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February 19, 2008
Fashion Clothes Activities for Girls of All Ages!
from: The New York Times
Dress-up for Dollars
by Rob Walker
Stardoll
This is a game that girls have played for centuries: it’s about standing in front of the mirror and dreaming about being a princess, a rock star or the cool girl next door.” Mattias Miksche is on the phone from Sweden, making a fair point. But like a lot of things that have been done for centuries, identity play is a little different now, and Miksche’s company, Stardoll, is a good example of a 21st-century version.
The Stockholm company’s product is, for instance, digital and transnational. Its variations on paper dolls and dress-up games help attract 7.8 million unique visitors a month to a Web site that is published in 15 languages and combines elements of a social network and a virtual world.
The majority of visitors are girls — average age 13.8 — who spend between two and two and a half hours a month there. Another contemporary difference is that Stardoll is backed by venture capital and is battling a range of competitors all seeking to capture, and monetize, the attention of young fans. These range from Cartoon Doll Emporium to Club Penguin, Webkinz to Habbo.
At Stardoll.com, you will find a long list of celebrity names: Brad Pitt, Heidi Klum, Amy Winehouse, Paris Hilton’s dog. Click on a name to get a digital paper-doll version; nearby is a rack of outfits you can click and drag to dress the celebrity as you please. Younger users (up to age 12 or so) generally stick to this solitary pastime, possibly showing off their dress-up results to a sibling, or to Mom. But you also find many appeals to get more involved: join the millions who have registered and signed up for a free account, and you can create a MeDoll — a digital paper doll rendering of yourself, or of whatever self you’re interested in expressing. Chat with new online friends, join or form a club (there are more than 360,000) and expand your audience from Mom to users in Tennessee, Britain and Israel. It’s the 13-and-over part of the audience that generally takes the plunge.
Posted by fashiondoll at 03:24 AM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2008
Excerpts from an Interview with Robert Tonner at Figures.com
Here at Figures.com - April,2007, we cover action figures and the people or companies who make them. Preparing to interview Robert Tonner, forced us to ask the age-old question: What is a doll and what is an action figure? How are they the same and how are they different? Everybody knows dolls are for girls and action figures are for boys, right? So what is this doll company doing that has so many action figure fans sitting up and taking notice?
Let's find out...
Figures.com: When did you start Tonner Doll Company?
Robert Tonner (RT): I started the company in 1991.
Figures.com: And how did you come to start Tonner Doll Company?
RT: You don’t have that much time (laughing). Here’s a really short Cliff’s Notes version – I was in the garment center in New York City for a really long time. I would sculpt as a hobby and someone saw my (sculptures) and said “You should sell your work.” I only sculpted for myself…
Figures.com: What kinds of things did you sculpt?
RT: Figures right out of my head. It was the front part of learning the process; how to translate what was in my mind (into 3-D form). Lenex China hired me and put me in their doll program. I sculpted a couple of things and they did really well and I thought “cool.”
I’d spent the last 18 years in the garment center and was ready to leave. I was burned out. So I could either start my own garment line or I could do dolls. I felt I could do (dolls) myself as I knew how to sculpt, I knew how to (create) wigs, I could create clothing samples. This was all in the late 1980s...
Figures.com: So what was the first product at Tonner Dolls?
RT: It was a sports (doll) because I could do it out of my garage. I literally did that – I could make the molds, cast the porcelain and fire them all in my garage.
The first major step for our business was when we went to Toy Fair in 1991. That was the first major step. I had 10 dolls and took about $100,000 worth of orders.
Figures.com: Fast forward a bit. When did you first get into using plastic?
RT: When orders started to take off, I couldn’t do all of the porcelain dolls myself. I had a place in Long Island that helped me out. They did a great job, but I wasn’t happy giving up control. The porcelain dolls were ranging in price from $400 – $600 each...
Figures.com: Were the dolls you were making at this time considered a part of the fashion doll industry?
RT: That name came a bit later. They were more little girl characters. They were all my own designs. And I was looking at vinyl. It seemed the best way to go as it was cheaper and I’d have fewer manufacturing issues.
