Integrity Dynamite Girl Heartbreaker TJ Arrives

Integrity Toys' Dynamite Girl Heartbreaker TJ arrived today. She's a lovely, elegant-looking doll as those familiar with these dolls would expect. TJ wears a red blouse and pink with white lace overlay hot pants. She has a small white teddy bear with her -- possibly the gift of one of her suitors?




Here's a photo of the back of her box:



Somewhere out in the doll collecting communities, there are people shaking their heads. Oh, she's not a real black doll. No, she's just a chocolate-dipped white doll. I recognize that there are Black women with keen features. There are Black women with fuller features. There is room enough in my crowded doll and action figure collection for both.

Back in the '60s and the 70's when some people found chocolate-dipped dolls offensive, I wondered how people who looked like those dolls felt. Unauthentic? Not Black enough? That didn't seem fair. People's looks -- barring surgery -- stem from a chance arrangement of their parents' genes. Sure, I could understand wanting Black dolls with fuller features and coarser hair, but the keener featured dolls were or could be representative, too.

Today, my take is this: a toy company wants to reach more audiences WITHOUT the added expense of creating a new head mold. No evil plan. Just economics.