Revisiting The "Dark Ages" Of Doll Collecting 

Long ago the toy companies lived in perfect harmony But everything changed when Monster High got rebooted

I think that hairdorables were one of the first signs that nature was healing. Even though they were surprise toys, they still had hair and fabric clothing.

"Kids wanted to develop intense gambling addictions" - the way I cackled 😂

This era really gave us only 3 doll face types: 😃 🗿 👁‿👁

I’d argue that the dark ages actually started in 2014 with the decline of quality of several brands , bratz EAH MH Barbie etc and encapsulates the reboots as well

I have to wonder if the fall of Toys R Us helped usher in the dark age doll period. Fashion dolls are relatively expensive to produce, in comparison to action figures, so perhaps when toy companies saw a major toy retailer go down, they wanted to nip back costs even more than usual.

This is utterly unrelated to the video but as a guy whose dad recently threw away a good chunk of my doll collection, it's so nice to see your plethora of dolls behind you. It feels good to see another guy who's into dolls and isn't ashamed of it, even if other people are.

When I saw these unicorn that make slime a few years ago, I genuinely felt bad thinking someone could get a repeat one since it was a surprise doll, and they were expensive too...

10:36 this is such a pet peeve of mine. so so so often when I see attempts at body diversity, it's done in a more down-to-earth kind of vibe because people seem to only remember other body types exist when they're making a conscious effort to represent real people. maybe I as a fat chick want to also take part in hyper-feminine, over-the-top fashion honestly most of the time the only group I see making fun fat characters are furries because they often actually find fat bodies cute instead of them just being a moral obligation to include

Mattel really pulled a thanos click and obliterated the entire play line doll market

Project mc2 deserved better. Their fashion was sooo good. They really captured the 2014-16 era of fashion which MH completely missed.

I did not stop collecting during "The Dark Ages," I just stopped collecting play line dolls. This is when I started to acquire some higher end stuff like Tonner and Integrity. I'm glad the play doll market is starting to be appealing again. I love being able to walk into a Walmart and grab a decent doll.

It still bewilders me that DC Superhero girls didn't just recreate fashions from the comics, they had 70+ years worth of fashion AND themes to work with. Easily could have gotten the true comic nerds with that.

I find it interesting that no one has mentioned how Mattel losing the Disney Princess license affected things in 2014, but especially how it affected the rest of their brands from that point on. The MH reboot was the most obvious result of the Disney money disappearing in 2016, but you could see how it affected things with Mattel's pivot to "girl power" brands happened beforehand including EAH's slogan changing to "Princesses are Powerful". I honestly wouldn't have regarded this period as the dark ages if Barbie maintained the quality level she had from 2014 to 2016, but in 2017 the quality of the Fashionistas and the Made To Moves took a massive dive that they never recovered from. The fact Mattel started using polypropylene everywhere, the UV print faces, and the way the fashions just changed to sack dresses because Mattel dropped the fashion packs to work on the individual body types was a massive disappointment as I had switched from the more stylised lines to Barbie around this time. Honestly I was close to quitting the hobby several times but the lack of choices made it easier to catch my breath both in terms of my wishlist but also to work on my project list.

As a general blind box collector, I can totally understand how LOL Surprise exploded and changed the market like it did even if I personally don't like them. Idk WHAT they're putting in blind boxes to make them so addicting, but once you start, you're a goner. Blind box mania is REAL. 😭

Enchantimals truly are the Satan's Gravy of fashion dolls. I remember when things were getting weird around that time, and Poopsies came out, I was amazed at how such a dumpy concept could have such a high quality, and wished they would make them into fashion dolls. When they came out with Rainbow High, I was so stoked, it was like prayers answered. It's hilarious to think we have Poopsie and Rainbow Surprise to thank for Rainbow High. Now if only they would make Fantasy Friends into Fantasy High...

I was 11 when monster high got rebooted and the dark ages of dolls came about. The sad thing is when all the high quality dolls began disappearing and when I couldn't find a new doll in toy aisles that interested me I simply assumed I was too grown up for dolls at that point and it made me embarrassed of ever having dolls in the first place. As a kid I simply moved on to Shopkins because that's what every other kid was doing, and I would hide my box of dolls anytime I had anyone over. I'm glad I at least saved the majority of my dolls now that I'm back into collecting at age 18 and have been collecting for a few years now.

