Little Mind Vacation: Gurly Gurl Toy Edition
Google Image Search of the Week: “Vintage Strawberry Shortcake”
Muhriel Fahrion, an American Greeting card designer, invented Strawberry Shortcake in 1977 after being asked to design a line of cards that would speak to girls. Asked to design something that has “daisies, strawberries, a rag doll, and the colors are pink and red,” Muriel dreamed up Strawberry and the gang. At the time, she was part of a small, non-defunct licensing division of American Greetings called Those Characters From Cleveland, responsible for now-iconic toy brands like Care Bears. (The Ringer wrote a great history of how Cleveland became an unlikely Rust Belt beacon of sentiment.) Strawberry grossed $100 million in her first year on this planet.
Even when the rights for Strawberry Shortcake and the cast of characters were bought from American Greeting and turned into a hugely successful toy franchise, Muhriel never made a dime because she didn’t have the royalties. She has since had what seems to be a delightful life, and her Instagram kitchen dancing videos show that in a big way. When asked where her inspiration came from, she said this:
“Well, everything… I have a visual memory that I thought everybody had, but they don’t. And I thought, “Well, what if I was a ragdoll?” That was my thinking. “How would I sit? How would I move? What would I look like? What would I wear?” Really, that’s how I think. I don’t know where it comes from. I mean, probably my childhood, if I ever took that position or whatever or something I saw, but I didn’t put a reference in front of me.”
There are SO many gurly gurl toy reviewers soundtracking their Care Bears unboxing to Kaskade, and Very Famous is about to do some investigation!!! Were toys always so appealing to adults? There have always been those doll museums in small towns run by, like, a 70-something woman and her sister, maybe this is just the 2021 TikTok-y version of loving toys? More 2 come.
For now…
@lilmisstoycollector #slimeee #slimetime #fyp #toysoftiktok #slimemixing #sosatisfying #mixitup
VERY taken by these mini Polly Pocket water games.
Speaking of Polly, we want to interview the person manipulating the heads of these Polly characters almost as much as we want to interview the Bratz intern responsible for that historic Instagram DJ set!!!
Also, this L.O.L. Surprise House! Thank you to the ’80s Design group on Facebook for sharing it! Very Memphis, very Miami Vice!
One time, Very Famous writer and host Kelsey reported for now-defunct publication Racked on the people who design American Girl, Barbie, and Bratz clothes.
“I’m a big fan of pop culture and get inspired from the ever-changing world around me,” he says. It usually starts with a feeling or visceral reaction but is rooted in collaboration with my team, taking inspiration from a wide variety of places; television, celebrities, New York fashion shows, shopping in LA, or even graffiti on a wall in Hong Kong. The fashion industry itself is so obsessed with all things youthful, so it’s actually easy to take inspiration from high-end designers and make them kid-friendly. Even so, some days our customer is a six-year-old girl, but others it’s a grown-up collector.”
Blingee Museum Entry of the Week: “Happy 18th Maria!!” by HannahJuly
See y’all next time!
