Since Partnering With Disney....

I'm super excited to see what stuff we get for the Makies. What is REALLY love is Star Wars.

My concern is that Disney are still BIG into gender segregating toys and that may "rub off".
We geek girls don't need our geeky stuff painted pink damnit, in fact, it offends us. Stopit.

I'd love them to bring back the Makie light sabers, those were neat. Paint em with glow paint and they'd rock!
And blasters.. and.. and just sci fi stuff in general. Buuuut I fear we'll just get a lot of princess poopy because Disney thinks girls only like princesses, frills and sparkles *sigh*

I checked out what we are getting so far which can be found by googling "makie disney". It appears so far we are getting a Minnie Mouse and maleficent themed outfits. They don't actually appear that girly, exept for the fact that they are both girl characters and the maleficent one has pink flames on her leggings. No Star Wars stuff so far though.  Anyway, it doesn't appear too terrible! 

Purple_Monkfish wrote:My concern is that Disney are still BIG into gender segregating toys and that may "rub off".
We geek girls don't need our geeky stuff painted pink damnit, in fact, it offends us. Stopit.

I'd love them to bring back the Makie light sabers, those were neat. Paint em with glow paint and they'd rock!
And blasters.. and.. and just sci fi stuff in general. Buuuut I fear we'll just get a lot of princess poopy because Disney thinks girls only like princesses, frills and sparkles *sigh*

Yes. This is exactly how I feel. I'd love nothing more than Star Wars stuff for my dolls. I really don't like the princesses anyway, unless we're counting Leia among them. Taking a look at the outfits that Dollyay found (genius idea, googling them) they're not as girly as I'd fear and not princess-themed at all, but the only thing I'm interested in from these are the leggings. Probably I'll just wait. Maybe a Yoda or R2-D2 outfit will turn up for Lizzie. But blasters and lightsabers would really be the dream. We've only got one of each here and many hands that want them.

Oooh Maleficent is one of my favorite villains.

I want the new girl, Rey's stuff

Tehwereferret wrote:Oooh Maleficent is one of my favorite villains.

I want the new girl, Rey's stuff

Ooh yes! Rey themed stuff! And defiantly light sabers. Hehe I'm going to see the new movie on opening night lol 

Well, the two Disney Makie outfits are okay, but I think maybe it's rather foretelling, that it's Minnie Mouse and not Mickey on the shirt.

I see also, that the girls are still getting mostly leggings to wear, rather than any decent jeans or long pants, or even a cute skirt to wear over the leggings.

I know leggings are comfortable, and really fashionable right now, and I think they can look quite cute with dresses or skirts.

In fact, I actually really like them worn with tunics or long shirts....
Lol, I suppose thats the medievalist in me.

However, I just don't find leggings all that appropriate looking or really even very flattering when paired with just a short T-shirt!

Lol, and it doesn't help, that the Makie ones usually look more like footless tights than they do leggings!  


Now, I love Malificent, she's my favorite Disney Villain, so I plan on definitely buying that outfit when it's offered.

Still, I can't help but wish that they had used some other color than pink for the flames on the leggings, and for what appears to be flames behind Malificent's head on the t-shirt.  Why not use a nice dark red, or red violet instead?

Oh well, at least neither outfit is covered in yards of lace and pastel glitter!  Lol.


Over all though, I'm still pretty up in the air as to whether this whole Disney Mentorship/Partnership thing is going to be good, or bad, in the long run.

As purple_monkfish pointed out, Disney's record when it comes to purposefully not gender segregating toys, and trying to actively promote cross-gender and co-gender toy play, is markedly less than stellar.

The same applies to most of the major toy companies they are partnered with, as well.


Also, as much as I love Disney, they are still a huge multi-billion dollar American corporation, and their primary focus is going to be on making as much profit as possible, for Disney.

I really hope I'm wrong, but I'm just afraid that most of their advice and mentoring may turn out to be, long term, more beneficial for the Disney Corporation, than for the Makies and MakieLabs..... or at least not without first drastically changing them, and not necessarily for the better.

leggings without a tunic, dress or skirt over just look like you forgot to put pants on that morning. In real life, when I see a woman wearing leggings like you would trousers it just looks terrible, it looks like she got as far as tights then forgot to finish dressing.

I would LOVE more dresses and skirts and such, but i'd also really like some Makie clothes that weren't that odd stretchy lycra stuff because it makes everything they wear look and feel like athletic wear to me. 
But omg minnie mouse dresses would be cute, makie mouse ears too hahah.
But i'd def like to see them exploring outside the princess and minnie boxes to give us geek girls some credit. Disney seems to be scared of us girls who don't like frills and princessyness and I dont get why, I mean, we have money, what's wrong with our money?
Just because we like comics and sci fi and i'd rather have a shirt with Guybrush threepwood on... ahem. (I need lucasarts dolls like.. immediately. I should make some heh)
You wanna attract consumers? offer them something big companies seem scared to offer. Give us geeky stuff for girls, give us black instead of pink, give us sci fi themes rather than frilly fantasy and ponies. Give us guns and swords and video games. Basically, give us all that stuff Barbie hasn't already provided, all the stuff girls love that's not conventionally "feminine". The archaeology career kit is a good start for instance, more stuff like that please. Less kittens, frills, pink and princesses. I can get my pink frilly fix anywhere, but actual geeky stuff for dolls? That isn't painted pink or sparkly? REALLY hard to find.

