"You've got music, you've got fashion and you've got online-all these components tied into today's girls."Īt, girls can customize their characters' looks and styles. "I think we've got a hit on our hands," said Reyne Rice, a New York-based toy trends expert at the Toy Industry Association. The Barbie Girls music players, which can hold up to 120 MP3 or 240 WMA-file songs, come to market in July and will cost about $60, Mattel said. Retailers said earlier this month that demand for Webkinz, which are sold at specialty retail shops such as Hallmark and American Greetings, has skyrocketed. analyst Lisa Bolton Weiser wrote in a research note. "If Mattel's online community is successful-with penetration similar to Webkinz-we estimate maximum annual sales potential of about $100 million, or about 3 cents a share," Oppenheimer & Co. Toy analysts say this latest addition to the Barbie line, launched in 1959, should be a hot seller, helping the brand reverse nearly five years of declining sales. The official launch of came a week after the company gave it a public test run. The world's largest toy maker is also taking aim at Apple's iPod music players and, furry animal toys that come alive online. The company hopes the new toy, which brings together Web surfing, shopping and music downloads, will cool demand for rival MGA Entertainment's sassy Bratz dolls-a line of big-headed, skinny dolls with scant, trendy clothing. The devices turn into live characters at, a new Web site where girls can interact with one other in a manner reminiscent of Second Life, the virtual world for adults. On Thursday, Mattel unveiled Barbie Girls, four-and-a-half-inch tall MP3 players designed to look like dolls. Mattel is using technology to create a new twist on a 48-year-old toy to appeal to today's Web- and multimedia-savvy girls.
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