Dora to Grow Up, Get a Makeover

Thursday, February 19, 2009
By: Thomas J. McLean

Mattel and Nick announced a new brand called Dora’s Explorer Girls that mixes Dora the Explorer’s nose for adventure with the fashion doll play and online interaction.

The premise has Dora living in the big city, attending middle school and getting into fashion while solving mysteries with her friends.

The line will be introduced with a line of fashion dolls that connect with the child’s computer and enable interactive play in an online world. The new look for Dora is being kept under wraps until the fall season, when the look of the doll will be unveiled.

Dora the Explorer was created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh and Eric Weiner and has been a huge ratings winner for Nickelodeon and Noggin since it debuted in August of 2000. The series' spin-off Go, Diego Go! has also developed a huge following since it was introduced in 2005. Both Dora and Diego also perform extremely well in the toys and licensing arena.

February has been a big month for the popular animated character as Dora won the Most Popular Property of the Year Award at the International Toy Fair and took home a prestigious NAACP Image award last week.

Reader Comments

• Lazaro Fuentes : CEO : www.hipchicas.com

  Wednesday, February 25, 2009

  The reality is that little girls are not going to want play with Dora in their Tween Years, because Dora for nine years has been a Preschool property. Think about it… what tween-aged girl wants to be the one to hear from her friends the question “you play with Dora?” When Nickelodeon realized they had a hit with Dora they wisely decided to develop a boy brand and cartoon, “Diego”. They should have developed a new Tween cartoon, a sister, a cousin, something like our Cecilia {Ceci}; a Hip Chica on our virtual world www.hipchicas.com that is a true Tween property with a green mission to Help Improve the Planet [HIP] and has a Tween Latina-theme and characters girls can embrace as their own. Yes I am the CEO and creator of the Hip Chicas, but I am also the father of three Tween daughters and this attempt not only will not work, but as a Toy Company CEO recently told me, “it could do damage to the preschool Dora as well.” I wish them the best, but i have no doubt that this ill conceived idea may be destined to fail.

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  Friday, March 20, 2009

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