The Story of Barbie

Inspired by her daughter's fascination with cutout paper dolls, Ruth Handler suggests making a three-dimensional doll through which little girls could play out their dreams. She names the doll "Barbie," after her own daughter Barbara's nickname. Barbie soon leads Mattel to the forefront of the toy industry and fascinates generations of young girls.

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Barbie Girls MMO and Barbie Girl MP3 player, for little nerds in training

Alright, so it's not quite Azeroth, but girls who log onto Mattel's new Barbie Girls online community can play games, chat and "hang out" with other tween-ish participants, which sounds just as good preparation as any for the chaos that they'll soon be able to experience (as in, as soon as the parents' credit card gives the green light) in more "mature" communities such as WoW, Second Life and the upcoming PlayStation Home. Girls can naturally customize and accessorize their avatars, with up to 2.64 quadrillion combinations available, and "B Chat" with one another in a moderated and as-safe-as-reasonably-possible environment. In July, Mattel will launch a companion Barbie Girl MP3 player, which will allow girls who have met in person and synced the player with each other's computer to participate in "Secret B Chat," which allows more privacy and more open conversation. The $60 device includes 512MB of memory and a miniSD expansion slot, and unlocks additional content for the girls, alongside $10 accessory packs that we're sure will make similar methods of extortion, such as the Oblivion "horse armor" incident, seem positively generous in comparison.

:by Paul Miller, posted Apr 26th 2007 at 5:55PM

Mattel is out with updated goodies for the not-so-little-girls. Labeled as the unparalleled, hybrid play experience that blends fashion, music and an online virtual world. We are talking about the Barbie Girls online world and the subsequent release of anMP3 player. The online world will allow girls to create their own virtual character, design their own "room," shop at the mall, play games, hang out and chat live with other girls. And when the Barbie Girl MP3 player is out, "best friends" who have synced their players will be allowed to use the Secret B Chat feature online, however there are restrictions towards objectionable language used in the chatrooms. For those who would like to chat with others the B Chat feature allows restricted type of chat, and it may be conducted in a girl's room and in the public zones of the BarbieGirls world. Girls can only use words approved and compiled in the database. Knowing how fickle minded girls can be, there are 2.64 quadrillion-character combinations of fashions and accessories, as well as stylish faces, expressions and hairstyles to choose from. And of course, 4.6 quintillion combinations of room color, floors, backgrounds and furniture.

:From http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/barbie_girl_mp3_player.php