The mother of Bratz designer Carter Bryant said her son showed her the original sketches for MGA Entertainment Inc.’s pouty, multiethnic fashion dolls in 1998, when he was living in Missouri and not working for Mattel Inc.

Carter Bryant and closely held MGA have said he came up with the idea and made the original drawings in 1998, during a hiatus when he wasn’t working for El Segundo-based Mattel and living with his parents in Missouri. Mattel claims Bryant made the sketches after he had returned to work there and secretly took the idea to MGA in 2000.

Since the Bratz dolls were first introduced in 2001, they have contributed to a slide of Mattel’s Barbie sales, becoming the best-selling fashion doll in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2006. Barbie recovered the top spot in the U.S. the following quarter and was the top-selling doll for the full year 2006 and 2007, according to Mattel.

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