Toy Fair Recap: Mattel Part 1

In addition to touring the Fisher-Price showroom (see earlier post below) we also had the opportunity to go through Mattel, which is conveniently in the same location as Fisher-Price (trust us, when you do Toy Fair, the less walking you have to do the better your day goes).

So let's start with Barbie. There are several new traditional doll lines due in 2008 but we want to talk about the untraditional Barbie items that you can expect to see in stores this year. Barbie iDesign, which is hitting the shelves now, is a CD Rom game that uses fashion cards that kids scan through a USB scanner to create unique fashion designs on a computer. Moving from virtual fashion to physical fashion is Barbie Bcause. This is a line of small bags and notebooks made from re-purposed scraps from the production of clothing for the dolls.

Slightly more traditional, are Peekaboo Petites and Fashion And Beauty Fashion Dolls. Peekaboo Petites are collectible, miniature dolls that come in a large variety of themes in charm-adorned cases that match and can be worn as necklaces or back-pack clips. Fashion Dolls look like traditional dolls but feature multiple points or articulation so they can be posed.

Over on the boys' side, Hot Wheels is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the production of its 4 billionth car this year. To commemorate, Hot Wheels is debuting a line-up of new vehicles, track sets, and playsets. In honor of the 4 billionth car, Mattel unveiled a one-of-a-kind, diamond-encrusted, 1:64-scale Hot Wheels car. The most expensive Hot Wheels vehicle ever made (valued at $140,000) will be auctioned off to benefit the Big Brothers Big Sisters charity organization.



Check back for part two of our Mattel recap.