Mattel tickled as Elmo wins Toy of the Year

Thanks to our sister blog BloggingBaby for the heads-up on this year's Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards. Mattel, Inc. (NYSE:MAT), through its subsidiary Fisher-Price, once again showed the value of its toy lineup by gathering several key awards.

Top winner of the Toy Industry Association awards was, as you might guess, T.M.X. Elmo, the gotta-have-it can't-find-it hit of the past Christmas season. Elmo won the top prize as Overall Toy of the Year as well as Infant/Preschool Toy of the Year. When asked for comment, Elmo was not able to stop giggling long enough to express his delight.

The company also won the Electronic Entertainment Toy of the Year for its Kid-Tough Digital Camera.

As Beth Moon Gaston told us in an earlier blog, the continued popularity of Barbie has also contributed to an upgrade of Mattel by Lehman Brothers Holdings. Mattel hit a 52-week high today at $27.47 before closing at $26.90.

In researching this story, I ran across some interesting tidbits about Barbie you may not know. According to the official Mattel backstory, her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, daughter of George and Margaret Roberts of Willows, WI. She attended Manhattan International High School. Her long-time arm candy's full name is Ken Carson. She has had 38 pets, including a panda, lion cub and zebra. In addition to her profession of flight attendant, Barbie also holds a pilot's license and flies commercial airliners.

Perhaps we'll see her in the cockpit at JetBlue. They could use her charm.