Doll wars
Makers of Barbie and rival Bratz not playing nice in battle for supremacy
By Norma Meyer
June 5, 2005
CAROL KRON / Copley News Service
Rivals Bratz (left) and My Scene Barbie are duking it out in the playroom and in court. The edgy fashion dolls with wowing wardrobes are aimed at 'tweens.
LOS ANGELES � Inside the security-guarded Bratz think tank, a hairstylist uses teensy rollers to coif dozens of decapitated doll heads staring back with made-up faces. Skewered onto sticks, they look like Bratz-kabobs. At another desk, an artist delicately paints more Lilliputian test noggins with dramatically shadowed bedroom eyes, lip-lined pouts and occasional beauty marks.
The bustling Bratz design center seems like it's all for child's play. But this is base camp for one side in the adult-driven vicious Doll Wars.
The edgy hipster hit Bratz doll and cultural icon Barbie are tearing out each other's hair � which apparently can be in demand. MGA Entertainment, the makers of Bratz, claim in court papers that Barbie parent Mattel once bought up all the doll hair from the two main suppliers in hopes the Bratz would go bald.
That's just for starters. Later on, evenHokey Pokey Elmo figures into the Barbie/Bratz brawl.
The toyland tussle began in mid-2001, when the sassy, big-headed Bratz fashionistas� with their multiethnic urban look, Angelina Jolie bee-stung lips and Britney Spears bare midriffs � debuted for 'tweens and suddenly threatened to push the perennial plastic princess off her pink perch.
As Bratz sales soared, Barbie, who at 46 has been everything from an Army medic in Desert Storm to a presidential candidate, was not about to take her ball, let alone her 43 pets, Vespa scooter and Bob Mackie gowns, and go home.
After all, 'tweens account for billions in spending. They're the wannabe teens who are into MTV as much as toys with bendable arms. No wonder the two doll makers aren't playing around.
First, in a high-stakes ongoing case, Mattel sued Bratz creator Carter Bryant, a former Barbie designer, claiming he was a traitor who got the Bratz idea when he was on Barbie's payroll. Bryant counter-sued, arguing the world's largest toy company is trying to hijack his "brainchild anyway it can." Then, hard-driving Business Executive Barbie slapped a lawsuit on a high-level manager who defected to MGA allegedly with "trade secrets" (a judge booted that case in January).
Now, the Bratz have put down their mini cappuccino cups to battle back. In a biting, recently filed, multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit, MGA accuses Barbie of being "the playground bully" and Mattel of "serial copycatting." MGA contends the desperate, vindictive toy titan made a knockoff of Bratz, the My Scene Barbie, to confuse consumers and "muscle MGA out of business."
"It's a rip-off," says MGA founder Isaac Larian, surrounded in his Van Nuys office by his 10-inch babes, such as Pretty 'N' Punk Jade, in skintight leather pants and jet-black hair streaked with neon blue.
Sultry Bratz was once the anti-Barbie. Now, Larian says, "The pictures speak 1,000 words."
He is referring to side-by-side photos in the lawsuit, which purport to show how the "stale" traditional busty blonde, Barbie Millicent Roberts from Willows, Wis., had an extreme makeover into My Scene Barbie in fall 2002 � with oversized head and feet and almond-shaped eyes like Bratz � and underwent touch-up surgery last year to become more of a Bratz clone with thickly lined heavy eyelids, similar packaging and themes.
Barbie's handlers won't comment on specifics of MGA's lawsuit. But in a written statement, El Segundo-based Mattel said MGA got involved in Bryant's case because "its interest in the Bratz doll line could be at risk. In our opinion, MGA's recently filed suit against Mattel is part of its overall litigation strategy in relation to Mattel's suit against Mr. Bryant.
"Apparently MGA has become concerned enough that it feels compelled to make an offensive strike against Mattel."
The accessorized, long-haired dueling divas, aimed at 8-to 11-year-olds, have this in common: 'tude, primping, skimpy clothes, shop-til-you-drop and guys. (They also have plenty of parent critics, who've bashed them as everything from "all sluts" to "hookers-in-training.")
The 10 Bratz Pack girls, who include Yasmin, Sasha and Cloe,party with the five Bratz Boyz, among them Koby, whose nickname is "�'The Panther' �because I'm always on the prowl!" They cavort in the Flashback Fever Party Bus with the real working Jacuzzi, and the revolving Tokyo A Go-Go Sushi Lounge with the sliced sashimi and karaoke stage. The celebrity architectural firm that did homes for Eddie Murphy and Rod Stewart designed their chic, three-story Bratz Pad ($229.99 on toysRus.com).
My Scene's "tribe" includes 11 1/2-inch tall Barbie, whose hangout, according to her blog, is the "day spa," and whose "fave" pastime is "chatting with cuties!" Gal pal Madison's fave pastimeis "getting manis and pedis," and her perfect date is "dinner and dancing with a hottie!" One hottie for retail sale is Hudson, who likes "fun, flirty" girls. This summer, they'll kick it with "Mean Girls" star Lindsay Lohan (shrunk as a My Scene doll).
Larian, an Iranian immigrant, used to pass by the old Mattel headquarters in Hawthorne on his way to work as a dishwasher at a Spire's coffee shop. "I came here at the age of 17 with $350 and a blanket and a one-way ticket," the 51-year-old CEO recalls.