Okay um as a historian the little bit you put in there about the "dark ages" made me so indescribably happy

I loved you how went into how 'The Dark Ages' is a misnomer on your doll video. As a history fan, it was unexpected and delightful

My favorite part of the Star Wars dolls still remains that you couldn’t even remove their clothes aside from like, one selected piece of fabric (ie: one had a removable vest and that’s it) I genuinely don’t know what they were thinking on that one.

I remember walking into shops and feeling depressed and almost disgusted at how cheap everything was. Felt like companies were spitting in our faces, especially in Australia where we get everything later and in much lesser quantity. I usually only buy 1 favourite doll from lines that don't interest me a lot or that would be too expensive to collect all of. I literally have 1 hairdorables, 1 lol surprise and 1 lol surprise fashion doll. I did a lot of customizing in that time. If companies couldn't make cool dolls i'd do it myself.

It's a shame that some of these doll lines during the dark ages didn't last long, I really like some of their designs! I'm kicking myself for not getting the DC Superhero Girls when they first came out. Hopefully I can find some second hand for a decent price.

I'm not much of a collector, but I worked in a Walmart toy department in 2018/2019 and at a Target toy department a couple of years later. Even not being in the toy collecting world, you could tell there was kind of a shift going on. I remember seeing stuff like the Wild Heartz and Hairdorables on the shelves, but the LOL Surprise dolls outsold *everything* by a huge margin. We couldn't stock them fast enough, and the only thing that even vaguely competed with them were Paw Patrol toys for the younger demographic. This was also around the release of Disney's Frozen 2 toys, which I'd thought would do well, but even that paled in comparison. At Target in 2021/2022, it was kind of wild to see how much the LOL brand had grown. It and Rainbow High + Shopkins and a few smaller blindbox brands took up both sides of an aisle by themselves, and it was impossible to keep it organized. I think there was more variety overall for an older demographic at Target than there had been at Walmart, so there wasn't quite as large of a difference between the rate of sale for LOL dolls and other toys, but those and Rainbow High were still the top selling dolls. And honestly, I was glad to see that blindboxes weren't *quite* as popular as they'd been before. It seemed like that was most of what we had at Walmart in 2019. Parents hated them, but the kids were obsessed with them. It seems like it's a little more common now for larger "surprise" toys to discreetly display somewhere on the box what toy is inside, like I remember at Target having these toys themed around adopting a surprise pet, but the color of the box or an image somewhere on it showed which one it was, which particularly helped parents a lot when shopping.

I think the dark ages is what made me get into Korean and Japanese doll lines over US which is super interesting to look back on. With nothing cute or pretty on US shelves and some of the bigger fanbases being dead, I became enraptured by brands like Pullip who were still releasing gorgeous, iconic dolls. Pullip still remains the one brand I collect (albeit sparingly because they are PRICY)

American Girl’s horrible Beforever reboot came out around this time too and totally killed the historical line. Also, remember Cave Club dolls? I remember seeing them around 2020 and thinking they were kind of cute, but they disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Kids, wanted to develop intense gambling addictions!" 👏🤣 I'm glad that the huge success of Rainbow High and LOL OMG dolls shows, there is still very much a place for FASHION on dolls! After selling my MH collection of 27 dolls, I went on to collect dolls in the Japanese market - Blythe and Momoko and later on Smart Doll. Really enjoyed your analysis!

The catalyst for this “dark age” of doll collecting, especially at Mattel was the loss of the Disney Princess line in 2016. The release of ‘Ever After High’ tipped Disney over the edge & they pulled it’s license. This was a massive cash cow for Mattel & the loss was felt across the company. This hugely impacted Mattel financially & you saw this across their surviving doll lines. It was much of the reason for the loss in quality & the need to “reboot” their toy lines as they looked to cut costs. Hence Mattel working so hard to get the license back. 👸🏾👸🏼👸🏽

I remember during this age OOAK dolls were rising(the content creators) Hextian,Dollightfull etc... and there was that one who created LOL dolls by using Fashionistas I don't remember this person channel but she sure make a movement her content I think inspired MGM to step-up their game in the Fashion Doll line and I would like to personally thank that content creator

i really feel like we're in the golden era of mga with all the lol and rainbow high dolls, and i'm honestly living for it

I saw that unicorn girl group poopy play commercial for the first time ever just yesterday! Astonishing - I can't believe we didn't hear more concerned parents groups raising issue with the inescapable kidsbop scatology.

