JK Rowling Doll is Not New News

It’s possible I’m the only person who didn’t know about this, in which case you’ll forgive this quick look back. But new news or old news, Mattel crafting a doll in the likeness of Harry Potter author JK Rowling seems like a big deal to me.

It’s possible I would have heard about it in a more timely fashion had the Rowling model ever gone into production. Alas, the pretty-in-pink(-and-black) doll was never intended for the masses, created instead only for the delight of attendees of a toy fair in Nuremberg back in 2010. The Frisky had the whole story at the time:

At last, a Barbie who can realistically afford all those clothes, the pink Corvette, and mortgage payments for the Barbie Dream House! The J.K. Rowling Barbie made her debut alongside a tennis-playing Kim Clijsters Barbie and Swedish Crown Princess Victoria Barbie, all of whom a Mattel spokeswoman heralded as “true role models” for girls. Unfortunately, none of the three Barbies will be for sale for the general public. Sorry, Muggles! Instead, the new Barbies will chill at a toy fair in Nuremberg, Germany, with other one-of-a-kind Barbies, like Oprah and German Chancellor Andrea Merkel. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall at that doll-y tea party?

It really is a shame. If, as the Mattel spokesperson said, the Rowling doll was meant to be a true role model, one wonders why she never got out of the gate.