Mattel Struggling To Sell Barbie

[RAMROD 117,252]

On Wednesday, the toy company reported in its second-quarter earnings that its dolls category revenue declined 19% compared to the same period last year. Sales for the dolls category were $335 million.

Mattel's dolls product category includes brands like Barbie, American Girl, and Barney, among others.

In a Wednesday earnings call, Mattel's newly installed finance chief, Paul Ruh, said the decline in doll sales was "primarily due to fewer new Barbie product launches."

Mattel's CEO, Ynon Kreiz, added that "lower associated retailer promotional support" contributed to weak doll sales.

The company reported a second-quarter net revenue decline of 6% compared to the year before, with sales totalling $1.02 billion. It also reported a net income of $53 million, $4 million less than the year before.

Mattel's stock price was down nearly 5% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. However, it is up about 17% in the past year.

In May, Mattel announced that it would raise the pricesof its toys, including Barbies, to offset the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs. Per Kreiz's comments in the Wednesday earnings call, the price hike went into effect in the latest quarter.

"Even with the price actions — pricing actions were already implemented — approximately 40% to 50% of our product in the US will continue to be priced below $20," Kreiz said in the call.

Representatives for Mattel did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

https://www.businessinsider.com/mattel-struggling-to-sell-barbies-2025-7

[NickiMinajStan 6,894]

The doll collecting community is the biggest it has ever been, they just keep releasing boring, or low-effort dolls. Barbie is THE DOLL, she is the (stolen from a german mold) blueprint, she's the biggest name in the industry. 

If they released fun dolls, they'd sell. They just have no creativity in their team. 

[Nagini 4,190]

Good

[VTV 13,981]

19 minutes ago, NickiMinajStan said:

If they released fun dolls, they'd sell.

I doubt it. It screams desperation and greed. Its time for them to take the loss. Labubu is the new IT girl now.

[NickiMinajStan 6,894]

2 minutes ago, VTV said:

I doubt it. It screams desperation and greed. Its time for them to take the loss. Labubu is the new IT girl now.

It's the same demographic. Labubus blew up as a fashion acessory. Barbie could've released a Barbie "bag charm" or whatever too, they're just allergic to innovation. 

I love dolls, but there are so few Barbie releases that interest me at all. They lack vision.

[artdoll 47,165]

1 hour ago, NickiMinajStan said:

It's the same demographic. Labubus blew up as a fashion acessory. Barbie could've released a Barbie "bag charm" or whatever too, they're just allergic to innovation. 

Well, they did make Barbie keychains within the last year or so? I believe they were out even before the whole Labubu craze

 

But I do agree with what you said earlier. Barbie releases have become dull and there's nothing inspiring or attention grabbing about her anymore. Especially not since Mattel has been laying off its artists/designers in favor of AI, or so I heard.  They don't even need to do much to be honest, just up her fashion game. She's the Barbie!  - Also some fan favorite/nostalgic reproductions wouldn't hurt either. It's been working for Monster High and Bratz.

[RebeldeFaith 5,759]

Bring back creative Barbies, make less releases instead of mass producing boring ones, and bring back the good quality and story telling. And please bring back cunty Barbies. Seriously, whenever I go through the dolls aisles the other dolls always get all of my attention because Barbies don't offer anything unique or creative anymore. MH, Bratz, Rainbow High, LOL, and even Disney Princess dolls are EATING, while Barbie is just there. The Holiday Barbies are enough proof that they're not trying anymore.

Doesn't help that the CEO doesn't care about dolls or toys in general. It's all just gimmicky stuff to follow trends and make a quick buck instead of setting the trends like they used to, and it isn't working. They always end up in the clearance section because kids don't pay attention to them, and adult collectors are paying more attention to the limited collector releases.

At the end of the day, Barbie will always be, well, Barbie, and they'll find a way, but they genuinely should stopputting excuses and start listening to what the consumers actually want.

[AnnTakamaki 6,902]

yeah they paid the ceo $40mil/year and release boring dolls with low QC, low quality, boring designs AND fired their legacy designers, workers and still wonder why their dolls not selling? they deserved it. Collectors rather turn to Bratz, Monster High, LOL for quality & creativity instead. It's so tragic that even knock off dolls like Defa Lucy has stepped up their quality game for years while Barbie keep getting budget cut and still sell them for high price

[Sneaky Oliver 23,014]

oh no it’s a sign Barbie movie 2.0 is coming to theaters soon, maybe Gaga should get a spot in the OST this time 

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,976]

"American kids might have two dolls instead of 30 dolls" -Trump

https://apnews.com/article/trump-two-dolls-tariffs-toys-7b0e5d3a9035471317e6dc4ee1fbfbc1

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,976]

7 hours ago, AnnTakamaki said:

yeah they paid the ceo $40mil/year and release boring dolls with low QC, low quality, boring designs AND fired their legacy designers, workers and still wonder why their dolls not selling? they deserved it. Collectors rather turn to Bratz, Monster High, LOL for quality & creativity instead. It's so tragic that even knock off dolls like Defa Lucy has stepped up their quality game for years while Barbie keep getting budget cut and still sell them for high price

Monster High is a Mattel product btw. 

 

Overall though this is not surprising. Mattel was in a huge hole a few years ago and the CEO "turned it around". And he did so by cutting costs and therefore quality, on a collectible item. Short term gains once again causing several issues. It's entirely possible this was temporary though just to increase cash flow. But the man said it himself, retailers aren't promoting Barbies. And that's because they're all trying to build on their household staples and everyday needs businesses because they know Americans just don't have the money. It's also not crazy to think that Americans are now attempting to be more conscious of messaging to their children and body positivity. Which is not good for the doll company known for "perfect" looks. 

[Addison Rae 18,128]

they make extremely boring dolls with plastic accessories. i only keep up with the bratz collecting scene, the y2k era dolls are so much better quality than most of the new releases  

[salty like sodium 2,262]

ok but like obviously last year they were selling more dolls because they had a huge effing movie about Barbie. being shocked the sales dipped a bit the following year is so silly imo...

[Shipper 13,114]

Mattel better be reaching out to the anime community cause that is an untapped market. So many collectors in the doll and anime community would eat barbie versions of anime characters to their collection. Adults collect them so if they release high quality dolls even for 200$, those things would sell to collectors. So many accessories out already for 1/6 scale dolls. 

Ring dolls sell for like 2k USD each but like 2 feet tall but very high quality. 

[Flippy 14,415]

It’s because they’re releasing quantities instead of quality… The dolls aren’t… it anymore. The early 2000 dolls would sell so good now compared to what’s on the shelves right now