Brotherly love in playscale: finding diversity in fashion dolls and action figures from the 1960s to now: Barbie, Fashion Royalty, Momoko, Susie, GI Joe, Power Team, Mixis.
Well, well, well! I do want to see what their East Asian girl looks like because the Indian Girl, Dahlia, just looks black. I'm hoping their screening of East Asia at least looks Asian.
That is great news. Thanks for sharing the article. It will be interesting to see what their Asian doll looks like. I doubt that there will be a different head sculpt, so this should be interesting.
Hey Muff and Vanessa! I doubt that they will use a different face mold. I'm curious to see how they'll do the face screening. I feel a little guilty because I laughed when I first saw the Alexie doll. Not that anything was wrong with her, it just seemed as though after years of seeing brown dolls with keen features, they produced a white doll with full features. Like a visual pun - I thought. But some people find it upsetting that One World Project is using the same face mold. Shrug.
The problem is, they are committing the same sin that the other companies did with the AA dolls. It doesn't make it any better. I understand they probably aren't in a financial position to do multiple molds, so maybe they should only produce the dolls that would have the full features.
Plans for East Asian doll are so great news! As for now I'm a bit dissapointed with whole line, EVERY doll looks black, even Alexie. Facemold is interesting, but too manly as for my taste. Clothes of Dhalia looks very nice! Hopefuly they will have better qulity than those of Lena and Valencia, mine had messy seams, and looked like have been made in hurry. I think whole line definitely needs more white girls (I can't stand calling white people "caucasian", as if white people came from caucasus, huh), because we are not only blue eyed blondes with tanned skin, we came with every humanly possible color of eyes and hair. Also Asian doll (Japanese, Korean or Chinese) could be so nice addition. Looks like every american doll company hardly remembers about Asian dolls.Same goes with Native American. There are always white and black dolls, but not Natives, even if they should be the first thing that cames into mind,since it's the most forgotten and oppressed race in US.
I was reading this interview , and can't understand one thing, how 2 black girls are racially different? Did she forget that there are two black dolls, or what?
jewel snake - The whole reason One World Doll Project exists is because Black doll collectors and parents were not happy with the lack of true representation of Black dolls. So this company is filling a void that has existed for many years. They don't need to add a lot more White dolls. That's not their focus. Mattel and other companies have made White dolls their focus and that's fine. OWP can't lose focus on why they came about. There is so much diversity within the Black community that they could do a whole line of different Black dolls that would still be quite diverse. In my opinion, they probably should have gone that route since they are just using the one mold. Then later introduced other races with a different mold. I'm sorry to hear that your dolls quality was disappointing. I just received mine today, and the sewing is very well done.
I don't want you to think I took offense to your comment. I didn't. I just like to take these opportunities to educate. Black people have complained for years that White owned companies weren't producing dolls that represented them. I always felt that we, as Black people, needed a Black owned company to produce those dolls. We now have one. Should they produce other races? Yes, but their focus should always be Black dolls.
Thank you for such nice and detailed answer, Vanessa! I absolutely have nothing against black only lines, I really like black dolls and think that every race is same good and deserve respect. I'm often reading about differnt African tribes, and find those people REALLY different from each other, like Himba, San or Zulu people. All so beautiful and different. I would totaly love to have such looking dolls! As for OWP dolls, the thing is they are promoted as a diversity dolls.If diversity - there should be more races and ethnicities in this line. If OWP creator meant diversity among black race (which would be great too) she shoul add such information on the page to avoid such grumpy complainers as I am.
As for Barbie and other white dolls - looks like designers of such dolls forgot that white people arent only tanned blondes. Can't remember when was last time I've seen a doll with my colors - very pale skin, green eyes and brown hair. Usualy every white doll has darker skin, is more or less tanned. If playline doll has brown hair then surely it's meant to be latino, if black - then probably Asian. Here in Europe we have only one big doll company, Simba, who is creating a REALLY ugly dolls who aren't representing any ethincity - flat faced blueyed blonedes, with faces of pequinese dogs. Unfortuantely Europe is and always was a secondary market for Mattel and any other bigger doll company, so diversity amongs our white race is totaly ignored. Currently Mattel has So in Style line, which is black dolls only, in the past there was Shindana Toys company, who mostly produced black dolls and I think it's a good idea, there should be dolls of every possible race, and companies that would promote it. I just hope that white dolls will get same attention, not all white people are living in US, we're mostly living in Europe and have a very rich history and culture which we could share with other people too, but we simply can't. If Mattel is making european doll, is almost always sterotypical and failed. Irish dolls usually have red hair and green eyes, while it's pretty rare combination, red hair are mostly paired with blue eyes. Greak doll must be an ancient time muse, Polish had germanic colors - blond hair and blue eyes, while most of Poles has brown hair and green, blue-green or blue eyes (I think the most accurate looking doll for Polish barbie would be new Katniss doll). I really hope there would be more diversity through dolls with time, so we all can be happy :)
Hi Marta, Vanessa, and Jewel Snake - and thanks for your comments.
