Jezebel
Several financial news outlets are discussing Mattel's falling first-quarter results, and most place the blame squarely on the slim shoulders of a certain doll named Barbie. Barbie, which was introduced in 1959, is now first-runner-up for the under-12 set, in part because of competition from edgier, increasingly-popular brands like Bratz and Hannah Montana dolls and in part because of the emergence of web-based toys. According to Portfolio, "Children want Web-based toys, and they want them at younger and younger ages" the magazine cites the success of interactive toys like Webkinz, and let's not forget the potential pleasures of Miss Bimbo). But the real reason Portfolio believes that Barbie is no longer the reigning beauty queen in toy world is because "at 49, Barbie is becoming obsolete."
Mattel is doing everything in its power to fight Barbie's increasing obsolescence. The Wall Street Journal reports that, in order to combat its "rare quarterly loss" — unlike last year, sales of Barbie flattened both inside and outside of the United States — Mattel is ramping up web-related offerings and is going to start charging a small subscription fee for its Barbie Girl website, which offers games, videos, chats and "digital extras". It's also experimenting with more interactive products — which aren't guaranteed successes. According to the Journal, "The recent Magic of the Rainbow, a fantasy doll marketed under the Barbie brand, doubled as a remote control, came with a CD-ROM game and featured wings that fluttered at the push of a button. 'Girls asked — is this a doll?' said [Chuck] Scothon [senior vice president of Mattel's girls division]. 'We put too much in.'"
[Image via Wilde Designs Etsy Shop]
Barbie: Where The Girls Aren't [Portfolio] As Barbie Sales Fall, Mattel Looks To Simplify Its Iconic Line [WSJ]Earlier: New Game Encourages Young Girls To Embrace Their Inner "Bimbo"
Comments
Hey, at least Barbie was an adult. Never thought I'd say it, but I'm more comfortable with grown-up Barbie, bringing her idiotic version of "sexy," than I am with the sexualized kid dolls.
I'd hate to think at 49 I'd be obsolete. These Bratz and Hannah Montana dolls are the Trophy Wives of the doll world.
Bitches!
Barbie has been around the block and back and she ain't going no where! Besides you can't brush Miss Bimbo's hair.
Some of my fondest memories growing up were playing with my sisters Barbies. I'll never forget when I accidentally burned the hair off one when I tried to dry it on a lightbulb and it melted and clumped (and stank) kind of like the time I put a my little pony in the microwave to dry it's hair as well...
No kids for me yet, but I can already tell I'm going to be the lamest mom ever. Web based toys? HA. Bratz? HA. TV? HA.
See, ladies? No matter how much you inject into your face, even if you look the same as you did at 21 at 49 you'll still be obsolete!!!
SUCK ON THIS HUMORLESS FEMINISTS
Barbies were SO awful and deforming and god knows what and now y'all stuck with Bratz and online dolls with boob jobs and unicorn whores.
HA-HA!!
That photo is great!!!
Girls don't want to play with Barbie because she is portrayed as a grown up who has had a myriad of careers. Barbie is also significantly less slutty looking (actually, not slutty at all) than the other dress up dolls in the market, and girls today have been brainwashed into wanting to look slutty. Being "proper" is no longer desirable.
@funnyface: Yeah right I'm afraid to let my kids watch TV. Have you ever seen a child mesmerized by the boob tube? It's frightening! You can't get their attention for SHIT.
@BowlingForDollars: I was thinking the same thing- not only are real women too "old" at 49, but now barbiee is too? I suppose Ken's still going strong though, probably hooking up with a brats doll as we speak......
When I was a kid, 'interactive' meant you took it outside to the sandbox. The fanciest toy I has was a My Little Pony with wings that actually fluttered when you pushed the button (for the hour before I broke them off). I would have cut a bitch for a Barbie corvette with working headlights. Damn kids today, they're all spoiled little brats who have no imagination.
Now get off my lawn.
Rightly, or wrongly, I'm readling lots of "transferrance" into that obsolete at 49 quote.
"Kiss my perfect Barbee Ass!"
@zivah: such as Bratz babies? those were some sexy toddlers.
what about American Girl dolls? they're still a raging success, right? youd think that would keep mattel afloat.
"Magic of the Rainbow"? This is a name?
...unless you're talking about Magic Johnson, in which case it makes sense. Ba-dum-bum.
@vegemitekid: Yeah, but he has to take viagra, and I think his midlife crisis is going to give him a heart attack when he's in his early 50s.
what was so wrong with tree houses and roller skates?
go play outside kids!
Mattel Profits Plummet -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?
YES.
