X-Nico

28 unusual facts about Mattel


Ashley Taws

Both prior to her accident, and after her return, Taws was sponsored by Mattel with her driving a pink "Barbie" car.

Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse

Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse is an online computer-animated web series produced by Arc Productions and distributed by Mattel.

Black Vulcan

A 6" Black Vulcan action figure was released in Mattel's DC Universe Classics Wave 18, which was primarily dedicated to Super Friends characters.

Charmin' Chatty

Charmin' Chatty was a doll produced by the toy company Mattel in 1963 and 1964.

Ciara Hanna

At 10, she started acting and modeling, producing commercials for Orange and modeling for companies such as Mattel, Robinsons May, and Macy's.

Crisis management

Mattel Inc., the toy maker, has been plagued with more than 28 product recalls and in Summer of 2007, amongst problems with exports from China, faced two product recalls in two weeks.

Eternia Playset

The Eternia Playset (1986–1987) was the largest playset to be produced by Mattel for the Masters of the Universe line of toys.

Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee

Its special focus in 2001 was on the working conditions of toy workers for Hasbro, Mattel, McDonald's and Disney in Southern China.

HorrorPops

In her lawsuit, the HorrorPops singer claims Hard Rock and Mattel have been selling a Barbie doll in her image without her authorization.

Intellivoice

The Intellivoice Voice Synthesis Module was an adapter for the Intellivision, Mattel's home gaming console, that utilized a voice synthesizer to generate audible speech.

James F. Carberry

Among them was a story of how executives of Mattel Co., the world's biggest toy maker, were so taken with the company’s success that they overlooked mounting internal problems that eventually resulted in millions of dollars in losses—and a loss of credibility with investors.

Martoys

Martoys was founded by the Besana brothers, Ugo, Martino, and Mario, who sold their first well-known brand Mebetoys to Mattel (Gran Toros website).

Mattel

In December 2000, Mattel sued the band Aqua, saying their song "Barbie Girl" violated the Barbie trademark and turned Barbie into a sex object, referring to her as a "blonde bimbo."

Mercury Eight

In 1990, Mattel Hot Wheels created a model of 1949 Mercury with a chopped top.

Mindflex

Mindflex was a toy by Mattel which apparently used brain waves to steer a ball through an obstacle course.

Monster Jam

Mattel's Hot Wheels brand produces officially licensed toy versions of monster trucks under the Monster Jam name.

Optiganally Yours

Optiganally Yours is a band formed around the Optigan, a toy organ produced by Mattel in the 1970s that plays the sounds of instruments that have been recorded onto celluloid disks.

P. J. Sparkles

The special was more-or-less an advertising vehicle for a Mattel doll.

Purple Moon

The company folded in 1999 and merged with Mattel, creators of Barbie, one of the most famous and well-known franchises aimed at young girls.

R. Kenton Musgrave

He served as Vice President and general counsel of Mattel Inc. from 1963 to 1971.

Racing Destruction Set

Koenig, Goldman and Warhol had all worked for the Intellivision game design team at Mattel during the early 1980s, where Koenig had programmed the Intellivision Motocross game.

Strange Change Machine

The Strange Change Machine was a Mattel toy from the late 1960s, in which "shape memory" plastic figures of prehistoric animals & science fiction-like creatures could be reconstituted from compressed "time capsule" form, and re-compressed back into that form.

Tron: Solar Sailer

Tron: Solar Sailer is a game that was released by Mattel for the Intellivision in 1982.

Uno Attack

Uno Attack (called Uno Extreme in the United Kingdom and Canada) is one of many variations on the popular Mattel card game Uno.

Vac-u-form

The Vac-u-form, also called Vac-u-former, was a toy made by Mattel in the 1960s.

Wizzzer

The Wizzzer first appeared in the Mattel Catalog in 1969, with various iterations offered through the early 70's.

X-COM: Genesis

Dave Ellis, leveraging contacts at Mattel, arranged for a demonstration of the demo to Mattel's management.

ΜClinux

For example, the iPodLinux project uses μClinux for its kernel, and so does Mattel's Juice Box, as well as the well-known Nintendo DS Linux port, DSLinux, the lesser-known PlayStation port Runix, and the PlayStation Portable port.


Anita Borg

In 1992, when Mattel Inc. began selling a Barbie doll that said math class is tough, the voices of protest that started with the Systers list played a role in getting Mattel to remove that phrase from Barbie's microchip.

Barbie Horse Adventures: Mystery Ride

Barbie Horse Adventures: Mystery Ride is the second game of the Barbie Horse Adventures video game series based on the Barbie line of dolls by Mattel.

Bluebird Toys

Financier Sir Ron Brierley's Guinness Peat Group made an unsolicited bid for the company in January 1998, but was outbid by Mattel acting as a white knight.

