Charity Shop - Arcotoys Inc - A Mattel Company
No date
Back to October last, and a clue as to why
the merger talks fittered-out (yes; I could Google it all - but that would
spoil the fun of saving cuttings and spinning a post out of them!) with Mattel announcing a freeze in quarterly
shares dividends (no money!) after a 13% decline in sales. Shares 'plunged' 16%
after the announced a $603.3m (£459m) loss . . .and of course the point-three
is most important!
I have two or three toys of Phoebus now -
it must have been a popular movie at the
time (1996)?
November saw Mattell's Barbie arm announce a new addition to the Shero line; it's first hijab-wearing Muslim
doll, issued in honor of the US Olympic fencing competitor Ibtihaj Muhammad
(bronze, 2016/Rio games), it was due to be released this summer. The Shero's (She-Heros, see!) also includes
Misty Copland a US Ballet Dancer and first African-American principle at the
American Ballet Theatre.
Another proposed Shero had been Malaala
Yousafzai (the now UK based Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Talib' assassination
attempt . . . for being a schoolgirl!) and female scientists were being mooted
(obviously saw what Lego was doing!), by March of this year there's also an
Amelia Earhert -aviatrix, Sara Gama - Italian footballer, Nicola Adams - UK
boxer, and Patty Jenkins - movie director.
Baddies on the left?
Goodies on the right?
However, in late march there was a bit of
controversy surrounding the line when the family of Frida Kahlo - Mexican
Artist; objected to the design of a doll depicting their famous relative,
issued as part of the series, now renamed (for the UK market?) Inspiring Women.
Reading between the lines (well - reading
conflicting press-releases), it seems some of the family had OK'd the design
(which IS unarguably 'glammed-up') and others hadn't, so what was dressed-up as
an attack on Mattel was actually internecine
squabbling between the various descendents?
Crap - little pigeon
Crap on the gargoyles
Kill
- little Pigeon
Kill
the Berserker!
Later in March there was a story about the
female leads of movie 'Wrinkle in Time'
having their own Barbie dolls (Mattel
press is always either Barbie, Hotwheels or share price!) but it wasn't
clear if they were one-off's or part of a Barbie
line? In the course of the movie-release 'puff-piece', Reese Witherspoon let
slip that she is working on a project about Ruth Handler, founder of Mattel and Barbie!
At the end April (six months after the
first of today's post's stories) their shares rose 4.4%, despite more poor
results, as a new CEO took-post and the losses were blamed on the death of the Toysaurus and . . . you guessed-it . . .
previous management!
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