Barbie fights for her life

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

MAE ANDERSON

NEW YORK (AP) - As far as catfights go, this is a doozy.

Barbie, long the reigning queen in the doll world, has suddenly been thrust into the battle of her life.

But Barbie's competitors look nothing like the blue-eyed, blond-haired, long-legged fashion icon. And they don't have the same old standards of beauty as the aging diva either.

Monster High dolls, vampy teens that are patterned after the offspring of monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein, have neon pink and green streaks in their hair. They wear platform heels and mini-skirts with skulls on them. And the dolls that go by names like Draculaura and Ick Abbey Bominable are gaining on Barbie.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130718/DA7K59V83.html

---

In this Oct. 31, 2007, file photo, Barbie dolls are seen at the Barbie Store in Buenos Aires. As Mattel reported on July 17, 2013, Barbie is suddenly facing a popularity contest as the most popular doll on the Market. Instead, Mattel’s Monster High dolls, have exploded in popularity since being introduced in 2010. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, file)

[Taverner]

1. My daughter loves Monster High

Tween Goth

[lunasun]

6. Monster High here too-Throw a Barbie doll in the room and its hair would get colored purple

and it's skin green if it even got to stay around for any stretch of time

[Taverner]

8. It's like Glee without the singing, and everyone's a monster's progeny...

Also it will give these kids a dark sense of humor early

Just like us GenXers

There is a reason most of the greatest GenX statements have been dark

Dark parents raise dark kids

I like dark

[lunasun]

10. Yep I would be more freaked if she liked a blond Barbie doll than a blue skinned Monster doll

The kids are alrigtt

[Taverner]

11. We GenXers are going to raise the next generation of sardonic, ironic, malcontents...

Who end up fixing everything the millenials couldn't accomplish in their time frame

[JHB]

16. An interesting series of posts on the Monster High dolls and what makes them popular...

...from a twentysomething female collector.

Just for orientation about some of the references, this site is used by the artist for her purely fannish interests, which includes the current (better than you'd think) incarnation of My Little Pony, and the "our community" she refers to is the MLP fandom. I thought it was an interesting perspective on what works and what doesn't.

http://pixelkitties.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-Monster-High-Pt-1-Why-Ghouls-Rule-380411128
http://pixelkitties.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-Monster-High-Pt-2-Ghoulia-380572727
http://pixelkitties.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-Monster-High-Pt3-Skelita-380838381
http://pixelkitties.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-Monster-High-Part-4-Jinafire-Long-381096403

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. Had to see what they looked like...

Looks reminiscent:

[truthisfreedom]

20. They look like alien greys with a bit of spray paint.

[immoderate]

3. It's Mattel vs. Mattel?

--imm

[sakabatou]

7. It's a new niche for them, I guess.

[alp227]

4. Barbie is going to be a skeleton in the closet pretty damn soon.

It should go out of business and end the suffering of the Chinese workers who manufacture that cheap plastic junk and end the beauty/gender wars in the West.

[Taverner]

5. No, she'll come back when the milennials start turning 30 and having kids

cycles, baby, cycles

You should see what kind of toys were popular at the turn of the last century

Truly creepy shit

[Archae]

9. There are also these "Equestria Girls" from Hasbro out now too.

Human versions of the "My Little Ponies."

[DeadLetterOffice]

14. oh ICK!

And wow do those things make me grateful I have sons who are obsessed with video games.
Ack.

[JHB]

15. Don't relax just yet...

The current incarnation of the MLP franchise is one of those cases where the reboot is much better than the source material, probably thanks to a rare case of the corporate "suits" lightening up on the usual stanglehold on creativity, and it has gained a decidedly out-of-target-demographic fandom (including plenty of game-playing teen-twentysomething males).

Kind of a fascinating development, one that would have been virtually impossible before the current social media environment.

[daleo]

12. Barbie will pull through

Though a few corporate CEO types may see their pay packets drop from millions to a bit less than that. It' s a very sad thought.

[ReRe]

13. What ever happened to Tiny Tears? :-)

[lunasun]

21. Is it still crying ??

[Baclava]

17. for a second I thought you were talking about that real-life barbie girl

Valeria Lukyanova

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/22/valeria-lukyanova_n_1444169.html#slide=1711026

[shebornik]

18. ICK

Valeria is even creepier than Barbie and the Monster High dolls put together.

[Baclava]

19. I'd say 'freaky'

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Did you catch this?

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/artist-barbie-real-proportions-article-1.1388333

Then there's what she would look like without makeup.