Pop-On Wighats
According to Stephanie, Madi is a magical fairy that lives “somewhere between nature and make believe.” Madi and her friends are 13’ vinyl play dolls. They are beautifully sculpted and costumed, and they can magically change their personalities by changing their pop-on wighats. These wighats (one word, wighats) look like fun, and they change the look of the doll instantly, sort of like the wigs for a Fashion Queen Barbie, or the shoes on a Bratz…although the wighats seem to do more to change the overall look of the doll. “The wighats were inspired by a series of serendipitous events that led to hours of figuring out the technical details of how to make it work.” said Stephanie.
A Doll To Inspire Imagination and Creativity
Each doll comes with an extra wighat and also “Activity & Knowledge” collector cards containing games, art projects, recipes, activities and educational facts and photos relating to the doll. Separate doll outfits will also be available. “She merges both the fanciful and natural” said Stephanie. “We hope that Madi will become a child's companion. One that will teach her things about the world and inspire her to be creative and imaginative. We want her to make a child feel good about themselves.”. Besides designing the face with a happy countenance, Stephanie and Linda designed Madi’s body to be soft and huggable. Her wings are also soft and flexible “so that she can be cuddly and magical at the same time”.
Madi Represents Different Aspects of Nature
The initial line of dolls will include Sky Madi, Ocean Madi, Garden Madi and Forest Madi, as well as their mischievous companion, Sneakaboo. Sneakaboo is an elf. Stephanie said that she and Linda “wanted the doll to look happy, but not totally realistic. Linda sculpted the face and worked to get it to match their collaborative vision.” Stephanie also said that once the sculpt was settled upon they played with who Madi was. “She needed to be inspirational, educational and creative” she said. Because fairies live in nature they decided to make Madi represent different aspects of nature--Sky, Ocean, Forest, and Garden.”
Madi’s Friend Sneakaboo May Appeal To Little Boys
They thought that Madi needed a companion, so Linda sculpted Sneakaboo and it was decided that he would be Madi’s “mischievous friend.” So, “when she is a maple tree with a bird's nest hat; he is a robin.” said Stephanie. “We hope that he will appeal to little boys too.”
How Madi Came To Be
Madi the Magical Fairy was many years in the making. Stephanie & Linda met in 1990 in Toledo at A Dolls magazine Award of Excellence dinner. Their dolls were competing against one another and Linda's doll won. Over the years they saw each other at different doll shows and events. They became friends and in 1996 when Stephanie moved from the east coast to the west coast they got to spend more time together. They talked about doing something together and the idea for doing a fantasy play doll was born. Stephanie said “we came up with the concept [for Madi] about 10 years ago. We have been working on and off for about 5 years, [then[ we got serious about 4 years ago. The past year has been devoted to her, and we are ready to go into production and are expecting our first shipment at the end of the summer, early fall.”
Affordable Play Doll
As for their first foray into the children’s market for dolls, Stephanie said that “After making dolls for over 25 years for adult collectors we thought it would be fun to design a doll that would be child friendly and wanted it to be affordably priced. We wanted it to be similar to the dolls we played with as children with lots of clothes. We looked at what was out there and decided to target the age 5 plus market”. Stephanie and Linda envision that mothers and grandmothers will buy this doll for their children, although some “will end up in the box as a collectible” as well. Suggested retail for the doll is $38.00.
Look For Madi In The Fall
Look for Madi this Fall in doll stores, toy stores, fairy-themed stores and gift shops. Stephanie and Linda are also exploring the possibility of having the dolls in hospital gift shops. “They would be great for children in the hospital. The wighats are a natural and the collector cards could be hung near their bed to bring a little nature back into their life and they cost about the same as flowers!” said Stephanie. For more information about Madi the Magical Fairy dolls, visit The World of Madi, The Magical Fairy.
