It’s customary for parents to worry about their children’s toys, but in the case of the Bratz dolls, some parents feel there might really be a problem. If you haven’t had a chance to slap eyes on one of the newest fashion games to hit the toy store shelve, Bratz dolls are the hip and urban upgrade to the traditional Barbie. Where Barbie is fashionable and wholesome (by most standards), the Bratz are edgy with an urban, punk style. They also dress in a rather revealing way and are easily recognized by large pouty lips and sultry, bedroom eyes.
At least that is the impression most parents walk away with.
Of course, the facial features of a doll aren’t going to declare a state of toy emergency, but as a parent you must always think about the message your toys are sending. And Bratz dolls look a certain way – does that mean Bratz games are sending the wrong message?
Not necessarily.
When Barbie was first introduced and in subsequent years there was great concern over the message Barbie was sending to children everywhere. Of course, many parents still worry about this, but not with the degree of concern shown in the media years ago. When Barbie was created, she had outrageous measurements that were impossible to have in real life. Her tiny waist was disproportional to her expansive chest and hips.
Critics worried that young girls would get the message that Barbie was the ideal and that all women should look like Barbie dolls. The debate continued for years, but when Mattel created an updated version of Barbie roughly a decade ago, she was reintroduced to the world with a wider waist and a natural looking belly button making those concerned exhale a small sign of relief.
You don’t hear much about the damaging effects of Barbie on the psyche of little girls today. You hear quite a bit about Hollywood and teen idols, and Bratz games replicate the fashions and attitudes most frequently seen on gossip shows and music television. The Bratz games include clothing that shows a lot of leg and a lot of stomach. If the girls had cleavage, the tops would show too much of that as well.
The clothing is the type that most parents barely tolerate on their children, but some refuse to buy. Skin-tight articles, short shorts, and ultra-flashy clothing items might be fashionable, but they make some critics concerned, once again, about the message these dolls are sending to young girls – the primary audience of the dolls.
But like any toy or any parenting decision for that matter, the level of acceptance for your home and your child is entirely up to you. And not every Bratz game is made the same. If your child is dying to play with Bratz games the way her friends are, let her head to the computer to play online Bratz games or take a walk through the toy store to find the least offensive doll (and outfit) in your opinion and buy that instead. After all, Barbie might have been risqué in her day, but she wound up a self-fulfilled woman with many high-paying career.

A wooden doll house is one of the nicest gifts you can purchase for your daughter. Doll houses let little girls explore their imagination and if you are planning to purchase an unassembled or DIY kit for a wooden doll house, it will develop your child’s patience and creative skills as well as giving your family precious time to bond with each other.

To help you buy the ideal wooden doll house for your little girl, here are several tips to keep in mind.

Scale
The standard scale for doll houses, whether wooden or not, is 1:12. Simply put, the size of the doll house is twelve times smaller than it would be in real life. This is also the ideal size if your little girl intends to use the doll house for her Barbie dolls.

Of course, there are some models that use smaller or larger scales. You can use that, too, if you deem it preferable for any reason.

Types of Wood
The two major types of woods used for doll houses are plywood and MDF. Some models, however, use other types of woods.

MDF is a compressed, man-made form of sawdust and glue. It is a popular choice for wooden doll houses because it’s durable and affordable, it’s easy to cut, and its smooth surface is paint-friendly. The fact that it doesn’t splinter is also a plus for your children’s safety.

Some people, however, dislike using MDF because it’s not genuine or top-quality wood and it working with it also generates a huge amount of dust.

Plywood is thinner than MDF, which makes it less durable. It has a somewhat rough surface and even with a layer of paint, the grain of the wood can be still visible. You’ll see it mostly used with collector’s edition of doll houses because they’re perfect for fancy doll house trimming and other small elements. Plywood comes in large sheets and because of their lightweight quality, they’re easy to transport from one workplace to another.

An example of rarely-used wood for doll houses would be oak. They are rarely painted when used for making doll houses because their natural look is worthy of appreciation already. Besides, with the price you’d be paying for such materials, you should let people know that you’re using oak for your doll house, don’t you think?

