Mattel, Inc.

Mattel, Inc. is an American toy and game creator and manufacturer known for such iconic toy brands as Barbie dolls, American Girl dolls, and Hot Wheels and Matchbox die-cast toy cars, as well as board and card games including UNO and Skip-Bo.

The largest toy manufacturer in the world, Mattel has manufacturing facilities in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and Thailand, and licensing agreements with major entertainment corporations such as Disney (DIS), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), World Wrestling Entertainment (TKO), and Sesame Street. The company is headquartered in El Segundo, California.

1945–1958: Origin, growing pains, and the first success

Mattel Creations was founded in 1945 by Elliot Handler, Ruth Handler, and Harold “Matt” Matson. The company’s initial focus was on picture frames and dollhouse furniture, which were designed by Elliot Handler. Matson soon sold his share in the company to the Handlers because of ill health.

Mattel dropped its dollhouse furniture line due to competition from a better-positioned manufacturer and put its emphasis on toys. The company’s first major success, in 1947, was the Uke-A-Doodle plastic ukulele, designed to make music fun for young children. A plastic piano followed, although manufacturing issues made it a money loser. However, during this period the Handlers learned much about sales and manufacturing that would contribute to the company’s future success.

A music box with a patented play mechanism was Mattel’s next big win; it taught the Handlers the value of creating toys that engaged users and made them want to play for long periods. In 1955, Mattel took a huge risk by sponsoring a 15-minute segment of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club, which aired on ABC, paying $500,000 for a 52-week commitment. The campaign was a hit and paid huge dividends in terms of national exposure.

1959–1974: Barbie, IPO, rapid growth, and an accounting scandal

Although Walt Disney and Mickey helped make Mattel a household name, it was another soon-to-be icon that would, in 1959, solidify the company’s status as a premier toymaker: the Barbie doll.

Designed by Ruth Handler, the doll saw little traction at the 1959 New York Toy Fair, but ultimately took the country by storm and achieved historic sales. Named after the Handlers’ daughter, Barbara, the incredible sales of Barbie dolls quickly made Mattel one of the best-recognized toy manufacturers in the world. Various types of Barbie dolls followed, in addition to companion dolls such as Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, and related merchandise.

Mattel went public the following year (1960), and by 1963, its shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The success of its Barbie line, combined with the capital raised through its initial public offering (IPO), gave Mattel the resources for what would be a decade of spectacular child-centered innovation outside the world of Barbie.

• Chatty Cathy (1960): The first doll with the ability to speak.
• Baby First Step (1964): Two “D” batteries powered this doll as she took her first steps. Later versions would also talk, move their eyes, and roller skate.
• Thingmaker toys (1964): Creepy Crawlers, Dollymaker, and Fun Flowers allowed kids to create rubber die-cast molds with the use of a hot plate. (These would eventually be deemed unsafe and pulled from the shelves.)
• See ’n Say (1964): Using the talking tech from Chatty Cathy, preschoolers could call up barnyard animal sounds, letters of the alphabet, or practice telling time via a pull string and an adjustable pointer.
• Hot Wheels (1968): These die-cast cars could be raced on interlocking orange plastic tracks. Hot Wheels proved extremely popular with the young male demographic, and sales skyrocketed.

Throughout the 1960s, Mattel acquired numerous other toy brands and manufacturers across the world. By the end of the decade, Mattel was considered the world’s most successful toymaker.

1974–1986: Accounting scandal, the founders depart, and the company flounders

Mattel’s meteoric rise slowed as it faced the early 1970s headwinds of product maturity, economic shock, the loss of a manufacturing plant in Mexico to a fire, and a shipyard strike in Asia that adversely affected supplies. For two years in the early 1970s, executive vice president and CFO Seymour Rosenberg created false financial statements to mask poor sales, and the Securities and Exchange Commission eventually stepped in to investigate.

Rosenberg and Ruth Handler eventually pleaded no contest to the charges. They were fined and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service annually for five years in lieu of prison. Rosenberg was terminated, and the Handlers were forced to step down from the company they had formed. By 1980, the Handlers would cash out the remainder of their shares, thus ending their relationship with the company.

New leadership righted the foundering company, and by 1977 it had once again become profitable. New acquisitions around that time include Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, as well as Western Publishing, one of the largest publishers of books for young people. The 1980s and 1990s saw the company’s earnings fluctuate greatly. An overall decline in video game sales resulted in a $394 million loss in 1983, which nearly drove the company into bankruptcy. In 1984, three venture capital firms stepped in to save Mattel from insolvency.

