ranking 10 iconic doll lines from the 2000s 💵💋🌸

breaking down ten different doll lines from the 2000s if you couldn't tell from the name of this channel and its flash game and bubblegum pop inspired aesthetic I grew up in the late 90s early aughts that meant I took typing classes and had to learn cursive ketchup looked like this for some reason I rented VHS tapes and DVDs from Blockbuster and fashion dolls were everywhere in the 90s toy companies began rapidly turning out never-before-seen products in order to meet increased demand capitalize on new-age marketing techniques and take advantage of cheaper production that had been outsourced to other countries this resulted in an influx of dolls that were marketed towards young girls with fashion being their primary selling point today I'll be looking at some of these iconic doll lines from the 2000s and see whether or not they hold up today and just to clarify a few things I'll only be looking at doll lines that were either created or rose in popularity during the 2000s if they were made after that time period they don't count so my apologies to the Monster High stands also I'll only be looking at dolls that have a distinct fashion aspect to them which means no Bionicles or beanie babies I'll be talking about each of these doll lines in depth their individual aesthetic the brand ideology the character is tie-ins etc and at the end of the video I'll rank them so let's get into it Bratz we'll start with the girls that changed the whole game manufactured by mga entertainment the original Bratz dolls debuted in 2001 the line which consisted of four characters Yasmine Cloe Jade and Sasha were marketed as having a passion for fashion and with their platform shoes cutting-edge clothes and made-up faces the dolls resembled teen pop stars at the time like Britney Spears Avril Lavigne and Christina Aguilera the dolls which were instantly recognizable by their disproportionately large heads and removable feet were remarkably diverse in comparison to doll lines of earlier years specifically Barbie who primarily marketed their blue-eyed blonde character Bratz went with a different strategy with three of the four original dolls being minorities and each doll had their own unique style and personality which was portrayed not only in commercials but was expanded in the Bratz films TV shows and webseries Jade was the most fashionable was athletic Sasha loved music and Yasmin was a writer this allowed kids of the time to become attached to the dolls in a way they couldn't with others as the Bratz girls seemed like actual people from the very beginning Bratz received complaints from parents for being over sexualized and inappropriate for the target demographic due to their large lips heavy makeup somewhat revealing clothing and promotion of relationships and dating even the name of the brand was seen as approval of quote-unquote bratty behavior which looking back at now seems more like a projection of the parents own biases and prejudices since I doubt kids at the time saw the dolls as being anything other than pretty or stylish although the dolls initially struggled to compete with their main competitor Barbie by 2006 Bratz sales made up 40% of worldwide fashion doll sales completely out selling Barbie in the UK and in 2005 alone the brand made over two billion dollars this was such an upset that Mattel the manufacturer of Barbie went on to not only sue mga entertainment but release their own line of diverse fashion obsessed dolls in retaliation welcome back to said dolls later I wasn't a huge fan of the Bratz shows and movies as a kid because I found the computer animation really off-putting which is even more true today but I did always find myself drawn the dolls themselves I thought the character designs were unique and fun and I always thought the clothes were fantastic they were designed with tweens in mind instead of what their parents would find cute what's-her-face I actually owned two of these dolls and had completely forgotten about their existence until I was doing research for this video but it seems I'm not the only one since there's little acknowledgment of them on the Internet which i suppose isn't all that odd considering the dolls were only sold by Mattel between 2001 and 2003 the concept was to create a toy that allowed children to express their creativity by drawing on their dolls faces and close the what's-her-face line consisted of four dolls named hip cool sweet and glam which are just awful names for dolls and don't inspire much attachment from children combine this with the fact that they resemble faceless horror characters it's no wonder they weren't all that popular while I do love the idea of a doll whose face you can customize especially considering kids like to doodle on their dolls anyway I think there was little thought put into one how much fun II could would have with a toy that was probably not going to look very nice and - giving kids something with so many necessary pieces I remember quickly losing my what's-your-face pens and stamps leaving me with a mess of a doll that looked awful more often than she looked decent I do remember loving the removable color-changing hair however so what's-her-face gets points for the creative concept and the fun name but - points for the nightmare that is a faceless doll live dolls I had never heard of these but apparently a lot of you had these dolls manufactured by Spin Master from 2009 to 2012 these dolls were marketed around their hair with the four dolls being sold with wigs and heat changing hair they were also fully articulated similar to an action figure which is what Spin Master was most familiar with as a previously boy dominated toy brand the dolls which were advertised as having unique personalities ala Bratz came with backstories and storylines that were updated on the live world website they also pushed a these girls have imperfections just like you narrative with one character being clumsy and another needing glasses I don't get it I don't think that even if I'd been a child when these were released that I would have been very into these dolls mostly because I had a very unhealthy relationship with my own hair as a kid which I often expressed by chopping off my Barbie's long locks or