Some Middle Eastern Dolls

Hello, I wanted today to share some information about Middle Eastern dolls that I hope someday will be added to dollect, some of them are somewhat well known (I am here referring to Fulla), some are obscure and not so much known about, some of the dolls I always knew about through their advertisements on TV (like Baby Habibi). A lot of the obscure ones I knew about them after a research I made for a doll that was always advertised on Karameesh, a children’s songs channel, I knew afterward that it was called Tutu, and through searches on YouTube, I knew about other dolls that I kind of known about before or known nothing about before that I wanted to share today, as well as the dolls that I discovered through other previous searches. I will be including dolls that were released by Middle Eastern companies, and dolls that are supposed to be from the Middle East.

Baby Habibi

This is a baby doll that was produced by NewBoy, I always knew about it through the advertisements on TV, but I was surprised to know that it was produced by NewBoy. According to the information written on the doll’s YouTube channel, Baby Habibi was released in 2008. Here is the link to the doll’s YouTube channel that includes advertisements for the doll (https://www.youtube.com/@BabyHabibiPage).

Bingo

Bingo is an Egyptian doll company, it seems that they now specialize in importing original foreign toy lines to Egypt, but they were (maybe they are still) producing their own toys and dolls. The doll line that I always knew about that was produced by the company is Nelly and Sherihan. Most of the advertisements for the dolls that I found online had a publishing date of 2018, so I assume the Nelly and Sherihan was launched in 2018ish, maybe earlier, but I remember seeing a lot of the dolls advertisements on TV, and I wanted to own them so much. I thought that Nelly and Sherihan was the only doll Line from Bingo, but I was surprised to know that it was not, they released other lines including Bingo Fashion, Bingo Doll, Bobi (similar to Barbie?), Bingo Surprise (which is a bootleg of LOL Surprise), Koki and Sun Kissed dolls. Here is Bingo’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@BingoEG)

Jafra

I don’t remember how I stumbled upon this doll online, but it was through my research on Fulla, she is the first Palestinian doll ever. This is the doll’s Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/jafra.doll.usa/?hl=en), and there are snapshots of the doll’s website (http://www.jafradoll.com/), the oldest snapshot is from 2015, so I assume she was released back then. This is the Facebook post that I first knew about the dolls from (https://www.facebook.com/223445717786428/posts/1952278144903168/?paipv=0&eav=Afa7Qp9DJazFKQTS0vB4H3YyBNzjox7fm10YMRZ42gnMic-_8a6eB4SOfUWdOd0INbk&_rdr). I think the doll was produced in the USA.

Jamila

I first knew about Jamila through her Wikipedia page, the doll was produced by Simba Middle East, and it seems that she was competing with Fulla. According to Wikipedia, she was released in 2006. I love how the doll line had as well as Jamila, a boy doll called Jamil. I also found what I think to be a bootleg of her on Amazon (https://www.amazon.ae/Gamila-Quran-reciting-doll-jamila/dp/B07MMBXF79)

Jenna

This is a doll that I knew about for a while. The doll was designed by a French businesswoman, I think she was released in 2017 for most of the reports on the doll were released that year. this is a video report on her in Arabic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJRtAOEH0w).

HayatiGirl

This is a doll line by the company ToyPro, I first knew about the line through advertisements of it on the children’s channel Spacetoon. I think she was released in 2017 or 2018 according to the date of the advertisements published on Youtube. I think the dolls are the same size as American Girls, and the company makes clothes for the dolls and the children that own them so that they can both wear matching clothes. This is the doll line’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@HayatiGirlDolls).

Amoura

This a line of baby dolls from HayatiGirl, most of the advertisements for them are published on HyatiGirl’s YouTube Channel.

MiniMe by Riva

From what I found online, Riva Fashion is a fashion brand. I remember the dolls advertisement which was aired on TV channels in Ramadan of 2018, so I assume the dolls were released back then. This is the ad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=uOqSobxNISQ).

Razanne

This doll was released in the USA in 1996 according to Wikipedia. I love this doll so much but I own none of them, and it seems to be that who made Fulla was inspired by this doll. I hope one day I have all of them.

