There are eight BT21 characters: KOYA (created by RM), RJ (Jin), SHOOKY (SUGA), MANG (j-hope), CHIMMY (Jimin), TATA (V) and COOKY (Jung Kook), plus VAN, the guardian robot that stands for ARMY, the BTS fandom. Each member sketched his own character with LINE FRIENDS in 2017, so a BT21 item quietly says which member you like most.
You came for one BTS song, and a week later a koala, an alpaca and a heart-headed alien are on every piece of merch you scroll past. This guide covers who made each one, how to read a BT21 label and how to spot a copy.
In short
- KOYA, the sleepy blue koala, was created by RM, and RJ, the alpaca who loves cooking, by Jin.
- SHOOKY, the tiny cookie who hates milk, is SUGA’s, and MANG, the masked dancer, is j-hope’s.
- CHIMMY, the puppy in the yellow hoodie, is Jimin’s, and TATA, the heart-headed prince, is V’s.
- COOKY, the pink bunny with imaginary muscles, is Jung Kook’s, and VAN, the guardian robot, stands for ARMY.
BT21 characters and their BTS members
Each of the seven BTS members created one BT21 character, and the eighth, VAN, was designed by the group as a guardian for all of them. BT21’s official site says the eight characters were “created by BTS members”, but its character page never names who drew which (checked October 30, 2026). The pairings below come from the “Making of BT21” videos, as Soompi reported in October 2017.
| Character | Created by | What it is | In BT21’s own words |
|---|---|---|---|
| KOYA | RM | Blue koala with removable ears | “Gifted sleepyhead” |
| RJ | Jin | White alpaca in a parka | “RJ loves cooking. RJ loves eating.” |
| SHOOKY | SUGA | Tiny cookie and prankster | “The one thing SHOOKY hates most is milk.” |
| MANG | j-hope | Dancer behind a pony mask | “Expressive faced dancing machine” |
| CHIMMY | Jimin | Puppy in a yellow hoodie | “The pure-at-heart” |
| TATA | V | Heart-headed prince from Planet BT | “An off-the-wall, curious soul” |
| COOKY | Jung Kook | Pink bunny with a fighter’s attitude | “That one friend you can always count on” |
| VAN | BTS, for ARMY | Guardian space robot | “Acts as protector of BT21, 24/7.” |
In the US keyword data we pulled in October 2026, “mang bt21” leads with about 5,400 searches a month. KOYA and TATA follow at about 3,600 each, and queries like “tata keychain bt21” already bring shoppers to our BT21 keyrings.
Meet each BT21 character
Every BT21 character carries a trait of the member who drew it, plus a small cast of family and friends. Here is each one, in the order the official site lists them.
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KOYA (RM)
KOYA is a brilliant blue koala who is almost always asleep, with a head too full of thoughts to stay awake. The ears come off when KOYA is startled, and a self-declared genius named MOYA sees KOYA as a rival, which BT21 notes is only what MOYA thinks.
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RJ (Jin)
RJ is a kind white alpaca and a devoted foodie, and the official profile puts cooking first and eating a close second. The fluffy coat and gentle soul make everyone feel at home. RJ’s family includes father RA, mother Rใฑ and little sibling RK.
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SHOOKY (SUGA)
SHOOKY is a tiny cookie who loves pulling pranks on friends and hates milk more than anything. SHOOKY leads the CRUNCHY SQUAD, 362 cookie friends who came to life in Grandpa MUSTASHU’s bakery.
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MANG (j-hope)
MANG is the dancer of the group, always carrying a mysterious pony mask with a heart-shaped nose, with dance mentor CONN and rival GWANG in the background. After five and a half years behind the mask, MANG’s face was finally revealed on April 5, 2023, as Sportskeeda reported, in BT21’s INSIDE MANG series.
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CHIMMY (Jimin)
CHIMMY is a passionate puppy in a signature yellow hoodie who works hard at anything that catches the eye, and plays the harmonica on the side. CHIMMY is also an easy pick in our shop right now, since the BT21 baby plush keyring is in stock in CHIMMY.
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TATA (V)
TATA is the crown prince of Planet BT, with a heart-shaped head, superpowers and a stretchy body. In BT21’s origin story, TATA is the one who flew to Earth and gathered the rest of the gang.
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COOKY (Jung Kook)
COOKY is a pink bunny with uneven eyebrows, endless stamina and what BT21 calls “imaginary muscles”, the loyal friend you can always count on. COOKY trained in boxing with best friends JOOKY and IAN, and IAN’s sudden disappearance is one of the small mysteries in the BT21 story.