Purple_Monkfish wrote:leggings without a tunic, dress or skirt over just look like you forgot to put pants on that morning. In real life, when I see a woman wearing leggings like you would trousers it just looks terrible, it looks like she got as far as tights then forgot to finish dressing.

Lol, exactly!    Whether they are a human or a Makie, the last thing you want to see is someone running around in what looks like tights and a short shirt, with their "asset" hanging out..... as it were.


I wonder what the next big fashion failure will be?......  
Probably little shorty shorts, that will look and feel just like you are running around in your knickers!

I like unicorns and rainbows just fine, but that's not all I like. I want space ships and medieval jousting, wizards and mechanics, elves and space aliens, knights and robots, bows(and arrows) and laser guns. I do lean more toward fantasy though, but I like gritty urban elves that ride motorcycles (Bordertown anyone?). I don't "do" frilly pink princesses who need to be rescued by the handsome prince who they then marry and live happily ever after with.

Please give me colors like navy blue, dark green, black, white, gray... Don't splash it with pink that doesn't belong or give it ruffles and lace to let me know it's supposed to be for a girl. If you give me "princess dresses" please try to make them at least look historically accurate.

Disney seems very divided on what they want to offer the female gender. On one hand, they are known for Princesses and play that up quite a bit. There was a big stink about not having a Black Widow action figure in the Marvel Avengers. And they market fluff like Hannah Montana, where she lied to her friends in every episode.
On the other hand, they do have some stronger female characters, even in the princess line. Tiana and Merida are examples. Agent Carter is getting a second season on American TV, and she's pretty awesome. There was also Gadget on Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers, she was a mechanic who wore coveralls and fixed all the stuff that Chip and Dale broke.

The American corporate culture in general seems to be terrified of feminizing boys in any way, shape, or form. I think all the pink and purple princesses that are marketed to girls is a side effect of this fear. Perhaps they feel that if it's pink or purple then parents, grandparents, and friends know not to buy it for boys because those colors can "turn them gay" or some such nonsense. Protective coloration gone awry.

Ugh guys, don't get me started on leggings worn as trousers. I agree that it looks like someone just forgot to finish dressing. JRyu, those high waisted cut-off shorts that I see pictures of everywhere are a major fashion fail in my opinion. I haven't seen anyone that they look flattering on and most of them just look trashy to me.

Lol, my thoughts precisely, ForestGreen!  

I mainly only collected unicorn stuff, as a teen, because it was really hard to find anything at all for dragons back then.

As soon as dragons started becoming more popular, and you could find more dragon merchandise, I stopped collecting unicorns, and focused on my real love, dragons! ^_^

Lol, I still kept all of the really cool looking unicorns, of course, all the ones I really liked and/or those that were connected to special memories for me.    Like the beautiful photography artbook, that was supposedly photos of "real" unicorns.  It was on my Christmas Wishlist that year, and my father searched through Hade's back acres to find it for me.  

I didn't know it, but the book had already gone out of print before I'd found out about it.  I don't know how he did it, but somehow my dad still managed to find me a copy.  

Lol, and this was before internet searches, and things like eBay existed.      He even managed to find it in time for Christmas too. ^_^

We seem to have similar opinions about many things, as well as sharing similar tastes, it appears. ^_^  

I read the first Bordertown Book, but I didn't know that it was a series.  I'll have to look for those.   Have you ever read any of the Borrible books by Michael de Larabeiti?  There are three books in the series, so it's basically a trilogy.  I wish he'd written more.

I think a big part of the problem with Disney is that most of it's corporate philosophy, etc. is very much rooted in a totally idealistic, and nostalgic 1950's concept of family and gender roles.  It's so ingrained in everything Disney, that I'm not sure they are even aware of it any more, and the influence it still has over all things Disney.

American corporate culture likes to sort people into nice neat little boxes,and keep them there, all categorized, defined, and nicely labeled.  They don't like it when people start switching boxes and swapping labels.   It skews all their data and messes up their corporate profit projections.  It's a control thing.

What is funny is that pink wasn't considered a girl's color originally, it was actually thought to be more appropriate for boys!  While blue was thought to be soft and delicate and therefore more suitable for girls.  It wasn't until after World War II, that it got switched to blue for boys and pink for girls.

Ironically too, most men really look good in the color pink.  The color enhances their complexion, and gives them an appearance of very good health.

Btw:  ForestGreen, I didn't realize you were from Washington state, until I saw your post in KuKuKuchoo's intro thread.

Me too!  I was born and raised in Tacoma, and lived there for most of my life before moving to Hawaii.  

