Farewell To "Sweet Sasha" & "Marvelous Malia!"

Ty Inc., the company that makes Beanie Babies, has decided to retire and rename their line of dolls that carried the monikers of the first daughters -- after getting a negative response from White House officials.

Although Ty Inc. insisted the dolls were not intended to depict Malia and Sasha, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama had protested that the dolls were inappropriately using "young, private citizens for marketing purposes."

The dolls have been renamed "Marvelous Mariah" and "Sweet Sydney," the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The original names were inspired by what Chief Executive Ty Warner called "this historic time in our nation's history," and the dolls were not intended to bear the likeness of President Barack Obama's two children.

"There's nothing on the dolls that refers to the Obama girls," Ty Inc. spokeswoman Tania Lundeen had said. "It would not be fair to say they are exact replications of these girls. They are not."

The brown-skinned dolls -- which were part of the company's "TyGirlz Collection" -- were introduced in early January and a limited supply had been shipped to retailers, the AP reported. Now, the company's site lists them as "Retired." Other dolls in the collection include Jammin' Jenna and Happy Hillary.

"We appreciate the company’s response to this matter," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Obama.
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