You are so right on the shopkins part during like 2017 - 2019 ( when Monster high and Ever After High wasn’t around) I was a huge fan of the shoppies dolls and collected almost all of them when ever a new doll was on the shore shelf, yeah the quality wasn’t there, but they were very affordable for what they were, the designs and colors were just so pleasing to look at plus they had a cute theme over all. I like to think that Shopkins was kind of the start of the blind box trend which probably got a lot of other toy companies invested in that because of Shopkins success at least in my view.

honestly, the dark times of doll collecting is around the time i got into... doll customizing, and OOAKs. They are such good hobbies that bounce off one another so well. Fake, cheap dolls can become ooaks while the originals in good condition can be preserved. it's all in all so great.

This period is actually when I started getting into dolls! When I was a kid, I wasn't really into dolls. I played mostly with Furbies, Hot Wheels, Lego, and Thomas the Tank Engine toys. I wasn't actually into many "girlie" toys throughout most of my childhood and was sort of a tomboy. But I did get into MLP when I was a teen through the G4 cartoon. Started collecting G4s in 2011, and from there quickly branched out into the previous generations, too. I did buy some Equestria Girls dolls as part of my MLP collecting, but still wasn't really into other dolls. I finally got into dolls properly in 2016, unfortunately right around the time the Monster High G2 reboot was going on. I had thrifted a couple G1 Monster High dolls and I really liked them, and this sparked a desire to get more MH, as well as Ever After High. I had my parents buy my some G1 MH and EAH dolls online for me, during this time where the secondhand market for them wasn't too bad, and some could even still be obtained brand new on places like Amazon. I did get a couple G2 MH dolls from stores around this time, but not many. I think the stand out for me personally during this period was Shoppies. I did get some regular Shopkins, but the focus of buying from this toyline for me was absolutely the Shoppies. I think they have really cute faces, fun designs and color schemes, and the wide variety of hair styles really appealed to me. They had molded on tops, an aspect I'm not usually a fan of on dolls, but I find it much easier to look past this on smaller scale dolls like the Shoppies than I do on 12 inch dolls like Barbie or Monster High. I have a decent amount of Shoppies that I bought when I was working my first job back in 2017 and 2018. I had a goal at one point to buy every release the line had, and while that still sounds appealing, some of the aftermarket prices are just more than what I'm willing to pay. Add onto that the younger demographic of the dolls, and most of the dolls available in the aftermarket that aren't still in their package aren't in very good condition. And I find myself to be very picky with the condition of my Shoppies dolls, especially when many of their unique hair styles are a big draw for me and I'm not good at restyling doll hair. That's about it, I think. I did buy I think three Hairdorables when they came out but I'm not really a fan of spending $10+ on blind toys so I didn't get many of them. Blind toys are one thing when you're spending only a few dollars on them like Shopkins or bling bag MLPs, but once you get to the price of Hairdorables I find it harder to justify buying a toy when you don't know what you're getting. I definitely would have picked up more Hairdorables had they not been blind. I did also buy some Barbie Fashionistas during this time, but that's definitely a line where I buy for the doll itself, and not the boring clothes they come with lmao.

It's sad that the dark ages of collecting ended right as I graduated high school. I had a job all through high school so I had disposable income as I was only paying my phone bill at the time. Once I graduated high school and had to pay more bills is when better dolls started showing up. I'm 21 now and I still collect dolls but I rarely get a new doll it's mostly thrifting and eBay.

I cannot empthasize enough how much I relate to the disgust/cringing about having to talk about p**ps*e slime surprise I was one of the rare people that was trying to collect during that time, as I had just discovered that I liked/wanted to collect dolls and those were.... desperately sad times. Like I got into it when monster high the reboot died and I was awaiting the howling hoodies dolls to come out for that to never happen LOL hairdorables and shoppie dolls were honestly my saving grace of that time. I remember like watching toy fair stuff and catching up on news for dolls and a lot of the stuff was so... bottom of the barrel. like "heres 20 doll brands with sculpted/molded on hair and if their clothes isn't it's plastic/rubber that looks TERRIBLE in the back" like don't mean to diss them but hatchimals pixies blume purristas, secret crush, candylocks, probably a lot more before those being most of the new dolls coming out was... yeah. dark ages.

i find it really interesting how much the blind box trend changed the entire toy market in general and how that change can be traced back right here to youtube. kids were consuming so much unboxing content on kids channels that it was no wonder the blind box trend completely blew up. it makes me wonder how social media influences what kids want from toys now, since we are pretty much officially out of the blind box era. tv and movies used to be the #1 controllers of what kids wanted, but now pretty much anyone with a big enough social media following could start a trend in the market.

