Dolls Do Matter

Netflix released their Black Barbie documentary on Juneteenth, but I could not watch because I quit Netflix long ago over their anti-trans comedians. So I'm envious of those viewers who have seen it. Debbie has some reviews and links to clips here. I don't know. Maybe I'll rejoin Netflix yet again to watch, but I'd rather wait until the 3rd Knives Out movie comes out, in case I miss a theatrical release.

However, as much as Black Barbie was an important milestone for girls, more than "Black Francie" or Christie was, there were competitors filling that niche before 1980. I recently learned about Shindana Toys, founded by Operation Bootstrap in 1968. This was a community effort to rebuild and create Black businesses after the Watts riots in Los Angeles in 1965. They actually had some funding and training from Mattel to get started, but they succeeded on their own and revolutionized the toy industry. Shindana Toys made Black dolls and games from 1968 to 1983. Their first hit was a Baby Nancy doll, and they did Black celebrity dolls too, but eventually they created a fashion doll named Wanda who sported empowering careers like Barbie did. The local PBS did a documentary about their cultural impact that's available on Youtube. Shindana dolls are extremely rare and expensive on ebay, so I won't be able to buy any.

After Shindana shut down, Olmec Toys arose, at first making Black superhero dolls, then later Imani fashion dolls. They lasted until 1997, and some of their dolls are available on ebay for reasonable prices. I'm glad they're not as rare. In 2022, Mattel decided to license the Sun Man characters and release them with the He-Man Masters of the Universe brand. As I've said, I've seen newer Black fashion dolls like Fresh Dolls and Naturalistas in stores, so Black businesses are still making dolls.

Also there have been many Mattel competitors making so called Barbie clones over the years. So many brands like Candi dolls and Shillman dolls and more. DeeBeeGee has collected several Black clones here. I've come across Asian fashion dolls too such as the Chinese Yue-Sai WaWa dolls. I do own one of those in purple, because it was the closest thing to a doll wearing a Vietnamese ao dai that I could find. Traditional Vietnamese dolls always come mounted to a wooden stand, and the clothes are sewn on, so you can't undress them and play like with Barbies. Mattel tried doing Japanese Barbie dolls with Takara, but they had to be changed quite a lot to succeed, and they eventually became the 10.5" kid-like Jenny dolls which resemble anime characters.