by refusing to brush my own hair so a doll that's main selling point was its hair wouldn't have appealed to me but also I don't think I would have found the clothing or designs of the character interesting for those of you that had live dolls is this actually what they looked like because those eyes are absolutely terrifying to me it's like they're dead inside I will say that having a doll that is marketed around changing its hair is a bold and interesting marketing move but I don't think it's necessarily unique in practice don't forget that the whatsername dolls also had detachable wigs my scene released by Mattel in 2002 as a response to the Bratz craze my scene dolls are similar in size to Barbie but purposely replicated not only the Bratz look with oversized heads and large lips but its diversity and emphasis on fashion these similarities prompted Bratz to file a lawsuit against Mattel for infringing on quote-unquote multi-ethnic looks fashions and packaging during their heyday my scene was not only a major doll line but a formidable media franchise as well with flash games movies and webisodes the original doll lineup consisted of only three dolls but was eventually expanded with their main characters being Madison Chelsea Delancey Noli Kennedy and yes Barbie at one point even Lindsay Lohan was a my scene character and doll I myself was always fond of Noli as she was essentially what I wanted to look like when I grew up which unfortunately didn't wind up happening perhaps it was just me but one of the things that I found most appealing about the my scene brand as a child was that instead of the dolls reminding me of my fellow tweens the girls came off as a big sister type older wiser and infinitely more cool which looking back at it is pretty hilarious considering they were canonically 16 but something about the fact that they regularly traveled had boyfriends and went clubbing made them seem much older back then but it's interesting how they didn't receive the same backlash that Bratz did I never owned any my seen dolls as a child but I was obsessed with their digital content not only did I watch the webseries religiously because it was one of the few that actually looked decent but I would also spend two hours on the my scene site designing clothes and making over the girls I still think that the clothes and the character designs on the site and in the webseries hold up but there's something about the actual clothes and the dolls that don't look as fashionable at least in my opinion Polly Pocket I was a Polly Pocket kid from birth not only did I own the adorable choking hazards that were the original Polly Pocket Bluebird toys but I also a dozens of the Mattel rubber clothes dolls and during my allotted computer room time as a tween there was an incredibly high chance that I was playing one of the excellent flash games on Polly Pocket Calm Polly Pockets were first sold in 1989 by Blue Bird toys and these compact plastic sets that the brand was named for contained adorable interiors interactive parts and teeny tiny figurines the toys were immensely popular and between 1989 and 1998 over a hundred of these Polly Pocket Blue Bird toys were released including collaborations with Disney I myself owned a Peter Pan set the dolls which stood at under an inch were made of plastic and could sometimes bend at the waist they also had a circular stand at the base of the foot that allowed the dolls to be placed in the sets Polly was featured in almost every set in a different outfit and you'd get your hands on various other characters and even pets as you purchased more these Blue Bird sets are now considered collectibles with some of the toys going for hundreds of dollars so the fact that my mom threw these out when I went to college is very upsetting to me following the brand's purchase by Mattel in 1998 the character of Polly was given a makeover which changed her original blonde curly Bob to a straight ponytail Mattel created a handful of playsets with this new character design before finally ending the line in 2002 in favor of their more profitable fashion polyline the fashion Polly line which began in 1999 are probably the Polly Pocket dolls and the majority of you are familiar with the dolls which were significantly larger than the original remain of plastic had prepubescent bodies and were jointed but what actually made them unique were the patented poly stretch clothes that came with a doll unlike other doll lines that provided fabric ensembles with their dolls fashion poly dolls came with rubbery plastic clothes that could be easily worn and removed the playful designs of both the dolls and these rubbery clothes helped give the brand a distinctive cartoonish and childish look this allowed polly pocket to create an easily recognizable mascot with the cartoon ax fide version of poly being featured predominantly in commercials in direct-to-dvd movies and in flash games speaking of flash games the brand played it smart with individual games on their site relating to specific fashion poly sets this meant that kids at the time were not only playing with physical copies of the doll but virtual versions as well one way that I found and continued to find the polly pocket brand lacking was in its diversity and range unlike other brands that had wised up to the fact that the majority of kids weren't white with blond hair and blue eyes Polly Pockets lineup of dolls included only one non-white character Shani I don't know about you but to me that doesn't feel like a great amount of representation especially given the fact that they already had multiple instances of diversity being a good selling point with other doll lines I'm still in love with the Polly Pocket bluebirds to this day but as I've grown up I can acknowledge how little thought was put into actually designing the fashion Polly dolls and how much more effort was put into the rubber technology and clothes Betty spaghetti released by the Ohio art company between 1998 to 2004 and 2007 to 2008 the Betty spaghetti brand started with three dolls including the afro mentioned Betty spaghetti and her friend Zoe and Hannah I'm most familiar with and owned the dolls from this original launch when they looked like this not this just by looking at the dolls you