Bratz is an American fashion doll and media franchise created by former Mattel employee Carter Bryant for MGA Entertainment, which debuted in 2001.[1]
The four original 10-inch (25 cm) dolls were released on May 21, 2001 — Yasmin (ethnically ambiguous, though predominantly Middle Eastern or Latina coded), Cloe (White), Jade (East Asian), and Sasha (Black).[2][3] They featured almond-shaped eyes adorned with eyeshadow adding lush and big glossy lips.[1] Bratz reached great success with the expansion to spin-offs, including Bratz Kidz, Bratz Boyz, Bratz Babyz and Bratzillaz' and a media franchise consisting of discography and adaptations into a TV series, a web series, a live-action film and video games. Global sales of the entire franchise grossed $2 billion in 2005 and by the following year, the brand had about 40 percent of the fashion-doll market.[1]
The Bratz doll lines have provoked controversy in several areas from their stylized proportions to fashion-forward clothing, capitalizing closely on pop trends. Since the brand's launch in 2001, franchise distributor MGA Entertainment got embroiled in a lengthy legal dispute with its rival Mattel over the rights to its design, which ended in 2011 with MGA as the victors.[4] Related litigation is ongoing in a lawsuit by MGA alleging Mattel's theft of trade secrets.[5]
MGA has paused the Bratz brand since the onset of the litigation and rebranded it several times throughout its lifespan, with the first of those coming in 2010 after Mattel's first lawsuit, only to return later that year to commemorate the brand's 10th anniversary. In 2013, Bratz changed to have a taller bodies, an all-new logo and branding,[6] and continued through 2014, in an effort to return the brand to its roots. As a result, none of the 2014 product line was made available in North America.
In July 2015, Bratz relaunched a second time for 14 years with new doll lines and introducing a new main character, Raya, to the debut lineup from its 2001 launch as well as a new slogan and website design. The bodies were changed to be 10" (25 cm) tall again, but with new bodies and head molds. These dolls were met with negative reactions from fans, as the brand was more oriented towards younger kids rather than tweens and teens like the previous dolls. Due to the poor reception and sales, the dolls were once again discontinued in 2016.