"My poops, poops, my poo-" *o h m y g o d* That made me laugh so hard

Funny thing, the dark ages where a pretty good time for me as a lalaloopsy collector and strawberry shortcake collector, because mga was just doing whatever with lalaloopsy and even if it meant the quality dipped in favor of lol surprise i managed to get more mini dolls, not only that but the vintage ssc line was poppin tf off during this time so :D

this era was.. something. i bought the occasional snapstar or boxy girl, but i was mostly in the bratz community. the prices used to be so good so the community was booming, good times tbh

i genuinely think that if MGA hadn’t come out w lol omg, the fashion doll dark ages would still be on going cus they successfully transitioned the focus and appeal from surprise toys to fashion dolls which allowed brands to start picking up the pace and start making fashion dolls again which although i would like to see more lines other than RH/SH and MH i’m glad we’re in a good place.

The dark ages were so nice for me as a MH collector. That's actually when I dusted off my childhood collection and started collecting seriously. I got some of my grails (wave 1 ghoulia, holt, DOTD, etc.) for around their original retail prices. I miss it...

Absolute deadpanned , " Kids didn’t want to brush hair or build cute outfits ." "Kids wanted to develop intense gambling habits .” 😆😆😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Those poopsy unicorn things were so expensive and now I see them at the thrift store all the time for less than $5

Honestly? The Wild Hearts Crew looks like it slapped. Genuinely very lovely designs. Very cool.

The dark age was when I really got into collecting Asian dolls. It’s interesting to see what was happening in the western doll market!! Nice video!

Dark ages where when I was REALLY into dolls and it was so sad. So glad it’s gotten better.

Aaaaa the Ocean shirt is so cute on you. Honestly your outfits is amazing every time. ❤️

It’s so weird how I NEVER see enchantimals anywhere anymore and yet they’re somehow still around, nobody ever mentions them either, its so strange

As a medieval history girlie, I love that you explained that the “dark ages” are a false narrative

I guess I can say that my interest in dolls sort of began in this era? My best friend gifted me both an Enchantimal fox girl and a Cori Cruize Wild Hearts Crew doll, and that was all the doll I felt I needed at the time. In the back of my mind, however, I always yearned for those days in my childhood where getting a new doll elicited pure giddiness in me. Around the time Rainbow High series 2 came out, my best friend and I were in Target for something else, and we just decided to look in the toy aisle to see what was new, and we were floored by how gorgeous both Bella and Ruby were, so we ended up picking them out. Now it's spiraled out of control, but I still get this rush of giddy joy every time I get a doll I really want in my hands, like with last night opening up my Clawdeen Wolf studio bootique. It's a sort of magic, can't get enough!

Don't forget Shibajuku Girls! Of all the dolls of this era i think they were absolutely the most robbed in terms of popularity. They were so cute, and for someone who really wanted to buy more Pullip dolls but couldn't afford to, they were a really great alternative with fun fashion and lots of hair to style too!

I LOVED and still love the Spacepop line. They all have goddess names, beautiful hands, and wonderful skin tones. Those are the only dolls I bought during that time period other than old EAH and MH dolls.

I collect animals and action figures, why am I so addicted to fashion doll videos???

one thing about miss darling dolls she always gonna have the cutest fucking shirt on

dude i remember shopkins!! they had to ban them from school because people kept trading them, it was like a huge thing. the dolls were also super cute, i had one that i literally loved

Honestly i think the blind bags trend just took notes from the video game industry at the time. Usually there, a trend develops from free mobile games, which utilize a fuckton of psychologically manipulative strategies to get people to spend money on them. Then, they trickle up to big blockbuster releases. Lootboxes, if not originated, were at least popularized around the mid to early 2010's, even in video games with large young audiences (think fifa, for example. Though they did first get popularized in mobile games which - again, were already mostly targeted at kids). They probably picked up the gambling habit there, the toy industry probably saw how lucrative it was and how easy it was to get around gambling laws in this way, and copied their homework. I don't really remember blindbag toys picking up massive steam until the mid to late 2010's.