1987–1999: Resurgence through innovation and acquisition

John W. Amerman, head of Mattel’s international division, was named chair in 1987. Amerman quickly cut the company’s overhead by closing 40% of its manufacturing capacity, eliminating 150 corporate positions, placing the spotlight once again on its most popular and best-selling brands, and cautiously investing in new toy development. A 1988 licensing agreement with Disney—specific to plush toys for young children—also helped boost profits. The relationship between the two corporations, which dates back to the original Mickey Mouse Club sponsorship in 1955, flourished to the benefit of both.

Mattel saw tremendous growth and profitability in the 1990s, thanks in part to a few strategic acquisitions:

• Fisher-Price (1993): Founded in 1930, Fisher-Price was a respected leader in the preschool educational toy market. Mattel would eventually shift all of its preschool-age product lines to the Fisher-Price brand.
• J.W. Spear & Sons (1994): This brought board game giant Scrabble into Mattel.
• Kransco (1994): With this acquisition, Mattel added Wham-O, producer of the eternally popular Frisbee and Hula Hoop, as well as Power Wheels ride-on vehicles.
• Tyco Toys (1997): Tyco, maker of slot cars, toy trains, and the iconic ViewMaster, joined the Mattel universe. The acquisition also combined Tyco’s Matchbox cars with Mattel’s Hot Wheels to virtually own the die-cast toy car market.
• Pleasant Company (1998): This purchase ended the competition between Barbie and Pleasant’s American Girl brand as they were brought under the same roof.
• The Learning Company (1999): The $3.5 billion acquisition of this manufacturer of educational computer games turned sour when The Learning Company experienced significant losses.

2000s: New initiatives, new controversies

In the wake of The Learning Company debacle, Robert Eckert took over as chair and CEO in 2000. One of his first acts was to sell The Learning Company to Gores Technology Group. As part of the deal, Mattel agreed to pay off The Learning Company’s debt of $500 million, a significant financial blow made worse by lawsuits from stockholders alleging mismanagement, which cost Mattel $122 million to resolve.

Eckert worked diligently to return Mattel to profitability. Toys and other products based on the Harry Potter film franchise and the SpongeBob SquarePants animated series, in addition to a new line of dolls called Diva Starz, helped boost the company’s net income.

But in August 2007, Mattel recalled more than 18 million toys due to exposed magnets that could pose a choking hazard, as well as products that exceeded the approved levels of lead. The recall included 7.1 million Polly Pocket toys, 600,000 Barbie and Tanner Playsets, and 1 million Doggie Daycare toys. Two years later, Mattel agreed to pay a $2.9 million fine to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for importing and selling the recalled products, which had been manufactured overseas.

The growth-through-acquisition model would make a comeback in 2011, when Mattel paid $680 million for HIT Entertainment, owner of Barney the dinosaur, Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, and other preschool-centric brands.

Mattel, pop culture, and the challenge of running a toy empire

Throughout its history, Mattel has strived to keep up with—and at times lead—the youth zeitgeist. For example, Barbie’s fashion accessories, friends (which slowly expanded to become more diverse), automobiles, and dollhouse decor have consistently changed with the times.

The same can be said for American Girl dolls, which tend to blend historical and modern cultures. In addition to its doll lines, Mattel produced 14 American Girl movies between 2004 and 2017.

Barbie was a character in the Toy Story film franchise, but rose to superstardom with the astonishing success of the 2023 film Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken. At $1.38 billion in worldwide box office receipts, the film was the highest-grossing film of 2023.

But Mattel doesn’t limit its pop culture focus to its Barbie and American Girl lines. DC Comics published six issues of a Hot Wheels comic book in 1970, and in 2023, NBC premiered Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge, a game show in which competitors are tasked with building a unique vehicle. (The winning entry is turned into an actual Hot Wheels miniature car.) A Hot Wheels movie—to be produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot—is in the works for 2025.

As Mattel’s history has shown, running a toy company—even the world’s largest—is at times highly lucrative and at other times quite challenging. For Mattel, the keys have been (and will likely remain) staying ahead of the changing tastes and preferences of young folks (and their parents), planning for changes to safety standards, and being opportunistic in its acquisition strategy.