Mood:
a-okNow Playing: "Garfield 2 : A Tale of Two Kitties" - DVD rental, looking forward to returning it.
Right now, I really am beyond angry at Tripod. Took me a half hour to write today's entry, and, like Monday's, it has vanished into the ether. The fourth try actually went through. So, from now on, I'll write in Word, and bring it over. That way, I won't have to try to remember what I've already written and forget things. Man, this ranks.
Anyway, the good news is that I finished the individual pattern cataloging today. I'm way ahead of schedule. Bad news is that there's 13 books waiting for similar treatment, not 11, and one has over 190 images for me to cut, clean, resize, bleach, and organize. Seriously. No more ^&*%ing patterns. My eyes are gonna end up square-shaped from the monitor at this rate.
To break up the monotony, I cleaned Dearest Son's room, with his occasional help. Took three and a half hours. The only people less prepared to spend that amount of time in one small space is the crew and passengers of the Minnow. Took out three Mal-Wart sacks of trash, and one 13-gal bag of papers, unidentifiable substances, and bits of broken toy. Man, and I thought I was overindulged with my dolls and sewing !
In a few minutes, it's time to clean the living room and put *those* toys away. Yup. Spent almost four hours, and not even all his toys were in there. If you don't hear from me for a few days, it's because I'm beneath a wave of Lunchables Transformer toys and Lego pieces, and I can't get up !
So, while there's not much doll news here, I can tell you the global doll news, at least from Mattel. Their overall sales health is good, with profits up 15% this quarter (Q2). They report global Barbie sales as up 6 percent, but 4 of those percentage points are from currency exchange fluctuations. Stateside, Barbie is still continuing her lackluster sales, this quarter, down 5%. They're hoping that 'Barbie Girls' will save the day.
I'm hoping they didn't bet the farm. Barbiegirls.com is a site, sort of like a Second Life avatar-based virtual reality. Girls can personalize an avatar, try on clothes, mall -virtual-trawl. With the addition of a $60. flash drive 'doll', more content and options are unlocked. But the site itself is free.
I don't know why they insist on calling the flash drive/MP3 player a doll. It has snap-on changeable hair, and looks like a Bratz figure painted on a $15. flash card by a guy who took a flyer on a description, never having seen one. Tiny body, huge head with an indiferent expression. And the snap-on hair. I don't dress up my Sansa SanDisk, it's not a doll. In any case, the big question is whether or not Mr. and Mrs. Public is gonna shell out $60. for a non-IPod MP3 player just so BrytianneAnnye's avatar can have puffed sleeves instead of the cap ones.
And I understand that they're just trying to stay alive in a fast-changing world, where 8-year-olds want IPods and avatars instead of baby dolls and sleepovers. But I really don't see how this is gonna generate much interest, much less income. There's already more, better, and cheaper, and a password and naughty words filter isn't much reassurance for parents who've seen too many 'to catch a creep' Dateline episodes.
It's not just Barbie who has sales to make Mattel weep. They own American Girls, and their sales are down 10%. A new historical doll is due out, the first one in years, probably just in time for the '07 holiday crush, but I can't help but think that Pleasant Company sold out just before the bubble burst. Quality is nice, especially in dolls, but if Caytlynne is outgrowing dolls before she's outgrown Happy Meals, few parents are gonna shell the kind of numbers AG dolls demand.
Boy toys, however, are doing quite well. Matchbox (Mattel owns 'em) and Hot Wheels are selling well, and Cars is the surprising sales powerhouse. While most licensing is down, Cars toys continue to sell well. I understand that one completely. The only place I could find the Luigi/Guido/Tractor die cast set last Christmas was eBay, and I refused to squander $48. (plus $12. for first-class - not even Priority ! - shipping) on a $7.88 toy. It wasn't out for Son's January birthday, either. Last month, it was. And yes, I bought it. I don't think I'm the only one, either. Poor Tractor's been tipped a few thousand times, I can tell ya.
Fisher-Price (yup, Mattel owned, too) is doing very well, with a 10% increase in sales globally. It's funny to think that the classic Popcorn Popper push toy is subsidizing a nearly-50 glamour queen, but there it is. Or that toy cars that usually retail for less than a buck are keeping a toy giant afloat. Strange world we live in.
Here's links, so you can read without my editorializing :
*Mattel 2Q profit rises 15 percent ->
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070716/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_mattel;_ylt=AsCWai8kubVcop4agyYjxzrMWM0F
*Mattel's Barbie Girls act like avatars, rock like MP3s ->
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2007-04-27-barbie-girls_N.htm
Even when there's not much going on at Chez Insanity, there's always something I can go on and on about ! :)