Style
Lastly, consider the style of doll house you intend to purchase. This is especially important if you are planning to purchase a DIY kit rather than a finished one. Consider the level of difficulty involved.

Remember these tips when you go shopping and you’ll come home with a wooden doll house that’s sure to bring a smile to your daughter’s face.

Although the Energy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time from early March to November 1st, no studies have shown it saves real energy. Although one Energy Department study showed electricity use declined .03%, most comprehensive studies show people drive more during DST – increasing energy consumption. The sale of charcoal for barbeques also increases during DST. So do gardening and golfing businesses. Nevertheless, despite the lack of energy saving and having to adjust clocks and co-ordinate flight times with non-DST parts of the world, DST survives because we feel it lights up our lives.

Barbie dolls have lit up the lives of girls for 50 years. Every second three people in the world buy a Barbie doll, making her the world’s #1 fashion doll and toy. Now Mattel has built its first “House of Barbie” in Shanghai. The multi-million-dollar, six-story, hot pink store was built there as Mattel aggressively pursues developing markets. Barbie’s first flagship store offers more than 100,000 Barbie products for children and adults, a Barbie café, and for older customers there’s a spa and a cocktail bar. Nevertheless, Barbie’s U.S. sales have been down an average of 12% for the past 5 years as Mattel toys with new ideas.

Snoring isn’t new. In fact, it becomes more common as we age. By age 60 more than half of adults snore. Snoring is the result of air moving through narrowed or floppy, soft passages in the mouth, throat and nose. Sometimes the air is obstructed by oversized tonsils or uvula. Men are twice as likely to snore because of fat distribution. Men usually gain weight in the neck, upper torso and abdomen. Fat in the neck can constrict airway passages and lead to increased snoring. Women usually gain weight in the hips and thighs –creating “thighs” of relief that men snore more.

According to autograph dealer Stuart Lutz, John F. Kennedy’s signature is worth more than any other modern U.S. president’s. It’s worth $2500 if it just says “happy birthday”. Second in value are Ronald Reagan’s signatures, which start at $750. Third are Bill Clinton’s signatures signed when he was president, which are worth $500 or more; and fourth are George H.W. Bush’s signatures on presidential letterhead, worth $300-$500. As for Obama’s slightly illegible signature, after his inauguration his signature averages in the high hundreds – with one exception. President Obama’s signature on the stimulus packages is worth trillions.

The Internet has made many people rich, and making money on eBay has been a big reason for that.

There are a few keys to making money on eBay:

- A lot of people start by selling things they are not using around the house. It’s kind of like a garage sale only more lucrative. The vintage vacuum cleaner that may only get you $5 at a garage sale may bring in $50 on eBay.

- Because you’re selling to the world and not just to your neighborhood things that don’t have a local appeal can have huge appeal to someone on the other side of the U.S. or the world. So don’t hesitate, get rid of all the stuff that taking up space in your house.

- Obviously what you’re trying to sell must have market demand. You may want to give some thought about what’s hot right now and also what items are always in demand. Barbie dolls for example will always have a market on eBay.

- You can conduct an eBay search through eBay Pulse to see what is being offered currently. You may not get a very good offer if there is currently a saturated market in the category or product you’re selling.

- Once you determine what you will be selling you’ll need to determine an asking price. If you’re buying things to re-sell than that price may be different than items you just want to get rid of.

- You’ll also want to see what the competition is up to. You may want to price at or just below to ensure a sale.

It also depends on how quickly you need to turn around your inventory. If you need a constant infusion of cash, because you are buying items to sell, you might consider dropping your price as long as you are profitable.

A few other things to consider are:

- Do you have a means for storing items until they sell? This can really be an issue especially if you’re family doesn’t want to lose the basement or garage in order for you to make money on eBay.

- What shipment issues to you need to consider, such as costs and size? These are things that will affect your time and prices.

- You’ll also need to think about the life cycle of certain items (you don’t want to get stuck with stuff) and the season. Selling ice skates during the summer is not a good strategy.

Doll houses have always captured the fancy of kids, particularly girls. As a child I remember spending hours arranging and rearranging my dollhouse and never getting bored. Now when I see my daughter doing the same, I feel that no matter how many generations pass, girls will always be fascinated with dolls and doll houses.

