Bratz

Bratz is an American product line of fashion dolls and merchandise manufactured by MGA Entertainment and created by Carter Bryant. Four original 10-inch dolls were released in 2001—Yasmin, Cloe, Jade, and Sasha. They featured almond-shaped eyes adorned with eyeshadow, and lush, glossy lips. Bratz reached great success and the original line of dolls was expanded with a number of spin-offs like Bratz Kidz and Bratz Babyz, as well as media featuring the Bratz characters, including a web series, movie, TV series, music albums, and video games. In 2005, global sales were two billion dollars and, by 2006, Bratz had about forty percent of the fashion-doll market. Bratz dolls have provoked controversy in several areas. From the dolls' stylized proportions to fashion-forward clothing, the brand has always followed pop culture trends closely. For years, MGA Entertainment was involved in a lengthy legal dispute with Mattel over the rights to the Bratz design. In 2011, the dispute ended with MGA as the victors. Related litigation is ongoing in a lawsuit by MGA alleging Mattel's theft of trade secrets. In early 2010, Bratz took a brief hiatus after Mattel's first lawsuit and returned later that year to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the franchise. In 2013, Bratz changed to have a taller body and an all-new logo and branding. MGA Entertainment made the decision to completely overhaul the Bratz brand throughout 2014, in an effort to return the brand to its roots. As a result, none of the Bratz 2014 product line was offered to North American retailers. In July 2015, Bratz made a comeback and a set of new dolls were released, introducing a new main character called Raya to the lineup of Cloe, Jade, Yasmin, and Sasha as well as a new slogan and website design. The bodies were changed to be 10" tall again, but with a new body and head mold. A stop-motion web series premiered in August 2015. The Bratz app was released in September 2015 to accompany the new dolls and web series. The 2015 Bratz dolls were met with a negative reaction from fans, who felt that the dolls lacked sass and believed that MGA Entertainment ignored them and tried marketing the brand to the wrong demographic, taking away "what made the Bratz special." Due to the poor reception and sales of the new Bratz dolls, only two lines were produced for Fall 2016, and MGA replied to emails asking about the status of the brand saying that they are taking a break from making the fashion dolls. MGA Entertainment President and CEO Isaac Larian took to Twitter and announced on January 16, 2017 that Bratz would be relaunched for a third run, with many changes based on fan feedback. Based on feedback from many former Bratz fans, they rejected the new Bratz dolls and preferred the Bratz dolls released prior to the relaunch in Fall 2015 (and to some extent, prior to the relaunch in Fall 2010). On May 21, 2017, the 16th anniversary of Bratz, Larian took to Twitter once more to announce that the Bratz would be returning Fall of 2018. On May 21, 2018, the 17th anniversary of the Bratz, Hayden Williams announced that his collaboration with the brand would be released later in the year. He created a line of "Bratz Collector" dolls, in which he had complete creative control over how the dolls were produced. On the same day, the official Bratz Instagram account posted for the first time since deleting all of its posts, changing its profile picture back to the original Bratz logo, and reviving the original slogan. They posted a series of photos that comprised the phrase "Passion for Fashion."