Future Girl Lines?

[zeedox]

I have an 11 year old daughter who loves the megos. In fact her and my wife had a wonderful time rebrushing the hair of all the girl dolls that I have bought on ebay. The megos have more playability than the larger barbie types and the bratz are strange on not properly proportional.

I know nobody would probably me into this thought so much, but I have also noticed that the girl toy lines seem less affected by some of the recent trends in action figures. They still have real clothing etc and if there was a decent line to come along girls wouldnt even be too concerned with the license as long as it looked "cool".

In less words, since this board has been throwing around requests, I will put my vote in for something like Dyna-Mite with maybe a modern twist.

[Mikey]

Not a bad idea, but the reality is --- even though there's plenty of girl Mego collectors, the majority of people buying repro Mego's are boys/men.

Even a lot of the girls/women collecting Mego, are collecting non "girl" lines.

I hate to admit it, but I think a girl repro-line would fail miserably in today's market..

Just my opinion.

[SoulSinger]

My daughter is almost 3 and loves megos. Spidey is never far from her at all. I ordered a cowgirl from Doc Mego and she was thrilled (so was Spidey). I have a box of parts that are both original and repro. She loves to mix and match.

Bob

[Bizarro Amy]

Can a Mego-type female body be made cheaply enough that it would be cost-effective to release these in a larger-scale market? Most of the EMCE stuff seems to be sold in comic stores, online, and occasionally at Suncoast. They go for 15 bucks or so. I don't think a parent would pay that for an 8" doll like Dinah Mite. You'd have to make them cheap enough that they could be sold somewhere like WalMart and Target in larger amounts. But the bodies would also have to be good quality, and let's face it, there have been some problems with female repro bodies from time to time.

[Meule]

let's face it, there have been some problems with female

Well said Amy, so very true :silly: :smiley1:

[davidb]

Can a Mego-type female body be made cheaply enough that it would be cost-effective to release these in a larger-scale market? Most of the EMCE stuff seems to be sold in comic stores, online, and occasionally at Suncoast. They go for 15 bucks or so. I don't think a parent would pay that for an 8" doll like Dinah Mite. You'd have to make them cheap enough that they could be sold somewhere like WalMart and Target in larger amounts. But the bodies would also have to be good quality, and let's face it, there have been some problems with female repro bodies from time to time.

I don't know. After all, don't the Bratz usually go for about $12? I think Barbies are around $10, too. I'd think that it would be possible to get the price point down a few bucks on a Dinah-ish line.

Let's take the Trek line. Crew members have a standard body, individual head, pants, shirt, weapons belt, phaser, communicator, and tricorder. A traditional Dinah had a standard body, standard head, jumpsuit, belt, and boots. I don't know a lot about mass producing figures, but I'd think that fewer accessories = lower price.

Plus, the line would have to have new outfits. Those would likely be cheaper as well simply because there's no figure to put in the box.

I'd say that a Dinah line would be possible, but I also don't know how well a new line targeting girls would go right now. After all, I think I remember reading that even Barbie's sales aren't as high as Bratz right now.

Another drawback would be that a Dinah line would not work if it was just in comic shops (in my opinion). It would have to be showing up at Toys R Us, KB, and Wal-Mart. There'd be a lot of angles to look at.

[zeedox]

Is that line something under copyright? Or can it just kind of be created without concern?

[davidb]

According to a quick search of the Trademark Office, the Dinah-Mite trademark's long since expired. It's possible that someone could file for the TM and start producing new product, kind of like Playing Mantis did with AJ back a few years back.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I't a fantastic idea but there are some serious hurdles:

>even though there's plenty of girl Mego collectors, the majority of people buying repro Mego's are boys/men.

...and even then; their tastes are really, REALLY focussed. Every time someone repros the Mego bod the first thing someone asks is "could they repro the WGSH?!?!?" Not the Waltons, the superheroes.

BUT.... if you could market them as something OTHER than repro collectibles you might have a chance. Moreso if you could get a cartoon series. Give Dinah a 'toon and some slick ads and I have no doubt she'd sell.

....IF you could get them in stores. You'd have to produce a LOT of 'em, and get stores interested inc arrying what is essentially a no-name character.

