from Kids Today:
Art Impressions has launched a line of soft dolls based on Milky Way & the Galaxy Girls. This tween-targeted property from Lauren Faust is now available exclusively at the legendary toy retailer FAO Schwarz Fifth Avenue and online at FAO.com.
Faust, a 12-year veteran of the animation industry, is an Emmy winner with five nominations to her credit for her work on popular series such as Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. After spearheading the creative effort to re-envision Hasbro’s venerable My Little Pony franchise, she is now acting as executive producer of the new animated series.
The Galaxy Girls are a group of intergalactic teens named for heavenly bodies in our solar system. This celestial sorority is as unique as the planets themselves — each character a shining example of her starry home, whether a sizzling personality like the Sun, a disciplined competitor like Mercury, or that orbital oddball, Mars. Galaxy Girls celebrates girls as multi-faceted individuals with characters that model self-affirming behaviors… most of the time. After all, Moon Girl can sure get moody sometimes… and you don’t want to make cosmic rocker Pluto mad by calling her a “dwarf planet.” The girls’ features and personalities mirror an astronomical, mythological or astrological aspect of her respective planet.
Based on each of the Galaxy Girls’ personalities, the five dolls in this new line feature symbols on their outfits to showcase their personalities (e.g., a heart for Venus). Their outfits to be mixed and matched. Also available in FAO Schwarz Fifth Avenue and online at FAO.com is the hardcover book, Milky Way & the Galaxy Girls: What Planet Are You From?, which explores the personalities and interests of each of the Milky Way characters.
Faust’s vision for Milky Way & the Galaxy Girls reflects her desire to create an empowering, unique alternative to traditional girls’ brands with a property that encourages creative play and individuality, de-emphasizes physical conformity, and yet still retains the popular features and play patterns of fashion dolls. Her complex characters are true-to-life, reflecting a range of interests that goes beyond the usual trifecta of fashion, boys and music.