[Boy Blunder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iconoclast

WWE. I can't post links but it's easily googled.

Thanks. WWE is so far out of my sphere of interests that I completely spaced that line, let alone that it was being done by Mattel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dolemite

MY girlfriend loves Monster High stuff. Please elaborate on what you meant by "over-concerned people" and why they would (as you seem to say) sabotage the MH line to not compete with Barbie?

Same with my wife, with Monster High as well as Ever After High and DC Super Hero Girls. As for what I said, mostly I was referring to the MH reboot from a couple years ago, where they redesigned everyone to have 'friendlier faces' that were less off-putting to potential consumers (read: parents who had an issue with the whole 'Monster' aspect, since until that point the line had sold like gangbusters regardless) and scaling back on the 'creepy' aspects of the clothing designs, also all-but nixing or replacing a number of popular-but-not-frontline characters in the process (Ghoulia, Spectra, a handful of others). This was also when they started pulling back on the number of dolls and lines being released, and started doing their 'budget' lines (fewer articulation points, more simplified outfits) which, while great for younger kids to get into the line with, also crowded out the style of dolls that had made the line into the smash-hit it was. Now, the budget dolls are most of what you can find on shelves, when you can even find MH product in the first place. Combined with the quiet killing of the Ever After High lines (which also went the budget route, and then just disappeared completely except for TRU and online stores), Mattel is more interested in keeping their flagship doll line as the top dog (especially after they lost the Disney license to Hasbro).

It's especially prevalent as Garret Sander (creator of Monster High and one of the head line designers for most of its run) has left Mattel as of June of this year, after having been with the company for nearly fifteen years. Whether he left of his own volition or Mattel let him go, I don't know, but without him there any more (and a lot of the other design team members having moved on, either within the company or elsewhere), I doubt Mattel will do much to continue Monster High, at least in the immediate future. Their marketing of the line and its tie-in merchandise (particularly the animated films and the web series) has fallen flat to the point where it's nonexistent. Through poor decision making, they cut off one of their strongest lines at the knees.

(I don't know what's going on with DC Super Hero Girls, since aside from the basic dolls, almost all of their new product is only found online for both the doll lines and the action figures, but I just today learned that they're already retooling the line with Lauren Faust at the helm, so I have no idea where that's gonna go)