@Vanessa and Jewel Snake - I agree that One World Project's use of one face mold for various ethnic dolls, well, that will not satisfy buyers who want authentic ethnic representations.
This feature-fudging as I think of it on the part of most toy companies is why I appreciate the different face molds of the Mixis dolls. YNU Group, Inc. has 4 unique face molds/sculpts that reflect different multi-racial features.
I will have a post about Irish-American dolls that I hope you both enjoy.
Heh, it looks like I may be unusual in thinking that the Prettie Girls sculpt is fairly neutral? Painted right, I think it could be convincing for certain East Asian looks.
I've been thinking about picking up Dahlia when she comes out although I wonder what she's going to look like in non-promotional photos.
That's good news, I was starting to worry the line would be cancelled before the rest of the dolls came out. Remains to be seen how they handle the faces. (And of course now I want a Mixis too...)
@jSarie - yes, I think you and I are unusual in thinking that the Prettie Girls sculpt could be used for other races. Shrug. I look forward to seeing what their East Asian doll looks like ;-)
@Anderson's All-Purpose - yes, I'm trying to see how the faces look on the Toy Fair sites.
Yay, you want a Mixis now? Which doll? I am curious ;-D (Nosy ha ha.)
Haha, don't encourage me, my wishlist is way too long already! :D I would probably pick Rosa or Emerald, although the lack of articulation bothers me a bit. The shoes look nice, though.
Hi Anderson's All-Purpose! I know what you mean about long wishlists ;-P. Great, gusty sigh. If only we had the room, the time, and the funds, hey?
The Mixis dolls are better articulated than say the Stardolls, but yes, they are not as poseable as say poser Barbies or Fashion Royalty. Their shoes though are super. And they have adequate sized feet, lol. (Something everyone looks for in buying a new doll - "adequate sized feet" groan.)
Aside: Roxanne has successfully re-bodied her Mixis Opal doll onto a female action figure body.
14 comments:
Well, well, well! I do want to see what their East Asian girl looks like because the Indian Girl, Dahlia, just looks black. I'm hoping their screening of East Asia at least looks Asian.
That is great news. Thanks for sharing the article. It will be interesting to see what their Asian doll looks like. I doubt that there will be a different head sculpt, so this should be interesting.
Hey Muff and Vanessa! I doubt that they will use a different face mold. I'm curious to see how they'll do the face screening. I feel a little guilty because I laughed when I first saw the Alexie doll. Not that anything was wrong with her, it just seemed as though after years of seeing brown dolls with keen features, they produced a white doll with full features. Like a visual pun - I thought. But some people find it upsetting that One World Project is using the same face mold. Shrug.
Hello from Spain: very interesting.. Keep in touch
The problem is, they are committing the same sin that the other companies did with the AA dolls. It doesn't make it any better. I understand they probably aren't in a financial position to do multiple molds, so maybe they should only produce the dolls that would have the full features.
Plans for East Asian doll are so great news! As for now I'm a bit dissapointed with whole line, EVERY doll looks black, even Alexie. Facemold is interesting, but too manly as for my taste. Clothes of Dhalia looks very nice! Hopefuly they will have better qulity than those of Lena and Valencia, mine had messy seams,
and looked like have been made in hurry.
I think whole line definitely needs more white girls (I can't stand calling white people "caucasian", as if white people came from caucasus, huh), because we are not only blue eyed blondes with tanned skin, we came with every humanly possible color of eyes and hair. Also Asian doll (Japanese, Korean or Chinese) could be so nice addition. Looks like every american doll company hardly remembers about Asian dolls.Same goes with Native American. There are always white and black dolls, but not Natives, even if they should be the first thing that cames into mind,since it's the most forgotten and oppressed race in US.
I was reading this interview , and can't understand one thing, how 2 black girls are racially different? Did she forget that there are two black dolls, or what?
jewel snake - The whole reason One World Doll Project exists is because Black doll collectors and parents were not happy with the lack of true representation of Black dolls. So this company is filling a void that has existed for many years. They don't need to add a lot more White dolls. That's not their focus. Mattel and other companies have made White dolls their focus and that's fine. OWP can't lose focus on why they came about. There is so much diversity within the Black community that they could do a whole line of different Black dolls that would still be quite diverse. In my opinion, they probably should have gone that route since they are just using the one mold. Then later introduced other races with a different mold. I'm sorry to hear that your dolls quality was disappointing. I just received mine today, and the sewing is very well done.