can probably see where the appeal lies the Betty spaghetti dolls were made of rubber and plastic meaning you could bend them into unnatural shapes easily switch their parts with one another and generally play with them more roughly than your average fashion doll they also had a fun and playful design that was less about emulating trendy fashion and more about creativity which included the ability to string beads in your dolls hair and mix and match their outfits without having to deal with velcro or snaps I actually think I first learned how to braid on my Betty spaghetti doll as the rubber strands made for an easy grip as opposed to the finer synthetic hair of other dolls and something about the bright neon colors always reminded me of Lisa Frank and who didn't love Lisa Frank because of the more cartoonish design and reliance on play factor instead of fashion the dolls understandably appealed to a younger demographic than some others on this list and at one point in the early 2000s the dolls were even included in McDonald's Happy Meals I honestly think these still hold up to this day not only is the design adorable I'll be it incredibly of its time but the dolls themselves are super unique with a high level of playability although I will admit that having so many detachable pieces is not only a choking hazard but also made losing arms and legs incredibly easy groovy girls produced by Manhattan toy company starting in 1998 groovy girls stuck with a more childish aesthetic for their toys going with a familiar and classic ragdoll look for their dolls but with modern day hairstyles clothes and accessories the dolls were made out of a soft plush fabric with embroidered faces and hair made of yarn they differentiated their characters by giving them different skin colors hair types and facial features which resulted in one of the larger and more diverse line ups in the doll world with dozens of groovy girls in rotation the dolls are also distinctly prepubescent a rarity in the doll world at the height of their popularity in 2005 over 8 million groovy Girl dolls had been sold and the accompanying website groovy girls calm had over 1.7 million users in 2007 their site had a vastly different premise than others we're instead of focusing on flash games it was more of a social platform you could add friends chat with them dress up your doll and even decorate your room I happen to own quite a few groovy girls and I was completely obsessed with them and out of all the toys I owned as a child they were definitely the ones I played with the most I even had a pink luggage case that I'd lugged them around the house in just so I could play with them wherever I wanted I do think that the look is pretty childish but overall fun diva stars we released by Mattel in 2000 the diva stars were a line of robotic dolls that were created during the height of the Robo toy craze like Poochie furbies and Tamagotchi the plastic dolls had coma bull hair exaggerated facial features and could recite a variety of pre-recorded phrases the dolls which came with snapple clothing and accessories that you could switch out were accompanied by a website that had flash games with a web show twist I don't actually remember the toy line at all but I was definitely a fan of their games which as you could probably tell from this entire video was also a part of my early onset internet addiction along with other y2k sites like addicting games Cartoon Network Neopets and Gaia online while the diva stars found early success by 2002 the brand began to struggle largely due to the Bratz and their global takeover of the fashion doll market inspired by the Bratz and other popular doll lines of the time Mattel rebranded the diva stars and released the fashion diva stars line while the general look at the dolls was similar to the original robotic line their clothes were now made of fabric and their proportions extended to be more realistic unfortunately this seal to the diva star's fate and by 2004 they were discontinued largely because they were unable to compete with other fashion doll lines but also because much of what had made the diva stars line popular in the first place had been abandoned I won't lie I don't like the look of the dolls but that's probably because any toy but that blinking eye detail has always creeped me out American girl first released in 1986 by pleasant company the American Girl products were developed around education with each girl and her accompanying books representing a specific time period in American history all the way back to the 1700s and they don't whitewash the stories either which can be pretty common in historical fiction due to the popularity of the brand a handful of movies have even been released revolving around individual characters and I must say I wouldn't mind an entire anthology series revolving around them it might even fill the hole and with an e left in some people's hearts American Girl dolls have become such a large part of American culture that they're often parodied including malt well times on SNL and on an episode of Bob's Burgers so even if you've never owned an American Girl doll odds are you have some knowledge of the brand and while they aren't what most consider fashion dolls the dolls had different accessories and outfits that you could purchase and set outfits were all era-appropriate which if you've seen other videos on this channel is something I appreciate funnily enough as a kid I never liked the American Girl dolls they were so expensive that it seemed like a ridiculous purchase not that my mother would have ever bought one plus they're very cherub like appearance always reminded me of the baby dolls I had as a younger child which turned me off even further however I absolutely adored the American Girl book collections as I loved the character development diversity historical influences and how they weren't afraid to discuss serious even upsetting issues they reminded me of another female-driven book series that I enjoyed at the time the royal diaries while I loved each of the American girls for different reasons my favorites were Kaia KITT and Molly and their book collections were the ones I want a borrowing from the library repeatedly if you're watching this video you might think you're