New Ken Dolls 2017: Everything You Need To Know About Mattel's New Diverse Kens

Toymaker Mattel announced the expansion of Barbie’s “Fashionistas” line Tuesday and released 15 new types of Ken dolls with a diverse makeover and three body types- “slim, broad and original.” They launched the new types keeping in mind the transition of the company's toys to the mordern era and to push sales.

The new Ken dolls have seven different skin tones, nine hairstyles that include man buns and cornrows and several other styles ranging from athletic-chic to business and also casual.

“By continuing to expand our product line, we are redefining what a Barbie or Ken doll looks like to this generation,” Lisa McKnight, senior vice president and general manager, Barbie, said in a press release, Tuesday.

McKnight said that the redesigned versions of the new Ken dolls, “was a natural evolution for the brand and allows girls to further personalize the role they want him to play in Barbie's world.”

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Along with the redesigned Ken dolls, the brand is also introducing 25 additional diverse Barbie dolls. These new dolls will be a part of over 100 diverse looks launched under the Barbie “Fashionistas” line since its inception.

The modified and evolving Ken dolls are designed to catch up with the Barbie dolls, as in 2016, Mattel had launched three new body types for Barbie- tall, curvy and petite, along with new hairstyles and skin tones, eye colors, and numerous trendy fashion accessories.

Mattel claimed that its “Fashionistas” line has seen a double digit growth across the globe since it was released in 2015. The brand has always followed the trends and kept up with the transition, thus modernizing the Ken dolls was the next step to keep up with the brand’s evolution in order to come up with even more diverse products.

Having the new and modified line of Ken dolls is “definitely going to help,” said Jim Silver, chief executive and editor in chief of TTPM.com, a toy-review website. “I’m not going to say it’s a game changer, but is it a piece of the puzzle? Yes. The play pattern is that for every six to eight Barbies [a child] has, they generally have one Ken. So if you have a Ken kids aren’t interested in, that could affect sales. What’s happening needed to be done. They needed to do this. It’s the next step.”

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Barbie has remained popular and a regular in children’s toy boxes, however it has been criticized in few circles that thought it to be having unrealistic proportions and over-sexualized appearance. Barbie was first launched in 1959 and after almost six decades she has still remained a major profit-earning toy for the brand.

However, with the launch Mattel has been looking for options to revive the declining Barbie sales in the first quarter of this year. The sales went down by 13 percent, $123 million in this year’s first quarter as compared to $141 million in 2016, according to figures released by the toymaker.

However, some Wall Street analysts argued that the new remodeled Ken dolls might not have any major effect on the doll’s popularity.

Linda Bolton Weiser, an analyst with the investment firm DA Davidson, also said the change mostly was “a regular marketing progression to modify your line,” according to Los Angeles Times.