Every time my daughter asks for a new doll or any other doll accessories, BIGshop.com.au is where I go to. She now has a huge collection of dolls and doll houses from BIGshop.com.au and is the happiest playing with them.

If you too want to buy adorable doll houses and doll accessories for your little girl, then there can be no better place than BIGshop.com.au. You’ll find an excellent assortment of doll houses that are sure to delight your kid. Get her the Plan Toys 7150 Terrace Dollhouse with movable terrace, partitions, windows, door and staircase, the Pintoy My First Home Wooden Doll House complete with attractive furniture or the Fisher-Price 6552 Loving Family Grand Dollhouse and see her face light up with joy.

To furnish the doll house, you can also find cute furniture for different rooms, be it the bedroom or the living room. And as for other doll accessories, the choice is so large that’ll be confused. You can pick a variety of doll accessories, such as the Aussie Star Twin Stroller Teddy Design, Fisher-Price Snap N Style Doll Outfits for bedtime, birthday party or rainy day, or the Hasbro Strawberry Shortcake Doll Vehicle Berry Sweet Roadster from BIGshop.

Not just doll houses and doll accessories, BIGshop.com.au offers other cheap toys, such as Barbie dolls and Dora dolls as well. On the whole, you’ll find lovely toys for your little girl at a great price only at BIGshop.com.au.

This is the commercial the the 1992 Totally Hair Barbie. Totally Hair™ Barbie® was released in 1992. The doll’s extra-long hair reached all the way to her toes. More than ten million Totally Hair Barbie dolls were sold world wide, making Totally Hair Barbie the best-selling Barbie doll…

You will see Moxie Girlz everywhere this year. They are edging out Holiday Barbie 2009 in sales this year!

These dolls are marketed as dolls that help empower girls to do and be whatever they want. And you can’t argue with that! They also promote fashion and makeup, and there are some who do argue with that.

Here’s how I see it. Although it’s easy to be a slave to fashion, these dolls promote dressing however you want. They promote individuality. They are so not Barbie dolls.

Yes, they have huge made-up eyes and pouty lips, as is the current fashion in the world. But who wants to be a dag? And every single one of us goes along with the fashion of the day to some extent, no matter how individual, or even rebellious, we are. It’s part of living in our society.

The Moxie Girlz website proclaims ‘Every girl has the strength to do something amazing. Anything is possible as long as you stay true to yourself and never give up on your dreams.’ Wow! That even inspires me, and I haven’t been a child for a long time.

There are four Moxie Girlz, and each one is an individual, showing her own kind of moxie.

Lexa is playful, silly and creative. She thinks that life is meant to be fun, and here’s her moxie: fun means being yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Sasha is decribed as being friendly and clever, with a positive attitude. She encourages her friends in whatever they want to do, and helps them to see the bright side of any situation.

Avery is strong, determined and energetic. She believes that anyone can do anything they want if they want it enough and really go for it.

Sophina is warm, thoughtful and caring. She is always thinking about the world around her, and thinks we can all make a difference if we really want to.

I would be over the moon if my granddaughter learned these attitudes as a natural way of growing up.

Why is the collection called Moxie Girlz?

Well, it’s hard to justify the ‘z’ from the point of view of correct English. But it does give it a modern feel, and really brings the dolls into this age of texting and domain names that run together and use unusual spelling.

The website defines ‘moxie’ like this:

1. Positive attitude and confidence.
2. The courage to go for it.
3. Energy in everything you do.

Gotta love it.

And there are beauty shop games. But taking care of one’s appearance, wearing lipstick and nail polish, does not necessarily make a woman superficial.

I’m happy that these dolls and their accessories are so popular. They are thought-provoking and mind-opening for young girls who are at an age of being easily influenced.

The Hasbro company in the early part of the sixties right in the heat of the cold war situation, introduced a new line of toys which coined the term action figures. These toys were named GI Joe and were modelled after American soldiers in World War II and were of the similar dimensions as the Barbie doll figure which was a big hit with young girls who fancied having dolls. The GI Joe series on the other hand targeted young boys by incorporating a military and action adventure theme which most boys of a young age are fascinated with.

