Wide-eyed and fresh-faced--albeit sometimes blue lipsticked with brightly streaked hair--BeGoths are fashion dolls with serious Goth personas. Many are pierced and tattooed. They’re widely collected and discussed by Goths and Goth wannabes. As you might guess, there’s a wide range of clothing and accessories for these dolls. Many an owner dresses and poses their BeGoth in sets specific to the outfit.
Bleeding Edge company creates and produces the BeGoth dolls. Founder Steve Varner has designed a host of celebrated action figures like the original 'Star Wars' characters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, Strawberry Shortcake, and the foul-mouthed third graders from 'South Park.' Varner launched the company after moving to Los Angeles. He served a stint at Mattel, where he worked on "a lot of Barbie dolls." The BeGoth dolls grew out of his desire to create an original character.
While they are meant to appeal to a sub-culture, the dolls aren’t threatening or overtly dark. They’re just different.
Rebellious Toys
Pierced BeGoth Fashion Dolls with Tattoos Don't Conform to Barbie Beautiful
Trend Themes
1. Alternative Fashion Dolls - Opportunity for toy companies to create dolls with non-traditional looks and styles to cater to a wider audience.
2. Personalized Doll Accessories - Idea for doll accessory manufacturers to create sets specific to certain outfits for a more personalized experience for consumers.
3. Small-batch Collectibles - Promising trend for niche toy manufacturers to produce limited edition dolls for collectors to contribute to more exclusive and exciting collections.
Industry Implications
1. Toy Manufacturing - Disruptive innovation opportunity for toy companies to create dolls specifically designed to cater to sub-cultures beyond traditional beauty standards.
2. Doll Accessory Manufacturing - Opportunity to create accessory sets that can be mixed and matched to personalize the doll and spark creativity in the child.
3. Collectibles Manufacturing - Small-batch production could lead to exciting and exclusive collections for collectors of unique and non-traditional toy products.