Barbie couldn't compete with the boy toys

I chuckled a few weeks ago when National Public Radio teased a business story with this line: "And the last word is Barbie - flat. We're talking about sales."

The story went on to explain that toy giant Mattel lost more than $45 million during the first quarter and blamed a 12 percent decline in Barbie doll sales in the United States.

The buxom plastic doll has been one of Mattel's core brands since 1959, but it looks like Barbie just isn't as popular as she once was, despite the fact she has kept her trim figure after more than 80 careers over the last four decades.

Mattel didn't make much money off me in the Barbie department.

I had one Barbie doll, an early 1960s model with strawberry blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. My mother, the saint that she is, made lots of impossibly small dresses, pants and suits - even a wedding dress - for my Barbie, so Mattel lost bigtime selling any accessories to my family.

Wish I could say the same for my daughters. I was a tomboy in my youth, content to play with dart guns and Tonka trucks. I asked Santa for a toy revolver when I was 3 or 4.

I never, ever promoted Barbie, opting instead to buy my girls Lincoln Logs, a train set and other unisex toys. But for whatever reason (probably astute marketing by Mattel) my daughters were gaga over Barbie dolls.

At the height of their childhoods they had 12 to 15 of the dolls, plus Ken, Skipper and the rest of the gang. They amassed what seemed like a gazillion tiny shoes. I swear I was picking Barbie shoes out of the carpet for years after the dolls were packed away.

Even though Barbie had some respectable careers in her heyday - she was an Olympic swimmer, a paleontologist and even a presidential candidate (wonder if she wore pantsuits?) - the Barbies my kids went for were the pretty ones, such as Island Princess Barbie and Malibu Barbie. They played with those dolls for hours on end, combing their hair and marrying them off to Ken in make-believe weddings.

They sure didn't inherit the doll gene from me.

I had a few dolls as a little girl, but they were maimed early on by my brothers. We often played "doctor" and my oldest brother would operate on my dolls, removing body parts on occasion and drawing big blue blood clots on their foreheads with permanent ink.

I looked through a box of my old toys that Mom gave me years ago and not one of my dolls had all of its limbs except my prized doll, Suzie. Her arms and legs were still there, but her head popped off when I picked her up because of a two-inch slash along her throat, a tracheotomy gone awry, perhaps.

Perhaps I would have played with dolls more if I'd had a sister or two instead of three brothers, but I'm not sure. When my cousin Margaret insisted on sitting indoors on a perfectly good Sunday afternoon and looking through the Sears catalog for new dresses, I couldn't stand it. I ran outside to play baseball with the guys and proceeded to dent my aunt and uncle's car with a pretty good hit over second base.

I loved playing "war" with my brothers and making homemade grenades from mud. I loved making hay forts upstairs in the barn.

I'm not sure what our childhood pastimes say about us as we get older. Despite my indifference toward dolls, I managed to raise two wonderful daughters. And my girls don't seem to be warped because of their obsession with Barbie dolls.

But come to think of it, my oldest daughter does have a penchant for accessories and shoes- lots and lots of shoes.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com