Hi
I don't consider myself a doll collector, I spend much more time obsessively making toys than buying them. But I was totally in love with Monster High dolls over the past 2 years and the "death" of this franchise made me genuinely sad. But is not only that, I feel like new lunches have been disappointing in general. Barbies have more diversity of body types and skin colors but the more diverse they get I feel like they lack a strong identity (if that makes sense). The superhero girls first line was very cool, but if you buy one, there is no reason to keep buying the rest because they do the exact same but have worse quality than the previous version.
I fully understand that I'm an adult and the toys are supposed to excite children, not me, but if I compare recent launches with the '80s to 2000's there is a lack of inspiration going on. I hope I don't upset anyone with this comment but I miss the times in which the toys were just toys and didn't have the burden of being an empire or a tool for politics. I feel like Mattel is much more committed to making the politically correct media happy than making toys that kids will enjoy.
There is nothing wrong with wanting your toys to have a message but not at expense of fun. A boycott threw monster high under the bus because of claims that they were a bad example, therefore, Mattel rebooted the franchise to make them "empowering" and sweet for little children. Of course, they ruined the whole franchise because the reboot was so lame and literally changed bat wings for butterfly wings. They lost their identity.
New barbies don't really do anything other than being gorgeous to look at. And I remember the times in which Barbies had a theme o a cool feature or a magical dress. They no longer promote their classic barbies with pink princess dress out of fear of having articles like "Barbie encourages stereotypes".
Monster high was so refreshing because It was different and the designers were genuinely passionate about making this line for their audience instead of trying to make everyone happy. Mattel complains that kids no longer want to play with dolls... and makes shitty boring dolls to make sure the sells sink even more??!
XD I wish inspiration came back to the mainstream companies and people who don't buy dolls would shut up stop boycotting stuff that they don't even consume.
I'm ranting, feel free to rant with me or tell me if you are excited about some launch or recommend brands you like.