Looks like Barbie has bitch-slapped the Bratz dolls into oblivion: a federal judge banned toymaker MGA from making any more of the pouty-lipped, provocatively dressed dolls:

U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson rocked the toy industry with his order that MGA must immediately stop manufacturing Bratz. He allowed MGA to wait until the holiday season ends to remove the toys from store shelves.

The ruling, issued in federal court in Riverside, followed a jury's finding that Bratz designer Carter Bryant developed the concept for the dolls while working for Mattel.

Mattel had it in for the Bratz, and for good reason:

El Segundo-based Mattel has seen sales of Barbie -- once a rite of passage for American girls -- slide since the doe-eyed Bratz dolls first came on the scene. Domestic sales of Barbie were down 15 percent in 2007.

I'm not a big fan of Barbies-- dolls never did strike my fancy, and I firmly believe the wasp-waisted blonde icon is partially responsible for our society's twisted view of what an "ideal" woman's body should look like.

People often joked that Barbie's measurements were not humanly possible. But in fact it was determined that if the 11 1/2-inch doll were 5-foot-6, her measurements would be 39-21-33. One academic expert calculated that a woman's chances of having Barbie's figure were less than 1 in 100,000.

So yeah, not crazy about the Barbies. But I much prefer them to the hypersexualized Bratz, which basically created a template for Paris Hilton and the Pussycat Dolls. So I won't be sorry to see them go.

But if you happen to have any Bratz dolls hanging around, a commenter at WalletPop makes a great point:

All that judge did is make a collectors market heaven. Just watch how much those stupid things sell for on ebay now and in the future.