too old to read a book meant for children but I promise they hold up and even as an adult you might learn something about the respective time period that you didn't know about before while the dolls are extremely expensive at $115 without accessories I have to give my props to the American Girl brand as a whole setting out to educate children about the hardships of people in different eras in a way that interests them and that they can easily understand is so important and is something I wish more brands did Barbie it's a great I had to save her for last simply because the Barbie brand is that gigantic launched in 1959 Barbie happens to not only be one of the most profitable children's toys ever created but one of the most memorable and recognizable everyone knows who barbie is but let's get into the history behind the doll first first designed in 1956 Barbie was initially created to fill a gap in the doll market which previously only had baby dolls and now she's an icon with the toy becoming so popular that Mattel has claimed that 3 barbie dolls are sold every second Barbie who has had a dull appearance from the very beginning was immensely popular not only for her looks but also because of the wide range of clothes and accessories you could purchase for the doll and the brand eventually evolved to not only include male characters and people of color but dolls of various sizes as well one of Barbies major selling points was that she could do anything whether that meant being an astronaut or a vet or a fashion designer the character has not only appeared in museums and in unofficial songs and parodies but in her own web series and dozens of films as well speaking of Barbie films if you're around my age then you're probably very familiar with the Barbie movies but did you know that they were created as a way to reinvigorate interest in the brand after losing out to Bratz yep Mattel and mga entertainment were in an elaborate pissing match for all of the 2000s after chopping off my Barbie's hair as a young child my mother refused to buy anymore for me but I sure did own a lot of Barbie movies with my favorite being Barbie in the Nutcracker and Barbie as Rapunzel I know most people think Barbie as The Princess and the pauper is the best Barbie film but I think I was a bit too old when that movie was released and thus never developed much of a fondness for it and while I definitely appreciate Barbies general aesthetic she practically invented the color pink I think that actual dolls are pretty boring but I suppose with over 60 years of clothing and accessories you could probably have a good time if you collected enough stuff I do understand why some people are such huge fans of the Barbie brand their rankings now that we've gone through all ten doll line let's get into the rankings starting from the worst and ending with the best this is going to be heavily biased so don't take this ranking too seriously ten live dolls I don't think the character designs are cute and I don't think the change her hair premise is all that unique the fact that I had no idea what these were probably didn't help either nine diva stars the fact that they couldn't stick to their guns and got rid of the original robotic dolls to be like everyone else is a big no-no for me it doesn't inspire much trust from the consumer eight what's-her-face yes very creative but the fact that the average kid probably wouldn't be able to keep their hands on all the pieces and the doll would probably be faceless how the time is a major detractor seven groovy girls i appreciate the diversity and the rag doll look but i don't think it appealed to the average customer especially if the rest of your friends had traditional plastic dolls it'd feel like you brought your grandmother's toy even if her clothes were cool 6 Betty spaghetti ok I actually really love these dolls but I'll be honest everything other than the fact that they convened isn't all that interesting just look at the clothes and the wonky faces 5 my scene yes I loved the games and the web series but the fact that the dolls were such a blatant ripoff of Bratz with some mild Barbie influences turns me off for Polly Pockets oops my biases are showing I loved the Bluebird toys and the fashion Polly dolls were they kind of boring and limited sure but they were a huge part of my childhood and I will always love them for that three American Girl this doll line got such a high ranking because I am totally in love with the historical and educational aspect of these dolls I think it's not only interesting but important I just wish they weren't so dang expensive - Bratz I can already feel the angry comments coming I know they're iconic to the 2000s and completely changed the toy industry but I think that other than the fact that they have a really great aesthetic and we're ahead of the curve in regard to diversity the brand as a whole wasn't that strong did you watch some of those movies yikes one Barbie sure in the 2000s the brand was coasting until Bratz came on the scene but they've made serious pushes towards inclusivity and diversity in recent years and sure my love for the web shows and movies might be clouding my judgement but like I said this was a biased ranking while many of the dolls I've talked about are no longer sold in stores many of the games and web shows can still be found in various places on the Internet the graphics of the flash games are definitely of their time but if there's ever a day where you have nothing to do I'd say it's worth it to check them out if not for nostalgia for the fashion inspiration because I'm telling you y2k fashion is going to make a hell of a comeback these next few years you might as well do some pre-emptive research well that's it for this video I hope you enjoyed it don't forget to Like and subscribe and comment down below which of these doll lines was your favorite see you soon bye [Music]

Channel: ModernGurlz

Views: 623,405

Rating: 4.9490881 out of 5

Keywords: style, internet girl, modern gurlz, informational, fashion montage, movie montage, 90s fashion, fashion, 90s tv, delias, dollskill, movie review, movie commentary, moderngurlz, egirl, tiktok

Id: -cTk8tgaCgU

Length: 23min 46sec (1426 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020