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Cyberplay: Barbie approaches 40; finally learns to talk
August 28, 1997
Web posted at: 6:46 p.m. EDT (2246 GMT)By Reviewer Steven L. Kent
The statistics regarding Barbie, Mattel's enduring super doll, are staggering. According to Mattel vice president of worldwide media marketing for Barbie media, Pamela Kelly, an American girl on average owns 10 Barbie dolls, French girls own five, Italian girls, seven, and German, five.
Other statistics get even more astronomical. If you made a string of all the hairs sewn into Barbie heads over the doll's nearly 40-year life, the string would stretch from the Earth to the Moon twice. If you lined up all the Barbie dolls that ever existed head to toe, that line of dolls would circle the Earth 7.5 times.
And now Mattel is breathing more realistic life into its doll with the new Talk With Me Barbie. OK, maybe Talk With Me isn't as animated as Pinocchio, but she's pretty good.
Here's the deal. Mattel has stuck a metal skull with a moving jaw inside Barbie's head, and inserted batteries into her thighs and computer chips inside her body. This may not transform her into "Star Trek's" Data, but it does give her the ability to remember 16 phrases and two names, and to enunciate them clearly.
This new talking Barbie is a child of the computer age, there are no pull strings extending from her back. Thanks to digitized sound chips, Barbie speaks as clearly as a real person.
Talk With Me Barbie's infrared scanning device looks like a necklace. You sit her in her office, a small desk and computer station, which you connect to a personal computer. Using special software, you select names and phrases from a large database, she loads them into her memory through that infrared necklace, then you play with her like any other doll. (The workstation, software and cables needed to bring Barbie online are included in the package.)
Just the same, there are a few differences between Talk With Me Barbie and your run-of-the-mill Barbie. First, you don't want to give this Barbie a bath. Computer chips and water simply do not mix.
Also, this Barbie-of-the-'90s incarnation takes two kinds of batteries. The doll, which sells for $89.99, requires an AAA battery in her thigh to make her mouth work, plus a special battery in her body to keep her electronic brain alive.
Next, while Talk With Me Barbie is still anatomically flawless, her face is a bit pudgy. You can't blame her for that, having a metal skull is bound to have some side effects.
Finally, there are limits to what Barbie will say. Mattel wanted to protect its star from big brothers who might program her to talk like a Marine, so she is programmed to say only phrases that Mattel writes; you cannot add your own sentences to the list.
Frankly, as toys go, Talk With Me Barbie would be simply a small improvement over the old pull-string talking Barbies if it weren't for the CD that stores its programming. The people behind Talk With Me Barbie have put some deep thought behind its software and found ways to add some real value to their product.
First of all, they have personalized their doll. The Talk With Me Barbie CD contains 15,000 names that Barbie can pronounce accurately. Barbie says standard names such as Betty and Nancy (she recognizes eight spellings of Nancy); she also knows how to pronounce Indian names such as Ajay, Hawaiian names such as Leilani, and more.
Adults may find it a bit eerie to hear an 8-inch doll address them by name, but little girls will get a charge out of having Barbie talk to their friends. Talk With Me Barbie can store two names at once, so she can speak with your daughter and her friend.
Not only does Talk With Me remember names, but like a Berlitz travel dictionary, she has a phrase for every occasion. If your daughter is going to a birthday party, Barbie can say, "Happy birthday, Sarah" and "Make a wish."
As it turns out, Barbie is also a decent conversationalist; you can program her to talk about holidays, careers and more.
Mattel has managed to produce a couple of big hits since jumping into the computer market last year. The toy company surprised the high-tech industry with the successful Barbie Fashion Designer, the best-selling children's title last Christmas. This Christmas, with Talk With Me Barbie, Mattel will see the same success.
Copyright 1997 Steven L. Kent. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate
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