Oooh, Dragons..... (happy cooing). Mine are all still in a box because I don't have the space to display them.
Your dad sounds amazing, btw, finding your out-of-print book in time for Christmas.

The Bordertown books are completely wonderful, I've managed to track down all of them slowly but surely. Powell's is my friend. I looked up the Borribles on wikipedia and they sound intriguing. I'll have to put them on my reading list.

I definitely think you're on to something with your idea about Disney being rooted in a completely idealized version of the '50's. That would explain a lot.

I'm actually from Oregon, but I've lived in Washington since '08. I've lived at the top of the Sound, on the west side of the Sound, and I'm currently living near Olympia at the bottom of the Sound. :-)

I like to break stereotypes but I understand why people might think they need them for marketing purposes.

I know that feeling! Mine keep outgrowing their display cases. Lol, the dragons aren't the only collection that is outgrowing its assigned space, either. I've got three new swords that I need to find wall space for, and a Japanese Shiba Inu & cat Gashpon figure set that is probably going to have to join my anime collection upstairs in my art workroom.

Somewhere upstairs, is also where all the smaller dragons need to go, since all their larger brethren are already up there. I want to use the glass front bookcase, which is where the smaller dragons are currently living, for some of my Makies and their furniture. It's a nice old book/display case that was my grandfather's, so I have to figure out how to make it look like rooms in a house, without doing anything that is permanent or may damage the bookcase. Which means no painting, nailing, or gluing, and definitely no cutting out door and window holes!

The Makies are itching to get started turning it into "Makie Towers", but I'm still at sixes and sevens about it. I'd rather find an inexpensive bookcase somewhere, and really turn it into their house instead. Problem is where to put it!

Lol, I think I just need a house that works like Mary Poppin's carpet bag... Always room for more, no matter how much you put in it.

The Borribles are great fun! In fact, a lot of my Makies are Borribles, or former Borribles that somehow managed to hang on to their pointed ears.

There was actually rather a bit of controversy and negative reaction to the books when they first came out, among the book reviewers, critics, and others in the literary world. I think having to do with the violence, the sort of pro-anarchistic flavor of the books, and the fact that they were considered to be "Young Adult" books. ^_~

I'd love to see the books turned into a movie(s), under just the right producer, director, etc., of course.

Probably NOT Disney.

Speaking of Disney, I wonder when those two outfits will show up as Makie Maker options, and/or in the Makie Store?

I need one of Morwen's magic doors for my apartment, it can lead to infinite rooms. (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede) I would have a dragon room, a doll room, a proper craft room, a decent sized closet..... It sounds like a similar concept to your MP carpet bag house.

Have you considered cutting cardboard to fit very snugly at the back of the shelves, decorating the cardboard with wall coverings and such before sliding it to the back of the shelves? You still wouldn't be able to cut door or window holes but it might make good shadow-box type rooms while you search for space to put another shelving unit. Or if you wanted something a little more elaborate with hanging lights and flooring, you could make an entire shadowbox out of cardboard or posterboard and slide it onto the shelves as temporary housing. You could divide up the shelves that way and have a door between the divisions too.

Don Bluth might be a good fit for the Borribles. He has done some great animated movies and seems to be the go-to guy if you want good animation but don't want Disney.

I hope the Disney outfits don't show up until after the Lab has unborked the website and also has the boys available to order again. Can you imagine the fuss if Disney announces the new stuff along with the Lab and then no one can order it? It would be exponentially worse than it is right now and would surely drive the Lab out of business.

I like the Maleficent shirt a lot!  I can't stand Minnie Mouse, though, so my interest in that shirt is zero.  I never even liked Mickey.

I'm with the rest of you that I'd love Star Wars shirts (how about a black R2-D2 shirt?) and less girly colors.  I want strong, bold colors, and darker colors.  No pastel pink.

I'm actually looking forward to the Disney clothes.  When they come out, I'll probably order another Makie and several Disney clothing sets.

I think R2-D2 is an absolute must. But I'd be happy with separates alone. I want all the leggings. The ones that come with the Minnie outfit are wonderful. Too bad not one of my Makies would wear that shirt.

Well, you could always buy the set and re-sell the shirt, I'm sure there's a Makie Minnie Mouse fan somewhere who'd be happy to have the shirt without the leggings.  

Lol, In fact, Moley is trying to get my attention right now to tell me that she for one would like to have that shirt.  

I don't know whether she is all that big a Minnie Mouse fan, I think she just likes cute colorful t-shirts, lol.

Well, maybe I should try to make a deal with Moley! I would certainly trade the shirt away, and I'd maybe try to get the outfit on sale.

I always want the leggings from the outfits. I really fixate on the leggings for some reason.

Also bb-8 from the new movie. ( maybe a tee shirt with r2-d2, c3po, and bb-8 together?) Lol I saw the movie last night and there is so much stuff I want in miniature form. Makie x-wings anyone? How about some super awesome blasters? Come on Disney, give us some star wars stuff.

how about gravity falls stuff? that would be AWESOME