Three figures have been announced for December 2026, including a Chase. But there are really two stories here. The suit Funko has put them in refers back to a real episode in the character's history, and none of the three will be sold in the same place.
Hello Kitty really did go into orbit
This is not a fan legend, but a documented mission.
On June 19, 2014, a Russian launcher sent thirty-seven satellites into orbit. Among them was Hodoyoshi 3, a nanosatellite built by the University of Tokyo's dedicated center, officially tasked with testing space technologies and photographing Earth in high resolution. On board, inside a specially arranged compartment, was a four-centimeter Hello Kitty figure.
The project celebrated the character's fortieth anniversary, and it did not stop at a photo. Between August 26 and September 8, 2014, fans could send messages of up to 180 characters that the satellite relayed from orbit. The returned images show the figure holding a toy, with Earth framed inside a tiny window.
One detail becomes especially relevant here: up there, Hello Kitty was not wearing a spacesuit. Twelve years later, Funko is finally giving her the outfit she did not have on the only space mission of her career. The official name leaves no doubt about the idea: Pop! Hello Kitty (Space Suit), with the description referring to a “galaxy-themed” outfit.
Three characters, three retailers
That is the other part of the announcement, and it is less pleasant.
All three releases carry the same suffix, the same promotional wording — Funko uses “this exclusive astronaut” on every listing — and the same Octane5 authentication packaging, the micro-optic sticker with a unique code that the brand is rolling out across its exclusives. Everything suggests a set designed as a set.
Except it is split across three retailers:
- Hello Kitty – POP #168: Target exclusive.
- Cinnamoroll – POP #174: Amazon exclusive.
- Badtz-Maru – POP #175: Entertainment Earth exclusive.
For a series whose whole appeal is lining the three up side by side, this is about the most inconvenient way to sell it. Also worth noting is the numbering gap between #168 and #174: five Sanrio references separate Hello Kitty from the rest of the trio.
The Chase is galaxy-themed, and it belongs to Badtz-Maru – POP #175
Only one of the three is hiding a variant, and it is not the one you might expect.
Funko states it plainly on the penguin's listing: “There's a 1 in 6 chance you may find the galaxy chase.” One box in six, then, for a galaxy variant that the brand has not yet shown in detail.
The choice of character is worth a closer look. Badtz-Maru has been the resident bad attitude in the Sanrio catalog since 1993, the spiky-haired penguin created specifically to break with the company's all-around sweetness. Putting him in an astronaut suit and hiding the rarest piece of the wave in his box is the most coherent treatment of the three.
Cinnamoroll did not need a spacesuit – POP #174
The most commercially obvious release, and the funniest one conceptually.
Cinnamoroll is the white puppy with oversized ears, and his canonical trait is that he can fly by using them like a propeller. He is the only character in the trio who can already travel through the air without equipment. Giving him a spacesuit means outfitting an animal that does not need one.
There is another reason for the choice. In the annual Sanrio Character Ranking, whose results were announced in early July 2026, Cinnamoroll finished second, just behind Pompompurin and ahead of Pochacco, Kuromi and Hello Kitty. Funko therefore takes the second- and fifth-place characters from the ranking, and leaves the winner out.
My take on this release
Badtz-Maru is the one I would buy, without much hesitation.
He is the only one of the three hiding something, the least overrepresented in the catalog, and the character on whom the idea actually works: a grumpy penguin in a spacesuit is an image, while a cute cat in a spacesuit is just one more costume. One box in six for the galaxy version is a reasonable gamble in a license where Chase figures are not particularly common.
Hello Kitty is the most justified object in the set and the most dispensable on a shelf. Justified because she is the one who actually went up there, and this figure corrects a missing detail from 2014. Dispensable because a Sanrio collection already contains ten Hello Kitty figures, and an eleventh does not change much. If you only keep one of the three, keep this one for the story, not the sculpt.
Cinnamoroll, meanwhile, is the market choice rather than the thematic one. He is second in the ranking, he will sell, end of story.
The real miss is that Pompompurin is not here. The beige beret-wearing dog just won the 2026 Sanrio Character Ranking with more than seven million votes, for the second year in a row, yet he is missing from a themed wave released only a few months later. Building a space trio in 2026 without the character fans ranked first is difficult to defend, especially when the same trio makes room for a character outside the top five.
And while we are listing complaints: three exclusives at three different retailers, for a series that only really works as a complete set, is a way of turning a simple pleasure into a logistical scavenger hunt. Pre-orders are open, with release scheduled for December 2026.
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