Don C.

[thunderbolt]

Didn't David Lee hint at a girl body in the future of his stuff?

[Bizarro Amy]

Hmmmm....

BUT.... if you could market them as something OTHER than repro collectibles you might have a chance. Moreso if you could get a cartoon series. Give Dinah a 'toon and some slick ads and I have no doubt she'd sell.

....IF you could get them in stores. You'd have to produce a LOT of 'em, and get stores interested inc arrying what is essentially a no-name character.

Don C.

I think you make a valid point. The cartoon would probably be a Bratz rip-off in order to appeal to the current generation of little girls. I mean, if stores were willing to carry them, I think they'd have a moderate popularity, especially because they are somewhat similar in size to some of the Bratz lines. Plus, some of the fashions are compatible. I've seen customizers here use Bratz clothing on plenty of Mego customs.
As far as the price, I didn't think Bratz were going for that much, and I honestly don't know what regular Barbies cost, because the only ones I buy are the superhero ones and an occasional special edition, which is much pricier. At any rate, I think a modern Dinah would have to sell for about 9.99 for a basic figure in order to compete at stores like Target and Walmart. Plus, Walmart's known to take cuts in profit on certain items in order to get people into the store and buy their other needs while they're at it. I was under the impression that action figures were one of those items, although they still aren't cheap even there. So you'd have to be prepared to make less on them at Walmart, because it seems as though a new toy line has to survive at Walmart in order be successfully marketed toward kids.

[zeedox]

I think that the basic genres themselves are not copyright in their own sections and if their were great characters they would all sell:

Monsters
Superheroes
Space Force
Girlie
Fantasy

The good thing with EMCE is the toys have quality. Those Classic TV things I really don't enjoy. In fact everytime I opened one i was just waiting to see how cheaply broken something would be.

Hey just thought of a good gig for EMCE they could manufacture toys for museum gift shops.

[drmego]

I have a five year old daughter. She and her friends, like the rest of the world, are obsessed with Hannah Montana and High School Musical.

There are 100 girls to every 105 boys - so I want to put together
as many girls as possible in the next few years, especially since
girls do not get uptight about combing out hair or changing outfits.

We are talking to a major drug store chain about creating a line
of girl toys. Dinah-Mite does not really have enough backstory
to bring back. She was just a small Barbie.

I want to make something my daughter will enjoy.

[SoulSinger]

Well, if the doctor says it'll happen, then it'll happen!

Bob



I have a five year old daughter. She and her friends, like the rest of the world, are obsessed with Hannah Montana and High School Musical.

There are 100 girls to every 105 boys - so I want to put together
as many girls as possible in the next few years, especially since
girls do not get uptight about combing out hair or changing outfits.

We are talking to a major drug store chain about creating a line
of girl toys. Dinah-Mite does not really have enough backstory
to bring back. She was just a small Barbie.

I want to make something my daughter will enjoy.

[zeedox]

This all made me think that kids might enjoy switching heads and clothes like the customizers etc and a type of mego kit with various heads outfits hands etc would be fun for the little ones.

[drakghoulie]

ok, here's the obvious, re-intoduce the super heroine line they sort of did to accompany capt. action, or the Mego bat girl, super girl wonder woman, add mera( aquaman's wife/girl companion, Isis, who ever, do the head sculpts so you can remove isis and ww's tiara, so for a twist you get to buy a collection of secret Identity clothes. A hangout/base of operations and jazzy vehicles. 60's batman comes to mind. Put on a cartoon of some sort similar to justice league only call it the legion of super women or super teens, they can deal with the super hero side and the day to day life of a regular woman/girl. Even better put them all in high school. High school super heroine's, that just might sell. The girls from Archie even. Drakghoulie

[ctc]

>re-intoduce the super heroine line they sort of did to accompany capt. action,

Hmmmm.... dunno if that'd work so good 'cos you're kinda relegating the female characters to secondary status. I think you'd hafta have them as the main characters/prime movers of the story for there to be real appeal. (Who's want to be Bucky when you could be Cap America?) I think for a female line you'd have to start whole cloth; to avoid any baggage from another storyline.

Don C.