WITH her pneumatic curves and sparkling tiaras, she once reigned supreme as the queen of the toy stores. Now Barbie has declared handbags at dawn against a posse of pouting interlopers threatening her position as the world's favourite doll.

Barbie has called in lawyers for a legal catfight with her arch-rivals, Bratz, the hip-hop-loving dolls with a racy fashion sense who appear to have sent Barbie's popularity crashing.

In a 58-page lawsuit, Mattel, the company that makes Barbie, accuses MGA Entertainment of stealing its "intellectual infrastructure", including company secrets, business plans and 25 members of staff, and using it to build the Bratz empire.