There were few vinyl manufacturers in the USA at the time, but I found one and made our first vinyl dolls in 1992 or 1993.
Figures.com: Still your own characters?
RT:Yes. At that time, just about anything sold; but I always kept my eyes on licensing. I wanted to do “Alice in Wonderland” as I knew there weren’t any “Alice in Wonderland” dolls at the time. It was pubic domain and we obviously couldn’t copy Disney or any other version. If it’s recognizable, it helps it sell…
At this point I was approached by manufacturers in China. I was told by the factories I can make this doll for $12.00 and it was retailing in the US for $300.00. It would have cost us $75 to make it (ourselves in the US). This is in 1994. I tried a couple of product lines in vinyl and (they were) a huge hit. I was able to put a doll out for less than $100.
Figures.com: Fast-forward again: at what point did you decide to get into entertainment-associated licenses that are more associated with action figures than dolls?
RT: I’ve always been a super hero guy. I read comics as a kid – DC and Marvel. I love comics. I love the Star Wars movies…the typical geeky sort of thing. Anyway…
When I was still doing porcelain, I did a very expensive doll of Superman, Lois Lane and Wonder Woman. They retailed for $500 each and were all three limited to 500.
It was a very difficult process – not because of DC, but because we were still doing all of the manufacturing here (in the US). (But) we sold out of Superman and came close (to selling out of) Wonder Woman and Lois Lane…
We then became focused on the fashion doll line – Tyler Wentworth…
Figures.com: When did the “fashion doll” category emerge?
RT: Mid-1990s. There was a huge market that no one had ever entered. Whenever anyone went up against Barbie, they’d be clobbered.
In 1991, when I started, I made a 17” fashion doll that retailed for $1,200. But you can’t collect $1,200 dolls. You can buy one of them, but that’s not a collection…
There was a (market) for the dolls because there were so many people collecting Barbie; a new generation had grown up collecting these dolls. And I wanted the figures to be articulated and made of hard plastic and vinyl.
Figures.com: That’s starting to sound a little like an action figure...
RT: Yes, it is...
Figures.com: The word 'doll' is often associated with being feminine while the term action figure is used for boy’s toys. In your opinion, what’s the major difference and where do you see your figures fitting?
RT: We talk about this all the time and to me it’s fairly clear: I consider what we do a ‘character figure.’ To me, a 'character figure' has hair – rooted or a wig – and clothing. I think that’s the major difference...
Figures.com: Funny you should mention that as the first action figure - Hasbro’s G.I. Joe - was exactly that - a figure with hair and clothing. It was basically a male doll with hair dressed up in army fatigues.
RT: Right. We noticed a big difference when we took the Harry Potter figures to Toy Fair. We had people coming into our booth that would never have done so before. Many didn’t even know we existed because they thought we only made ‘dolls.’ These were now people who were interested in movies and pop culture.
Figures.com: You said Harry Potter figures were a break though for your company and now you've announced your doing Pirates of the Caribbean character figures. Captain Jack Sparrow is probably the most popular on-screen character as of late...
Figures.com: Do you have a specific name for this category of hybrid between a doll and an action figure?
RT: We've trademarked the name 'character figure.' I don't see it as a traditional action figure and it's not a traditional doll. And it's working, because I'm getting crossover, it's male and female. It's not attracting the comic collectors but the Spiderman collectors, the Wonder Woman collectors... It's more specific...
Figures.com: Two of the things that distinguish your figures from others are the clothing and hair. Do you do all of the tailoring in-house?
RT: Yes, for the fashion dolls. I have an in-house designer who was in the garment center. We both have garment center backgrounds and we both really know what we're looking at. For something like Harry Potter though, it's already designed for us - the interpretation.
Figures.com: Have you seen your distribution changing?
RT: Hopefully it will change and it'll grow. Hopefully we won't loose our doll (retailers). They're very nice people and we've worked with a lot of them a long time.
The grandmotherly lady who comes into a store to buy a doll in a dress for her bedroom; I don't think that's where the action is at. I think it's more with a younger group of collectors...
Posted by fashiondoll at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)