50 Fun Facts About Dolls

Which country banned the talking doll My Friend Cayla in 2017, ruling it a concealed spying device?

Germany's telecoms regulator told parents to destroy the doll, because its insecure Bluetooth link let strangers reach its microphone. One now sits in Berlin's spy museum.

The real Annabelle, the supposedly haunted doll investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren, is what kind of doll?

Raggedy Ann, the soft red-haired rag doll, is what the Warrens kept in their Connecticut museum. The Conjuring films swapped in a far more menacing figure, partly over trademark worries.

The English word doll comes from Doll, an old pet form of which woman's name?

Dorothy was shortened to Doll, and the nickname was later given to the toy. The same pet name survives in Dolly.

Which American inventor's 1890 talking doll flopped within weeks, partly because it frightened children?

Thomas Edison put a miniature phonograph inside each doll to play a single nursery rhyme. The wax records wore out and cracked quickly, and it was pulled from sale almost at once.

The giant robot doll in the first episode of Squid Game oversees a deadly version of which children's game?

Red Light, Green Light turns lethal whenever the doll spots a player moving. She was modelled on Young-hee, a girl from the covers of old South Korean school textbooks.

Which doll, launched by Mattel in 1961, was named after the son of Barbie's creator Ruth Handler?

Ken was named for Kenneth Handler, just as Barbie was named for his sister Barbara. The famous toy couple are namesakes of a real brother and sister.

What is the Russian name for the wooden nesting dolls that fit one inside another?

Matryoshka is the only name Russians use; calling them babushka dolls is a foreign habit. The first set was carved in the 1890s from a design by a folk-art painter.

What is the name of the Good Guy doll possessed by a serial killer's soul in the Child's Play films?

Chucky is the nickname of Charles Lee Ray, a strangler who uses a voodoo ritual to move his soul into the toy after being shot. Brad Dourif voiced him in the original films.

Which dolls came with adoption papers and sparked riots among shoppers in American stores in 1983?

Cabbage Patch Kids were so scarce that parents literally fought over them in the aisles. Maker Coleco cancelled its advertising because it could not keep up with demand.

In Jacqueline Susann's bestselling 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls, the word dolls is slang for what?

Pills, the uppers and downers her heroines come to depend on as show business sours, are the dolls of the title. It was the best-selling novel of its year.

Which Hasbro soldier of 1964 was never called a doll in its marketing, giving rise to the term action figure?

G.I. Joe was sold as a movable fighting man, because toy makers assumed parents would never buy a boy a doll. Britain later got a licensed copy called Action Man.

Which tiny doll, first sold in 1989 by Bluebird Toys, began life inside a powder compact?

Polly Pocket's first home was a little house built into a powder compact. Bluebird Toys of Swindon licensed the idea and turned it into clam-shell playsets small enough to carry anywhere.

Cloe, Jade, Sasha and Yasmin were the four original characters of which fashion doll line, launched in 2001?

Bratz dolls flopped at their debut, then took about 40% of the fashion-doll market within five years. A long court fight with Mattel over who owned the design ended in their maker's favour.

Kirsten, Samantha and Molly were the first historical characters of which doll brand, launched in 1986?

American Girl began after founder Pleasant Rowland visited Colonial Williamsburg and saw a gap for dolls that looked like children rather than babies or adults. Mattel bought the company in 1998.

Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam created which toys, one of America's biggest fads of the early 1960s?

Trolls with furry, up-combed hair were first made in rubber at Dam's factory, then in plastic. DreamWorks bought the brand in 2013 and turned it into a run of animated films.

Who directed the 2023 film Barbie, writing the screenplay with her husband Noah Baumbach?

Greta Gerwig took the job after Margot Robbie, an admirer of her Little Women, approached her to write it. The comedy became the highest-grossing film of 2023.

Which playwright wrote A Doll's House, in which Nora Helmer walks out on her husband Torvald?

Henrik Ibsen's play caused a storm of outrage after its 1879 premiere in Copenhagen. Nora leaves her keys and wedding ring behind, and in 2006 it was the most-performed play in the world.

