EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- July 29, 2003 -- Flava, according to "Hip Hoptionary: The Dictionary of Hip Hop Terminology" by Alonzo Westbrook, means personal flavor or style. With the nationwide introduction of Flavas (pronounced FLAY-vuhz) this week, the first reality-based fashion doll brand that celebrates today's teen culture through authentic style, attitude and values, Mattel(TM) has created a hot hip-hop themed line that allows girls to express their own personal flava.

Born in the world of music and fashion, the hip-hop movement has evolved into a cultural phenomenon and celebrates fearless self-expression through freestyle dance, hip-hop music, street sport and signature fashions. Flavas, for girls ages 8-10, is the hottest doll line to embrace this latest tween trend encouraging girls to show their inner flava to the outer world. Starting this month, girls will be introduced to a crew of six friends -- four girls and two boys -- all sporting their hip-hop style.

"Flavas embraces the highly-popular hip-hop trend with breakthrough concepts never seen before in the older girl toy market," said Jerry Bossick, Senior Vice President, Mattel Brands. "Flavas also represents several other firsts in the doll aisle. Just like real teens, Flavas reflects true individuality through a variety of sizes, face sculpts and styles unique to each character within the line."

Guaranteeing the Flavas crew maintains its distinct identity, each character has an individual face sculpt, ensuring that all six Flavas crew members reflect the look of real teens while differentiating each character from the other. The members of the Flavas crew are also all different heights, ranging from 10 to 11 1/2 inches. The dolls feature more articulation than other fashion dolls: 10 points of articulation to allow for a variety of poses and a creative way for girls to reflect more "attitude" through the dolls.

Reflecting how today's teens change their looks based on their personality and mood of the moment, Flavas will also feature multiple looks of the same character in every product wave. Each Flavas crew member will have two very different-looking dolls at launch, with different fashions, hairstyles, make-up and even eye color. As an example, one Happy D doll will showcase a sporty look, while a second will feature Happy D's street style -- each with unique fashions, hair accessories, make-up and style.

Each Flavas doll features two highly detailed fashion outfits, including rub-on decals that allow girls to "DIY" (do-it yourself) their own custom Flavas looks, another form of unique self-expression.

The Flavas launch campaign includes an innovative marketing and advertising push, including a sponsorship of this summer's Christina Aguilera tour, who herself personifies the idea of fearless self-expression.

The dolls are available this week at retailers nationwide. The Flavas Tuner Car and Bike Date Motorcycle sets also will be available this summer.

About Mattel

Mattel, Inc. (www.mattel.com) is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of toys and family products, including Barbie(R), the most popular fashion doll ever created. Leading the toy and game market, the Mattel family is comprised of such best-selling brands as Hot Wheels(R), Matchbox(R), American Girl(R), Tyco(R) R/C and Scrabble(tm), as well as Fisher-Price brands (www.fisher-price.com), including Little People(R), Rescue Heroes(tm), Power Wheels(R) and a wide array of entertainment-inspired toy lines. With worldwide headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., Mattel employs more than 27,000 people in 36 countries and sells products in more than 150 nations throughout the world. The Mattel vision is to be the world's premier toy brands -- today and tomorrow.