Sorry Mattel, Elsa Has Taken Barbie’s Crown And She Is Never Going To Let It Go
Barbie got too complacent up there on her lofty perch. After her victory over the Bratz dolls and her “peaceful” acquisition of the American Girls, she thought no other doll could threaten her position. She thought nothing was bigger than Barbie, but she was wrong. Frozen is bigger than Barbie, and now Elsa and Anna have taken the most-desired toy title, and Barbie tumbled to second place for the first time.
According to Bloomberg, a survey from the National Retail Federation indicates that 20 percent of parents of girls plan to buy Frozen merch this holiday season. Only 17 percent plan to buy Barbie, and that’s a big deal because Barbie has kept the top position for the entire 11 years that the NRF has been doing this survey. (On the boys’ side of things, Lego was the top pick with 14 percent of parents of boys saying they were buying the cool little bricks that they will inevitably step on. Lego was Toy # Six on the girls’ list.)
Mattel is actually probably pretty stoked about this for now, because it has the doll license for Frozen and will be responsible for all the little Annas and Elsas for the next year. But in 2016 the doll rights will go to Hasbro, and Barbie will start sharpening her stiletto heels to take down her former coworker.
Frankly, I would not have predicted Frozen mania lasting nearly this long, but now that it has made it this far I do not think it will ever go away. Our grandchildren will be yelling at Disney on Facebook because our great-grandchildren can’t get their Elsabot 9000 sentient dolls (with new, murder-free artificial intelligence) with actual ice powers in time for Christmas.
