My 5 month old daughter was bought one of these dolls for Christmas. I hadn't noticed it was different to the TV character (although admittedly i'm not a avid fan of 'In the Night Garden') and i'm fairly sure she doesn't care in the slighest what shade of white/brown/black it is.
I'm not sure why they have made the doll different but i'm even less sure why it matters? And people seriously camplained about this????