The crime with the Star Wars Forces Of Destiny dolls is that we didn't get any of Padme Amidala's GOOD outfits. Seriously, she has some of the most AMAZING DRESSES, and they chose her PLAIN, WHITE COMBAT OUTFIT.

during that time i actually collected g1 monster highs via ebay bc the prices were p nice. I'm SO GLAD i got all of my Elissabats (had to have all the lines for my fave character) then for an average of $12usd each bc the prices now suuuuuuuuuck. Also, like, I feel like the MH reboot in 2016 was so horribly received in huuuge part due to it feeling so sudden, like they were IN THE MIDDLE OF some stories and we had a whole crossover with EAH we were looking forward to, and then EAH gets canned and MH gets the g2 and all of that def fed the hatred people had.

Kids didn't want to brush hair or build cute outfits, kids wanted to develop acute gambling addictions. - I spit out my coffee when you said that line. I only came into doll collecting in the past 2 years so I missed all this but seeing the DC girls reminded me of how I wanted the Poison Ivy doll and listened to everyone around me that she wasn't pretty... that's also what prevented me from having Monster High dolls when they were still available here, listening to others. Now I want them 😅

I just want you to know that I don’t collect dolls, I never have and I never will. But I find this channel fascinating. Great work!

1. I actually think its interesting that Poopsie Slime Surprise became Rainbow Surprise became Rainbow High (and maybe also those Fantasy Friends too? I kinda like those except that they seem loosely on the poop/slime-related wagon as well) (wasn't this also the era of everything slime related being popular on social media? I think thats what all this was about.) 1a. My licensed graphic tee company got the licenses to make MGA shirts in 2019 and we started with all these brands that don't even exist any more like Num Noms and Moj Moj and Hangrees which I am pretty sure were all blind box gimmicks too. They were canceled like the moment we signed the contract which I find funny. I have made Poopsie Slime tees though, and admittedly it was pretty fun to design for but I wish I had never ever watched the video for that song. 2. I am glad that the blind box gambling addiction got pushback and is fading, although in the middle of this video I got an ad for like Shoppable Minis or something, so I'm a little worried - there does seem to be a lot of 'mini blind box' products right now including ones from MGA (mini blind box Bratz, etc) 3. I think Space Pop deserves a complete redesign/rewrite because the concept of Alien Princess sounds like something that could be really fun and magical. 4. Overall it seems like companies were struggling to keep the quality and details of things high which I imagine is related to inflation and other factors. I actually am into WWE and I was looking at those dolls this last year, debating if I wanted one, but the clothes look so cheap and sad. I do like that they come with sporty ring gear and an extra day outfit, so it seems like they were trying to balance fashion doll and action figure. I think a better quality version of these (and others) would have been really cool. 5. Personally, after the MH reboot I got out of doll collecting for a few years, then starting getting back into Pullips and bought several Living Dead Dolls. I WISH I had been more familiar with looking for dolls on the secondhand markets, and looked for older MH releases then, or got into Bratz then rather than right when everyone else did

At that time, I was ALL ABOUT the rebooted Equestria Girls dolls! I was there when they were unveiled at Hascon. Once they released in stores, I quickly snapped them all up. I was genuinely sad that they were discontinued. There were a bunch of neat characters and outfits in the animated series that could've been lovely dolls! Still have all my mane 7 girls and love them!

It’s so sad how the quality dropped off during that period. I was exclusively an AG collector but I did own a few of the early shopkins. I watched a bunch of myfroggystuff videos about these dolls, but as you said LOL definitely dominated. I remember being confused why baby dolls with so much packaging were so popular at first, then the kids I babysat owned some and I was amazed to see them in person haha! Great video

A doll I really liked that came out in 2019 was the “createable world” line by mattel the dolls came with masculine and feminine clothes and a wig to make the hair longer, varying in skintones and hair textures too. The focus was on opening up an avenue for children to learn and explore how clothes don’t have to be tied to one gender, how gender can change and allowed for creativity and freedom, granted the clothes weren’t exactly the best looking pattern wise they were still decent quality and the dolls themselves were articulated too. The wigs also didn’t sit right on some of the heads but aside from that they were really good, sadly I think they got discontinued but there’s still some available on Amazon, really wish Mattel had kept going with them because they really helped me to figure out who I was and would probably help othe children do the same

Is it weird to say that most of the dolls you mentioned I have actually seen at discount stores like Ollie’s or Tuesday Morning?😅

I love the brief historical aside.

