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Think you can create the perfect Barbie? Mattel is now taking ideas

Mattel is now teaming up with a company called Quirky to crowdsource ideas for real products.
/ Source: TODAY

Perhaps you always wanted a Barbie doll with a jetpack or a Hot Wheels car shaped like a doughnut. Good news, amateur toy makers, Mattel is now teaming up with a company called Quirky to crowdsource ideas for real products.

Quirky takes idea for products from users, lets people vote on them and then creates the product in real life — sharing some of the profits with the inventor. On Quirky's website, you can buy anything from an egg separator to a smart piggy bank.

Now Mattel is getting in on the action. It's hoping that among the 15,00 toy ideas that have already been submitted to Quirky (and the yet-to-be invented ones that are being scribbled on napkins right now) are some hot sellers for the 2015 holiday season.

The crowdsource partnership, announced on Thursday, means you could create something today that eventually becomes a toy for one of Mattel's brands, which include Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, American Girl and more.

Mattel isn't the only toy giant to give fans a chance to create products. Last year, Hasbro teamed up with Shapeways — a 3-D printing company — to let people design their own "My Little Pony" toys, a major victory for "bronies" everywhere.