The search for the perfect doll

The dolls of 2000 are stuffed with microchips and batteries that let them do almost anything. But is there one a little girl can just cuddle?

By LANE DeGREGORY

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 8, 2000

Raggedy Ann Raggedy Ann Dakin ($24.99 at Buttons n' Bows) The first mass-produced rag doll turns 85 this year; her brother Andy is five years younger. She still has that embroidered-on smile and wide-open eyes, a white apron and red yarn hair. She's so soft, you have to hug her.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Painted grins loomed over them from six shelves above. A squeaky robot voice sang about bad girls. Plastic hands clutched purses and skateboards and furry pink bears.

All around, for two aisles on either side, glassy eyes stared from behind cellophane windows.

Cyndi Hamilton shook her head. "They sure make a lot of ugly dolls," she told her mother. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

The grandmother and great-grandmother had driven from Hernando, through a midmorning rainstorm and Tyrone Boulevard traffic. On this Saturday after Thanksgiving, they were braving battalions of shoppers at Toys "R' Us. They were on a quest.

But they were unprepared.

More than 20 years had passed since these women had bought a doll. They knew Raggedy Anns and Betsy Wetsys, Baby Alives and, of course, Barbies. But most of the old stand-bys were out of commission -- or had evolved beyond recognition.

Hundreds of new names, new features, new gimmicks confronted them.

They found Magic Megan ($19.99), who pulls a ribbon of rabbits out of her hat; Lil' Sniffles ($16.99), who comes with tissues, a thermometer and pretend cough medicine; Super Hair Tattoodles ($19.99), whose box includes "oodles of sparkling new tattoos plus glittering gel for her super-long hair." Dolls who blow bubbles, shiver, play hopscotch, sing karaoke or recite good-night prayers. Superstar Suzie ($9.97) does handstands and splits; Kick-n-Splash Cabbage Patch ($29.99) comes with flippers and a boogie board; Shop-n-Bop Baby ($29.99) pushes a grocery cart.

Hamilton and her mother kept walking. They had been scanning stacks of pink and purple boxes for a half-hour. Their hunt had just begun.

"It has to have a pretty face," the great-grandmother said, setting down a scowling doll in Velcro diapers. "And not a lot of little parts she could swallow. And nothing that needs batteries."

"We're looking for a Christmas present for my 2-year-old granddaughter, Taylor," explained Hamilton, 41. "Something soft all over, so she can cuddle it. We don't want one that just does one thing, that she'll get tired of and stuff in a closet. She's too little still to change their clothes or dye their hair or figure out some computer in their stomach.

"We just want one she can love. We're trying to find the perfect baby doll.

"But I'm not sure they even make one any more."

You've come a long way, baby

Dolls are among the oldest toys. The word dates at least to the 1500s, when parents fashioned little people out of dried corncobs and dressed them in scraps of fabric. By the early 1700s, Encyclopedia Britannica.com says, craftsmen had begun to carve wooden dolls, painting on different features and expressions. Paper dolls with tabbed wardrobes came out about 100 years later. By the early 1900s, paper mache dolls were being mass produced with molded hair, wooden limbs and painted eyes. Wax dolls were invented about the same time.

From the 1840s through 1920s, china dolls with glazed porcelain heads were popular with families who could afford them. Some of these dolls had human hair. Most were meticulously dressed in fashions of the times.

Rag dolls were being mass-produced by the 1920s. The first talking dolls, which simply said"Mama," made their debut in the 1930s. Plastic dolls followed in the '50s. Dolls with talking boxes in their tummies and strings behind their necks, who could say several words, came out in the '60s. And Baby Alive, the first doll who "ate" food, was introduced in 1970.

This year's crop does much more. With advancements in robotics and computers, smaller components and new animatronics, toymakers have marketed dolls that are so realistic they're almost scary. One dad in Toys "R' Us described them as "Furbys gone bad -- worse even than Chucky!" Others were thrilled with the real-life play possibilities.

Everyone is talking about the technological advancements.

"Dolls and balls," Dr. Judith Becker Bryant said. "They're pretty basic. Almost every culture has had some version of those two toys for centuries."

