doll: Diva Starz, Summer

According to some diva doll devotees, Mattel's Diva Starz were the to-die-for chatty fashion aficionodos when they first appeared in 2000. Trying to hold on to girls too old to play with Barbie, Mattel aimed Diva dolls at 'tweens--offering cool clothes horses with combable hair and a computer chip that allowed them to talk to each other and their owner. The "Orange County Register" described them this way: "All of them chat to you and one another, about you, about one another, on everybody's fashion expertise, your hair, their hair, their clothes and how great it is to be so smart and so cool and so with-it and so us. They have pets and electronic gizmos and phones, too, which is just so neat." The Diva Starz did not last long. Taking a run at MGA's Bratz line, Mattel replaced the Divas with its My Scene dolls in 2002.