The Doll Blog

I’ve commented before on the Barbie vs. Bratz case, and followed it with interest, but even I was surprised with the severity of the final judgement:

If this is your first exposure to the story, let me summarize:

What was the crime? Getting paid by one company to design a doll, and then selling that doll to another company. Why is it a story? Because the Bratz dolls started beating the crap out of Barbie Dolls. What is the result? See above. But what I really want to know, now that they’ve won, is Mattel going to start selling Bratz?

Times are tough, the American economy is taking a major ass-whupping… Us too – last year our average order was $40, this year it’s probably $20. But we sell a basic item in our online stores: ethnic baby dolls, and to a small niche. If you are Black, Hispanic or Asian, and live in the heartland, it’s difficult to find a good selection of ethnic baby dolls in your local Wal-mart. So we’re still doing fine.

But we are a little bit puzzled by the folks who are complaining that the toy industry advertises too heavily to children. And that during tough times, it’s not right, because it makes parents feel bad to have to say no! (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood: http://www.commercialexploitation.org/ )

Nobody likes commercials, we’d rather watch the show without them. And the toy industry certainly does market to children… better get used to it – always has and always will.** That’s how children learn what’s out there.

But if you want to blame TV commercials for not buying your kid a doll… well then you really are in sad shape. Dolls don’t have to be expensive; better yet, make one yourself. Some old rags and needle and thread… a few hours and you’ve got yourself a doll.
Here’s one from Martha Stewart

Our advice? Don’t look for excuses or outside sources to blame. Little girls love their dolls unconditionally, it doesn’t matter if they are small or home made. And the smile on their faces when you give them a new doll? Priceless.

**Doll ads from Sears catalogs from the last century get lots of money from collectors; and fashion dolls were themselves originally advertisements. In the 1800′s dolls were dressed in the latest European fashions and sent to America so ladies could see the latest styles!

Nude Barbie

It is so easy to offend… and yes I am talking dolls. For instance, two little words, nude, and Barbie. Ten little letters in the English language. Yet put them together — Nude Barbie — and whole treatises could be written about feminism, pornography, nudity, little girls self image…. it goes on and on. And has in fact, in blogs other than mine.

Here’s another Barbie causing waves… Tefillin Barbie by Doll Artist Jen Taylor Friedman. Why controversy? Well until very very recently, Jewish women didn’t wear tefillin, or for that matter study Torah (Yentl the Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer is set in the late 19th century).

Tefillin Barbie by Doll Artist Jen Taylor Friedman

So is this a feminist statement? A religious one?

But if you gave either of these dolls – without any explanation – to any average four year old girl anywhere in the world, (well maybe not in the Middle East), what would happen? She would take the dolls, and play. End of story.

So I guess I should rephrase my opening line.

It is so easy to offend… adults. How about you? Offended?

It’s the start of the Christmas baby doll buying season and dolls cost more this year. Why?
Fuel and transport costs.
Rising labor costs.
General inflationary pressures.

But to a large extent… new toy safety regulations passed in August by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

Lead:Scope: Materials and substrate of any children’s products.
Requirement: The limits on lead in children’s products will be established as follows and according to this timetable:
1. 600 parts per million (ppm) – effective 180 days after enactment of the Act
2. 300 ppm – effective 1 year after enactment of the Act
Lead in paint and surface coatings (Sec. 101, part (f))

Scope: Children’s products
Requirement: The limit will be reduced from the current 0.06 percent (600 ppm) requirement to 0.009 percent (90 ppm).

Testing: The Act allows for consideration of alternative methods of testing for lead in paint including x-ray florescence technology (XRF) when the total weight of the paint or surface coating to be tested is no greater than 10 mg or no more than 1 cm2 of surface area. Additionally, the Act calls on CPSC to study the effectiveness, precision and reliability of XRF and other alternate methods for measuring lead in paint and surface coatings – and if determined to be at least as effective, precise and reliable as other methods the agency may promulgate regulations governing the use of such methods.

Expense : Testing – Every Doll now has to be tested. That means you need the ‘sniffers’ that can actually detect lead content. Not cheap.
Expense : Reporting – Not only do you have to get good results, but now everyone down the chain has to have them too… from the giants like Wal-mart and Target, to little ole’ me and our three online doll stores.
Expense: Compliance officer. There is so much regulation, testing and reporting needed, that the manufacturers are hiring folks to oversee their compliance. And these folks need to go to China pretty often as well. Expensive.

