Barbie Is Queen of Toy List

By Abigail Goldman

Oct. 22, 2002 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Mattel Inc.’s Rapunzel Barbie doll is expected to be the bestselling toy this holiday season as girls nationwide return to choosing dolls as a plaything of choice.

The prediction is based on a survey of retailers to be released today by PlayDate Inc., a New York marketing services firm. Retailers say the doll, which is already on store shelves, is popular for her long hair and starring role in an animated video version of the classic “Rapunzel” fairy tale.

This year’s PlayDate survey lists four dolls among the top 10 products, double last year’s number.

That makes sense given the doll category’s overall resurgence over the last 12 months, said Reyne Rice, the director of marketing and communications for NPDFunworld, the toy arm of market researcher NPD Group Inc.

The bestselling category for 2001, dolls accounted for about $3 billion in sales between June 2001 and June of this year, Rice said, or nearly 14% of all toy sales.

The category had waned over the years as older girls increasingly turned away from the playthings many of them saw as “babyish,” Rice said.

But because of lines such as Bratz, made by San Fernando Valley-based MGA Entertainment Inc., 9- to 12-year-olds are coming back for what are known as “attitude” dolls, which feature off-beat looks, cool street fashion and names and sayings more like those of today’s teenagers.

Sales of traditional toys, which don’t include the red-hot video game category, are expected to be flat, NPD said Monday. The closure of West Coast ports also has weighed heavily on the toy industry, with companies worried that key products will not make it through the backlog in time.

But a spokeswoman for El Segundo-based Mattel said that because the company took early delivery of key toys, Rapunzel Barbie and other products on this year’s list are unlikely to be affected by the disruption.

This year’s top 10 list from retailers includes Playmates Toys Inc.’s Disney Toddler Princesses and Mattel’s Fisher-Price division’s Dora the Explorer dolls, a line based on Nickelodeon’s TV show about the adventures of a young Latina.

Last year, retailers surveyed by PlayDate predicted that Lego’s Bionicle figures would be the season’s top-selling toy. Although the toy did well, NPD data showed LeapFrog Inc.’s LeapPad electronic learning toy was the bestseller.

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Top Toys

Barbie as Rapunzel is expected to be the top-selling toy this holiday season. Others are listed alphabetically.

Toy (manufacturer)

Barbie as Rapunzel (Mattel)

Bratz Funk ‘n’ Glow (MGA Entertainment)

Disney Toddler Princesses (Playmates)

Dora the Explorer dolls (Fisher-Price/Mattel)

Harry Potter: Basilisk play set (Mattel)

LeapPad Learning System (LeapFrog)

Rescue Heroes (Fisher-Price/Mattel)

Spider-Man: Dual Action Web Blaster (Toy Biz)