For weeks, if not longer, I kept seeing a really interesting listing on Ebay. A bunch of Imani (a black doll made by Olmec and later distributed by Hasbro under the Sindy brand) dolls with, the seller said, prototype Hasbro heads.
Super curious I kept watching the auction but it never sold. The seller wouldn't split the bundle and so I watched it, wishing I could justify the price because two of those dang prototype heads were freaking gorgeous.
As it turned out, finally the seller merged two of their bundles together.
The prototypes AND three mint in box Imani dolls to go with it. For the same price as they were asking for just the prototypes.
It was still a lot of money but damnit, i'm weak. And I knew i'd forever regret it if I passed it up.
So I put in a bid, half expecting to be outbid at the very end.
turns out, I was the only bidder.
go figure.
Perhaps I was the only one willing to shell out that much money in one transaction. I rationalised it that I could sell the mint boxed dolls to recoup some of the cost you know?
The arrived today. A HUGE box of goodies to enjoy bwhahah.
The three boxed sets are all Olmec Imani dolls from the 90s. Some of these may look familiar to Hasbro Sindy collectors.
Now, i've done some digging and it looks like in the early 90s Hasbro and Mattel both realised there was actually money to be made in making black dolls for the mass market. Mattel set to work on their offering and Hasbro and Olmec, a small company owned by a black woman, struck a deal.
Hasbro injected $1mil into Olmec, opening up their expertise and decades of knowledge of the toy business to them while I presume what Hasbro got from the deal was the experience of HOW to market a black doll to black kids and parents. Olmec was already making decent money with their black toy lines (or "ethnically correct" as they liked to call it lol) and I have to assume Hasbro wanted in on some of that magic.
I am not however entirely sure of how this relationship worked exactly, but it looks as though Hasbro and Olmec used the same molds for products, the same fabrics, the same concepts and ideas. Hasbro often literally repackaged Imani into a Sindy box with little to no changes at all. Likewise there's several Sindy sets that are identical to Imani sets just with white dolls instead of black.
It's all very facinating.
The first doll in the set is the gorgeous Crimp n Locks Imani from 1994. Some might recognise this gimmick and indeed this doll from the Hasbro "crimp n bead" set from the same year.
She has hair made from some sort of bendy fibre that you can curl and twist into styles and it'll hold. It's quite fun.
Imani comes in a different outfit to her Hasbro version. She has what appears to be a yellow top and leggings (might be one piece?) with a net skirt over the top. She comes with beads for her hair, a tool to twist her hair and a secondary outfit which looks to be a skirt or shorts or something? It's a little hard to see.
The bottom corner of her box says "sunshower" so i'm not sure if that's the name of the line or if it's Crimp n Locks. It's a bit confusing to be honest.
The back of the box shows her mix and match outfit options. Looks like it IS a skirt and the top and leggings are two pieces, so that's fun.
I always appreciate mix and match outfit pieces.
There's also a little blurb for the line which I think is ADORABLE.
Apparently she's attending the Sunshower festival. I looked this up and I honestly cannot find anything online about a carribean festival under that name so erm... I found a Japanese one, but not a carribean one. Which is a shame. I sort of wish it told you a bit more about what this festival WAS you know? Teach kids about culture!
I really wanna know now.
The second doll is "Dance Lights" Imani, who again you may recognise as very very similar to Popstar Imani.
Image from Club-sindy.com
The back of the box is interesting, there's a "customer facts" section which is the contents, where it was made and the age range which I don't think i've ever seen listed like this.
Apparently you pull out the levers on her back to make her "dance" and once upon a time her top would have lit up.
But you know, a lot of time has passed between 1995 and now, so it doesn't do so now.
The box tells you to look out for Menelik who is, I believe, the male character in the line. The er.. Ken or Paul to Imani's Barbie or Sindy heh.
I'm not sure they made him though as i've never seen him.
incidently, the doll is named after the founder's son who inspired her to set up the company in the first place. Her story is a depressingly familiar one. A black child feeling left out or inferior due to a massive lack of representation.
this right here is why black and other ethnic minority toys are SO IMPORTANT.
Sunman, their first toy, was a black HeMan-like toy by the way. I can't find much about him but I think he did fairly well.
Sadly Olmec ceased to produce toys in about 1997/98 and nobody seems to be totally sure why. Dwindling sales? Increasing costs? Could be any number of things, but for over a decade they produced toys aimed at a market so often ignored by big business.
The third box is another familiar one. This is Imani and her "baby sister" Alysha who comes with a trike.
this set was released in 1997, so toward the end of Olmec's lifespan but it also got a Sindy release as Sindy and Cycling Sam.
The Olmec set comes with a bag and some plates as well for... some... reason. Who takes plates and cutlery on a bike ride? is it a picnic? Where's the food?
I feel like the Olmec box is more attractive and cohesive. The Sindy set feels very... hastily rammed into a box. I mean that is one BORING box right?
Anyway, the back of the Olmec box has a cute picture of Imani and Alysha along with the same company history blurb we saw previously.