Tiny worry dolls, tucked under a pillow at night to take a child's troubles away, come from which country?

Guatemala's highland people make the dolls from wire, wool and scraps of bright cloth. A child tells each one a worry before bed, and by morning the doll is said to have carried it off.

Kewpie dolls, first drawn by cartoonist Rose O'Neill in 1909, take their name from which mythological figure?

Cupid inspired both the name and the look of O'Neill's baby characters, which started in a comic strip. Japan's best-selling mayonnaise later borrowed the Kewpie name and mascot.

Which Danish-Norwegian pop group had a 1997 hit with Barbie Girl, prompting a lawsuit from Mattel?

Aqua's record label was sued by the toy maker six months after the single came out, but the courts threw the case out. The song comes from the group's debut album, Aquarium.

Round, red Daruma dolls are modelled on Bodhidharma, the monk credited with founding which school of Buddhism?

Zen's founder is why the dolls have no limbs: legend says his arms and legs withered during nine years of meditation. Owners paint in one blank eye on setting a goal and the other on reaching it.

Japan's Hinamatsuri, when families display dolls of an emperor and empress on red-covered tiers, is also called what?

Girls' Day falls on 3 March, and girls and their mothers set up the display a few days before. Boys once had their own day on 5 May, which is now Children's Day.

Which traditional wooden dolls from northern Japan have a simple trunk and head but no arms or legs?

Kokeshi were first turned on lathes by woodworkers near the hot springs of Tohoku, and each spa area developed its own style. The face is just a few thin painted lines.

Japanese children hang teru teru bozu, small white handmade dolls, outside windows in the hope of what?

Sunny weather is the wish, because the doll stands for a monk's bald head shining in the sun. If the day turns out fine, it is rewarded with a splash of holy sake.

Hopi katsina dolls, which teach girls about spirit beings, are traditionally carved from the root of which tree?

Cottonwood root supplied each figure's whole body from a single piece, which was then rubbed smooth with sandstone. The dolls portray katsinam, immortal beings said to bring rain.

Robert the Doll, a reportedly haunted figure in a sailor suit, is exhibited at a museum in which Florida city?

Key West's East Martello Museum shows Robert, who belonged to an eccentric local artist named Robert Eugene Otto. The sailor suit was probably one Otto wore as a boy.

The Island of the Dolls, where a recluse hung old dolls around his land, lies in the canals of which capital?

Mexico City's Xochimilco canals hold the island, where Don Julián Santana Barrera began hanging dolls in the mid-20th century. Legend says he did it to appease the spirit of a girl who died there.

Which horror film stars a lifelike AI doll whose dance scene became a TikTok meme before release?

M3GAN's dance spread under its own hashtag, and the film-makers had argued over whether to reveal it in the trailer at all. The meme ended up building the buzz for the release.

Queen Mary's Dolls' House, designed by architect Edwin Lutyens in the 1920s, is on display at which royal residence?

Windsor Castle has shown the house since 1925. Its tiny library holds miniature books with original stories by authors including Arthur Conan Doyle.

Which comic ballet with music by Léo Delibes features a life-size dancing doll that a village youth falls for?

Coppélia is the doll, built by Dr Coppélius, and Franz is so smitten that he neglects his sweetheart Swanhilda. At the 1870 premiere in Paris, Franz was danced by a ballerina.

Which Mattel doll of 1960 spoke one of eleven random phrases when a ring in her back was pulled?

Chatty Cathy was voiced by cartoon actress June Foray, who went on to voice Talky Tina, the murderous doll modelled on her in The Twilight Zone. The name became a byword for a talkative person.

Which talking doll in Toy Story 4 schemes to take Woody's voice box to replace her own broken one?

Gabby Gabby, voiced by Christina Hendricks, is backed by a gang of ventriloquist dummies. She hopes a working voice will finally win her a child of her own.

Which supermodel played a fashion doll brought to life by Lindsay Lohan's character in the film Life-Size?

