buy one, which just makes it, like, so much more exciting when you find one,” second-year graphic design student Zingray Germershausen, who has three figurines so far, said.
Some collectors focus on a specific series, like sweets or flowers, so they can showcase them in displays.
Marisa Sherman, a counselor at AACC, said people collect items like Sonny Angels for personal and social reasons.
“Sometimes the items speak to a person, and it’s meaningful on an individual level,” Sherman said. “But people also like being part of a popular trend, especially when it’s something they see on social media.”
On TikTok, #sonnyangel has gathered more than 734 million views, showing just how popular these tiny naked collectibles have become.
Some students first heard of Sonny Angels through Instagram and TikTok.
“As soon as I saw them on TikTok, it just interested me,” Boord said. “I was just like, ‘I need one,’ and then the addiction just never stopped. Like, I just love them.”
But, second-year transfer studies student Izzy Martin finds them “creepy.”
“They just got, like, a weird vibe to it,” Martin added. “It looks a little like a toy that you’d see in a horror movie that kills people. I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”
Millar explains the origin of Sonny Angels to people who find them odd.
“I usually explain why they’re naked; they’re based on cherub angels, and cherub angels wore little hats, and then nothing else,” Millar said. “And then I just tell them that they’re really cute and I think that they’re adorable.”
