Sasha and Malia Obama Beanie Babies

Seems every member of this presidential family is destined to become a celebrity doll. First there was the Presidential Campaign Cabbage Patch Kid doll of then presidential candidate Barack Obama which was created and sold for charity and then there was the controversial Ty Beanie Babies in Ty's Girlz Collection of President Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia.

Ty, Inc. claimed the name choice was random although the choice of the girl's names of Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia, seems pretty obvious to me. Michelle Obama was, of course, less than impressed at having her daughters made into dolls. Her spokeswoman said that they found it, "inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes."

Eventually, Ty offered to donate the proceeds from the sale of the dolls to charity but by then it was too late. The dolls had already suffered from the negative publicity and Ty retired them by changing the name of these dolls to Sweet Sydney and Marvelous Mariah. Since then, this second set has also been retired.

What does this mean to Ty Beanie Babie collectors everywhere? Well, Sydney and Mariah are widely available but the ones they really want are, of course, Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia. Demand does drive prices up and, in this case, a pair of the original dolls has recently sold for as much as $1,300.

If you are looking for a set of these dolls, I wish you good luck! This page will attempt to unite you with the originally named versions of these dolls although you can bet many of them are safe and sound on a shelf somewhere waiting to become more and more valuable as collector's items. Of note, even the second set named Sydney and Mariah, has already appreciated in value.

If you are looking for the original dolls, be careful of the renamed dolls. (Buyer beware!) The tush tags (the tags on their bottoms) on the original dolls and the swing tags both read Sasha and Malia. The tags on the replacement dolls read Mariah and Sydney and they are NOT extremely rare nor hard to find. Shop carefully!

"In deference to the wishes of the First Family, Ty Inc. has officially retired the Ty Girlz names Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha," said Ty Inc. founder and CEO Ty Warner in a statement on the company's Web site. "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."

Ty, Inc. has said that their company generally does not name dolls for a living person because it might change how young children employ their imaginations when playing with them. Whether the naming of Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia was an accident or not, it can be agreed that it has brought some fantastic, free publicity and traffic to Ty's website. What do you think of it all?