Word: mattell
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...first introduced in 1959, store owners were dubious. Many feared she was too adult, too shapely and too different to appeal to little girls and their traditional moms. This year she is second only to Nintendo: worldwide sales will top $450 million, up more than 25% from last year. Mattel sells more than 20 million Barbie fashions a year, making it one of the world's largest retailers of women's clothing...
...television's top-rated game show and home to America's sexiest woman of letters, Vanna White. Now Wheel of Fortune has inspired the genre's most futuristic home game. A new device from Mattel enables viewers to play along with the nightly syndicated show. The unit, when aimed at the TV set, picks up an encoded signal that activates a miniature computer. For each word puzzle, the player can "spin" a wheel to accumulate prize money, choose letters and try to guess the hidden phrase. The TV players' guesses also show up automatically on the home unit...
...than competitive challenge. Beating the TV players is not hard, because they usually delay offering a solution in order to build up the pot. But the interactive concept may catch on. Youngsters last season could blow away TV villains in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, and Mattel is developing six more interactive TV products. Guess the culprit on Murder, She Wrote, perhaps? Divine Alf's gag lines in advance? Nah -- too easy...
...company officer tried to demonstrate Julie but apparently forgot that the doll needed to be programmed with ten "secret words" in the owner's voice before it could answer questions. "Julie, are you hungry?" he asked. "Can we talk about your friends?" it replied. The audience was not impressed. Mattel's Baby Heather comes with an internal clock that tells it when to be "hungry" or "sleepy," but if the clock is not set correctly, Heather may wake up its owner at 4 a.m. wanting...
...uncertain market for untested toys has left retailers confused and cautious. "It's not one of the best Christmases in the world," laments Spenser Boise, a Mattel spokesman. "There has been a distinct reluctance on ( the part of the trade to take on inventory. They're afraid they are going to get stuck with it." In anticipation of slow sales, many firms have started discounting new toys, even though the Christmas buying season is barely under...