I’ve long held that girls and racing are two things that are underserved when it comes to toys and playthings. With few exceptions, there haven’t been a ton of racing products aimed firmly at young girls – surprising since there’s profile drivers out there such as Leilani Münter and Milka Duno, youngsters like Johanna Long, and then the thousands of girls honing their skills in various youth programs and small track circuits around the globe. No doubt the most well-known right now is Danica Patrick, and she’s been involved with most of the few merchandising exceptions, having made an appearance in a recent SONIC THE HEDGEHOG video game, for which Mattel produced a limited-edition Hot Wheels “Danicar” that was offered as a Gamestop Exclusive (one that my oldest daughter Addie proudly owns), and even getting her own halloween/role-play costume. Now, the folks at Madame Alexander are stepping-up to go a little bit bigger, teaming with NASCAR and driver Patrick for some new collections of play dolls featuring the driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. While my experience as a parent and observer has shown that girls love racing, Madame Alexander has some solid numbers to back it up…
Pictured Left: Addie with her Hot Wheels “Danicar” back in 2012
Research from Experian Marketing Services (Simmons National Consumer Kids Survey, Fall Full Year 2013) shows that one out of three girls ages 6-11 are already NASCAR fans. Four out of five of these girls own dolls, and among them, two-thirds own clothes for their dolls and two-thirds own other doll accessories.
While I’ll unfortunately not be attending New York Toy Fair this year, the entire Madame Alexander Doll Company 2015 collection can be seen February 14-17, 2015 at the Javits Center in NYC, Booth 2451.
With two very doll-obsessed and car-obsessed little girls in this house, you can bet I’ll be following this new line closely. Stay tuned…
Bonus: Back in 2012 I wrote a guest post for TTPM (TimeToPlayMag) about Addie’s love of toy cars. Read that one here.