Ngl I thankfully have all my Monster High dolls from when I was little, it only took a few years to get into collecting after Monster High gen 2 failed. You helped me care more about other dolls like LOL and Rainbow High when I genuinely hated seeing them in stores before. Thank you for helping me learn to love fashion dolls again, I only wish I had more room to put them all.

big fan of how much PINK you have in your outfits/chair/shelves, it looks great!

Those pooping slime unicorns brought back some very unpleasant memories from the time I was a housekeeper

i remember the forces of destiny dolls! they were surprisingly cute despite their molded-on base clothing! i still have the jyn erso chilling in the back of my collection shelf, despite how different she is. i do wish they had been higher quality, though. the star darlings were also pretty good, despite their stiff joints and easily-damaged hair

When you mentioned shopkins, everything just clicked to me. Everything made sense! You see, when I was a kid I was absolutely obsessed with shopkins and would beg my mom to buy me one everything we go the the store. It never occurred to me how shopkins had affected the doll community, and even perhaps the entire toy community forever.

I was buying for my stepdaughter at this time (and living vicariously through her, playing with her toys). I remember only getting excited about a couple of dolls. Particularly towards the end of this period, with the lol omg girls. My stepdaughter was very into the lol tots and the blind boxes they were sold in. She inherited all of my monster high dolls (like 2010ish era, still had all the pieces lmao) and they basically spontaneously combusted in her hands. Xmas 2020, I got her the $120 set of the LOL rock band. It had 4 omg dolls and 4 tots. It took us an hour to open it properly. And we had so much fun. I remember the LOL dolls giving me so many Bratz vibes. It just reminded me of me childhood all over again. They just didn't feel as overly sexualized. Which I appreciated! Their accessories and stories were all about the music and love for art! I encourage that! The dolls of my childhood were very much more sexualized. I appreciate that despite this slump in doll collecting, kids have a pretty wide range of dolls to collect and choose from.

Poopsies slime surprise era was just unbearable

I spent those years staring hungrily at doll blogs and trying to convince myself that the dolls they reviewed were cute. I'm so glad I held off on Boxy Girls.

I halted collecting mainly when they shut down all the Toys R US stores. Buying toys at Wal-Mart or target wasn't as fun. But I'm bummed I missed out on the spacepop dolls. Those were cute. It wasn't until 2022 I started collecting again. I do love Enchantimals though and glad they lasted, though I only see them online.

Shibajuku Girls was another line that didn’t last long, but I loved them!!

This was actually the time when i started to get a bit more into collecting. The Barbie fashionistas with the different body types i found really fun and really was what I had been looking for for a while. Though the clothes were dissapointing. But that was also when I started trying to find more vintage barbie dolls and clothes as well.

"unsucsessful doll reboots'' **me casually having lalaloopsy 2017 flashbacks** But in all seriousness, We're Lalaloopsy deserved better. I loved the characters, the songs, pretty much everything. And Netflix cancelled it. I will NEVER forgive them for that (then again, lalaloopsy is still alive and thriving, so chances are, (and I hope so) they could make a second season). Also the large dolls from that are REALLY cool. Lalaloopsies with real hair? Now that's something you don't see everyday. The minis were also SEW cute!!!! Dear God, this had POTENTIAL, even if it was cheesy, it still had potential. I was OBSESSED with the reboot lol. Speaking of potential (or should i say poo-tential), Poopsie had potential, it's just that it had dookie gimmicks, they are absolutely gorgeous, but they had *_DOOKIE GIMMICKS_*. They could've been better off without the gimmicks and be horse/pony fashion dolls with magic, fashion, creativity and sccience gimmicks but NO. They just HAD to go with the dookie gimmicks. It's really funny how an extremely hated toyline transformed into a gorgeous collection of fashion dolls. I'm still waiting for MGA to remake the OG Rainbow Surprise dolls and incorporate them into the RH style bc that would be legit

I was a young Monster High collector during the dark ages, and oh my god, I was heartbroken. I bought a few Gen 2 dolls and watched the only two movies the reboot had to offer, and I was just sad. I remember trying to get into LOL Surprise, loving the MC squared dolls during their short run, and enjoying Hairdorables as well. Unfortunately, since I’m Australian, a lot of the releases you mentioned never game here. Shelves during that time, at least here, were genuinely empty. Im forever greatful that Mattel decided to give us Monster High again last year, because my passion for doll collecting has come back full force for not only Monster High, but the many dolls that have come out since. I genuinely don’t know how I’d feel if they hadn’t come out with generation 3, but so far I’m overjoyed to practically relive my childhood through these wonderful releases!!!

