"What Bratz did was reach older girls who had left the market, " says Kilpin.

FORBES: The Barbie Bust

Her friend Brianna was allowed to sleep over, and they used their Bratz dolls to stage fashion shows.

FORBES: Two Girls Two Countries One Cancer

You can barely talk to a lawyer in any prominent Los Angeles law firm without the conversation looping around to Bratz and Barbie.

FORBES: Beleaguered Barbie's Girl Fight Busts Mattel Profits

And she has just seen off her hipper rivals, the Bratz.

ECONOMIST: The versatile pink princess has moved with the times

Barbie and Bratz are just kids, however, compared to the case my husband and I, and half our partners and associates worked on for close to two decades.

FORBES: Beleaguered Barbie's Girl Fight Busts Mattel Profits

Mattel claimed that Bryant, who freelanced for MGA, violated an employment agreement by helping the rival toy company develop its line of Bratz dolls while still employed by Mattel.

FORBES: O'Melveny Says MGA Owes $10M In Bratz Legal Fees

She has a kind of glowing-pebble night-light that changes colors very slowly, and she is lying in this sea of stuff: books and broken Nintendos and inflatable Bratz cushions and God knows what else except, from somewhere deep inside the heap, her breathing.

NEWYORKER: Natalie

According to former Mattel designer Carter Bryant, messing with Barbie had become so taboo at the company that he took his idea for dolls with big heads and dressed in hip-hop clothes to competitor MGA in 2000--where they became Barbie's first true rival, Bratz.

FORBES: The Barbie Bust