Sales of Barbie fell 12 percent in the U.S. as the 49-year- old doll faced competition from Hannah Montana and Ganz's Webkinz. Mattel, which recalled more than 21 million Chinese-made products in 2007, expects Chinese manufacturing costs to rise further. The yuan has climbed 10 percent against the dollar over the past 12 months, and inflation in China is near an 11-year high.

Also mentioned were the costs that Mattel incurred due to their lead and magnet recalls:

The recalls of Sesame Street vehicles with paint containing excessive amounts of lead and Polly Pocket dolls with magnets that may detach and get swallowed by children cost Mattel $110 million in 2007 for toy returns and legal, advertising and testing expenses.

Mattel Posts Loss as Chinese Production Costs Rise (Update4) [Bloomberg]
(Photo:Dust Storm)

We can't find a copy of the commercial online (can anyone send in a link?), but according to posts all around the web, it features a little girl crying out, "And you never run out of money!"

[Update: thanks to readers Wesa and Pda_tech_guy, here's a low-quality YouTube clip of the commercial.]

We think Mattel should introduce the "Dang, I Grew Up" Barbie playset, where Barbie spends her entire paycheck on Rent-a-Center furniture while trying to make the minimum payments on her dozen or so 30% interest rate cards. But then again, since this is Barbie, once her credit score hit 300 or so the playset would probably just bump it back up to 800. Responsibility is so for nerds and foster children.

(Thanks to David!)

"Barbie Fashion Fever Shopping Boutique Playset" [Amazon]

The El Segundo, Calif., toy maker sued Global China Networks LLC in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday over its Web site, www.chinabarbie.com. Global is a limited liability company organized in Florida and maintains a post-office box in New York, according to the complaint.

In its lawsuit, Mattel claims the Web site is pornographic and Global sold memberships to persons around the world.

The company, which has principal address in Hollywood, Fla., is listed as inactive on the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations Web site.

No phone number could be located late Tuesday for Global or its registered agent in Hollywood, Fla.

Mattel Files Trademark Suit Vs Adult Site With Barbie In Name [CNNMoney]

Gross sales of its Barbie line rose 3 percent domestically and worldwide during the quarter.

For the past few years, Barbie has faced a stiff challenge from privately held MGA Entertainment's Bratz dolls, but Barbie sales should continue to rise, and Bratz sales appear to have peaked, Johnson said.

Mattel Profit Rises; Barbie and Elmo Rule [Washington Post]

It wasn't but last week that we endured the presidential doll nomenclature crisis, and now this!

The offending page has since been fixed but up until at least 10:42 pm last night, Target offered an alternate version of the caucasian Oopsy Poopsy Puppy Barbie doll. This darker skinned Barbie also had a black, oh wait, we mean, "urban," dog. We hear that in the store, they actually stock these dolls at opposite ends of the shelf, to avoid miscegenation.

And so it was. Click to enlarge if the font's too tiny.

Anyway, the point is that Barbie's dead. Or at least that's what some toy analysts are claiming, advising Mattel to dump her like an accidentally asphyxiated hooker in the dumpster behind Toys 'R' Us.

"Toys need to be magical," says Jim Silver of Toy Wishes magazine. Or at least slutty enough to compete with everyone's favorite sexually precocious plastic ten year olds, the Lil Bratz. Barbie's neither.

We think there's another solution besides killing the old girl off entirely: Mattel should create a transformable Barbie that turns into a Fleshlight and market it to adults. I think it's safe to say we can put Ben down for at least a gross.

Is it time for a Bye Bye Barbie? [MSNBC]

Exhibit A: Aboriginal Barbie. We love her. A cave woman in an outfit sewn with sinew out of the steaming skins of koala bears; a 'fro of wild, unkempt hair. We're amazed Mattel didn't go the whole nine yards, file her teeth and put a kangaroo femur through her hair.

From the children's book Barbies of the World.

Aboriginal Barbie at Lileks' Bleat

Such a campaign was recently initiated in response to Hasbro's planned line of "Pussycat" Barbie dolls: a campaign so full of prudish self-righteousness that it caused Hasbro to cancel the line of dolls two days later. With bare midriffs and sultry plastic gazes, the dolls were modeled after the Pussycat music groups, a band that once sang the immortal words "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?" Hey, who doesn't?

In response to Hasbro's decision, a co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (eyeroll) explained: "[The Pussycat Dolls] was a ratcheting up of the kind of precocious irresponsible sexuality that is being marketed to little girls." We here at the Consumerist are against the precocious irresponsible sexuality of little girls, just as much as we're for the precocious irresponsible sexuality of big, preferably busty girls. So we win, we guess.

Have the heirs of Barbie hit limit for risque dolls? [Christian Science Monitor]

Pictured below are the two best: Postpartum Barbie and Permanent Vegetative State Barbie.

That's almost as bad as "Scottish Fling Barbie," or "Lingerie Barbie 1" or "Lingerie Barbie 2" whom there's absolutely nothing indelicate about, which is why of course they only show you heads-up shots of the doll sporting, "A white satin bra and panty ensemble trimmed with white lace and pale pink bows, white stockings and garters." No worries, there's a shot here (white) and here (black).

Shock, horror, titillation.

Previously:
• Barbie Scarred Me, And I Liked It
• Finally. Barbie Goes Cheesecake

In fact, there's a whole line of "working woman" Barbies, including: stewardess, teacher and nurse.

All the aforementioned models are reported as "coming in May."

Wait a minute, are these product lines or section titles on one's favorite porn stories site?

Oh, pshaw, Mattel is just taking Barbie back to her roots. Her roots as a German fetish sex toy.

Previously: Finally. Barbie Goes Cheesecake.

(Thanks to Sarah!)

Aimed at the adult market, the first three dolls feature Barbie as an imminently spankable cowgirl, a glittery Vegas madam and a grass-skirt hula girl whose amorphous genitalia can be exposed by the slightest rippling of the air.

Great idea, Mattel! Now what about an Art Frahm Barbie, with her panties around her ankles? Although we'd settle for a bent-over Barbie wearing a thong, dollops of water clearly beaded across the sublimity of her ass.

Barbie embraces her inner sexpot [Denver Post] (via Adfreak. Again.)

First place was the Uniden Digital Cordless Phone, taking 9 min 22 sec to open. Tied to the cardboard in more than 15 places, Barbie was runner up. She promptly locked herself in the Dreamhouse Bathroom and scarfed and barfed the entire Teenybop Teen Time plastic set.

As tipster Hubert Sorbet notes, "A simple solution would be to avoid untying anything and change her name to Bondage Barbie."

More: KMFB 8 Video Coverage. Post-Gazette article.