Roger Hargreaves writing and drawing the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters with new stories (while signing the covers in his father's signature). However, in April 2004 Hargreaves's widow Christine sold the rights to the Mr. Men characters to the UK entertainment group Chorion, for £28 million. Hargreaves and his wife had four children: Adam, Giles and twins Sophie and Amelia. The first of the Mr. Men characters is reported to have been created when Adam, at age 6, asked his father what a tickle looked like. Hargreaves drew a figure with a round orange body and long rubbery arms, which became
Mr. Men agreement to acquire the rights to the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters from Chorion after the company was forced into administration. This marked the first time that Sanrio had licensed a third-party character since owning the rights to Osamu Tezuka's Unico character in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which was returned to Tezuka Productions after Tezuka's death in 1989. They also own the rights to the Peanuts characters in Japan. In 2016, four new characters were launched to celebrate the series' 45th anniversary, Mr. Marvellous, Mr. Adventurer, Little Miss Fabulous and Little Miss Sparkle. In addition, Adam Hargreaves