Princess Diana Doll

The Franklin Mint makes this charming porcelain Diana doll.

What a wonderful way to remember Diana! ... Miniature tiara and white "English Rose." Extraordinary blue eyes and shy smile foreshadow the beautiful Princess admired by millions.

If you find it slightly odd, that may be because it is not an accurate depiction of the infant Diana Spencer, but rather an idealized pedomorphic adult.

• [EeyoreX]

  Meh. Im´still waiting for a Lego minifig. Or a Kubrick, even. Anything that will fit into my Matchbox Mercedes S280.

• [Bob Stanley]

  It’ll look better once inflated.

• [voiceinthedistance]

  What do you say that we merge the two collectables, and plant one of the Bradford Exchange tomahawks into the forehead of Baby Di? I’d find the look of innocent noblesse oblige on her face perfect for the occasion.

  • [mama_anarchia]

    Baby doll with a tomahawk embedded in it’s head…

    Sounds like an entry for The Turner Prize. (rimshot!)

• [Smash Martian]

  Chase No-Face chaser please.

• [braininavat]

  No, that’s the president of Poland in drag!

• [vian]

  Paging Jonathan Coulton; Mr Coulton, please pick up a white courtesy mike.

  Because that’s a Creepy Doll.

• [Anonymous]

  Creepy!

• [millie fink]

  Ick.

  Kitschy baby-doll porn.

  Ick, ick, ick!

• [gravytop]

  It’s emotional pornography — but so is a lot of “lowbrow” art that uses giant-eyed children and other grotweesqe imagery

• [usonia]

  What the frock?!?

• [urbanhick]

  yikes!

• [Gunn]

  That’s the creepiest photo BB has posted in quite a while. It makes my teeth hurt. I think I need a unicorn chaser….

• [thequickbrownfox]

  Pedomorphic, that’s the word I was looking for.

  See the new Disney animation about Rapunzel, “Tangled” where the female lead has the face of a 10 year old.

  • [Anonymous]

    Difference being, Tangled is for little girls.

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  My little girl thinks it’s cute.

  • [robulus]

    In all honesty, it is quite well done. If you were into that kind of thing I’m sure you’d be straight on the phone to order one.

    I don’t find it creepy in and of itself, it’s more the concept of it that is a teeny little bit bone chillingly weird.

• [Anonymous]

  This doll looks like one of the Disney Princess Babies, where Disney took adult characters from their animated movies and turned them into what they might look like as cutesy babies. It’s fine to do that with a cartoon, but with a real person? Huge creep factor.

• [dove]

  Disney has weird dolls like this for their princess. They’re more soft toys, but I’m so confused why they’re dressed as the princess they grow up to be.

• [dross1260]

  Couldn’t sell the Bride of Charles Doll?

• [Ugly Canuck]

  The doll is nice, but the name ruins it for me.

• [Ugly Canuck]

  Because, you see, I would not have recognized it as a representation of Diana.

• [kevinupstairs]

  I’m so, so sorry: http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1033/lookslegit.jpg

• [Bob Stanley]

  There is a famous photo of Diana in almost that same pose. Scroll down to the bottom of the page:

  http://princessdianaremembered.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/sarah-ferguson-shares-her-memories-of-princess-diana/

• [bonersimpson]

  This is pretty horrible. (& kevin for the win)

• [a_user]

  I guess most of you missed the mawkish pseudo canonisation of Diana that happened after she died – this doll could have been an art object.

  The problem is however it is simply hoping to cash in on the mawkish pseudo canonisation of Diana.

• [sickkid1972]

  This is so horrifically sugary, it makes me want to be sick out of my eyes…

• [ciacontra]

  I want to see Mike Rowe try and sell this on QVC.

  • [skysky]

    Don’t joke. QVC and The Franklin Mint are headquartered about 5 miles from each other near my hometown.

    The shame!

• [Anonymous]

  “idealized pedomorphic adult”

  Thank you for using precise language! It really brings home the level of creepy-weird that this has descended to.

• [Jenonymous]

  Oh dear sweet FSM…so much wrong…in one place…and then that over-garnished Bloody Mary…

  Unicorn chaser please with extra rainbows?

• [MrJM]

  “The uncanny valley has never been so adorable.“

• [kmoser]

  Is it my imagination or does she look like the innocent sister of Chucky?

• [RedShirt77]

  creepy

• [Rob Beschizza]

  What would be awesome if is The Franklin Mint made a Gary Glitter doll like this.

• [BDiamond]

  Toddlers & Tiaras. That’s what it reminds me of. Like RedShirt77 said: Creepy.

• [Talia]

  Weirdly, I wasn’t creeped out by this at all. In fact I thought it bore a relatively decent, if “cutified”, resemblance to the young Diana.

  I donno. I’m in an unusual position. Usually I “get” the whole creepyness thing; here I don’t. Yes, she’s a tragic figure, but there’s a certain appeal in imagining her childhood. I think this figure was meant to be the encapsulation of an ideal, rather than a figurine to be played with or assigned stories.

  Diana was in the uninevitable position of being put on a pedestal. That’s carried over into her legacy. (and good grief, I worry for William and Kate. Ugh, wouldn’t want to deal with the level of obsession they’ll be exposed to..).

  Um. I’m most likely overthinking the whole affair, but that’s ok.:P

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    The late Ms. Spenser was only nineteen when she was officially fed into the wood chipper of royal life. Ms. Middleton is in her late twenties and has been auditioning for the job for a decade. At least she’s old enough and experienced enough to make an informed decision.