Tracking Labels for Children’s Products (Sec. 103)
Scope: Children’s products
Requirement: Effective one year after enactment of the Act, manufacturers must place permanent, distinguishing marks on a product and its packaging, to the extent practicable, that will enable the manufacturer and ultimate purchaser to ascertain: the name of the manufacturer, date and location of production and identifying production information (cohort, batch, run number or other identifying information). This provision recognizes that flexibility is needed for different types of products and allows the manufacturer to use its own tracking systems.
This section also stipulates that advertising, labeling or packaging of a product, if it references a consumer product safety rule or standard, must be in compliance with that rule or standard.

Expense: Data Entry, Printing costs, Additional employees. Every baby doll, needs to be identified, labeled and tracked from the factory right into your hands. That’s every single, solitary doll.

Labeling Requirement for Advertising of Toys and Games (Sec. 105)

Scope: Retailers, manufacturers, importers, distributors, private labelers of toys and games
Requirement: Any advertisement that contains a direct means for the purchase or ordering of product, must also contain any and all applicable cautionary statements that are already required under the FHSA on or near the product. (e.g. If a game has a small parts warning, this cautionary statement must be repeated in any point-of-purchase advertising such as a catalog or online retailer.). The legislation stipulates the language, type style and layout that must be used in the cautionary statement in advertising. It is incumbent on the manufacturer, importer or private labeler to inform the retailer of such a requirement for the product in advertising and the retailer to inquire of the supplier. CPSC, within 90 days of enactment, must promulgate regulations related to this requirement. Effective 120 days after enactment for internet websites; 180 days for catalogs and other printed materials.

Yup, that’s Addie and I… we advertise on the internet, so we need to go back and check that every single product has the right wording, the right layout, the right type size and the right location as specified by this law. (We are still waiting to find out the particulars from the government)

There’s more, but we think you get the point. Even though we have never had a product recalled, even though we have always made it a point to do age recommendations, the rules are stricter and more expensive to comply with now.

But as inconvenient and expensive as this may be, we’re still for it. A child’s life is too important. We will do whatever we can to safeguard it.

Hey! I make my living selling baby dolls, so as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t get any better than this!

The ‘baby doll’ is being added to The Strong National Museum of Play’s “National Toy Hall of Fame!

Strong Museum Rochester

From the press release:

Cradle it, feed it, take it for a stroll. The Baby Doll, with its newborn features and realistic qualities, brings out the nurturing side of pretend moms and dads. Loved by children (especially little girls) since the late eighteenth century, manufacturers have made such dolls ever-more lifelike. Most early baby dolls were made of papier-mâché or wood, followed in the mid-1800s by wax, porcelain, and composition, and in the 1950s by plastic and vinyl. In the mid-1850s, a patented German device allowed dolls to say “mama”; and an 1879 patented design made way for a drinking doll that could hold water in her head and then return it to the bottle. In 1933, Effanbee released its Dy-Dee doll, which could drink and wet. The Betsy Wetsy doll soon followed. Today’s dolls can crawl, cry, eat, dirty a diaper, and—thanks to 1990s microchip technology—talk back via voice-activated commands! While the baby doll comes in hundreds of different styles, it continues to inspire children to imitate parental roles and foster their own sense of identity.

Assuming you are like me, you’ll want to know what else is on the list…

To date, the following 41 toys have made it into the National Toy Hall of Fame®: Alphabet Blocks, Atari® 2600 Game System, Barbie®, Baby Doll, Bicycle, Candy Land®, Cardboard Box, Checkers, Crayola® Crayons, Duncan® Yo-Yo, Easy-Bake® Oven, Erector® Set, Etch A Sketch®, Frisbee®, G.I. Joe™, Hula Hoop®, Jack-in-the-Box, Jacks, Jigsaw Puzzle, Jump Rope, Kite, LEGO®, Lincoln Logs®, Lionel® Trains, Marbles, Monopoly®, Mr. Potato Head®, Play-Doh®, Radio Flyer® Wagon, Raggedy Ann & Andy™, Rocking Horse, Roller Skates, Scrabble®, Silly Putty®, Skateboard, Slinky®, Stick, Teddy Bear, Tinkertoy®, Tonka® Trucks, and View-Master®.

Arguably the largest doll manufacturer in the world, Mattel is also feeling the pain of the current economic hard times.

The parent company of Barbie and Fisher-Price, American Girl Dolls, and a major stake holder in Corolle, is cutting staff. 1000 in a round announced 11/6, and then another 260 from it’s Intellivision video game division announced 11/10. (Approx 3% of their workforce worldwide)

Mattel has traditionally been pretty loyal to it’s folks, so this is somewhat of a surprise, but they are saying that they will offer benefits to the laid off employees. I looked at their financial statements, and their third quarter results looked pretty good. But like everybody else in the doll industry, costs are up, (Chinese labor, testing expenses to meet new Congressional mandates, fuel to ship all these toys halfway around the world, and of course slowing consumer demand) so some method of cost cutting had to be found. I’m sorry it had to be people’s jobs.

