Forget the boring old Big Three Auto maker bailout hearings — for parents of pre-Tween girls, the major business news this week is Mattel and Barbie’s resounding victory over MGA and their upstart Bratz dolls.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The rowdy Bratz dolls have been evicted. Barbie has regained control of the dollhouse.
Toy giant Mattel Inc., after a four-year legal dispute with MGA Entertainment Inc., touted its win in the case Wednesday after a federal judge banned MGA from making and selling its pouty-lipped and hugely popular Bratz dolls.
“It’s a pretty sweeping victory,” Mattel attorney Michael Zeller said. “They have no right to use Bratz for any goods or services at all.”
U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson rocked the toy industry with his order that MGA must immediately stop manufacturing Bratz….
The decision was a stunning defeat for MGA, which exploded onto the tween scene in 2001 with the edgy dolls and made hundreds of millions in profits, giving Mattel’s more classic doll-diva Barbie a run for her money….
Mattel has fought to neutralize the Bratz line for years. The dolls — with their huge lips, pug noses, almond-shaped eyes and coquettish figures — were an instant hit with young girls. MGA had taken Bryant’s original four dolls and spun out a line of more than 40 characters, complete with accessories and related toys such as Bratz Boyz, Bratz Petz and Baby Bratz…. The judge’s injunction named all 40 dolls in the Bratz line, including the four originals — Yasmine, Chloe, Sasha and Jade.
I have been living in fear of the day when Celie and Iris learn about Bratz, Barbie’s evil, “sassy” (a.k.a. hyper-sexualized) cousins.
Note however that the judge “allowed MGA to wait until the holiday season ends to remove the toys from store shelves.” But will any sane parent purchase a Bratz doll now knowing that repair/maintenance services, including the necessary silicon/Botox refresher treatments, will be discontinued in February???
Ivan Kreilkamp 