Obama Dolls Retired

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Feb 3, 2009 10:00PM

The Ty Inc. dolls that were named Sasha and Malia but were in no way at all meant to be Sasha and Malia Obama have been retired and renamed, thus bringing the saga of the Obama Dolls to its conclusion. If you remember, the company originally claimed the dolls, Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia, were inspired by the Obama girls, but later backed off after they raised the ire of First Lady (and Mom) Michelle Obama. Since then, Ty has distanced themselves from the Obamas. The announcement was made via the company's website which also included this statement from founder Ty Warner:

In deference to the wishes of the First Family, Ty Inc. has officially retired the Ty Girlz names Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha. We have renamed the dolls Marvelous Mariah and Sweet Sydney.

While the names Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha were inspired by this historic time in our nation's history, the dolls were not intended to bear the likeness of the First Daughters. Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha were based on the same design we have used for all 29 of the dolls in our popular Ty Girlz collection -- which are all intended to look like no one in particular and everyone in general.

In keeping with our positive intentions, I will donate 100% of the profits from sales of Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha to the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which is dedicated to transforming U.S. public education for underserved youth.

Though given Warner's penchant for purchasing crappy real estate, we wouldn't blame him for pocketing a little bit of the money the dolls brought in.

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast