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Dolls

"Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been... dolls."

Baby, teen, adult and in-between, dolls are basically human — or human-like — figures that are toys for children. Dolls go back for nearly all of human history and are likely some of the oldest toys to ever exist in some form, with archeological evidence of dolls being found as far back as Ancient Egypt, and continue to prevail as one of the most popular toys for children of all ages.

Doll frequently are a symbol for youth and innocence; a child that still plays with dolls is likely not yet knowledgeable to the darker ways of the world. Dolls are also frequently used to show that characters are girly or feminine — dolls often come in pink clothes and have pink accessories, and Pink Means Feminine. So the Tomboy character is likely not going to like dolls and may even wreck or destroy them, as opposed to the Girly Girl who eagerly plays with or collect them — or the Lonely Doll Girl who only has dolls as friends instead of real people.

Dolls often get a bad reputation from more "serious" people who think badly of them or think they're frivolous, short term useless toys only targeted at young girls that don't "do anything" (like implied in a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic) — or if they do, it's not explained outside of being "magic" — and limit the girls they're targeted at to only caring about frivolous things such as fashion, taking care of babies, boys, Slumber Parties, makeovers, housework, and tea parties instead of "interesting" or "smarter" topics like science, math, sports, and technology. They're also considered childish, with older kids thinking they're too cool or old to care about things like dolls and that dolls are toys to grow out of fast; the idea that one still "plays with dolls" over a certain age means you're acting under your real age and should grow up and stop being a Manchild.

However, dolls have their own uses and can spark thoughtful activities and creative play of their own. These include pretend and imaginative play, hair and clothing styling, sewing and crafting (it's much easier to sew for a doll than for a person since they have set body shapes and are less pliable), photography, and much more. And not everyone ages out of dolls and considers them temporary toys; doll collectors range in ages from children to adults and a collector can focus on specific brands, types, or even one specific kind. Several doll brands lean into the Creepy Doll trope, focusing on macabre and strange dolls which are not aimed at the typical little girl audience. Some doll collectors even go beyond just getting and playing with them and highly customize dolls which can mean taking them apart and putting them together again, repainting faces, resculpting bodies, and changing them completely from factory default. (Akin to Sid from Toy Story, but with a lot more artistry.)

Dolls can be sorted into several variations:

There's also variations such as marionettes (dolls as puppets), bed or boudoir dolls — a fashion of the 1930s — paper dolls (flat dolls with paper clothes to dress them up in) anthropomorphic dolls (dolls that are Funny Animals) and many more. Lots of media about dolls — or some that have them as a character's prop — will create the dolls as The Merch.

Compare My Little Pony, which are toy horses, and Teddy Bears, which are their own category. Notably, humanoid figures aimed at boys and/or adults (such as Figma or G.I. Joe) prefer to be called "action figures" or "figurines", lest they end up in the toy equivalent of the Girl-Show Ghetto. Voodoo Dolls are a completely different type of doll altogether. Also not to be confused with the following:

Please Note: Tropes that apply to dolls should be listed on Dolls and Puppets Tropes or Toy Tropes. This is intended to be an index of doll brands and media that focus on dolls or have a prominent doll character. Just having a doll being carried around by someone else or as a motivation for character actions (but the doll not being a character of their own) doesn't count. If you could replace the motivating doll or doll prop with a lamp, toy truck, or a shoe, it's not doll media.

Media listed here needs to have dolls either be the foundation of the brand or episode, have major characters that are dolls, or the doll aspect needs to be just as prominent as other media that's related to it or has taken it over so that the dolls are more well known than the original media. So Child's Play counts (as the franchise is based on a murderous doll), but not Disney Princess (who, while many dolls have been released, is not a franchise based on dolls).

Media properties that have dolls released as part of The Merch aren't part of this index either, or we could list practically every media ever made.

Doll-Focused Manufacturers:

Outside of the large toy manufacturers Mattel and Hasbro, these brands are known for their various doll-lines:

Doll-Focused Brands and Lines:

List of Brands

Franchises and Media that are focused on or star dolls as characters:

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