I've often wondered what exactly or where exactly Imani was a princess of. Her tagline always calls her an "African American Princess" and by that do they mean she's actually royalty or just a spoiled brat?
I'm sure it's just a random tagline because "little girls like princesses" but maaan.
Have you spotted the issue I spotted yet?
Perhaps this picture is clearer.
See, after spending well over 20 years confined to a box with limited to no ventilation, marinating in its sealed environment, the rubbery plastic of the trike has broken down and started to crumble.
The movement of transit caused the unstable and very brittle plastic to just disintergrate. It's not the fault of the seller, this is just age and wasn't really something toy companies considered when they made their toys. Not only were they not making toys they expected to be kept in box forever, they also weren't really thinking about 20-30 years down the line. There was no real way to predict how different plastics, dyes and cardstock etc would react with one another over time until it happened, and by that point well, it's been over 20 years, what you gonna do?
Alysha has some rocking shades on doesn't she?
Imani's outfit is so bright omg.
it's the same as the one Sindy came with, though the Sindy one appears to have had differently coloured buttons on the top. But against Imani's dark skin the vivid colours somehow just look even more garish and I dig it.
I decided to open the box just to make sure nothing else was deteriorating. Given the state of the pink plastic I was quite concerned that we'd be dealing with melt and other nasty things.
Opening the box there's a very faint smell of vinegar, it's extremely faint but it's there. The smell of degrading plastic. Uh oh.
Oh god... the plastic... this is still the wheel and clip pieces and as soon as you pick them up they just turn into dust. Gross.
So gross.
All three wheels, the clip that held the doll into the trike as well as the clip that Imani held that connected a leash thing to the trike have ALL disintergrated. They look to have all been made of the same plastic.
The trike itself it kinda cute. When you push it the pedals move. But yeah... it has no tyres now lol.
Alysha has very very loose legs and her hair elastics have perished.
Under the glasses (which clip into her skull, ouch) she has wierdly tiny eyes for such a giant head.
Damn blurry picture.
Her legs are actually jointed and loose as heck presumably so she can "pedel" her bike (that is, move her legs as the pedels themselves move)
She has a super pudgy body with fat little arms and like.. moobs... chunky bubba.
Her outfit comprises a pair of overalls made from the same fabric as her big sister's shorts, a pink cotton tee and small squishy pink shoes.
No damage or melt, phew.
Imani is also, thankfully, immaculate. None the worse for wear after spending 2 decades in a box with decaying tyres.
She has some damage to one wrist from the elastic that was tied around it but that appears to be it.
Her hair was SEWN into the fricken box. I hate when they pull that shit.
Her vest has teensy tiny blue buttons on it, they're SO SMALL, it's really quite impressive they managed to get buttons that teensy, let alone sew them on neatly.
 |
this outfit is almost identical to the Sindy outfit, just the buttons on the vest look to be different.
Her shorts, vest and hat all coordinate with matching fabric that is er... flowers and uh... rectangles. It's really wierd fabric.
Her hair is butt length, softly crimped to give it a natural texture and has two little braids with a bead at the end of each.
Her body is quite literally a Hasbro body, which surprised me actually. I mean it makes sense given Olmec was working with Hasbro but still, I sort of expected that given Imani had her own face sculpt maybe her body was different too on the Olmec releases. Nope.
Olmec Imanis, least from the mid 90s are exactly the same as Hasbro Imanis.
In several cases it's literally the same doll in a different box.
Imani came with a bag which is a sort of mesh bag and contains a towel and a comb.
again i'm bewildered by the theme of this set.
I mean the bag and the towel imply swimming.
But the plates imply food...
and the tricycle and all the photographs are "going for a walk/bike ride"
what the hell Olmec?
Anyway, onto the prototypes!
So, these two are prototype dolls. Which is really interesting.
I asked the seller who told me they came from a man named Kumars Moghtader who worked for Hasbro in the 90s (in fact he was head designer for Hasbro according to his Linkedin). The seller claims their parents purchased a load of prototypes and other stuff from this man when they, the seller, were still a child.
Which is interesting.
I admit i'm tempted to contact him and see if he can tell me anything more lol. He's probably way too busy to reply though. (edit: I totally emailed him and he replied! Super nice guy. He confirmed that in the mid 90s he sold his collection to a couple as he prepared to move to the USA)
The first doll is an Olmec head (as marked on the back of the head) on a Hasbro body that does NOT fit (which is confusing as the other olmec dolls are on Hasbro bodies so.. what?)
this head is held on with blu tac and her hat is held in place with straight pins.
She's a cobbled together doll just to model the outfit I think. (she looks like Vivid's Party Nails Mel with this lighter hair! Interesting.)
This outfit was never actually produced. It comes with an orange backward cap, gold puffer vest (that's lined and beautifully made), a neon yellow Mtv shirt (interesting tie in there) and a skirt made from the same fabric as Popstar/Dance Lights Imani's jacket with two large buckles at the front.
