Hi there!
On October 6, 2026, LEGO announced a new and rather major collaboration with Sanrio. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the name Sanrio: The Japanese company is behind Hello Kitty and Friends, as well as characters like Kuromi, My Melody, Cinnamoroll, Pompompurin, and Gudetama. Sanrio was founded back in 1960 and its characters are now known around the world.
And we’re not just talking about a single LEGO set here.
LEGO and Sanrio have explicitly announceda multi-year partnershipand are talking about a whole series of new products set to be released starting in 2027.
What do we know so far, which characters have already been teased, and what’s the story behind this rather interesting October calendar on the LEGO website?
Let’s get started!
LEGO and Sanrio Launch a Multi-Year Partnership
On October 6, LEGO and Sanrio officially announced their collaboration.
It’s worth noting that LEGO explicitly refers to a “multi-year partnership.”
Consequently, this won’t just be a single Hello Kitty set and then that’s it. LEGO has announced a wide selection of LEGO Sanrio products starting in 2027.
However, we don’t yet know how many sets there will be at launch, what sizes and prices they’ll have, or how the figures will actually be produced.
There is also no official release date yet.
Some earlier leaks had suggested a launch as early as the beginning of 2027. However, there have since been indications that this originally anticipated timeframe may have been pushed back. That’s why I wouldn’t commit to January or February at all right now.
So far, the only thing that has been officially confirmed is that the first products will be released in 2027.
We already see these characters in the first trailer.
A short teaser was released at the same time as the announcement.
In it, we see several familiar Sanrio characters flying out of a LEGO bag.
The participants include:
- Hello Kitty
- Kuromi
- My Melody
- Pompompurin
- Cinnamoroll
This at least gives us a pretty good idea of which characters might play a major role in this collaboration.
The official press release also mentions Gudetama as one of the well-known Sanrio characters. However, that doesn’t automatically mean that Gudetama will get its own set right from the start.
And of course, that applies just as much to the characters in the trailer.
Just because we see Cinnamoroll or Pompompurin there doesn’t necessarily mean that each of them will immediately get their own LEGO set.
It would seem likely—but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The LEGO Calendar Teases More Reveals
And now, in my opinion, things are really starting to get interesting.
LEGO has launched its own Sanrio-themed page and explicitly states there that you should check back regularly because more clues are coming.
The website even says, “The adventure begins in 2027.”
And LEGO encourages fans to check back often and discover new clues.
Click here to go directly to the official LEGO Sanrio website: Hello Kitty and Her Friends – Coming Soon! | Official LEGO® Shop DE
There is also a calendar for October, with various symbols assigned to individual days.
And they probably aren’t just standing there by chance.
October 14 – Pompompurin?
On October 14, we see a pudding—or dessert—icon alongside a donut.
That seems to point pretty clearly toward Pompompurin.
After all, the name alone and the entire design strongly allude to pudding.
Accordingly, it’s a very safe bet that we’ll get more information about Pompompurin on October 14.
Of course, we don’t yet know whether this will be a set reveal, a figure, or just another small teaser.
October 16 – Pochacco?
There’s a soccer ball on the calendar for October 16.
People are currently speculating that it’s Pochacco.
That would make sense, since the character is portrayed as very athletic.
What’s particularly interesting is that, as far as I know, Pochacco isn’t among the main characters clearly shown in the first major teaser.
So maybe we’re already getting a glimpse of another character from the collaboration here.
October 21 – Hello Kitty and the Two Apples
On October 21, we see two apples on the calendar.
And that fits very well with Hello Kitty herself.
The apple is closely associated with the character: Hello Kitty is traditionally described as being the size of five apples and weighing three apples. Accordingly, it stands to reason that LEGO will release new information about Hello Kitty herself on this day.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether this will be a full set reveal or just another small hint for now.
October 31 – Kuromi with a party hat
October 31, on the other hand, is much less of a mystery.
There we see Kuromi wearing a party hat.
And of course, that fits perfectly, because October 31 is also Kuromi’s birthday.
I’d actually be pretty confident that LEGO will reveal something Kuromi-related on that day.
Exactly what we’ll get there, however, remains to be seen.
Hello Kitty herself is, of course, a given
We probably don’t need to go into great detail about the fact that Hello Kitty herself will be a central part of the series.
LEGO explicitly refers to the partnership as “Hello Kitty and Friends” andclearly highlights Hello Kitty in the press release.
Sanrio has been marketing the character since 1974, and according to LEGO and Sanrio, Hello Kitty now appears on around 50,000 different products per year in more than 130 countries and regions.
This once again clearly demonstrates just how massive this brand actually is on an international scale.
Still, the collaboration came as a surprise to me
And that brings us to my personal assessment.
I’m excited about this collaboration.
It’s a brand that many fans have been hoping LEGO would bring out for a very long time, and Hello Kitty—or rather, Sanrio—remains incredibly popular, especially in Asia.
But personally, I really have to say:
For me, Hello Kitty hasn’t really been a part of my life in Europe since I was a child.
Of course, I was still familiar with the character and knew the brand existed. But personally, I simply hadn’t noticed all this huge hype or just how massive Sanrio continues to be internationally.
So, at first, this collaboration actually surprised me a little.
Sanrio is a Japanese company, and it’s precisely this connection to Japanese pop and kawaii culture that makes the collaboration such a natural fit.
And I think it’s cool that LEGO is adding something completely different to its lineup again.
One more step toward anime and Japanese brands?
Something else I find exciting:
We’re getting Dragon Ball now, Pokémon has already gotten off to a big start, and now Sanrio is joining the mix as well.
Of course, Hello Kitty isn’t an anime theme in the traditional sense.
But LEGO is collaborating more and more with major Japanese brands.
And for me personally, that gives me even more hope that we might have opportunities with other anime licenses in the future.
There are plenty of things that would make me happy.
Is it starting to get to be too much?
At the same time, though, I do have one small criticism—or rather, a concern.
Right now, LEGO is announcing an incredible number of new collaborations.
Pokémon, Dragon Ball, now Sanrio, and of course all the major existing licensed themes on top of that.
And at some point, I can’t help but wonder: Could this all be too much?
I’m a little worried that at some point LEGO will release so many different themes at once that buyers will simply become overwhelmed.
After all, in the end, no one has an infinite amount of space—and, above all, no one has an infinite amount of money.
New topics are great.
But if more and more licensed lines are added every year, I think LEGO needs to be a little careful not to end up competing with itself at some point.
But right now, that’s really just my personal concern.
We won’t know how this all plays out until the coming years.
Now it’s your turn: What do you think of the LEGO-Sanrio collaboration?
Are you looking forward to Hello Kitty, Kuromi, My Melody, and the rest?
And which sets or characters would you most like to see?
Feel free to write anything in the comments!
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Author: Dante