I really want to maim the person that came up with the idea for "Bratz" dolls. They're little hooker dolls, that's all they are. You could make Barbie be anything. All you needed was a little imagination that I fear might be lacking in today's youth.
My 5-year-old son wants a Bratz doll so badly, and while I think it's adorable that he likes dolls, I just can't bring myself to buy one of those overly made-up, sexed-up dolls. He also wants a Sharpei (High School Musical) doll that sings 'Fabulous' (a song about worshipping material things). Also resisting getting that, although it's light-years better than Bratz in my opinion. I have not resisted getting the music for either, though. Bad mommy!
@BlondeGrlz: Anytime someone says the words "my little pony" the theme song is stuck in my head for days. All three words of it.
My little ponies, my little ponies......
@BlondeGrlz: I also had to walk 10 miles to and from school, uphill both ways and in the snow. Hrumph.
@jenalicious: maybe, but american girl dolls come with books, not cd roms, and books are sooooo 90s
Barbie is lame, and seriously, only the lesser of two evils when it comes to the nasty Bratz dolls.
I was obsessed with dolls as a kid and had plenty of non-name-brand dolls to dress up and make clothes for, plus my fantasy come true American Girl doll.
I played Barbies at my friends houses, but seriously, I proud and grateful that my mom refused to give a corporately branded childhood.
@vegemitekid: ken never had sex with barbies, he's out there with the n'sync action figured.
Little girls always want to do whatever older girls are doing. Barbie does not look like older girls. Bratz look like the older girls...on MTV shows. Parents let their little kids watch MTV programming. Little girls therefore want Bratz and not Barbie.
Solution: only allow age-appropriate programming in the house. Duh. Bratz is and never will be age-appropriate.
@BlondeGrlz: You just gave me a flashback to my childhood, listening to my grandma rant:
"Barbie Dream House?? You know what I used to get for Christmas? An orange. And I was happy with that orange. My sisters and I would peel it carefully, so we would get half of the peel off unbroken so we could fashion it into an umbrella for the doll we used to share."
Are we supposed to mourn for Barbie because there are now dolls that are worse? This is the doll that taught us math is hard. It is the doll that has unreasonable proportions. I really don't care if she becomes obsolete.
@zivah: Only after he marries the bratz doll, has a new baby, is divorced by the bratz doll and taken for millions, cursing himself all the way for not signing that pre-nup....
Barbie is kind of a blank slate, which is what I used to like about her (usually she would be a Godzilla monster who the GI Joe guys had to defeat, but I was a weird kid.) The thing was, you had this adult doll, and sure, she had lots of different outfits and careers and accessories, but the play was really open-ended. Barbie could be a straight astronaut pursuing Space Ken one day, and a lesbian pirate the next day (pursuing Midge and Teresa across the high seas.)
Bratz and the like largely seem to emphasize shopping, fashion, and other displays of conspicuous consumerism. Bratz don't walk the plank, or stomp Tokyo to smithereens, or engage the warp drive. Bratz come prepackaged for fashion shows and mall adventures. Bratz aspire to be famous rock stars or fashion mavens.
Take a look at the section of the toy aisle that's targeted toward girls. When I was a little kid, there were lots of dolls, but some of them emphasized adventure and novelty. Like the My Buddy / Kid Sister dolls? And the endless array of doctor/lawyer/astronaut Barbies?
Now it's all Credit Card Bratz Divaz Shopping Binge Purgatory Glitter Blowout, as if all little girls want to aspire to is shopping and spending and looking good.
Sigh.
@katieb has landed:
My Little Pony...My Little Pony
What will today's adventure be?
My Little Pony...My Little Pony
Will there be exciting sights to see?
Where will you wander? Hither and yonder
Letting your heart be your guide
My Little Pony...My Little Pony
I'll be there right by your side
I'll be there right by your side
... never actually remembered the hither and yonder part, but there's a good chance the song is in my head for a solid month now.
Oh Barbie. You really do epitomize the real life women you seek to embody. Cast aside in your 40s for a younger, trampier version of yourself.
The problem with Barbie is that the doll always looks the same. At leas the Bratz dolls have different hair and eye colors. As a child, I was actually bitter about all the blonde haired blue eyed dolls, princess, etc. that were out there. The only representation I had until Belle was Snow White. And she talked funny.
Generations of women have managed to grow up unscathed playing with Barbie. I think it's still too early to tell how the freakish, slutty Bratz are going to influence the current young girls, if at all.
@ineffable.me: You mean "whorses". Haha!
@ineffable.me: Ahh, Barbie was just a front?