He says he later sold mail-order brass giftware, got a civil engineering degree from California State University Los Angeles, and started a consumer electronics business by buying a Nintendo license for hand-held computer games.
That company turned into MGA, which bills itself as the world's largest privately owned toy company, with about 65 percent of its business Bratz. MGA employs some 600 people worldwide, half of whom work in the San Fernando Valley headquarters, where the motto "Fortune Favors the Bold" is plastered on interior doors.
Larian says 80 million Bratz have been sold in 65 countries; in Britain and Australia, it's the No. 1 fashion doll. MGA won't reveal its income, but an industry magazine reported the Bratz brand last year raked in $1.1 billion worldwide.
Publicly traded Mattel, with more than 20,000 global employees, insists the tiny-waisted queen is still the world's reigning doll. More than a billion Barbies have been sold since her birth in 1959, says Mattel, and if put head to toe, she and her friends would circle Earth seven times.
The Barbie brand is a $3-billion-a-year biz. Still, Barbie's had the blues � sales worldwide fell 15 percent for the first quarter of 2005.
"Oh my God! Barbie is so here to stay!" exclaims Russell Arons, Barbie's v.p. of marketing.
True, the golden girl isn't relinquishing her crown. But "Bratz represents a level of competition that Barbie has never seen before," observes Sean McGowan, a toy-industry analyst with the investment firm Harris Nesbitt.
Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler named Barbie after her daughter. Larian named the first Bratz doll, Yasmin, after his daughter. He says the breathing, preteen Yasmin was at his office when she saw Bryant's drawings that inspired Bratz and thought they were cool.
In its lawsuit, Mattel alleges that Bryant, while their employee, stole ideas and "secretly aided, assisted and worked for" a competitor, MGA. But Bryant, who designed the 2001 collector-edition prim-and-proper Grand Entrance Barbie in the taffeta ball gown, says in his countersuit he was between stints at Mattel and home in Missouri when the Bratz bulb blinked. Driving back from his job at an Old Navy clothing store, he passed a high school, noticed the "bratty" attitude and trendy outfits and "had a 'eureka' moment."
Barbie's 43-year beau Ken was a pawn in the doll dust-up, according to Bryant's suit. (Bryant declined an interview through MGA.) Barbie allegedly "dumped" Ken last year in a "publicity stunt to revive Barbie in the face of the Bratz success."
"That was something I had been wanting to do for years," counters Mattel'sArons. "Let's be honest. Ken was a goon. It was time."
"And he had commitment issues," chimes in David Stamper, a Mattel spokesman.
Obviously, it's a doll-eat-doll world.
"The industry is very cutthroat," says Bradley Justice, a longtime Barbie collector and North Carolina-based regional director of the United Federation of Doll Clubs. "There are spies everywhere. It's almost like an espionage novel."
In fact, MGA's lawsuit alleges "monkey-see monkey-do" Mattel also copied the funky-looking plush Bratz Petz and other toys. The suit contends Mattel threatened its licensees with retribution if they bought Bratz, and tampered with Bratz displays at stores, relocating Barbie's nemesis to the back shelves.
"Barbie does not 'play nice' with others (particularly her competitors)," MGA's suit charges.
MGA also claims Mattel strong-armed trade organizations, including the Toy Industry Association, which gave the People's Choice Toy of the Year Award � sort of like toy town's Oscar � to Bratz for 2001 and 2002 by consumer vote. But then an executive of Fisher-Price, a Mattel subsidiary, orchestrated a rule change in 2003 so the award was chosen by industry members and "not surprisingly," the lawsuit complains, Hokey Pokey Elmo by Fisher-Price beat out Bratz Formal Funk Super Stylin' Runway Disco.
The toy association declined comment on the alleged "fix."
With all the subterfuge, its no wonder paranoid people inhabit Barbie's Dream House. Court papers in Mattel's failed lawsuit against former exec Ron Brawer, who left for MGA, include "Mattel's Code of Conduct." Employees were not to discuss confidential info in public places "such as planes, restaurants and elevators" in case operatives lurked.
Litigious Barbie has dragged her own alleged copycatters into court. Hasbro had to give its European Sindy doll a face-lift in 1992 after Mattel claimed it looked like Barbie's twin. The same year, Mattel forced Kenner Products to alter two of its Miss America doll heads.
There are more than skull molds involved this go-around. MGA has offshoots like Bratz Babyz and a slew of related merchandise, such as the Bratz Electric Funk Chill-Out Fridge for a girl's room. Mattel is coming out with a My Scene Nokia cell phone. Twentieth Century Fox is producing a Bratz live-action feature film; Barbie stars in an upcoming animated DVD, "My Scene Goes Hollywood."
Babs collector Justice, 35, says My Scene was "definitely inspired by the Bratz doll." And no, he's not upset that the onetime pediatrician, police officer, paleontologist and astronaut is now a party girl. Barbie has always reflected our culture.
"Look at Paris Hilton," Justice emphasizes. "Do you think she wants to be an astronaut?"
Barbie morphed because market research indicates 8-year-olds are influenced by movies and TV, want to drive a car and long to be a teen, Arons says. That's why there's American Idol Barbie and tanned Cali Barbie, whose boy-toy is surfer-dude Blaine.
And there's also Halle Berry Catwoman Barbie, whose claws are surely sharpened for the cat fight with Bratz.
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