  • [teapot]

    Can’t we just ban ‘journalists’ from writing about them already? Or can we at least get them to start writing more about other obscure families from around the world?

• [Anonymous]

  I’m going to buy one of these and make a diorama depicting the car accident that killed her.

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  Even as a baby…homunculus…whatever, she wouldn’t have worn that frock.

  • [teapot]

    *I* had to look up homunculus.

    WHAT A WORD!

    “an artificially made dwarf, supposedly produced in a flask by an alchemist“

• [phisrow]

  Why is it that the mere accusation of pedophilia will start a witch hunt; but we just can’t get enough of child beauty pageants and freaky stuff like this?

  • [Anonymous]

    Because this country (and half of the Western world) is schizophrenic and hysterical about stuff like this.? It is a reflection more on the collective paranoia than the actual reality.

    We shriek and scream and are freaked out — it is a mass hysteria — then we turn around and exhibit this sublimated idolization of the very same thing, in certain quarters, through these beauty pageants … the country is very much of a split personality on this sort of thing.

    Creeped out by a benign image …

• [adamnvillani]

  Ehh, it looks a little weird to me, but how is it any different from cartoon versions of just about anything else? Or Lego minifigs, etc. Or even more so, “Chibi” versions of already-pedomorphic characters?

  • [Pantograph]

    All your examples are well on the other side of the uncanny valley. This one sits halfway up the far slope.

• [mellowknees]

  As aptly stated by Mr. Horse:

  No, sir, I don’t like it.

  But then again, the Franklin Mint is all about making money off of people who are fanatic, not necessarily making things that depict reality.

  Nonetheless, it’s fuggin’ creepy.

• [andyhavens]

  “Pedomorphic” wasn’t a word I needed in my brain, but sure… what the heck.

• [knoxblox]

  Yet another reason dolls creep me the eff out.

• [Stefan Jones]

  Can we find out who buys this stuff and publish it somewhere so I never, ever accidentally go anywhere near them?

• [t3knomanser]

  Hey, BoingBoing: where should I send my eyes? I just clawed them out in terror, but they held together surprisingly well. I figure you guys could make a steampunk robot out of them or whatever. Um, please post your address in braille font? Because I’m kinda SOL otherwise.

• [cjeam]

  ‘Charming’ here meaning utterly terrifying and freaky?

  Also, I expect this will be featured as a collect-the-tokens promotion in the Daily Express by next week.

• [Anonymous]

  The loud condemnation and righteous indignation of the above posters is surprising, given that the overwhelming majority of animated cartoon characters are essentially “pedomorphed” adult characters (big eyes; little noses; rounded features). I suppose the same posters violently oppose depictions of The Little Mermaid or Snow White?

• [andygates]

  This is what happens when white men do chibi.

• [Jack]

  Why all they did right here is take a Miss Piggy doll, give it a nose job and snip those piggy ears off.

  In all seriousness, someone should do a “custom” with this figure as a base that makes this doll look like Miss Piggy.

• [shadowfirebird]

  Probably a suitable memoratum for the whole Diana Cult thing – which, IMO, is no less creepy.

• [InsertFingerHere]

  I think the person who is in charge of marketing her image for the Estate should get tuned up. I wonder how her sons feel about this crap going out. Horrible.

  • [Anonymous]

    The folks in charge of her publicity and whatnot have paid out almost 20 million bucks after a suit with Franklin Mint so…

    Don’t think that they’re going to be stepping in to stop Pedo Dream Diana.

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      But will Toni Tennille sue them for using her head?

• [Sam]

  There are people who buy this sort of bizarre thing.

  I had a childhood friend who’s mother collected “realistic” dolls much like this. They were all over the house, but the worst place in the house was the bedroom entirely devoted to the dolls. There were probably 100 of them in the room, sitting on the bed, at little tea tables, etc., but the worst part was that all of them had their heads turned to face the door, so if you peered in, you saw them all looking at you, as though you have interrupted them, and they want to know what you want.

  I always had to run past that room with my eyes closed so I wouldn’t see their dead, faceless eyes accusing me.

  • [Jack]

    Sounds like your childhood friends mom had a childhood where someone violated her privacy and now has an army of dolls to “protect” her.

    I don’t mock anyone who does that, but as you get older and you start to understand why folks gravitate towards certain hobbies, you really start to realize how rough some people’s lives are.

    • [mermaid]

      omg I did not need a unicorn chaser until I read your comment.

• [se7a7n7]

  have you seen the incredibly, ironically classless commercial for the Lady Di commemorative ring for only $20?

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaOMr2DZr6E

• [Brainspore]

  What a wonderful way to remember Diana!

  Or you could just lobby the U.S. government to sign the International Land Mine Ban Treaty. Whichever.

• [Artbitch]

  charming??? freaky!!! ala “chucky” freaky.

• [gwailo_joe]

  Poor taste? Oh my yes. Scary to some and ugh-y to many.

  But people who like babydolls and Lady Di will buy it.

  I find this collectible tomahawk wrong on many levels:

  http://www.amazon.com/Collectible-Replica-Tomahawk-Bradford-Exchange/dp/B001SJ9N96

  But where is the outrage I ask you?!?

  Though on second thought; if ‘Baby Di(e)’ comes with fully rotating head, I might consider a purchase. . .