Sunday, November 3, 2013

Prettie Girls Review Links

They've barely been out but there are two review for the Prettie Girls Lena doll. Lena is the African American doll in this multi-ethnic group. Debbie B. Garrett of Black Doll Collecting and RoxanneRoxanne of Roxanne's Dolls have head to toe reviews. Debbie also has an additional blog post showing Lena redressed in a Stardoll (Barbie) fashion.  So if you wanted to see how the Prettie Girls dolls look among other playscale dolls and action figures, go see those blog posts.


If you write a review for any of the dolls in this series, let me know the URL for the review if you would like that shared here. Each person reviewing these dolls or any dolls/action figures will see something different that might help others decide to buy or not to buy them.


Angelic Dreamz has joined The Doll Genie as an alternate source for the Prettie Girls dolls.


Say, Debbie and Roxanne, would either of you mind if I pinned one of your Prettie Girls Lena comparison photographs to my Pinterest Prettie Girls Board? I will link back to your blog post. Good to get the description of the dolls out before the Black Friday rush, hmm? Thanking you in advance, regardless of your response.

8 comments:

RoxanneRoxanne said...

Hi D7ana, I don't mind at all if you pin my photos. Thanks for linking to my blog.

Black Doll Enthusiast said...

Hi D7ana,

Thanks again for referencing my blog in one of your informative blog posts.

You have my permission to link to any post on my blog from Pinterest to select the images you would like to share on your board. You do not need the web host's (or my) permission to share on Pinterest in this manner as long as the sharing is done through Pinterest.

After you click "Add a Pin," select "the web" and "enter the URL where the image is located." Pinterest will go there and allow you to select from the source the image you desire to pin. (In this case, the URL would be: http://blackdollcollecting.blogspot.com/2013/11/whos-that-lady.html

Add your description for the image and save. Pinterest will then automatically link back to the website source.

Some images at certain websites cannot be shared, e.g. images on Facebook cannot be pinned to Pinterest boards. Pinterest will alert you if sharing from the source is not allowed.

I actually prefer that pins from my blog be shared in the manner described above so that the link back will be performed by Pinterest. Pinterest also sends an email notification when the pins have been shared through their site.

I also have pinned a couple of my Lena images to my Beautiful Black Doll Sightings"> board on Pinterest, but cross pinning is certainly welcome either from my Pinterest board or my blog.

dbg

jewel snake said...

Dolls are pretty indeed, but hardly multiethnic in my opinion.They look mostly Black, like another version of So in Style, just pretending to be something different. Just one white doll? And what exactly "Caucasian" is? There isn't any ethinc group from caucasus. If author of those dolls means White People, then there is a big diversity in our looks, one blond doll isn't enought to show it.

Otherwise, the dolls are great.I'm planing to buy some of them. I was hoping for Alexie, but since it looks like I will have to wait a bit for her, I'm planning to buy at least Valencia and Lena to check facemold. Hopefully there will be more than one, it would be strange if all ethinicities would have same facial features.

D7ana said...

Hi and thanks for commenting Roxanne, DBG, and Jewel Snake!

@Roxanne - always a pleasure to share your fun and informative posts. I thought you would be willing, but I check just to make sure.

@DBG - thanks for the clearance. I repinned directly from your Pinterest board. Your "watermark" and website show :-)

@jewel snake - the funny thing is that the Prettie Girls are showing "ethnicity" in the same way that MGA Entertainment's Bratz, SOME of Mattel's dolls, and others do: they have a base doll model and use different colored plastics to determine different race/ethnicities. I laughed when I saw the late addition of "Caucasian Alexie" to the line-up. The face sculpt does look Black.

All of the Prettie Girls have the same face mold.

I am going to return to your comments in a post, but I should mention, "Caucasian" is not an insult; it is how "White" people are sometimes described in the U.S.

Black Doll Enthusiast said...

I love your reply to Jewel Snake, D7Ana.

How many times (TNTC too numerous to count, I will answer) have other manufactures used the same face mold for the darker skinned dolls as they have the white/Caucasian dolls and referred to them as African American or another ethnicity when nothing even remotely represents that ethnicity other than complexion.

Times have changed. Companies, like OWDP have a target market that extends beyond the white race. While their multicultural dolls may use the same mold for all represented ethnicities, I applaud their efforts to be inclusive and not exclusive as so many other companies before them have and continue to be.

dbg

D7ana said...

Hi, DBG and thanks for commenting. Most doll companies do start with one or two face molds. Alexie was not one of the first Prettie Girls dolls; she was added after the initial four dolls. My guess is that someone complained or suggested that a White doll be added to the Prettie Girls line-up. (Just as people ask for Black dolls in a new line.) They are a new company, so they "make" the White doll with the one face sculpt that they have only with fair skin.

There is diversity among all peoples - White, Black, Asian, etc. - these dolls are one company's version. And their first version. As the line gains followers and buyers, they might create additional face sculpts.

As for the other two ethnic dolls in the Prettie Girls series - Valencia and Dahlia - "Hispanic" and "Middle Eastern" refer to ethnic/regional origin. There are Black Hispanics and some people from the Middle East have Black features.

As collector/enthusiasts, we determine what race and/or ethnicity our doll characters have, regardless of what the doll companies label the doll. So we can decide that Alexie is biracial or light-complected Black if we so decide.

I'm happy to welcome new faces and different body shapes to our playscale world. Hooray, One World Doll Project.

jewel snake said...

I think the same about Mattel dolls, they don't have label "multi ethinc dolls" but in fact they are multi ethnic. Every playline has White, Afro American, Latino, and sometimes, if Asians are lucky enough to get noticed (OWDP forgot about Asians as for now, hopefully it will change in the future), Asian doll too. I really like Prettie Girls dolls, and I'm, too , happy for new facemolds, there can't be never enough of them!

As for word caucasian - some people in US should stop to use it then, it's racial and offending, you can read more about it here:

http://raaw.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/caucasian/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2008/08/do_white_people_really_come_from_the_caucasus.html

I know it often used in US, especially by POC, and I can't wait for the day when it will be same banned as "N" word.

D7ana said...

Hi Jewel Snake and thanks for commenting.

Mattel does not call itself "multi-ethnic," but for marketing purposes, they do carry some multi-ethnic and race-specific dolls like Kayla for years and the So in Style line.

Unfortunately, Mattel does NOT have White, African American, Latino dolls for each and every doll line they have. And the absence of Asian dolls ... well, that's undeniable. They have a few Asian dolls, but in no way as many as African American or Hispanic/Latino dolls. I'll mention that in an upcoming post.

People of color (POC) did not invent the term "Caucasian" to offend "White" people as your Racism Alive And Well post. The use of the "N" word was intended to denigrate and was not created by POC. So Caucasian is not equal to the "N" word.

Usually, "Caucasian" is used in "quasi-scientific" use. POC usually use "White" - ironically, the "C" word was used to unify a group of people.