When you hear the word “doll”, the first thing that comes to mind is “Barbie.” The main difference between dolls and action figures is that the former is aimed at girls, while the latter is aimed at boys. Dolls generally include matching outfits, while action figures generally include clothing and accessories that you may not see every day.
Look at Barbie. Since its inception in 1959, Barbie has been the quintessential girls’ toy, with its interchangeable clothes, pink cars, and variations of the Malibu Beach House. Although the collection later included Ken, of course, Ken was by no means an action figure. Her clothes, like Barbie’s, were typical of everyday life, albeit masculine.
By comparison, your typical “action figure” is muscular, especially to an exaggerated degree, and may include weapons as accessories. Two classic examples that come to mind are Thundercats and GI Joe. Thundercats characters, although they looked somewhat human, were usually yellow or gray in color, with overdeveloped muscles; their outfits consisted of tank tops or leggings. Most Thundercats figures, whether male or female, included a weapon; Lion-O, for example, was packaged with The Sword of Omens, a longsword with a fiery red handle.
GI Joes, while not as muscular as the Thundercats, still looked physically fit and generally included accessories such as machine guns, knives, and grenades. Can you really argue that these were not designed for children? That’s not to say that girls never played with them, but that’s not what the marketing companies had in mind.
Other popular dolls include American Girl and Ashton-Drake, both of which are geared towards girls as well. Some adults may occasionally collect such dolls, due to their realistic appearance and value, if they are kept in good condition.
Another collection of classic action figures that may come to mind is the Ninja Turtles, whose name suggests action and perhaps violence. Like GI Joe and Thundercats, the Turtles, armor and games with vehicles like tanks and artillery cars. Again, although some girls may have found the Ninja Turtles attractive, they were mostly popular with boys. The villains were also distorted and mutated, such as Shredder and his minions, Bebop and Rocksteady. Perhaps these numbers were meant to appeal to the same kids who liked aggressive competitive sports and war games.
Today’s action figures vary a bit, but again, their appearance as a whole is roughly the same. Perhaps, even as times change, people’s mindsets tend to stay the same. Toys produced for boys and girls, for the most part, reflect this.