Robert Eckert Quotations

Led by growth in our core brands including Barbie, Fisher-Price and Hot Wheels, Mattel has experienced increased sales domestically for the third quarter in a row,

One quarter of a little domestic growth is not all we need, but it's clearly better than another quarter of decline.

Based on retail sell-through, we expect to see an improvement in international sales during the second half of the year,

Today is a major step in cleaning up the past. This is a plan that will enable us to leverage our core brands and increase cash flow. I still believe the basic foundation of this enterprise -- our core brands -- is sound and has the opportunity to be as successful as ever.

Our prices have not kept pace with our cost increases, so we will certainly be working with customers in the months ahead, ... We are planning on taking price increases in 2006 to recover some of the costs we've experienced.

My principal objective right now is to learn as much as I can. This is their day to ask me questions,

We've been working hard on Barbie, and we do feel better about Barbie, but we're not out of the woods yet. It's clearly better than another quarter of decline.

We expect the year to continue to be challenging and have implemented price increases effective in the second quarter for the U.S..

Third quarter results are disappointing as sales increases in much of our portfolio were offset by declines in the Barbie brand,

On Barbie, we're not out of the woods yet, but I do feel better about where we are than I have for the past nine months.

The key from our standpoint is to stop the cash drain. We are investing between a half-million and a million dollars every day in the Learning Co. We also wanted to participate in future value.