Mini Calin Yang by Corolle

PS: Hey can I make a suggestion? We carry a large selection of Corolle Baby dolls and Asian Corolle baby dolls at our sites, and you would not believe how ‘overpackaged’ Corolle dolls are for shipping. You want to save money? Put more dolls in a bigger box, and you’ll surely reduce your costs. But hey, I’m just a lowly retailer at the end of the shipping chain… what do I know?

Well the results are in! And The Cabbage Patch Doll auction went — Palin Beats Obama!
The Cabbage Patch Presidential and Vice-Presidential Doll Auction Results were:

Cabbage Patch Kids Vice President Candidate Sarah Palin Doll
Giving Works Item
100% of the proceeds go to Marine Toys for Tots
113 Bids Sold $19,000.00

Cabbage Patch Kids Presidential Candidate John McCain Doll
Giving Works Item
100% of the proceeds go to Marine Toys for Tots
68 Bids Sold $6,000.00

Cabbage Patch Kids Vice President Candidate Joe Biden Doll
Giving Works Item
100% of the proceeds go to Marine Toys for Tots
60 Bids Sold $3,550.01

Cabbage Patch Kids Presidential Candidate Barack Obama Doll
Giving Works Item
100% of the proceeds go to Marine Toys for Tots
96 Bids Sold $8,400.00

You know what? Everybody won with this one. God Bless America, Cabbage Patch Dolls and Ebay, and of course, the Doll bidders.

This is about as unique a concept as we’ve ever seen…

Starting Thursday, 10/30 at 9 am EST,. you can bid on a unique collection of one of the most beloved. toys in history – Cabbage Patch Kids®. 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of the Cabbage Patch Kids® and, to celebrate, you can bid to “adopt”. one of these amazing iconic ‘Kids™ with 100 percent of the proceeds going to charity..

Election Exclusive – One-of-a-Kind Cabbage Patch Kids®
In honor of the upcoming 2008 U.S. Presidential election, these ONE-OF-A-KIND Cabbage Patch Kids® based on Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin were custom delivered by JAKKS Pacific®. Each is fashioned in classic ‘Kid™ style to resemble the U.S. Democratic and Republican candidates for President and Vice President.. These are the only ones of their kind in existence and are available only on eBay.. Own a piece of history! 100 percent of the proceeds go to Marine Toys for Tots Foundation..

Here’s where you can go for more info ebay auction for a cause

We carry the ethnic Cabbage Patch dolls, and this being their 25th anniversary we will have a post on Cabbage Patch as well… stay tuned… and please… VOTE

First off, I want to apologize for the delay since my last postings, I hadn’t realized how time consuming blogging can be, and my first priority is our internet doll stores, and getting them ready for Christmas. (which for the last five years has started around Columbus Day)

Once the holiday season starts, we’ve learned that you can’t do much more than ‘tweak’ the sites, because people will have bookmarked the dolls they want, and they get pissed if you change the sites. So I should be able to post more regularly… all we do now is pack and ship!

www.SleepySoft.com
Dolls and Toys for Adopted Children
www.PattycakeDoll.com
Dolls for Asian, Black & Hispanic Children
www.BooksandDolls.com
Dolls and toys from children’s books, movies and T.V.

At any rate, back to the headlines. We saw on CNN a story about a toy factory that just locked it’s gates and shut down, leaving 1300 workers not only out of a job, but also out of their communal company housing and cafeterias. The roiling economy here in the states, and around the world has now hit the toy industry hard as well. Not only did all the lead recalls hurt, but the rising costs of labor, the rising costs of testing, the rising costs of fuel… bottom line: China’s GAC (General Administration of customs)  is reporting that 3,600 companies, or just over half of all toy exporters, have gone out of business since January 1st 2008.

And since most dolls sold in the US are made in China, it will be interesting to see how my industry weathers the next few years.

What’s good for the industry, is good for the doll lover. And the news this week out of Internet Retailer Magazine was very good!

Using 2007 reported numbers, Online Toy e-tailers grew about 15% compared to traditional Brick and Mortar Retailers at only 4.9%
The biggest success story in dolls probably American Girl LLC at about $143 million, although Toysrus.com is estimated to do about $407 Million online, that number is not doll specific.