Day One: Bratz held hostage.
The fate of the hugely popular dolls -- either beloved fashionistas or streetwalkers-in-training, depending on whom you talk to -- was unclear Thursday in the wake of a federal court order that handed the rights to the dolls and the Bratz name to the biggest toy maker of them all: Mattel Inc.
Also in limbo was the fate of MGA Entertainment Inc., the Van Nuys company that manufactures the Bratz and marketed them into an international phenomenon, illegally as it turned out.
The Bratz line, which debuted in 2001, is slated for recall and possible destruction in February unless U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson is swayed by further MGA arguments in the long-running copyright infringement case or an appeals court rules in MGA's favor.
Larson's order stemmed from a July jury decision that the creator of the Bratz doll came up with the design while working for Mattel under an exclusivity contract. He took the design to MGA, but the jury said it really belonged to Mattel, and the judge applied the sweeping penalty Wednesday.
At a Toys R Us store in Los Angeles three weeks before Christmas, you'd never know the Bratz were endangered. Half an aisle was devoted to the brand, including the Bratz Holiday Absolute Angel doll and Cloe the Bratz Play Sportz Xtreme Kickboxing doll, plus accessories.
Wandering through the pinkish glittering selection, Myra Villeda, 30, of Los Angeles browsed for her 8- and 9-year-old daughters. She said they much prefer Bratz to the long-reigning queen of fashion dolls, Mattel's Barbie.
"Bratz are just cooler, with their eyes and makeup done up more like how real women do it," Villeda said. "Barbies are more old-fashioned. Bratz are the ones with the cool clothes."
Those clothes, often hip-hugging with bare midriffs, made Bratz the primary target of a 2007 American Psychological Assn. report from its Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls.
Describing the Bratz as dressed "in sexualized clothing, such as miniskirts, fishnet stockings and feather boas," the report said it was worrisome that girls were being "associated with an objectified adult sexuality."
One of the report's authors, psychology professor Tomi-Ann Roberts of Colorado College, was hoping the Bratz might disappear.
"Dolls are very much about role playing," Roberts said. "So what role are the Bratz supposed to be playing, prostitution?"