Bryant is a psychology professor at the University of South Florida. She specializes in the psychology of children. The mother of two young boys, she says she's not completely up on all the new doll innovations.

But she has noticed a shift in the offerings.

"For a doll that doesn't have its own voice or its own computer, the child can provide a number of different voices. That one doll can be happy or angry, upset or excited -- depending on what its owner wants it to be," she said. "These new ones have a different purpose. They're not terribly different from a game where there are distinct rules.

"But who's in charge here: the child or the toy?"

Cybernetic burps and chuckles

Dolls account for about one-eighth of this country's toy market. Last year, the Toy Manufacturers of America estimated that parents spent $2.2-billion on dolls and their accessories. With dozens of new options available and prices climbing steadily, that amount is sure to soar.

Interactive, animated dolls that look like amusement park characters are some of the best-selling toys for this season.

My Real Baby, $99 from Hasbro, has two microprocessors in its stomach, a Behavior Language 6.0 program, dozens of physical and virtual sensors throughout its plastic body and seven "actuation points" under its face that can simulate 16 levels of emotional intensity.

She giggles when you tickle her feet, laughs when you bounce her on your knee, burps, hugs, coos and even learns to talk.

My Dream Baby, an interactive doll from MGA Entertainment, is similar. It costs $94.99 at Toys "R' Us, $84.99 on eToys.com (batteries not included). It "LITERALLY grows from a crawling 14.5-inch infant to a walking 18.5-inch toddler," the box says. Children can teach the computerized doll to recite nursery rhymes, count, say the alphabet and respond to its name. Fanglike silver sensors in the mouth allow it to suck on a special bottle, spoon or straw. The doll tells its owner when it wants to be diapered, fed or held.

The "dream baby," like many recent offerings, comes in several skin tones and hair and eye colors. Last week, eToys' Web site listed the blond, African-American, brunette, Asian and Hispanic varieties as five of their 10 top-selling dolls.

Keith Heiser, who manages FAO Schwarz toy store in Tampa, says it's "one of the better selling dolls in recent years." Parents are buying them for children ages 4 to 14, he says. Price doesn't seem to be a problem.

"The technology on these is pretty amazing," said Dave Gerardi, associate editor of Playthings magazine in New York.

"You have to spend a lot of time with these dolls to get them to the next stage. And the play is a lot less open-ended, more directed. Manufacturers say it's partly an educational tool. But I don't know whether so much feedback is good.

"I guess the real question is: How will kids take to them?"

You can't really cuddle these dolls. Their bodies are too hard. Their limbs click when you move them. Their tummies are speckled with speaker holes. Their faces are stretched over computer components.

"They're just confusing because of everything they do," said Beth Ann Gazzo, who was shopping at Toys "R' Us with her husband. "Can kindergarteners really handle this? And why should they have to?"

The number two top seller at eToys, surprisingly, is a boy doll: Talking Little T by Playmates ($49.99). The brown-haired lad tells jokes, gives high-fives and comes with a firefighter hat, hammer and walkie-talkie. When he's squeezed, he says things such as, "Hey pal! I'll wrestle you with one hand tied behind my back!"

Amazing Babies, also by Playmates, are similar to My Real Baby and My Dream Baby -- only smaller and about half the price. They have prettier faces and softer hair than the more expensive versions, but their eyes don't close. The doll was designed for ages 4 and up and requires more batteries than most: seven AAAs.

She "comes to life at the sound of your voice," the box says. "You teach her to talk," and she recognizes accessories such as her bottle, cookie, rattle, brush and blanket.

The dolls also come with a warning about the plug in the doll's palm that attaches to the accessories: "Electronic plug contains functional sharp points. Use and handle with care when inserting." Hamilton and her mom passed on that one, too.

"Let's keep looking," Hamilton said. "There has to be something soft and sweet."

"I don't know," answered Great-grandmom, who was starting to look weary. "We've seen so many. What we wanted seemed so simple. . . ."

So many choices

Specialty shops, catalogs and Internet sites offer different dolls from mainstream toy stores and discounters such as Target and Wal-Mart.

