More adult women are returning to toys to deal with stress

In the last few years I've seen a major uptake in popularity of Sylvanian Family animals, also known as Calico Critters, and a seemingly new toy called Sonny Angels. The Sonny Angels have similar collectability to the likes of funko pops but are much cuter and seem to hold more emotional value as opposed to just an item to collect for the sake of collecting, saying on their website,

He is always by your side to make you smile. Sonny Angel will provides healing moments in your everyday life.

These toys, both Sonny Angels and Sylvanian Families, are used by thousands of women to combat stress, to feel motivated, and ultimately to have their own little mascot to get them through life. Honestly, while I think all trends that are this big are a little odd, it seems like harmless fun for now.

My worry lies in the paths we've seen fan communities like this go down, most prominently My Little Pony and Beanie Babies.

Starting with Beanie Babies, as you probably know they were viewed as an incredible collectable item and because of this people assumed that the value would grow on them over time. It did not. With the exception of a few exceptionally rare and relevant pieces, like the princess Diana teddy, the market value tanked and peoples assumed investments tanked. I worry that the age range of people collecting these Sonny Angels are too young to remember how all that happened and can't see the potential for history to repeat itself.

The My Little Pony path is a little less likely to happen the exact same way, but a big element of the history of that fandom is when a larger than expected group of men co-opted the fandom they began to sexualise the characters and it was no longer a safe community for younger fans. This of course has happened to pretty much every piece of media ever created but it tends to stay hidden from the wider fan community in a way that didn't really happen for My Little Pony.