But she won't cure Barbie's blues: All Barbie sales are expected to creep up only 3% in 1998, way below the 18% annual increases in the mid-1990s.

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But classic values aren't dead: Barbie's search ranking soared far above Hannah Montana's.

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She wouldn't let her daughters play with Barbie dolls, which may explain why Nina bought Barbies for her own sons, who weren't actually all that interested.

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Toys "R" Us, Mattel's largest customer and the biggest Barbie retailer, slashed inventory, but that wasn't the whole story.

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"The Barbie Dreamhouse is the expression of a conventional role model that isn't OK, " he said.

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He contends that stagnant sales of Barbie U.S. and American Girl and the difficulty replicating the Cars- and T.

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