The vest actually has a slit in the back of it to accomidate the dance mechanism levers, though this body doesn't have those. (The designer told me they had planned an MTV crossover but it fell through)
At some point she would have had boots but now all that remains is some paint residue.
Her hair is brown and a sort of reddish auburn colour and in gentle crimped waves.
I'm not totally sure where the head is from, I assume it was just an Imani head they happened to have laying around but I can't find which doll it WAS.
Hasbro never produced many Imanis (like.. 2? 3?) and there doesn't really seem to be a big guide for Olmec's own offerings which is a bummer. Sadly even in the age of the internet some stuff remains a mystery.
The second doll's outfit is far more familiar. It's Pop Star Imani!
this is in fact the outfit she was released in.
but that is NOT the face she was released with.
This is what's most interesting about this lot, the prototype heads. There's 1 full doll and 4 heads. We'll get to those.
Pop Star's skirt is made from this really wierd papery feeling fabric and it's actually selotaped shut lol.
Her boots appear to be molded in a flesh toned plastic and then painted pink, the paint is peeling off in places and underneath it's like.. Sindy peach.
Which is sort of wierd. I guess it's the cheapest way to do it as they have a shit ton of peach plastic?
Her face mold is... a bit manic honestly.
She has beautiful blue eyeshadow and big expressive brown eyes and then this huge grin with red lipstick which is certainly eyecatching. It's VERY 90s Hasbro. (The designer again told me that red lips were his personal favourite and management/head office kept telling him no because it was "too red" lol)
Her hair is textured with the crimpy curls and very thick. There's a braid with a bead in there somewhere too.
Her body has the "dance" gimmick. When you press the levers she sort of flails about. Her arms go, her legs go, her neck goes. It's wierd.
Her head is very loose presumably because of the mechanism. The mech itself is full of hot glue.
The two full dolls were supposedly prototypes for the same doll, Pop Star Imani. The grinning girl is the outfit they ended up going with, which is near identical to the Olmec Imani outfit but without the silver panel on the jacket and a different coloured ribbon on the skirt.
And now, at last, the HEADS!
There's four heads and each of them have a little bit of paint residue on them I need to clean off.
First there's two grinning Imani heads with blue eyeshadow (only at the top on these heads rather than extending to the lower lid like on the Popstar girl).
their hair is crimp curled with two braids ending in beads.
They have no markings.
The second head is the one I fell in love with and wanted bad enough to buy the whole bundle.
A closed mouth Imani head and oh god she's GORGEOUS.
She has a sort of teal coloured eyeshadow with a faint reddish blush of eyeshadow above it and bright red closed lips.
Their hair isn't as curly as the open mouthed girls, it's sort of semi straight with only a faint kink to it.
They also have the braids with beads and no markings. (Designer told me that the closed mouth head was something head office again wasn't keen on. The FOOLS!)
Curiously, the Hasbro head is substantially larger than the Olmec head. Go figure.
It also fits onto that Hasbro body substantially better. No need for blu tac!
Damn she's a pretty doll. I mean she really is beautiful.
Why'd you abandon this sculpt Hasbro? She's so damn pretty!
Two Popstar Imanis who never made it to production.
A facinating piece of Hasbro Sindy history right here.
I definitely vastly prefer how chilled closed mouth Imani looks to manic grin Imani.
though I can't deny that Olmec's girl has her own charm.
Sadly it seems Olmec and Imani simply aren't that collectable and I think that's a travesty. Olmec did what many companies since have tried to do, they made good quality, affordable, beautiful dolls for a target audience who seldom saw any toys that looked like them.
Much like Freshdolls these days, Olmec gave black kids much needed representation on store shelves.
That shit is IMPORTANT, so important, and yet 30 years on we're still having to remind companies of this.
I'm pleased to add some more lovely Imani dolls to my collection, though of course, not all of them can stay here.
I did also get to have a lovely chat with the head designer and that was a lot of fun. He told me that Hasbro often told them "look to America" not only for trends but for anything they could repurpose for the British market to save money. This explains why Imani stuff was reused so often, she was never sold in the UK outside of the two or three Hasbro released under the Sindy label, so why not use the fabrics and molds for Sindy? Who would know?
Though I do think it's rather a shame that Hasbro wasn't eager to invest too much into the Sindy brand by that point. I suppose by the mid 90s sales were declining and Barbie had absolutely taken over. Hasbro ceased production of Sindy in 1997 and the rights were sold to Vivid Imagination who produced her dolls until 2003 when the Sindy rights were returned to Pedigree.
I don't know what became of Olmec, they closed their doors around the same time Hasbro gave up on Sindy and that was the end of that.
Very interesting dolls. The one with a closed mouth is very pretty.
ReplyDeleteThe plastic desintegrating is scary. sigh... Some of my dolls are stored in boxes and it worries me.
(Tula)
Olmec Toys filed for bankruptcy and that's why they closed. Yla owed a lot of money to I believe investors and they didn't want to hand over certain toys unless the debt was paid.
ReplyDelete