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Mattel to crowdsource future children's toys

Barbie Digital Dress Doll

As sales of its Barbie brand continue to decline, Mattel is looking to the web and is partnering with Quirky to help invent the toys of tomorrow.

Quirky is one part crack team of in-house designers, marketers and engineers and one part burgeoning online community of people with ideas and inventions, that come together to turn ideas into real products.

The idea behind the partnership is that now individuals will also have access to Mattel's existing brands, scale and expertise to take their idea even further.

"Partnering with Mattel gives our community the opportunity to tap into their own childhood memories to dream up entirely new ways to play," said Quirky's founder and CEO Ben Kaufman.

Since Quirky launched in 2009 it has received almost 15,000 toy-related ideas submissions and following the partnership each new toy idea could one day be a Mattel product.

Richard Dickson, President and Chief Operating Officer, Mattel. "Leveraging Quirky's platform allows us to discover new ideas for our toys and unique solutions for our baby products. Just as importantly, this new partnership will enable us to accelerate the speed and scope of invention by tapping into Quirky's dynamic community."