@Lymed: all dolls have unreasonable proportions. and barbie didnt teach me that math is hard. my mom never bought me that. see how people can do that? barbie was a fun time and there was doctor barbie and veterinarian barbie and astronaut barbie.
call me when astronaut bratz comes out.
When I have kids, they can play with the twenty or so Barbie dolls I have saved for them, complete with Barbie horses, Mercedes, and motor home. My stepsister and I played with that shit until an embarrassingly late age. Good enough for me, good enough for my unborn children.
@tscheese: "Credit Card Bratz Divaz Shopping Binge Purgatory Glitter Blowout" Oh my God. Coffee in my sinuses thanks to you! :)
@zivah: Barefoot.
Back in '59, I wanted one of those first Barbie's very badly. I saved up chore money until I could have her. After a childhood of baby and little girl dolls, at eleven, I wanted a fashion doll that I could dress in adult clothing that I designed and made. That first Barbie was very different from current Barbies. Her features were more Asian with sharply slanted eyes and her hair was fine black silk threaded thru tiny holes in her scalp, pulled tightly back into a long pony-tail. Her body was hard, not pliable molded plastic like the ones today. As soon as the versions with plastic hair and pliable arms came out, I didn't like her anymore.
@tscheese: Well put, perhaps they should make a "Bing and Purge Barbie" with laxatives and real flushing toilet.
@LaComtesse: I stole, and loved, a barbie from my sister that was Hawaiin or Asian and had long black hair and was so fierce and hot and I would dress her in this spandex neon green workout outfit with a huge pink tutu thing over it. Ahh the 80s. I liked the ethnic barbies over regular barbie.
@BlondeGrlz: My wife keeps pointing out every time we go to Toys 'R Us how much my daughter loves the kid-sized Barbie Corvette. However, I'm not paying $250 so my daughter can tool around in a replica pink Corvette. It'll be bad enough when she wants a real car.
@vegemitekid: totally dude. totally.
@LaComtesse: thats true. but then after i got old enough i always chose the ones that didnt have blonde hair. my favorite ones growing up were kyra (who was sort of hawaiian looking and had darker brown skin and black hair) and midge, barbie's red-headed friend. my skipper also had brown hair.
they ruled.
@LaComtesse: My sister had Barbie dolls, who spent an awful lot of time commingling with my G.I. Joes.
@BlondeGrlz: I also had that My Little Pony! Its wings also busted off from being put away into the toybox. Dammit.
I don't want to buy Barbie for my nieces nowadays. She's always a fairy princess or something else equally fluffy. Bring back the Barbie with the powersuit, or Barbie for President, or even the Barbie who was a zoologist, and I'll start buying them again for my nieces.
@BowlingForDollars: They are the "Rock of love" girls of the doll world.
@ineffable.me: Omg I was totally talking about Kyra in my last post! She was so gorgeous and had that long black hair! I miss her.
What about Skipper? I could relate to Skipper.
@dontbogartthewine: @BlondeGrlz: @katieb has landed: The greatest day of my life was when I realized that my boss' daughter-in-law voiced not only Megan from My Little Pony, but Rainbow Brite. To make it better, she is the most beautiful, kind woman I've ever met.
@Lymed: I hear you, particularly on the "math is hard" thing. But my baby doll had a giant head and eyes, arms that didn't move away from its body and, after I was done with it, one eye and no hair. It didn't give me unrealistic ideas as to what my younger siblings would look like. Look at any goddess figurine from the dawn of time: none of them give us accurate proportions of what a woman really looks like.
@NefariousNewt: Buy her the corvette! I remember being little and wanting a power wheel more than anything in the world, I even befriended a neighbor child just because he had one!
@NefariousNewt: Be warned. My parents refused to buy me a Barbie Corvette as a kid too. First guy I met who owned a real one (yellow, not pink) - I married him.
My Barbie had a red Corvette. The hardest day of my life was when I cleaned out my childhood bedroom and had to throw it away (after checking Ebay and making sure it wasn't worth anything)...
@AthertonMerriweather: Ohhh Frenchie, that comment was priceless on Sunday night. And how could Bret not want you after you show heem zee perfect Barbee assz?!
@AnderBobo: My favorite Barbie was black. Then I ALSO had the freckled red-head Midge; I called her Maggie, and I made her an Irish exchange student. As my mom recently pointed out, my whole life, I LOATHED "the pretty one" in any group. Jem? Pshw. But I had all the 'Misfits' dolls from the same show.
@LaComtesse: I don't think Barbies and goddess figures are comparable. The goddess figures are celebrating life. Barbies are a sexualized version of a woman's body.