Holiday crisis: it's Barbie shortage.

Digital Domain's software one of season's hot sellers

There are a few new ones every year - products that some combination of marketing and kiddiezeitgeist determine are the must-have holiday toys, and which parents knock themselves out to get under the tree by Christmas morning.

Joining the likes of Nintendo Gameboy and Cabbage Patch Kids in this Hall of Fame is an item this year featuring that grand old dame of toydome, Barbie.

Toy stores and computer shops across Los Angeles are struggling to keep in stock Mattel Inc.'s $39.99 Barbie Fashion Designer CD-ROM, created by Venice-based Digital Domain.

"We've been out for about a week and people keep asking for it," said a frustrated Indiana Barriga, a manager at Toys R Us on La Cienega Boulevard.

"We got 40 the day before yesterday and have four left," echoed a frazzled clerk at Fry's Electronics in Woodland Hills. "This is one of the craziest pieces of software we've ever had."

Fry's will hold a copy for 24 hours for customers who call in, but the store's $49.99 asking price is a full $10 over the manufacturer's suggested retail price, and $20 over what Egghead Software charges when they're in stock - which isn't often.

El Segundo-based Mattel won't say how many copies of the CD it is shipping, but the Toy Manufacturers of America, an industry trade group, says the product is one of the top selling gifts for girls this holiday season.

"It and Tickle Me Elmo (a Muppet doll) have been really hot," said TMA spokeswoman Marisa Gordon. Normally a new toy is considered a winner if it sells 100,000 units in its first year, Gordon said. The Barbie CD looks to surpass that benchmark several times over, she noted.

All this hullabaloo over what is essentially a digitized version of the perennial Barbie pastime of playing dress-up.

Well, it is sort of neat. Drop the disk into a properly equipped PC (the Mac version won't be out until spring) and after a few seconds of intro music and voice-over, up pops Barbie.

Using a mouse to click on different tops, bottoms and accessories drawn from themes like Career Barbie, Party Barbie and Fantasy Wedding, users can dress up the two-dimensional doll in more combinations than one's likely to ever want.

When the ensemble is finished, the program will render a 3-D version of Barbie - complete with lengthy legs and saucer-sized eyes - that strolls down a catwalk modeling the new outfit. Kids then print the clothes onto fabric-backed paper to cut out and stick together.

The product was one of several projects presented to Digital Domain in 1995 by Mattel Media president Doug Glen.

"We went through a bunch of them ... and I said 'I don't want to work on any of these,'" recalled Digital Domain President Scott Ross. Then Glen pitched Ross on the fashion designer CD, "And I went bing! This is the one we want to be involved in."

Three-year-old Digital Domain has earned a reputation for high-end digital effects seen in commercials and feature films, such as co-founder James Cameron's "Terminator II" and "True Lies." Ross said he was drawn to the Barbie project because it was not a traditional game, and would encourage girls to use computers.

"I thought it was extraordinary in that it would really be able to hook little girls," he said.

Mattel and Digital Domain split development costs on the nine-month project, guaranteeing Ross' company a half-share in any eventual profits. Though neither Mattel nor Digital Domain would say how much money the project consumed, between them, Ross said, the companies spent "far less" than the $1.5 million baseline it usually takes to develop a CD-ROM game. "That excited us too," Ross said.

Andrea Miloro, executive producer of new media at Digital Domain, oversaw development of the CD, directing a staff of 15 designers and programmers.

"When we were testing we used the most outrageous combinations of colors and patterns, to see who could come up with the most obnoxious outfit," she said.

To keep the program wholesome, she said, the team built in features that prevent, for example, Barbie wearing a blazer with nothing on beneath it. "We have to make sure she always goes out fully dressed," Miloro said.

Production finished in September, and work on follow-on products is already under way. The original CD is also being translated into a half-dozen languages for international sales.

After all the hype eventually dies down, Miloro said, the biggest thrill will remain watching the reaction of little girls to her work.

"I never played with Barbie (as a child)," she said. "But I get the biggest kick when I see little girls flip their wig when they actually see Barbie walk in clothes they made."