Doll lines were going down so fast, you could find new dolls at Marshalls every week.

This is so off-topic, but I deeply appreciate that you opened this video with a quick note about the myth of the historical Dark Ages. Made this historian very happy.

I started collecting at the end of the Monster High era. I wasn't collecting dolls yet. I was broke, so most of my collecting was done in thriftstores. I pretty much got all my Monster High from there when I started being obcessed with them. I remember going into stores and being sad there was no cute dolls on the shelves and laughing at some poor designs.

I remember hating Poopsie Slime Surprise so much. That and the LOL Surprise Tots turned me off of MGA dolls in general during the dark ages. I feel like rebranding the Poopsie Brand into Rainbow High was the biggest, most impressive, redemption arc I have ever seen from any doll line. I am even working on a fanfiction that reads like a Creepypasta set in the Rainbow High Universe about the Poopsie Slime Surprise Unicorns and characters haunting the RH characters in their dreams to get revenge on them for replacing them. LOL OMG also helped redeem MGA for me as well, because the quality of the dolls really increased the quality and the expectations for what a playline fashion doll could be in general. As for lines that I did collect a bit of during the dark ages, I collected a few DC Superhero Girls dolls, a few Hairdorables Hairmazing dolls (those are so underrated in my opinion), a few MLP Equestria Girls dolls, a few Wild Hearts Crew dolls (which are also underrated in my opinion), and a few Enchantimals dolls, but I never really got emotionally attached to any of it like how passionate I was about collecting MH Gen 1. Currently, I consider Shadow High to the equivalent to the Second Coming of MH Gen 1 for me, as its the only modern doll line that has brought me that same level of happiness, passion, and emotional satisfaction that I had back during the time I was collecting MH Gen 1.

The only place I've EVER seen Enchantimals is in second hand stores- I don't know what that says about them, but I always buy them the second I see one! I honestly love them, they're pretty cute, even if they aren't super high quality

I hadn’t had my finger on the doll market pulse since the first Monster High days, but I MUST have needed to shop for my niece’s birthday during these dark ages because WOW this video really summed up my entire shopping experience. Poopsie. Dark times indeed.

During this dark age I got lots of 80s - 90s Barbies still in their boxes for dirt cheap. So I didn’t suffer much.

During the dark ages of doll collecting I had 1 doll left in tact from my childhood. It was a gigi grant from monster high. I would have dreams almost every night about going shopping with my little sister and finding old and new dolls on the shelves. Ever sense the industry got its crap together I now have 14 dolls some rainbow and shadow high, some old og monster high dolls and some new g3s. It feels like a dream holding them in my hands and seeing them irl.

Truly is a renaissance of collecting dolls! It is overwhelming, my need and wish to be a fierce diva is now sublimated by living through these amazing fashion dolls

Oh I remember wild hearts crew! I actually own one. I stumbled across them at Walmart while I think my sibling was looking for LOLs, and I wasn't plugged into the doll collecting scene at ALL at the time so I went "oh cool, mattel has a new line like monster high" and grabbed one. I was really puzzled when I never saw or heard about them again. I've still never unboxed her, and I kinda wonder how much it would cost me to grab some of the rest of the line secondhand

I switched over to Integrity Toy. I was mesmerized by the quality! Their faces and clothes just pulled me right in. I love collecting boy dolls and they had long haired boy dolls, they were just something I thought would never be created by a toy company.

I got into doll collecting right before the start of the dark ages. Those first few years were rough but I thought that was just what the doll community was like. It's crazy now to see how big and thriving the community is now that the market has picked back up!

