Smiski Glow Figures
Sonny Angel's glow-in-the-dark sibling line — same Japanese toymaker, same blind-box mechanic, a different hook: each figure depicts a tiny, relatable everyday moment.
Smiski figures come from Dreams Inc., the same Tokyo company behind Sonny Angel, and share the blind-box collecting format — but the design idea is different. Each Smiski depicts a small figure caught mid-activity (working at a desk, stretching, commuting) and is molded from a material that glows in the dark, so part of the appeal only shows up once the lights go off.
Same studio, a second hit
Dreams Inc., founded by Toru Soeya in 1996, had already turned Sonny Angel into a steady success before launching Smiski in 2015 as a second collectible line built on a related but distinct idea: rather than a static cherub character, each Smiski figure is posed doing something specifically mundane — working, exercising, riding a train — designed, per Dreams Inc.'s own description, to "mimic people's daily lives."
The glow-in-the-dark material is the other half of the concept: Smiski figures are meant to be placed somewhere small and half-hidden (a bookshelf corner, a desk edge) where they're easy to miss in daylight and only reveal themselves once the room goes dark.
Part of a bigger 2023 surge for Dreams USA
Dreams Inc.'s US arm has specifically named Sonny Angel and Smiski as its two best-performing product lines during a marked jump in demand in 2023, releasing new Smiski series roughly twice a year to keep collectors coming back — a slower cadence than Sonny Angel's four-to-six-series pace, in keeping with Smiski's slightly more niche, adult-collector positioning.
