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Elsa from Frozen has left Barbie out in the cold as more girls choose Disney’s spin-off doll over her.

Global sales of the Mattel toy have slumped 14%, while her snow queen rival has been a sell-out.

Barbie accounts for a quarter of all sales for US toymaker Mattel, which has seen its sixth successive drop in quarterly sales.

And it has posted a year-on-year loss of £39 million.

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Barbie is facing stiff competition from electronic toys, tablets for a slice of the £3 billion UK toy market.

Singing Snow Glow Elsa was top toy here in 2014.

Mattel boss Christopher Sinclair said Barbie, 56 last month, will stage a massive fight back with a makeover.

He said: “We are making the changes necessary to perform better in future.”

The first wave of innovative new toys including a talking Barbie are expected to shake up the Christmas market.

(Image: Toy Retailers Association)

Mattel’s chief operating officer Richard Dickson said: “This marks a new era for Mattel.

“This is an industry about creating and inventing, whether based on a consumer insight or a really fun idea, with the power of our own talented inventors and now Quirky, we are realising our vision to re-imagine Mattel’s core brands and bring truly great unexpected play to families.”

Barbie accounts for a quarter of the toy giant’s sales but global sales are reported to have plunged from three dolls sold every second in 2008 to one sold every three seconds.

But analysts said it was too early to write off the world’s best known doll.

A spokesperson for the NPD group, a global toy industry analyst said girls had not fallen out of love with Barbie but were being wooed by a raft of eye catching new toys and film spin-offs.