July 30, 2004
Move Over Barbie and Bratz... For the Homiez!
The toy business is a funny one. Although sales of Barbie have declined significantly, Mattel has found success in its more ethnically diverse American Girl line, while the street-wise Bratz continue to conquer the imagination of tween girls in the U.S. Apparently, America's kids (and children at heart) no longer care for dolls and figures who look nothing like them; they wanna keep it real.
Thus, this coming holiday season prepare for Homiez and Mijos to invade your nearest Toys R Us. These dolls are the brainchild of artist/entrepreneur/toymaker David Gonzales, who has based his figures on real life characters he grew up with in Oakland, CA. From today's Knight Ridder:
- "I hope people recognize us as an artist-driven, grass-roots business, not a big company trying to tap into the Latino market," Gonzales explains. "It wasn't meant to be a big business. I just followed where it led me."
No turning back now homie, your products are now in WalMart:
- Also on the shelves are the "Mijos," Gonzales' kinder, gentler line for younger kids. The first series of 6-inch action figures is now in stores such as Wal-Mart, with more to come from the manufacturer Toy Play. The characters will also show up on sneakers, skateboards and in a series of paperback books coming in the fall from Scholastic.
The word Mijos is short for the Spanish mis hijos, "my children." The characters include a girl and two boys based on Gonzales' own children, now ages 16 to 21, and he has created stories for them all about life in the East Bay's "Oaktown," modeled on Oakland.
Needless to say, this success would not be possible if not for the rapid rise of the Hispanic market. Moreover, Gonzales is expanding his repertoire to include an entire line of multi-ethnic characters:
- But the Mijos also represent the bigger picture of mass marketing in America.
"The Hispanic community is the fastest-growing demographic in the United States," notes Jonathan Breiter, vice president of Toy Play's parent company, the New York-based Betesh group. Yet the Mijos — whom Gonzales has created to include Latino, Anglo, Indian and Korean characters — should appeal to a wide range of youngsters, Breiter believes.
"Kids love urban, because urban is cool," he says.
Apparently urban is hot as well as cool: Breiter expects the expanded line of the Mijos action figures, along with their line of little clothes, to generate several million dollars in sales by the end of next year.
Success stories like these warm my heart. Read it all.
Spotted originally at Latino Pundit and Republica Trading. Big ups.
Posted by thomas at July 30, 2004 10:06 AM | TrackBack