Toy industry caters to 'tweens'

NEW YORK -- Girls like eight-year-old Kelsie Templin are a challenge for the toy industry.\nUnlike boys in the 8-to-12 age group, who seem easy to please with video games and action toys, Kelsie and her peers are in a fuzzy, in-between stage. Kelsie, for example, likes to collect stuffed animals, but she also enjoys more grown-up activities like shopping at Claire's stores, creating picture frames for her room and listening to tunes by pop star singers Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears.\n"I don't like action figure toys and babyish dolls," said Kelsie, who lives in Pembroke Pines, Fla.\nThis holiday season, toy makers and retailers are making a big effort to capture the hearts of girls like Kelsie, known in the industry as "tweens."\n"Everyone is trying to figure out how they can get her away from Limited Too and Claire's and get her into the toy stores," said Chris Bryne, an independent toy analyst, noting girls' ever-growing interest in clothes.\nWith the tween in mind, K-B Toys is expanding beyond toys and selling room decor like lava lamps and room beads. Toys "R" Us Inc., whose "R" Zone featuring video games has become a magnet for boys, is trying out a store-within-a-store that has the popular pouty-lipped Bratz dolls at its Times Square location.\n"We're experimenting in uncharted (areas)," said Fred Hurley, vice president and divisional merchandise manager of K-B.\nToy makers, meanwhile, have come up with more funky-looking dolls, arts and crafts kits and products such as fur-trimmed CD players and flashy bikes that appeal to tweens.\n"There's more out there for the tween girl to put in our stores," said Susan McLaughlin, a Toys "R" Us spokeswoman.\nOne strategy for manufacturers is to try to lure tweens back to dolls. The fashion doll market has become particularly competitive, with MGA Entertainment, the maker of Bratz dolls, battling Mattel Inc., which manufactures Barbie.\nMattel is trying to keep girls from giving up their Barbies and defecting to Bratz. Last year, Mattel introduced My Scene Barbie, which has an edgier style than Barbie. This summer, the company unveiled Flavas, hip-hop inspired dolls that so far are selling slowly, according to Margaret Whitfield, senior vice president at Brean Murray, an investment firm.\nThe tween market accounts for a significant 20 percent of total traditional toy sales, which reached $21.3 billion last year, according to NPD Group, a market information company in Port Washington, N.Y.\nMany of the products aimed at tweens have done well since they arrived in stores over the past few months, analysts said. Hasbro, Inc. has had success with Video Now, a portable personal video player, and Thintronics, a new line of phones and radios.\nOne problem manufacturers and retailers have is developing more sophisticated toys for tweens -- but not so sophisticated that they're inappropriate for young girls.\nSome analysts believe the lukewarm response to Mattel's Flavas is due to the popularity of Bratz, but others think Flavas may be just too edgy. The Flava dolls, which wear such urban fashions as low-slung wide leg pants, come with their own graffiti wall.