Mattel Releases Clueless Dolls Barbie and American Girl Brands Launch together

A year ago, I was commenting on how Mattel kept their brands very separate with no crossover. When the last Barbie movie released they merchandised all of Barbie but nothing in American Girl for the film and we felt like that was a missed opportunity so we created film outfits for American Girl Dolls. Later Mattel circled back and released an American Girl Barbie Collector Doll with the Classic striped bathing suit and pre-sold it right before Christmas to be delivered a year later. Subsequently they’ve worked on a number of Barbie outfit releases since then centered around 1980’s releases and clearly geared towards adult audiences instead of the regular 8-10 year old kids.

I first saw leaks of the Clueless American Girl dolls on my feed by many American Girl collectors and it was not long before I also saw leaks on the Barbie Clueless releases. Finally it looks like Mattel is doing crossovers between both brands and acknowledging adult collectors on both sides.

As Clueless is a 90’s movie now 30 years old, 8-10 year olds were not alive back then so this is clearly geared towards adult collectors of American Girl. It is nice to see both brands roll out together giving collectors a selection of doll types for their collections. This also may be a preview of things to come as we know that as a whole, dolls and film has always been a successful combination for big corporations.

Barbie as a brand has been doing film tie ins for years, but it’s on the new side for American Girl as a brand. With Pleasant Company as the original roots of American Girl the dolls were geared around teaching about history for kids their same age growing up in different eras. When American Girl purchased the company, we’ve seen a slow transition from that emphasis on history to more of commercialism. There has been the release of new historical characters but it’s been the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s with very limited outfit selections. The majority of releases have centered around modern clothing that appeals to today’s generation with matching kid-sized outfits to match and tie ins to major films. We’ve seen big blockbuster moves like tie ins to Harry Potter, Disney, and Wicked. I’ve seen mixed feedback on this approach. Adult collectors who originally knew about Pleasant Company still carry the torch for what American used to be as a historical doll brand, but today’s kids and parents appreciate the modern relevance.

Of course all of this makes sense on a selling standpoint, modern relevant items for today’s kids is the larger market for American Girl. This past year, they’ve done several tests with limited editions to test the adult collecting audience on their spending and we’ve must of responded well for them to continue clearly targeted releases for us. It will be interesting to see what is released in future for the adult collectors and what movies they will tie in.

Do you have a guess or an idea? Comment to let us know what tie ins you think will be next!