I don't want you to think I took offense to your comment. I didn't. I just like to take these opportunities to educate. Black people have complained for years that White owned companies weren't producing dolls that represented them. I always felt that we, as Black people, needed a Black owned company to produce those dolls. We now have one. Should they produce other races? Yes, but their focus should always be Black dolls.
Thank you for such nice and detailed answer, Vanessa! I absolutely have nothing against black only lines, I really like black dolls and think that every race is same good and deserve respect. I'm often reading about differnt African tribes, and find those people REALLY different from each other, like Himba, San or Zulu people. All so beautiful and different. I would totaly love to have such looking dolls! As for OWP dolls, the thing is they are promoted as a diversity dolls.If diversity - there should be more races and ethnicities in this line. If OWP creator meant diversity among black race (which would be great too) she shoul add such information on the page to avoid such grumpy complainers as I am.
As for Barbie and other white dolls - looks like designers of such dolls forgot that white people arent only tanned blondes. Can't remember when was last time I've seen a doll with my colors - very pale skin, green eyes and brown hair. Usualy every white doll has darker skin, is more or less tanned. If playline doll has brown hair then surely it's meant to be latino, if black - then probably Asian. Here in Europe we have only one big doll company, Simba, who is creating a REALLY ugly dolls who aren't representing any ethincity - flat faced blueyed blonedes, with faces of pequinese dogs. Unfortuantely Europe is and always was a secondary market for Mattel and any other bigger doll company, so diversity amongs our white race is totaly ignored. Currently Mattel has So in Style line, which is black dolls only, in the past there was Shindana Toys company, who mostly produced black dolls and I think it's a good idea, there should be dolls of every possible race, and companies that would promote it. I just hope that white dolls will get same attention, not all white people are living in US, we're mostly living in Europe and have a very rich history and culture which we could share with other people too, but we simply can't. If Mattel is making european doll, is almost always sterotypical and failed. Irish dolls usually have red hair and green eyes, while it's pretty rare combination, red hair are mostly paired with blue eyes. Greak doll must be an ancient time muse, Polish had germanic colors - blond hair and blue eyes, while most of Poles has brown hair and green, blue-green or blue eyes (I think the most accurate looking doll for Polish barbie would be new Katniss doll). I really hope there would be more diversity through dolls with time, so we all can be happy :)
Hi Marta, Vanessa, and Jewel Snake - and thanks for your comments.
@Vanessa and Jewel Snake - I agree that One World Project's use of one face mold for various ethnic dolls, well, that will not satisfy buyers who want authentic ethnic representations.
This feature-fudging as I think of it on the part of most toy companies is why I appreciate the different face molds of the Mixis dolls. YNU Group, Inc. has 4 unique face molds/sculpts that reflect different multi-racial features.
I will have a post about Irish-American dolls that I hope you both enjoy.
Heh, it looks like I may be unusual in thinking that the Prettie Girls sculpt is fairly neutral? Painted right, I think it could be convincing for certain East Asian looks.
I've been thinking about picking up Dahlia when she comes out although I wonder what she's going to look like in non-promotional photos.
That's good news, I was starting to worry the line would be cancelled before the rest of the dolls came out. Remains to be seen how they handle the faces. (And of course now I want a Mixis too...)
Hi jSarie and Anderson's All-Purpose!
@jSarie - yes, I think you and I are unusual in thinking that the Prettie Girls sculpt could be used for other races. Shrug. I look forward to seeing what their East Asian doll looks like ;-)
@Anderson's All-Purpose - yes, I'm trying to see how the faces look on the Toy Fair sites.
Yay, you want a Mixis now? Which doll? I am curious ;-D (Nosy ha ha.)
Haha, don't encourage me, my wishlist is way too long already! :D I would probably pick Rosa or Emerald, although the lack of articulation bothers me a bit. The shoes look nice, though.
Hi Anderson's All-Purpose! I know what you mean about long wishlists ;-P. Great, gusty sigh. If only we had the room, the time, and the funds, hey?
The Mixis dolls are better articulated than say the Stardolls, but yes, they are not as poseable as say poser Barbies or Fashion Royalty. Their shoes though are super. And they have adequate sized feet, lol. (Something everyone looks for in buying a new doll - "adequate sized feet" groan.)
Aside: Roxanne has successfully re-bodied her Mixis Opal doll onto a female action figure body.
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