"We Are You": How Yla Eason's Olmec Toys Reshaped the Multicultural Toy Market
Explore how Yla Eason, a Black mother and Harvard-trained businesswoman, built a company that challenged the toy industry’s standards for multicultural representation.
He-Man Action Figure (1981) by Mattel, Inc.The Strong National Museum of Play
The Most Powerful Toy in the Universe?
Mattel introduced He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, with a line of all-white fantasy-themed action heroes, in 1982. The appeal of a muscled, sword-wielding warrior and accompanying animated TV show fueled reported sales of more than five million toys in its first year.
Turning Outrage into Inspiration
Like millions of parents, Yla Eason bought a He-Man figure for her son. But when he told her he wanted to be “a superhero like He-Man, but I can’t because [He-Man] is white,” a shocked Eason resolved to help her child—and Black boys everywhere—free their imaginations.
Readings in Social Psychology Ed. (1947) by Henry Holt and CompanyThe Strong National Museum of Play
Psychology and Play
Eason studied how a toy could affect her son’s self-image. This research led her to psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark, whose mid-20th century doll tests conducted with Black children concluded that racial segregation and unequal treatment harmed Black kids’ self-esteem.
“I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma during segregation…. But I grew up knowing the wealth, the richness, and the smartness of Black people.”
Yla Eason American Journal of Play, 2021
More than a Black Version of a White Toy
Eason worked with artist Floyd Cooper and manufacturers to produce Sun-Man, a figure with distinct African features, an Afro, and dark skin. She also developed a backstory in which the winged hero derived his strength and invulnerability from the melanin pigment in his skin.
Mind the Gap
In 1985, Eason, a Harvard-trained businesswoman, founded Olmec Toys to respond to the lack of toys made especially for Black children. Its first ad challenged the status quo, declaring Sun-Man was “More powerful than Spider-Man. More awesome than Superman. Mightier than He-Man.”
Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands
Eason approached stores armed with Sun-Man and demographic research showing a growing market of people of color eager to buy her toys. But, when disinterested retailers and racist toy buyers dismissed her, she marketed her line of diverse playthings directly to Black consumers.
“I contracted beauty and barber supply reps, who worked the black ma-and-pa stores across the country to sell the dolls. It became a kind of grass-roots operation that caught on.”
Yla Eason Black Enterprise, December 1986
Introduction Butterfly Woman Collection and Order form in Ebony (1986) by Johnson Publishing CompanyThe Strong National Museum of Play
Taking Olmec From a Product to a Brand
Conducting market research and reviewing census data helped Olmec determine from which stores Black consumers would buy their toys. It led to a distribution deal with Toys ”R” Us. There, Olmec launched Butterfly Woman in 1986, its first toy line aimed at girls.
“Our Pride is in Our Toys”
Backed by investors like Black activists Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Olmec advertised in Black magazines. Using Eason’s face and voice, the company spoke directly to parents about toys that could make their children feel good about themselves. She assured them that “We Are You.”
Fabulous Figures
In 1988, Olmec introduced the Bronze Bombers, an action figure line inspired by the U.S. Army’s mostly Black 369th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed “Men of Bronze” during WWI. Unlike the real all-male group, the fictional team included the female code breaker Agent Telepathy.
“We’re Into Everything Cool, Like Music, Rhymes, and School”
Olmec created new products that mashed-up current trends with encouraging messages to children of color. Released in 1990, Hip Hop Kids were 12-inch dolls like B. Boy Smart, a character who loved both math and rap, dressed in hip-hop fashions, and aspired to be an architect.
Changing the Face of Dolls
Olmec’s success, and the changing racial and ethnic demographics documented in the 1990 U.S. census, propelled major toymakers to create more diverse dolls. Hasbro partnered with Olmec in 1991 to offer Imani as an authentically Black companion to Hasbro’s white Sindy doll.
“People would say there is a Black Barbie doll, but even though she had a different name, she was known as ‘Black Barbie.’ And since we are not Black versions of white people, you should have a separate doll. That is where… Imani came from.”
Yla Eason American Journal of Play
Meteor Man
In actor and director Robert Townsend’s 1993 film The Meteor Man, a strike from a glowing green meteorite gives schoolteacher Jefferson Reed superpowers to fight off gangs terrorizing his neighborhood. Olmec produced licensed action figures of the movie’s lead character.
Our Powerful Past
Following Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X and renewed interest in the history and leaders of the civil rights and Black power movements, Olmec released the first officially authorized collectible figures of activists and icons Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in 1995.
Playing with Black Ingenuity
Olmec ventured into games in 1995 with Black by Design. The Black history memory game asked players to match illustrations of the traffic signal, gas mask, and other products on which Black inventors worked, and it encouraged them to learn more by reading an accompanying guide.
Rulers of The Sun Sun-Man by Mattel, Inc. and Olmec CorporationThe Strong National Museum of Play
The Return of Sun-Man
Mounting competition forced Olmec to close in the mid-1990s. But in 2021, with renewed interest in Eason’s work to make toys for marginalized communities, she partnered with Mattel to reintroduce Sun-Man and unite the worlds of the Rulers of the Sun with Masters of the Universe.