Bratz

On December 3, 2008, U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson granted a permanent injunction requested by Mattel against MGA.

Bryan Brandenburg

In 1994, Brandenburg started another game company, Software Arts International that was acquired in 1996 by Engineering Animation, Inc., where he was the Executive Producer for the public company's Interactive Division, producing titles for Disney, Mattel, Hasbro Interactive and Sierra On-Line.

Buzz Bombers

Buzz Bombers is a single-player video game developed by Mattel Electronics for its Intellivision video game system and released in 1983.

Chambers Dictionary

In an agreement with Mattel the Chambers dictionary was also the official source of words for the book "Official Scrabble Words" (OSW), a lexicon of all words and inflections playable in tournament Scrabble within the UK and other countries like New Zealand and Australia.

Coline Mattel

In the Junior World Championships 2009 in Strbske Pleso Mattel won the bronze medal in the individual competition.

Crossroads of the World

It has been used for location shooting in many films, including L.A. Confidential and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, in TV shows, including Dragnet and Remington Steele, and in commercials by McDonald's, Ford, and Mattel.

David Wecker

In 2005, he co-authored Mastering the Universe: He-Man and the Rise & Fall of a Billion Dollar Idea (Emmis Books), with his uncle, Roger Sweet, who created the concept for the 1980s action figure, He-Man, for Mattel.

DC Universe All-Stars

It is the followup to Mattel's previous 6-inch toyline DC Universe Classics, and focuses on characters owned by DC Comics.

E'Shun Melvin

He has appeared in numerous television commercials, including ads for Monopoly, Verizon FiOS, Bank of America, and Mattel.

Edward N. Ney

Ney sat on the Boards of Directors of several corporations, including Barrick Gold, Power Corporation of Canada and Mattel.

Futera

Futera was the official licencee for non-sport titles including Mattel's "Barbie", BBC Television Sci-fi Series "Red Dwarf" in association with Grant Naylor Film Productions, and the feature film "Chicken Run" with Universal Studios, Aardman Animations & Pathé.

Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc.

Toy manufacturer Mattel was sued by its landlord Hall Street Associates in a dispute over a property lease, the property being a former View-Master factory in Beaverton, Oregon.

Harry Potter action figures

This is a list of action figures produced by Mattel for the Harry Potter film series for films 1 through 4 and produced by NECA for films 5 through 8.

Heman

The New Adventures of He-Man, an early-1990s animation based on Mattel's original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe characters.

Honey Island Swamp monster

On July 20, 2013, Mattel introduced the Monster High character Honey Swamp as daughter of Honey Island Swamp monster at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International.

Ivan Moscovich

Alongside his work as an artist, Ivan has been active as an inventor of games, puzzles, toys, educational aids and programmes which have been commercial successes under major manufacturers such as Hasbro, Pressman, Mattel, Peter Pan, Spears, Ravensburger, Childcraft, Invicta and many others.

Lifestyle Stores

Lifestyle Stores products of domestic and international brands such as Louis Philippe, Pepe, Arrow, BIBA, Gini & Jony, Carbon, Corelle, Magppie Nike, Reebok, LEGO, and Mattel.

Miles Millar

Millar and Gough are currently writing and executive producing Existence 2.0 for Paramount, as well the screenplay for Monster High, based on Mattel's line of books, webisodes, animation, and toys which is being produced by Hairspray team Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

In 2009 and 2010, Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble purchased some Friday and Saturday night time on NBC and Fox to broadcast television films they produced such as The Jensen Project, though the ratings for these films were well below regular programming and like strategies pursued by Mattel with Nickelodeon with the Barbie series of films, mainly aired to sell those films on DVD in-store.

Shera

She-Ra a fictional character and the heroine in the Filmation cartoon and series of toys produced by Mattel called She-Ra: Princess of Power

Steve Siegel

He successfully negotiated, secured and managed licensing for brands such as Nickelodeon’s Blues Clues, Mattel’s Barbie, Pokémon and Betty Boop and expanded the company’s product line into national retailers including Sears, Target, JCPenney and Toys "R" Us.

Teen Trends

When the Bratz Wild Wild West line was created MGA Entertainment released a doll named Kiana, Mattel's doll, Kianna, had a totally different personality.

The Century Towers

Those include Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Burt Lancaster, David Janssen, Jack Benny, Sebastian Siegel, Diana Ross, Karen Carpenter who purchased two condos & converted them into her own duplex in 1976, Josh Flagg, Ruth Handler (founder of Mattel), Edith Flagg and Berry Gordy.

Wizzzer

Wizzzers were unavailable for many years then revived first by Mattel then later by Matchbox and Duncan (the Yo-yo company).