HTI partners with Sanrio to bring a Hello Kitty and Friends preschool roleplay range to retail later this year
HTI Toys has signed a new multi-territory licensing agreement with Sanrio to develop and distribute a preschool My First Role Play range featuring characters from across the Sanrio portfolio.
The range will feature beloved Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty, Cinnamoroll, My Melody, Kuromi, Little Twin Stars, Pompompurin, Kerokerokeroppi, Tuxedosam, Pochacco and Bad Badtz-Maru.
The agreement grants HTI rights across the UK, Ireland, the EU, the EEA, and several additional markets, including Turkey, Switzerland, and Ukraine, giving the company a strong platform to build a long-term Sanrio-themed early years programme. Products are scheduled to arrive at retail in Q4 2026.
Clare Rix, Commercial Licensing Director, HTI Toys, said: “Hello Kitty and Friends characters have an extraordinary ability to remain relevant, whether a child is discovering them for the first time or a parent is reconnecting with them years later. This agreement has given us the opportunity to explore how these much-loved properties translate into a preschool role-play range, and our teams have taken great care to ensure the products reflect authentic play patterns. It has been a highly collaborative process, and we look forward to presenting the full range to our retail partners later this year.”
The collection will cover core areas of preschool roleplay, including domestic play, early caregiving themes, simple social interaction sets such as doctor, vet, and shop play, and first tech-influenced items.
HTI says the range offers real opportunities for retailers, with breadth, cohesion, commercial clarity, and strong cross merchandising possibilities. The structure of the programme also supports seasonal updates and range refreshes as it grows.