The original production included a series of 12 inch male figures which wore US military uniforms and had 21 moving parts. These figures were named action figures in order to give them a separate identity to that of the placid Barbie dolls that were in vogue. With time, military equipment pieces, arms and artillery, vehicles and even large sets were manufactured for theme based play using these action figures. A story line was created later which featured antagonists that were lacking until then. The story centred on the unabated conflict between the elite GI Joe team and the vicious cobra gang.

The first year of production and sales saw the GI Joe action figures being launched in a few retail stores initially, and then spreading across stores in America at a rapid pace with increasing popularity. There were GI Joe stores that were set up for selling these action figures exclusively as the line expanded and the number of figures grew.

These toys were ideal for imaginative play for boys at a young age and were a huge hit not only in America but soon expanded into GI Joe stores in Europe and other parts of the world as well. The popularity waned when the Vietnam War happened and everything associated with warfare and military lost its appeal and by the late seventies these figures were out of production.

The popularity sparked on and off until the time when collecting action figures became an obsession with children and adults alike. Those young and old men who grew up playing with GI Joe action figures and were careful enough to preserve them so that one day , their children could use it, suddenly found them a great way to earn money. The more vintage and rate the figure was, the more money it fetched. With the advent of the internet, the selling of collectibles and toy action figures reached a peak as there were many websites that specialized in buying and selling these figures.

The most popular collectibles that were bought and sold for huge amounts of money, were the GI Joe action figures, the fact that some of them dated back to the sixties made them sell for as high as a few thousand dollars. The price of a vintage GI Joe action figure could touch 5000 USD easily.

The less damaged and battle scarred it is, the more money it would fetch. There are many online GI Joe stores that buy these figures and pay handsomely for them. They then sell these for a greater price. EBay is another website were mass buying and selling of GI Joe action figures takes place.

The Intellivision was a revolutionary video game console developed and released by Mattel (the company probably best known for Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars) in 1979. It was the first 16 bit game console ever released and introduced a lot of new concepts and technologies: innovative game controllers, superior graphics and sound, game downloads, home computer extensions, a voice synthesis device and a synthesizer keyboard for example.

The CPU used in the Intellivision was a General Instruments CP1610, a general purpose microprocessor capable of supporting 16-bit addresses and 10-bit instructions. The US release used a CPU clock of 894,886.25 Hz while the european release used a 1 Mhz clock, due to the different NTSC / PAL specs, which means that games were running up to 10% faster on european consoles than on their US counterparts!

The CP1610 featured eight 16-bit registers – using a 16 bit CPU in a video game console was quite exceptional indeed. It had 1.2 kb of RAM (including 512 byte video memory) and 7 kb ROM (which included the “Executive ROM” – some kind of a mini-OS – and the “Graphics ROM” which included often used sprites for example). It’s graphics performance was outstanding for the late 1970’s, allowing a 160 x 196 pixel display using a 16 color palette (all colors could be used simultaneously), plus eight hardware supported sprites offering collision detection, mirroring and streching.

The game controllers were quite different too, as they featured a “disc” (somewhat similar to the Apple iPod clickwheel) instead of a joystick as well as a twelve-button numeric keypad. The disc was capable of 16 direction detection and games usually shipped with “overlay cards” that could be inserted into the controllers (in front of the numeric keypad – switching games required inserting a new cartridge AND flipping the overlay cards).

In 1980 the Intellivision became available in the entire US for US$299, the console was the first to pose a serious threat to Atari’s dominance (Atari was the number one video game console producer back then). Mattel sold 175,000 consoles in 1980, with 19 availalble games. After Mattel realized that the game market offered good revenues, they launched their own software development group which became known as the “Blue Sky Rangers”.

In 1981, Mattel launched a service that allowed to download games via cable TV. In 1982, Mattel sold 2 million consoles, more and more companies started developing software titles for the Intellivision.

The “Keyboard Component” should transform the console into a home computer, it was planned to include a MOS 6502 CPU (the one used by the C64 later on), 64K RAM and a built-in cassette tape drive. But during the process of developement many reliability problems occurred and the hardware was far too expensive. After repeated delays the Keyboard Component project was officially cancelled in 1982. Apparently about 4000 Keyboard Components had been shipped to selected customers for testing purposes, they are extremely rare today.

