Mattel Brings Stardolls To “Life”

The Toy Spy is reporting that Stardolls will be coming to a retailer near you. The free dress-up doll website has teamed up with Mattel (the company behind the Barbie fashion doll brand) to launch their own line of dolls. This is good news that they’re expanding virtual dolls into real dolls! So many companies like to turn everything virtual these days, so it’s nice to see a company go a different route for a change.

I think toy companies forget sometimes about the classic toys like regular dolls or stuffed animals. They try to create toys that are purely electronic or have some digital connection to market them but the only thing that does is teach kids to lose their sense of creativity. However, I can say that at least they are trying to make it where you can inject personality into them. I do wish Stardolls success and I think they will have plenty of it!

What’s your opinion on Stardoll fashion dolls? I like the idea but I don’t think they could ever compare to the original Barbie. I have to say that I also think it’s quite ambitious of them to come up with a new fashion doll that looks a lot like the one already on the market. I hope that they decide to come up with something extra to make the dolls stand out more.

Stardoll, the online fashion game and world’s largest website for teen and tween girls today announced at the International Toy Fair, a multi-year licensing agreement with Mattel. The partnership is aimed at taking the Stardoll brand from the virtual into the physical world with the first product line to come in the autumn of 2011.

Global toy company Mattel has teamed up with Stardoll after years of successful commercial collaborations allowing brands to engage online with their target audience. Mattel brands that have advertised on Stardoll include Barbie®, Fashionistas®, Monster High®, with the companies deploying a range of highly creative solutions that included launching a fan club, exclusive dolls and a virtual store.

“We are pleased to be working with the world’s largest toy company in a partnership that will see Stardoll moving from the virtual into the physical world,” said Mattias Miksche, CEO of Stardoll Network from Nuremberg where he is a featured speaker at the International Toy Fair. “This year we are very focused on entering the licensing space so that our members can experience Stardoll in new and exciting ways; Mattel is making this a reality for them.”

In January, it was announced that Random House Children’s Books launched a printed copy of ‘Mortal Kiss’ in bookstores after the interactive mystery story, originally only released on the web, was a huge hit among members. Commented Mattias Miksche:

We knew that our users love the immersive online experience on Stardoll.com, but we are thrilled to learn that we’ve built a brand that carries from the online to the offline retail world.”
Stardoll was launched in 2006, has more than 92 million registered users globally and reaches over 15 million unique users per month.

article source: The Toy Spy