At Buttons n' Bows children's clothing and toy store on Beach Drive in downtown St. Petersburg, Raggedy Ann sits in a white wooden rocker -- wearing the same white apron and embroidered "I Love You" heart that she has boasted for 85 years. Her price tag, however, has kept pace with the times: $24.99. She and brother Andy sell for $19.99 each in the Back to Basics Toys catalog.

LaLa Land, an independent toy store on Central Avenue, stocks Groovy Girl rag dolls and -- new for the holidays -- their friends, Groovy Boys ($8.99). These soft, plush dolls from Manhattan Toy don't require batteries and don't do anything on their own. But kids can stuff them in a pocket or backpack without plastic parts poking out and can interact with them any way they choose.

"They've got a whole line of clothes for them, and groovy furniture too," shop owner Karl Lounge said. "They come in all sorts of ethnic choices. And they're safe for even the littlest kids."

In another league are Madame Alexander dolls and the very popular American Girl dolls. Both lines feature beautiful sculpted faces, silky hair and fancy outfits. Most have movable limbs, heads and eyes -- but no batteries.

The Alexander Doll Company was founded 75 years ago by the daughter of a Russian immigrant who grew up working in her father's doll hospital. The company was the first to base a doll on a licensed character (Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind), the first to create dolls in honor of living people (Queen Elizabeth II) and the first to introduce a full-figured fashion doll (Cissy J.). Madame Alexander also makes 40 different Huggums and Victorian baby dolls that sell for $39.95 to $59.95.

This year, the company introduced a Tommy Hilfiger Doll Collection for $85, with outfits at $38 a pop. New Madame Alexanders can sell for as much as $500.

Milton Shaw, who owns Treasures and Dolls in Clearwater, sold 225 Madame Alexanders last month alone. "The most popular are just the plain, 12-inch Huggums that have vinyl heads, vinyl arms and soft, cloth bodies. They don't do anything. They're just plain babies," he said.

"But we're selling them out as fast as we get them in."

American Girl dolls made their debut in 1986 when former teacher Pleasant T. Rowland founded the Pleasant Company. The exquisite 18-inch dolls are based on historic time periods, and each comes with a storybook explaining her heritage. Felicity, for example, held tea parties in Colonial Williamsburg; Josefina grew up in New Mexico during the 1820s; Kirsten explored the American frontier in 1854.

Only seven historical dolls have been produced so far. The newest, Kit, grew up during the Depression. Different outfits are available for each doll -- and the company offers clothes for real girls to match their dolls'.

American Girl also has five Bitty Baby dolls and 20 versions of American Girl Today, which can be ordered to match their owners' hair, eye and skin colors.

So far, more than 5-million American Girl dolls have been sold, primarily through catalog and Internet orders. They cost about $85 each. The company has been owned by Mattel since 1998. Only two stores sell the dolls: one in Chicago and the other in Oshkosh, Wis.

There really aren't any comparable dolls at Toys "R' Us.

After the quest, sweet success

More than an hour after they started searching the doll aisles, Cyndi Hamilton and her mother were still empty-handed.

All around them, other grandmothers had picked out presents. Moms were pushing baskets piled high with pink boxes. Girls were begging for dolls that ate peanut butter sandwiches, dolls that wore make-up, dolls that jumped with purple pom-poms.

"I want one of those," 12-year-old Tiffany Ward told her mother, reaching for a $49.99 Baby Born. "You squeeze her arm and she cries real water. You feed her food and she poops in her own potty.

"That's the best baby out there."

Her mother, Alexia Ward, agreed. "I was raised on Baby Alive. They don't make those any more," she said. "But this one does all that, and more. She's everything a real baby is -- minus the commitment."

La Newborn La Newborn Gift Set Berenguer ($19.99 at Toys "R' Us) With a lavender scent, fixed marble eyes and hair painted on her soft vinyl head, this is one of the most huggable dolls on the toy store shelves. They come in blue or pink outfits, are 17 inches long and have baby fat rolls on their arms and legs. They need no batteries and make no demands. The gift set includes a T-shirt, bib, hat, bottle, baby shampoo and baby powder -- but no diaper.

So Alexia Ward bought a Baby Born for her daughter for Christmas.

Hamilton and her mom searched on.

