GoldieBlox Unveils First Girl Action Figure
"Goldie" the doll comes with a construction kit for kids to assemble.
— -- The toy company that made headlines this year when an ad for its girl-focused line of books and construction toys landed in the Super Bowl is back and taking on the land of Barbies and dolls once again.
GoldieBlox on Wednesday released an online ad featuring a new action figure called “Goldie.”
The blonde-haired doll is shown at the end of the ad wearing overalls and wielding a hammer.
"Goldie" makes her debut after a real-life girl, who looks just like the doll, breaks out of a line of pink dress-wearing girls and smashes a computer that has been sending what appear to be more stereotypically-girl appropriate dolls down a conveyor belt.
The ad, titled "GoldieBlox vs. the Big Sister Machine," opens with a woman saying, "You are beauty and beauty is perfection."
It is intended, the company says, to show what happens when,"Big Sister prescribes her ideals of beauty and perfection to young girls [and] Little Sister - a girl inspired by Goldie - rebels against the mantra, breaking the girls free and leading them to a world of possibilities."
“In 2014 GoldieBlox breaks the mold with an action figure for girls,” is the ad's final line.
The $24.99 doll, available now on the GoldieBlox website, includes a construction kit for kids to build a zipline and send "Goldie" soaring.
"More than just a doll, her articulated shoulders, hips, knees and joints along with specially designed hands and feet are designed for action," the description reads.
The can-do doll follows the mission of the San Francisco-based company that was founded in 2012 by 31-year-old Stanford grad Debbie Sterling.
“Growing up as a little girl, I had no idea what engineering was," Sterling told ABC News in January. "I fell into engineering almost by accident … That's what GoldieBlox is for me, giving girls that opportunity to know what it is, build those skills from a young age and develop an interest."
GoldieBlox’s latest ad cites a statistic that, “One fashion doll is sold every 3 seconds.”
“Research shows that girls who play with fashion dolls see fewer career options for themselves than for boys,” the company wrote. “It’s time for girls to have options. It’s time for us to take action.”
GoldieBlox got its start on Kickstarter and selling its line of toys and books in what Sterling called “mom and pop toy stores.” It soon expanded to Toys R Us and Target.
The 2014 Super Bowl ad, a placement that normally would cost a company millions of dollars, came free to GoldieBlox after the company won the “Small Business Big Game” contest sponsored by Intuit.
A 2013 GoldieBlox ad set to The Beastie Boys’ song “Girls” went viral with millions of views on YouTube but embroiled the company in lawsuits with the band over the use of the song.