Zomorruda

This is a doll line that you can learn more about from xCanadasis YouTube channel. I first discovered the dolls through the website (muslimdolls.com), I was shocked and very happy, but I had this feeling that I knew this character had dolls as well. I am not very sure about the character and its history, but the character Zomorruda was featured in the first 65 issues of Spacetoon’s girls magazine, and in the first issues she was really different in design, then they modified the character of Sakura and she was the new design of Zomorruda. She was also known by different names, جودي (Jody) in later issues of the magazine, زهرة الاحبة (Zahartul Ahiba) in one of her songs on Spaectoon, and زهرة من ارض الفل (Zahra min Ardil Ful) in another song on Spacetoon. In addition to the dolls, the line had fashion packs as well.

Sara

I was searching through old recordings of Spacetoon in the hope of finding ads for Fulla then I stumbled upon an advertisement for this doll. She was produced by a company called Toys-up, not sure when it was released but I think it was around 2006 or 2007. This is the doll’s advertisement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5srgOV8Y-Ng).

Saghira

I discovered this doll through Wikipedia, I saw some of the dolls photos on snapshots of the doll line’s website and they look very beautiful, I did not find it being sold anywhere on the internet. she was released in 2007.

Freej

Freej is an animated series that was aired in Ramadans, I remember that Cartoon Network Arabic aired the show as well in the channel’s early years, it is a comedy show. I remember once going to a second-hand store here in Iraq with my mom and finding a plush doll of the character Umm-Khammas, I wanted her so much but mom did not approve. I discovered through online research that there were plush dolls made for every main character and some other characters as well, here is a link from a website that has the doll photos (https://www.cobone.com/ar/deals/moms-and-kids-shj/scrubz-freej-dolls/11505).

Fulla

I love Fulla so very much, I love her a lot, and I hope to collect all of her dolls and merch, but it is so difficult to find her around. She was released in 2003 by NewBoy. It seems that Fulla makers had two doll lines in mind when they made Fulla, Tanya an Italian doll line that was bought by Giochi Preziosi in the 90s, and Razanne an American doll line produced by NoorArt.

Fun Toys

Some weeks ago, I remembered a doll that was advertised on the children’s channel Karameesh, I wanted to search for her and to know what she was called. The doll’s name is Tutu, and there are two of her in different outfits, the idea of the doll is that she sings songs from the Karamesh. I discovered that it was produced by a company called Fun Toys and that the company had a line of toys that was called Karameesh that was based or not based on Karameesh’s stars and characters that appeared on the channel, as well as a baby doll line called Funny Nono, and a fashion doll Line called Farah. This is the company’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/funtoy11?locale=ar_AR).

Lanloon

When I was searching for Tutu an advertisement was suggested for me, it was for a doll line that I was not at all aware of, the doll line is called Lanloon and it was produced by a company called Titoo. As well as dolls there were stationary and other merch based on the character. This is the Facebook page for the doll (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067583112272).

Lulu Catty

This is not a doll line, but it was a popular cartoon show on Spacetoon, it seems that it was released by a company specialized in stationery called Rainbow Max. You can read more about Lulu Catty here (https://rainbowmax.com/our-brands). I always believed that there were toys based on the character but it seems that there were none.

Layla

I discovered this doll through eBay, here is a picture of her on Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/58124651428624972/).

Sara and Dara

Here is the Wikipedia page for the dolls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_and_Dara_dolls).

Leen

I don’t remember how I discovered this doll, but I think it was through this article (https://www.emel.com/article?id=51&a_id=1915). According to the article, it was produced by the Syrian company Kinan Toys.

Haya

I am not sure how to talk about this, but there was a Cabbage Patch TV show, one of the characters of the show sang songs in the show, Spacetoon would take the songs and change their lyrics into Arabic or other languages and air them in the segments between cartoons. A while ago I discovered that this character had a doll released of her that would sing songs from Spacetoon, this character Spacetoon changed her name to Haya. This is the advertisement for the doll (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw7GK856d5Q).

 

Arabian Freinds

We have a page for Arabian Friends on Dollect, here is the link (https://dollect.net/database/arabian-friends). The entries have not been written yet for every doll, but the page contains a lot of information about the dolls.

 

Funskool Melody

This is a doll line from Funskool that features the character Melody in outfits from different countries of the world, there is a doll of Melody wearing clothes from Saudi Arabia and she wears an abaya. According to my online search, the dolls are from India. You can learn more about her by searching online

 

Yasser and Zeina

I was hesitant about including them here for my little information about them, but I have them in my personal list of dolls. According to the date of publishing of articles about the dolls, they seem to have been released in 2016. Here is an article about the dolls (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/9/15/the-dolls-that-defend-palestinian-culture).

 

 

And that is it, I hope my post is well written and understandable, and that it was helpful.