Sorry this took me a while. I've been struggling a little with exhaustion lately.
Also, I didn't have as much to say about Cleo that hadn't already been covered by the Frankie and Draculaura reviews. But here she is anyway.
Not much preamble, let's just dive in.
Okay I haven't got any real preamble here except to explain one thing.
Frankie now uses they/them pronouns apparently. But you'd only know this if you'd been keeping up to date with the movie and cartoon series stuff. Which actually kinda pisses me off because what's the point of having a character using they/them if you don't bother to actually TELL PEOPLE THIS clearly on the goddamn fucking box!??
So yeah, don't get mad if some people still use she/her, a lot of people won't be aware of this change because Mattel didn't really make much, if any, effort to ensure it was known.
Right now it kinda comes across as a sort of condescending "hah, didn't you know? Aren't you a REAL fan?" kinda gotcha which is irritating.
And the thing is, I appreciate the representation but IS it representation if you don't bother to actually declare it on the doll's box? You know what I mean?
It would have been such a small simple thing to just add "pronouns" to the very short little bio on the back of the box but I think I know WHY they didn't. Mattel are one of those companies who love them some diversity IF they think they can sell it, but at the same time are loathe to actually stand behind that diversity against the rage of the bigoted conservatives who also buy their product. So they try to court both by being wishy washy about the whole thing. By not having pronouns on the box it means the sort of people who whine about "woke nonsense" (AKA Assholes) won't be put off and start a stupid social media pile on and pointless ineffectual boycott. They won't notice because they aren't going to watch the animated show, they aren't going to watch the movie, they will however buy the toy for their kid.
And this is an added frustration to the whole thing because it shows that Mattel aren't really the allies they pretend to be. Which raises the question, why bother changing Frankie's pronouns in the first place if you're not going to stand proudly behind it and own that?
Even their official social media can't get the damn pronouns consistant.
As I said. Wishy washy.
That aside, I will be using they/them to refer to g3 Frankie throughout and she/her to refer to g1. It might get a bit confusing so i'll try to be as clear as I can. Singular "they" can be a little awkward in English and I say this as someone who uses they/them.
But i'll do my best!
Aww hell yeah, they're back! And this time effort was put in.
Unlike the reboot which was honestly super phoned in, this "threeboot" or "g3" as people are calling it comes with a whole new animated series, a live action movie and a LOT of new dolls. Like seriously Mattel is pushing out so much at once to compete with MGA's "flood the market and overload the shelves" approach that it's sort of overwhelming.
Of course, the UK still has no sign of these new dolls while the US has people excitedly heading off for doll hunts and I can't say i'm not super envious. I miss doll hunts.
BUT Amazon ships to the UK. It's bloody expensive, but it's an option so I ordered in a few of the first wave of the Threeboot while I wait for the UK to even tell us IF we're getting the damn dolls any time in the next fucking 6 months. -_-
I want to do these thoroughly, or as thoroughly as I can, so first up is Draculaura with Frankie and Cleo to follow in their own reviews.
Strap in. This could be a long un.
Every few years we get another line of Black dolls hitting the market and almost every single time they're US only (because obviously black people don't exist outside of America huh? -_- ) which makes them extremely difficult to get anywhere else in the world.
They don't usually last very long unfortunately, trying to compete with the big hitters like Mattel and MGA is very very difficult. It is however always interesting to see a new small company make an attempt and as anyone who follows this blog knows, i'm very much of the opinion that black dolls MATTER and these attempts to give kids that choice and diversity is extremely important.
And so, the Naturalistas are the latest attempt. They're created by a group called Purpose Toys who appear to be more of a group that brings creators together rather than their own manufacturer? I'm not totally sure. They themselves describe it as "a supportive community of Black founders" and claim "Purpose Toys partners with entrepreneurs, providing the infrastructure and resources necessary to succeed at retail."
It appears that for this doll line they partnered with Just Play for distribution which makes sense. Just Play are a moderately sized toy company best known to the doll community at least, of making the 24 inch tall Barbies and such. They don't seem to have many franchises all of their own so much as they do things for other companies and act as a distributing partner or something. I'm not totally sure how it works honestly. But if you look at their website they have a partnership with Disney, Mattel, multiple kids shows and youtube channels, Warner brothers, Nickelodeon... the list goes on. They're even currently holding the rights for Slinky and Shrinky Dinks as well as producing those Art Squad dolls (which sorry, i'm not gonna be reviewing. They freak me out.)
Anyway,
the Naturalistas are a line of 11 inch fashion dolls who's big gimmick (can you call it a gimmick?) is that they each have natural Black hair textures and styles. Their aim is to promote the beauty of natural hair, something that sadly is still policed and discriminated against in the western world.
I'm afraid with lines like this it's impossible not to get into politics because there are inherent politics to their existance. It's sad that something like hair IS political in the first sodding place, but that's the crappy world we live in i'm afraid. As the Skunk Anansie song goes "yes it's fucking political, everything's political"