They strolled past Crazy Curls, which comes with hot pink curlers for the doll and its owner. Past Sweet e-Baby, which plugs into a computer and tells you when it's time to take her in for a "virtual doctor's check-up." Past Newborn Jennifer, whose stomach sloshes with water so she's heavy enough to feel like a real infant.

"It's got to be one that will let her pretend," Hamilton said. "I know there must be one somewhere. . . ."

The grandmother and great-grandmother made one more pass through the first doll aisle. They squeezed the unboxed dolls to see how soft they were, poked others through their cellophane windows. If they didn't find Taylor's present there, they agreed, they'd head home.

"Almost finished," Hamilton promised.

Her mother -- lagging 20 steps behind -- sighed and looked down.

Then, there on the bottom shelf, she saw the sweet face she'd been searching for. "Over here, Cyndi!" she called. "Come see!"

The doll was La Newborn, by Berenguer ($19.99). She came with a bottle, snuggly blue booties, a blue pillow and blanket. She didn't need batteries. She didn't do anything but lie there. She had green eyes like marbles, a bald head and a soft vinyl body.

"I knew there had to be one," Hamilton said, hugging her mother and the cardboard box.

"Not all little girls go for gadgets, even these days. Some just want something to squeeze and to love."

At least their grandmas think so.

NOTE: Information from "A Brief History of Antique Dolls" by Denise Van Patten, Country Lines Magazine, March 1999, was used in this report.

This year's dolls make choosing difficult

Amazing Babies Playmates ($44.99 at Toys "R' Us) She turns her head when she hears your voice, plays hide and seek and likes to giggle. You teach her to talk -- then she asks you for her bear or bottle and even tells you when it's time to change her seven AAA batteries. She's got a transceiver in her tummy, a plug in her right hand and the sweetest face of the new interactive dolls.

Amazing Babies

La Newborn Moments Berenguer ($14.99 at Toys "R' Us) This 17-inch vinyl doll comes with a Velcro diaper and lacey pink bib (there are boy versions with blue accessories). They don't need batteries. Each model comes with a different expression, including a sour puss pout that would make most mommies cry.

La Newborn Moments

My Dream Baby

My Dream Baby MGA Entertainment ($94.99 at Toys "R' Us) She cries, she fusses, she learns her ABCs and plays peek-a-boo with you. You can teach her to sing, count and say over 500 words, and she grows from infant to toddler size. Silver fanglike sensors in her mouth allow her to sip a straw, suck a bottle or eat from her plastic plate of spaghetti. She needs three C batteries plus a 9-volt and comes with 15 accessories.

Baby Loves Her Bottle

Baby Loves Her Bottle Pacific Playthings ($9.99 at Toys "R' Us) Her eyes are painted open, her feet are big and round and, except for a skinny sprig tied by a blue ribbon, her hair is painted onto her plastic head. But her cloth body is soft and squishy. The box also includes a bib, rattle, bottle, bowl, spoon and brush.

Groovy Boy

Groovy Boy Manhattan Toy ($8.99 at La La Land) He has soft, floppy arms and legs, hip plush clothing and yarn dreadlocks falling around his happy face. He's squishy all over -- no hard parts or battery packs. He also has a line of groovy furniture and other outfits that cost extra.

Cutie Pie Eden ($17.99 at La La Land) You can take off his baseball hat and vest and toss him around, get him dirty and throw him into the washing machine. Everything about this 11-inch boy doll is friendly for even the youngest infant; his wide grin is infectious.

Cutie Pie

Kit

Kit American Girl and Pleasant Company ($84 in the catalog and on the Web site) She has silky blond hair, blue eyes that open and close and faint freckles on her rosy cheeks. She grew up during the Depression and comes with a paperback book explaining her family background. You can move her arms and legs and turn her head, and she doesn't need batteries. Other outfits and accessories are available.

What’s in store The Times’ annual report on toys and gifts continues through the week:

Monday • Robotic Dogs • Hot or Not • Celebrity- lookalike dolls Tuesday • A guide to unusual toys Wednesday • Goodies for chefs • Cooking with kids’ toys

Thursday • Cool gifts for adults Friday • Searching for a good doll Saturday • Board game bonanza

Sunday Too much of a good thing?

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.