Attention, shoppers: Big bucks are at play in this doll fight

Keesha and Leonard McCoy stopped in front of a sparse display of Monster High dolls at the Target on Greenbrier Parkway.

"The kids must not like Cleo, because she's the only one that's left," Keesha McCoy, 37, told her husband.

"That's the one she wants, right there," she said, pointing to Clawdeen Wolf, one of six statuesque dolls in a clear case.

Taylor McCoy, 8, had circled Clawdeen first in the big Toys R Us catalog when it came out a few weeks before Thanksgiving, her parents said. The Chesapeake parents haven't found it in stock anywhere.

So, on this Sunday afternoon in December, the McCoys have descended on Aisle E10. Here, the Monster High dolls face off against a half-dozen other fashion doll brands - including Liv, Moxie Girlz and Bratz.

Each, like the girls who desire them, wants to be the most popular.

The stakes are high. After two lean holiday seasons, retail sales this year are expected to come close to the last peak in 2007.

Through October of this year, U.S. doll sales already were up 12 percent, at $1.5 billion, according to market research firm The NPD Group. Dolls account for 11.5 percent of the year-to-date $13.1 billion in U.S. toy sales. As much as two-thirds of toy sales occur in the holiday season.

The Monster High characters, by Mattel, are the teen offspring of classic creeps including Dracula and a werewolf.

Target put Monster High (as in high school) on an "endcap" - a display at the end of an aisle, facing the store's main corridor - and across 12 feet of display space in Aisle E10. The dolls swept out of the store so fast that the store's toy team leader had to move them back inside the aisle, said Thom Moceri, manager of the Greenbrier store.

Toys usually stay in that promotional position for a week, he said, but the goal is to make sure that the endcaps are full. That's difficult when the dolls are snatched up so quickly and supplies are tight.

" 'Twilight' is super, super hot," said Moceri of the teen-vampire films that helped spawn a spate of gothic fare. "That's what the younger generation is really liking now."

Dawn Brewer's daughter, 11-year-old Emily, dragged her over to the Monster High display during a previous visit to Target and told her, "I know what I want for Christmas."

Brewer, 39, returned to the store from her home in Elizabeth City, N.C., last Sunday and showed her mother, Margaret Rhoades, the desired gift. "These are the two she really likes," she said, pointing out Frankie Stein and Draculaura.

Clad in a plaid dress and high heels, Frankie Stein has platinum blonde hair with black streaks and a row of stitches on her mint-green face. Pale Draculaura's pink hair also is streaked with black. Her outfit features a bright pink vest, a white miniskirt, black fishnet stockings and chunky pink lace-up boots.

"All the little girls are getting into the streaks in their hair," said Brewer, adding that Emily has seen all the "Twilight" movies. "She loves, loves, loves them."

Monster High dolls might embody creatures of the underworld, but the characters live like the girls who play with them, said Adrienne Appell, spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association. "They're kids their age, and they're having similar issues," such as problems with boyfriends or pressure to join the crowd, she said.

"It gives kids something to relate to," Appell said. "It's about fitting in, making friends. It's about making the cheerleading squad, stuff like that."

For Julieta Smith, Moxie Girlz was the doll of choice for her stepdaughter at home in Chesapeake. The Pets set she chose for $14.99 included the doll Lexa with a cat and other accessories.

"We have dogs, but she loves cats," Smith said of 10-year-old Isabel.

More important, Smith said, is Lexa's outfit: a bright yellow T-shirt over a pink tulle skirt and denim leggings - or jeggings - just like Isabel wears.

"It's the style," her stepmother said. "She likes stylish dolls. Moxie's more hip, I guess."

What's popular, of course, is in the eye of the young beholder. One toy's popularity doesn't necessarily come at the expense of another, Appell said.

"If there was only one that was cool, retailers wouldn't bother buying the other ones."

That's clearly the message shoppers get in Aisle E9, the baby doll aisle. While dolls in Aisle E10 reflect the stylistic aspirations of pre-teens, those in Aisle E9 mimic how younger kids act and let them play at parenting. The little lumps of plastic do everything from bouncing to eating to pooping.

This aisle's competition pits Baby Alive, by Hasbro, against Little Mommy, made by Fisher-Price, a division of Mattel. Target also markets a house brand, Circo, that had a number of fans among last Sunday's shoppers.

"My niece wants a doll that poops," said Lernecca Videau, a Norfolk resident who received specific directions about the gift from her sister.

Videau, 34, found the Baby Alive Changing Time doll, marked down to $24. She also considered the Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Gotta Go, but settled on Baby Alive because it came with diapers.

"I have boys," she said, expressing relief. "They're into video games, and that's easy."

Regina England's 5-year-old daughter, Natalie, picked out the Baby Alive that sneezes based on TV commercials she saw, her mother said. She already has the Baby All Gone doll by the same brand.

"She likes the dolls to actually do things, to watch the milk go, see the juice," said England of Chesapeake.

Children respond to TV pitches, in-store promotions and other marketing, said Jim Silver, editor in chief of TimetoPlayMag.com, a website that offers toy industry insights and reviews. "The advertising and promotion is part of it - how you make the kids aware," he said.

If a doll's popularity is measured by the size of its store display, Cabbage Patch Kids appear to have fallen from favor. The must-have doll of the 1980s now occupies just a sliver of the baby doll section.

None ended up in a shopping cart last Sunday afternoon until Jackee Padilla picked one off the shelf around 5 p.m.

"I want to get her Cabbage Patch Kids, because I know she doesn't have one," Padilla, 40, said to her son as they shopped for her 18-month-old niece.

"This is, like, a classic," she said, holding an $11.99 My First CPK doll wearing a pink sleeper decorated with sheep. "I think every kid should have a Cabbage Patch."

But the Circo Bath Time baby, which comes with a hooded towel and tub toys for $13.69, also caught Padilla's eye.

"She'll love that in the bath," Padilla said, finally putting the two boxes in her cart. "How 'bout I get her both? I can spoil her."

Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com