Tokidoki Barbie and Katniss Everdeen
Don’t worry, the two will end up connecting. Trust me. <takes deep breath> Okay…prepare to read a long spiel about nothing in particular but the shallow-minded ramblings of CatScratchFever1987. If you want something deeper and more intellectually stimulating, I recommend my Twitter page, but beware…it crawls with right-wing ramblings and politically incorrect commentary. Hmm…better just stick with this.
Okay! I’m not a trend follower. I was able to resist the Pokemon craze (even though it’s still pretty cool), weather Harry Potter, and completely avoid anything that concerns the Twilight Saga (geez, I hate Twilight…except Taylor Lautner, and even then I was a fan of him before he became Jacob Whatever-his-last-name-is). But the Hunger Games books I like. My sister turned me onto them a year ago, before they became the hugely popular monster they’ve become. It saddens me to see the strong political and social messages that the story brings get dampened by every silly trend-following teenager screaming “TEEM PEETA!” or “TEAM GALE!” I myself have not seen the movie and have not chosen a boy to support (though I’m thankful Katniss Everdeen is not a slut like Bella Swan is). I have no intentions to buy any merchandise related to the books except the books themselves…and one other thing.
As you should well know by now, I’m a doll collector, and Mattel is (not surprisingly) itching to cash in on the popularity of the Hunger Games series, and create a doll in the likeness of the heroine, Katniss. I saw the press photo today, and I can’t WAIT for her to come out…she looks a lot like how I pictured Katniss when I read the books, and she comes with her silver arrows (so cute!). She is intended to be for collectors, but kids happen to like the Hunger Games (and Barbie) too. That is where the problem lies.
What I’m fearing in the case of a Katniss Everdeen Barbie is a situation like what happened with Tokidoki Barbie last October. I don’t know if I’ve blogged about Tokidoki Barbie and the controversy surrounding her or not. If I did, I apologize, but I’m gonna recap for my own feeble little mind’s sake. Tokidoki Barbie was a beautiful pink-haired, tattooed, Steffie-faced doll available to collectors last fall for fifty bucks. The press photos for her were released about a year ago, and I waited SIX MONTHS for her to be released. I had the fifty dollars plus shipping and handling set aside for her, had a spot cleared for her on my shelf, and two days before she’s scheduled to be released, BOOM!!! A bunch of silly parents saw Tokidoki’s tattoo (which covered her entire arm, part of her chest, and her back) and hit the roof, saying that Tokidoki set a bad example for little girls and encouraged them to get tattoos at too young an age. Never mind that the doll WASN’T A TOY!!! Thanks to the controversy the doll sold out in two lousy days and won’t be back in stock. And get this: most of the jack wagons that snapped up the doll bought her for the fifty dollar retail, and are now SELLING THEM ON EBAY FOR OVER FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS!!! Meanwhile, guess who never got her Tokidoki Barbie? Right…me.
Given the fact that the Hunger Games Series is so violent, I’m waiting for a backlash against Katniss from goody-two-shoes parents who will be saying that “the doll encourages violence.” In addition to that, the market for this doll will probably be pretty hot since the movie and the books are hot as well. Controversy and high demand are gonna equal a tough doll to find! But there’s no way in hell that I’m gonna let Katniss Everdeen slip through my fingers. I’ll get her if I have to cut my hair and pole dance!
“Chill out, it’s just a doll!” one may say. Yes, but it annoys me that non-doll collectors turn out in droves to buy up these awesome collectors’ items and then either junk ‘em up or resell them later at jacked-up prices. All the while collectors like me suffer. And all that time the parents and the media are screaming at us what we should not buy, should not do, should not have because it’s bad for kids. Uh, I don’t have kids yet. And when I do, I’ll be the one who decides what’s good and what’s bad for ‘em. Being exposed to the Hunger Games series at a young age is no worse than watching Tom & Jerry (which I did, and I turned out fine). Parents really need to learn some common sense…if they don’t want their kids to be exposed to something, then it’s up to them to keep their kids from it instead of trying to spoil the fun for everyone.
Okay, I’m done. All apologies.