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VAN (ARMY)
VAN is a sentient space robot that knows almost everything in the galaxy and protects BT21 around the clock. No single member owns VAN, because the robot stands for the fans, and Wikipedia’s LINE FRIENDS entry describes VAN as created to represent ARMY.
How BT21 was made: BTS drew their own characters
What is BT21, exactly: it is a character brand that BTS created with LINE FRIENDS, the company behind the LINE messenger characters, and it launched in 2017. BT21’s about page calls it “a new IP co-created by LINE FRIENDS and BTS” and the first project of LINE FRIENDS CREATORS. IP stands for intellectual property, which here simply means a brand with its own characters and stories. Stray Kids have their own line too: here are the SKZOO names and the member behind each animal.
The same page says the members “actively participated in the whole process from drawing sketches to elaboration”, so they did more than approve a design. The Making of BT21 videos show each member sketching his character while the others critique. The stickers passed 8 million downloads in their first ten days, according to Soompi’s October 2017 report.
The official story, UNIVERSTAR BT21, starts with Prince TATA leaving Planet BT with VAN to win over Earth. On the way, TATA scouts KOYA, RJ, SHOOKY, MANG, CHIMMY and COOKY to join the dream. The site doesn’t spell out the name, but most fan sources read it as BT for BTS and 21 for the 21st century.
Original, BABY, NEWBORN, minini: the BT21 styles on product labels
A BT21 label names the character and the style it is drawn in, and the style explains why two CHIMMY products can look nothing alike. The character and the member behind it never change, so the table below is all a new fan needs to read a listing.
| Label | What it looks like | Where you usually see it |
|---|---|---|
| BT21 (original) | The 2017 designs shown on bt21.com | Stickers, apparel, classic plush |
| BABY | Younger, rounder versions of the same characters | Plush, keyrings, small accessories |
| NEWBORN BABY | An even softer “new look” of the baby faces | Plush and keyrings |
| minini | Small-format versions of the characters | Mini figures and desk accessories |
LINE FRIENDS SQUARE, the brand’s own shop, introduced BT21 NEWBORN BABY as a collection with “the NEW LOOK” in April 2024. Seasonal themes, like winter or holiday editions, sit on top of these styles, so a label can carry both a style and a theme.
How to tell if BT21 merch is official
Official BT21 merch is licensed through LINE FRIENDS, and the license shows up in three places you can check before paying. Fan-made BT21 art sold on marketplaces can be lovely, but it isn’t official, and the difference matters if the item is a gift.
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The tag: look for the BT21 brand tag and the ยฉ BT21 copyright line, the same mark printed at the foot of bt21.com.
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The listing: an official seller names the line, the style and the character exactly, such as BABY plush keyring in CHIMMY.
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The price: official items cost about the same across official sellers, so a price far below the rest is a warning sign.
The same three checks work for any K-pop merch, from photocards to lightsticks. If you’re ordering from abroad for the first time, our guide on how to order K-pop merch online covers shipping and customs as well.
BT21 plush, keychains and your ARMY Bomb
There is no official BT21 lightstick, so fans searching for one usually mean a BT21 plush cover or BT21 jewelry. The cover goes on the ARMY Bomb, the official BTS lightstick fans wave at concerts. The BTS lightstick, ARMY Bomb Ver.4 ($69.99) is the version that syncs on the ARIRANG tour.
A BT21 plush cover for the ARMY Bomb ($10.99) slips over the globe, and all seven member characters are in stock. It lets the lightstick show your bias, meaning the member you like most, in the crowd. The ARMY Bomb Ver.4 Starter Pack ($89.98) includes a free BT21 plush cover in the character you pick. The ARMY Bomb Ver.4 Full Pack (from $140.00) adds a second free gift.
For everyday BT21 plush, the BT21 baby plush keyring ($15.00) is the item our customers order most. It sold 12 units across 6 orders in the last 90 days, ahead of the BT21 3D silicone keychain ($11.10). Most “BTS plush” searches end on BT21, since the characters are the official way to carry a member around. Off the concert floor, the BT21 lightstick necklace ($20.00) is a small pendant shaped like a lightstick.
The simplest rule is to buy the character of the member who drew it, since a CHIMMY keyring reads as a Jimin gift. If you don’t know their bias, VAN or a whole-gang item stands for ARMY itself.
๐ Holiday Light-Up: from November 1 to December 31, orders of $75 or more get $10 off automatically ($20 off from $140, $35 off from $290), with no code to enter. The Starter Pack reaches the first tier on its own, and so does the ARMY Bomb Ver.4 with one baby plush keyring.
Frequently Asked Questions
BT21 began as seven sketches and a robot in 2017, and nine years later a koala keyring is still one of the quietest ways to tell someone who your bias is.
