Groovy Girls are back. Manhattan Toy’s yarn-haired, soft-bodied dolls — the ones that sold more than 8 million units before quietly disappearing from shelves, per Parade’s reporting — relaunched in stores starting May 1, with five new characters and a feature the originals never had: magnetic hands, according to the company’s own brand history page.

• The original Groovy Girls line launched in 1998 with four dolls — Liza, Lucy, Lexi, and Lupé — and grew into a specialty-store staple that won “Girl Toy of the Year” honors before leaving the market by 2018, per Manhattan Toy’s own account.
• The relaunch debuted at Toy Fair New York (February 14-17) and rolled out online May 1, with retail availability continuing through June, according to a press release from parent company Crown Crafts.
• Five new 13-inch dolls anchor the collection — Rose, Saige, Poppy, Iris, and Daisy — each with stylable yarn hair, removable outfits, and new magnetic hands that let the dolls hold accessories or “hold hands” with each other.
• Original Groovy Girls designer Cathy Dalebroux returned to co-lead the relaunch alongside Creative Director Krista Clement, per Manhattan Toy.

“Groovy Girls have always been more than just dolls, they’re characters that kids connect with,” said Kelly Anderson, Vice President of Marketing at Sassy Baby, Inc., in the company’s own announcement of the relaunch. That connection is exactly what Manhattan Toy is betting on: the dolls originally sold through specialty retailers like Zany Brainy and Noodle Kidoodle, chains that themselves became a specific kind of late-90s nostalgia once they folded, and the original line crossed $141 million in lifetime revenue at its peak, according to Parade’s reporting on the relaunch.

The relaunch rationale, straight from Manhattan Toy’s own account, comes down to two overlapping trends: the original fans who grew up styling Groovy Girls’ yarn hair are now parents themselves, and there’s been a broader parental pull back toward tactile, low-tech “back to basics” play after years of screen-heavy and app-connected toys. A soft doll with real fabric hair you can actually braid fits that shift perfectly, in a way a licensed character toy tied to a show or app simply can’t replicate.

Priced at $29.99 and aimed at kids ages 3 to 6, the new dolls aren’t just banking on nostalgia from the parents doing the buying — they’re introducing the format to a generation of kids who’ve never seen a doll with yarn for hair outside of a hand-me-down. Whether Groovy Girls recapture their original cultural footprint remains to be seen, but the fact that a discontinued-in-2018 toy line is back on shelves at all says something about how durable a genuinely tactile toy idea can be.