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Dolls
Still at Home in the 21st Century
By Paul A. Paterson
March
1, 2003
"I
look to improving the play value," she says. "If you want
to make a collectible doll, make a really great play doll and it
will ultimately be collectible. It's a violation of what dolls are
all about. The original collector dolls were play dolls."
Sandie Paradiso, a buyer for Learning Express—an
online toy retailer—also believes that the desire to retain
a doll's pristine condition tends to stem from the parent, not the
child.
"To the child it wouldn't matter, but to the parent it was
‘No, no, no, don't,’” she says. "Some dolls
are just meant to be banged around. I don't think a doll should
be meant to be left on a shelf."
While the sales ration of accessories to individual dolls is hard
to establish, the role of fashion packs, furniture, and vehicles
is as old as the doll industry itself. For retailers, this link
has driven sales steadily upward.
"The accessory lines sell very well and that adds to the play
value," agreed Paradiso. "You can really expand the play
experience."
Accessories expand marketing possibilities as well, according to
Danziger.
"Every brand is trying to look at how to extend their brand
and increase their sales," she says of the many clothing and
product lines created for the doll lines. "It's the same thing
that attracts the collector. The collector wants to have their dolls
displayed in a setting."
Whether they are traditional or ultra-mod, collectible or purely
for fun, industry experts don't expect dolls’ popularity to
wane any time soon.
"There's always going to be dolls," said Paradiso. "There
will always be a little girl who wants to play mommy."
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