As Mattel managers had been aware of the Keyboard Component problems for a long time, they had launched a secondary project in mid 1981 that could replace the component in case of a complete failure. It was released as Entertainment Computer System (ECS), it featured a keyboard with a cassette recorder interface and included 2k of additional RAM. It lacked the originally planned 6502 CPU and the 64K RAM extension, but it was functionalm cost effective and was finally able to turn the Intellivison into a home computer.

Shortly after, Mattel introduced a 49-key Music Synthesizer keyboard which could turn the Intellivision/ECS combo into a multi-voice synthesizer. Unfortunately, the ECS received very little further marketing push and further hardware and software developments for the ECS were cancelled.

Intellivision was also the first game console to provide real-time human and robot voices during game play. The IntelliVoice module, which was required for using this feature, used an SP0256 Orator “voice chip” developed jointly by Mattel and General Instrument. But the IntelliVoice didn’t sell as well as expected, and only a few games supporting it were ever released.

In 1983 Mattel also introduced the Intellivision II (which only introduced a revamped case) and the System Changer module (which allowed to play Atari 2600).

In 1983 and 1984 the video game market crashed. The new home computer systems became more and more popular and interest in classic game consoles vanished. Furthermore there was now a large number of video game consoles available, further subdividing the market. In 1983 Mattel Electronics posted a $300 million loss, in early 1984 the division was closed.

A liquidator purchased all rights, hardware and software sales continued until most of the inventory had been sold. Later on, Mattel Marketing executive Terry Valeski created INTV Corp. which sold the remaining stock via retail and mail order. They then introduced the INTV III, which was nothing but an Intellivison inside a new case, and continued developing a few games. The console was discontinued in 1991. More than 6 million Intellivision consoles were sold during 12 years, and a total of 125 games were available.

Keith Robinson, a former Mattel programmer, finally purchased the software rights, founded Intellivision Productions and released Intellivison emulators including the classic Intellivision games available for MacOS, Windows and modern-day consoles.

Most of us remember playing with dress up dolls all day long with our friends when we were young. We only had paper dolls or actual dolls to dress up, no virtual dolls and online dress up games like there are today. Your paper doll set came with a few cardboard paper dolls and then paper outfits you could fit onto the cardboard doll. The main brand of paper dolls back then was the Barbie brand with only a few other brands in existence. These paper dolls were fun but often after time the tabs would rip which made it hard to get the clothes to stay on the dolls.

The other option available for girls in our time was the real Barbie doll. Young girls and their friends played with Barbies for hours dressing them and making up stories to go along with the outfit. It was a favorite activity of young girls everywhere. Many young girls still play with their Barbie dolls but online dress up games are becoming increasingly more popular with this age groups. You can find many online dress up games including:

* Online paper dolls – There are websites that have a variety of dolls and clothes that you can print and use to create paper dolls to play with. You can find the usual Barbie paper dolls at these sites but also a variety of other options including characters from well known books like those about the Berenstein Bears. Younger children will enjoy these cutting out and dressing the characters from this famous series of books.

* Online dress up games – A lot of websites allow children to dress virtual dolls in whatever clothes they want and use a variety of accessories to make their outfits even more special. They may include hair and makeup options as well. These games may also offer games that allow children to choose furniture and accessories for several rooms in a house. They may include hair and makeup options as well. These games may also offer games that allow children to choose furniture and accessories for several rooms in a house.

* Themed dress up games – Several online dress up games let you select clothing for a special occasion like a party, a wedding, a date and even more. In some of the games you can set the scene for the occasion as well by placing food, accessories and decorations around the room.

As you can see there are many different choices when it comes to online dress up dolls and their games. These are fun but do not have the magic that we had in our childhood paper dolls and the baby dolls we used to play with. The online games do not offer the same experience as actually dressing a baby doll and playing house with your friends. It was such a great feeling to go buy a new outfit for your doll with your birthday money. Online games are fun but they can’t always replace the real thing.