Tyra Banks plays Eve, who comes alive when a girl's spell to bring back her late mother goes wrong. The TV film built a cult following and earned a sequel 18 years later.

Which child film star was the model for the Ideal Toy Company's best-selling doll, first sold in 1934?

Shirley Temple's likeness was so valuable that counterfeit dolls flooded the market. Ideal took one copycat maker to court, with the young star herself named as co-plaintiff.

Which rock band from Buffalo, New York, took its name from a toy advertised in True Detective magazine?

Goo Goo Dolls started out as a cover band with a punk sound. Their 1998 ballad Iris, written for the film City of Angels, then spent 18 weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart.

Which lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, founded in Los Angeles as a burlesque troupe, later judged The X Factor?

Nicole Scherzinger joined when a choreographer's neo-burlesque dance troupe was remade as a pop group. As a guest judge on the British show, she helped put One Direction together.

Which British singer made Living Doll, written by Lionel Bart, a hit in 1959 with his band the Drifters?

Cliff Richard's guitarist suggested playing the tune like a country song instead of fast rock and roll. The backing band soon renamed themselves the Shadows.

The musical Guys and Dolls, featuring gambler Nathan Detroit, is based on short stories by which American writer?

Damon Runyon wrote in a comic dialect all his own, mixing very formal language with colourful slang and no contractions. The show draws on several of his tales.

Which actress plays Nadia, who keeps dying and reliving her 36th birthday party, in the Netflix series Russian Doll?

Natasha Lyonne also created the show with Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler. Its first season was nominated for the Emmy for best comedy series, and she was nominated for the lead role.

Which bandleader wrote the 1953 jazz standard Satin Doll with his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn?

Duke Ellington wrote the main themes and had Strayhorn harmonise them. Strayhorn's own lyric, a tribute to his mother, whom he called by the song's title, was never performed and is now lost.

According to 1960s novels about Barbie, her fictional hometown of Willows is in which US state?

Wisconsin is home to Willows, where the books gave her parents named George and Margaret Roberts and a place at the local high school.

Barbie's first Dreamhouse, introduced by Mattel in 1962, had a single room and was made of which material?

Cardboard was all it took. The house appeared three years after the doll, at a time when it was rare for a woman to own her own home.

What is the name for a fear of dolls, a term taken from the Greek word for a little child?

Pediophobia can stretch to mannequins, wax figures and ventriloquist's dummies. Horror films such as Child's Play have long traded on it.

Faceless Native American dolls, blank in legend as a punishment for vanity, are made from the husks of which crop?

Corn husks form the whole doll, with the silk used for hair. In one legend the first doll grew so fond of her own beautiful face that she neglected the children, so it was taken away.

Wooden paddle dolls, with hair made of strung beads, have been found in the tombs of which ancient civilisation?

Egypt's tombs have yielded paddle dolls about 4,000 years old, which puts them among the earliest dolls ever documented.

Which British fashion doll, created by Pedigree in 1963, was the UK's best-selling toy in 1968 and 1970?

Sindy's maker had turned down a licence to produce Barbie, because its market research showed the American doll was unpopular with British buyers.

Akua'ba, wooden dolls with large disc-like heads used by women hoping to conceive, originate from which country?

Ghana's Akan peoples carve the figures, which a young woman may also use in the hope that her future children will be attractive.

Fulla, a fashion doll launched in 2003 as an alternative to Barbie for Muslim girls, was created in which country?

Syria's NewBoy Design Studio launched her alongside adverts on the popular Arabic television channel Spacetoon, and she soon overtook earlier dolls made with a hijab.

Which doll did Mattel create in 1964 as Barbie's little sister, after buyers asked for Barbie to have children?

Skipper was the company's answer to those requests, because it felt a younger sister suited the doll better than a baby of her own. In 2023 she fronted her own babysitting adventure film.

Silent-film star Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle dollhouse has been on show since 1949 at a museum in which US city?

Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry holds the castle, which her father began in 1928 with help from her former set designer.