I wanted to get into fashion doll collecting around that time, especially monster high dolls, as I had hit a dry spot in the local availability of porcelain dolls, my cousins’s love for MH had finally rubbed off on me, & I started watching some doll customizing content on YT that really lit a creative fire. My eyes were suddenly opened to the fact that they actually were pretty cool, & I had been dismissing them as “kids series/toys” way too hastily. But my eyes were opened just as we were on the precipice of these dark ages. My favorite things about them were: That different characters had unique color palettes. It can be pretty hard for me, as someone who is very picky about my colors, to love a doll that isn’t blue, green, or one of the very specific shades of purple I like. I also really liked the boldness of MH once I really started looking at them. In many ways, from the unnatural skin & hair colors, to the comparatively wild & usually kind of campy fashion, to the willingness to play with weird new bodies, which included see-through dolls, goo-textured 15¼in dolls, dolls with fur textured molds & gigantic feet, dolls with glow in the dark bits, mermaid dolls where each & every mermaid got a completely unique tail, dolls with *more than two arms!!* (one of the few MH dolls I do have is Kala, & I would kill to get a Wydona Spider doll, either the original or one in a future wave of the reboot), etcetera. And, as someone who only knew about Barbie dolls as a kid, I was astonished & delighted that some dolls had so much articulation & posability! I know some Barbies are articulated too, but Barbie just doesn’t seem as good at it as MH is. It felt like _all_ of that slipped away from the market just as I decided to get my hands into it. I still remember the feeling of utter defeat when I heard that the newest wave of monster high didn’t have articulated arms or knees. The Barbie fashionistas came out, & at first I was excited because they had a blue haired doll, so surely, they’ll eventually release a neon-haired & alt dressed doll, for diversity? No, all the dolls were wearing a pretty tame everyday city wear or business casual.

i am so glad u brought up the spacepop cartoon cause i tried to watch it since the dolls actually looked cool and i almost died cause what the hell were they thinking

During the doll “dark age” I had just gotten into doll repainting. I was really mad at myself cuz I gave away all my monster high/Barbie/bratz dolls a year or so before because I didn’t play with them and I thought I was too old. Then I realized I still loved dolls so I bought a 150 monster high doll lot for like $100 off eBay and lots from thrift stores for like $1 each, so I didn’t even noticed there weren’t any dolls on the market. I was a nanny though and one of my kids was obsessed with shopkins and I just did not understand, she also had an American girl doll that she adored as well.

i started collecting in 2020 so im super appreciative to get a look into what the market/community was like before i got into collecting!

Dang, it's weird looking back at these years now that we've hit such a renaissance in current toy trends. Honestly, I loved a lot of these doll lines. I bought tons of Shoppies, kept up with DC Superhero Girls and Marvel Rising for as long as the quality lasted, got a few Hairdorables... but there was always this feeling that long-lasting quality had died with the MH reboot and that a new doll line would only be as good as its first release and it was all downhill from there. A pessimistic but sadly accurate take for the times. I also remember this being the time when Mattel's quality control overall took a HUGE fall. I heard somewhere they'd switched facilities and yeah, there were just a lot of dolls being put on shelves that were too warped and misprinted to have ever made it there to begin with.

I am not even a doll collector, but I find your videos extremely interesting and addictive.

i actually stopped collecting during this time as i outgrew my dolls (miss my 2000-2010 dolls fr) thankfully i have started collecting again, restoring the ones i did have originally. :) this era though, as i phased out of my doll collecting i noticed the decline in quality of barbie specifically because i was not allowed to have monster high or bratz lol. it's disappointing to see the erasure of barbie's glamor today because 2000s/2010s barbie with diversity would probably do extremely well. i hope mattel is able to bring that quality and fashion design back, not only for barbie, but for monster high as well! i love the g3 reboot but i'm not too fond of their fashions lol. -(or clawdeen...)- i notice that since OMG released, mga has been very prominent in the toy market! i love to see that because their designs are so detailed and coherent, it's refreshing to see that. i hope this boom in fashion dolls continues as it truly is a blessing to have so many amazing dolls out right now.

I’m not surprised that Enchantmials were in the thumbnail

My interest in collecting dolls started right at the beginning of this era, and I never liked high glam looks, so I didn't miss the early 2010s dolls. I'm almost exclusively a pre-owned collector anyway. The monster high gen 3 is the first new line outside fashionistas that I've wanted to collect (even as someone that didn't like gen 1) because it's not high glam OR overwhelmingly kiddish. This seems like the first time that there's something for every taste on store shelves.