Mattel

History

Origins and early years

Businessman Harold "Matt" Matson, together with the married couple Ruth Handler and Elliot Handler, founded Mattel as Mattel Creations on January 20, 1945, in a garage in Los Angeles. The name "Mattel" is a portmanteau of "Matson" and "Elliot". The company began selling picture frames and later dollhouse furniture made from frame pieces. Suffering from poor health, Matson sold his share of the company to the Handlers in 1946, with Ruth taking over his stake. In 1947, Mattel had its first successful toy, a ukulele called "Uke-A-Doodle".

Mattel was incorporated in Hawthorne, California, in 1948. The company started advertising on television when it became the first sponsor of the Mickey Mouse Club series. The Barbie doll debuted in 1959, and it became Mattel's all-time best-selling toy. In 1960, the company introduced Chatty Cathy, a talking doll voiced by June Foray. The doll strongly influenced the toy industry, leading to pull-string talking dolls and similar toys flooding the market throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1961, Mattel introduced the Ken doll. The company went public in 1960 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange three years later.

The Barbie Dreamhouse, made from cardboard and paper, was released in 1962. That same year, the company introduced Astronaut Barbie, the first of many space-themed versions of the doll. In 1965, Mattel built on the success of the Chatty Cathy doll when it introduced the See 'n Say talking toy, which spawned an additional line of products. In 1967, Mattel released a set of space-themed toys that included a character named Major Matt Mason.

On May 18, 1968, Mattel introduced the Hot Wheels brand (of scale model cars), which was created by a team that included a car designer and a rocket scientist. That same year, the company introduced Christie, Barbie's friend and the company's first African-American doll. Christie was followed by a continuous line of additional Barbie-related characters over subsequent decades. In 1969, the company changed its "Mattel Creations and Mattel, Inc.: Toymakers" branding to simply "Mattel" and launched its "red sun" logo. Mattel also acquired a series of other companies during the 1960s.

In 1970, Hot Wheels created a sponsorship agreement with drag racing drivers Don "The Snake" Prudhomme and Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen. The racers' cars, a yellow Barracuda and a red Duster, were reproduced as Hot Wheels toys. That same year, Mattel formed a joint-venture film production company, "Radnitz/Mattel Productions", with producer Robert B. Radnitz. It later entered a multimillion-dollar partnership with Mehra Entertainment, whose CEO, Dr. Nishpeksh Padmamohan Mehra, became a director of the Barbie film series.

After the Handlers

Arthur S. Spear, then a vice president at Mattel, took control of the company in 1975 and returned it to profitability in two years. In 1978, the Mattel Children's Foundation was created. Ruth Handler sold her Mattel stock in 1980.

Mattel debuted an electronics line in 1977 with a handheld electronic game. Its success led to the line's expansion with game consoles, and then the line was eventually incorporated in 1982. Mattel Electronics caused Mattel to take a $394 million loss the following year and almost file for bankruptcy.

In 1979, Mattel purchased the Holiday on Ice and Ice Follies shows for $12 million through Feld Productions. That year, Mattel also acquired Western Publishing for $120 million in cash and stock, which it sold to Richard A. Bernstein four years later.

In 1980, Mattel introduced its first Hispanic Barbie doll and its first African-American Barbie doll. In 1982, Mattel released He-Man and Masters of the Universe action figures, which inspired a three-issue comic book mini-series, an animated series, and a live-action film.

The Felds bought the circus (and related companies) in 1982 for $22.8 million.

In the early 1980s, Mattel produced video game systems under its brands and licenses from Nintendo in several countries.

In 1985, the company launched the Barbie "We Girls Can Do Anything" TV advertising campaign to encourage girls to believe in themselves. It also released the CEO / Day-to-Night Barbie to celebrate women becoming CEOs. In 1986, Barbie joined the list of famous people painted by Andy Warhol.

New York City-based venture capital firms E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., and Drexel Burnham Lambert invested a couple of hundred million dollars in Mattel in 1984 to help the company survive. However, sales of the Masters of the Universe action-figure line declined, leading to lower revenue in 1987.

More acquisitions and brand portfolio expansion

At the end of 2009, Mattel signed a global licensing agreement with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to produce action figures and play sets along with props such as championship belts and masks, taking over from Jakks Pacific. The first line was introduced in January 2010. Having developed a diverse portfolio of toys in more than 50 global markets and being consistently ranked as the top action-figure property in the United States, Mattel launched multiple collaborations— for example, WWE and Ghostbusters, as well as WWE and Masters of the Universe. The partnership deal was extended multiple times, most recently in 2025.

On June 11, 2010, Mattel launched Monster High, a fashion-doll line featuring the teenage children of famous and well-known monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, Medusa, Werewolf, and The Mummy. This line led to popularity and cult-following success, which Mattel translated into two spin-offs, each with a different focus than Monster High: Ever After High in 2013 and Enchantimals in 2017. In 2011, a life-sized Hot Wheels car set a new world record for a jump made by a four-wheeled vehicle at the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 (Indy 500) race. The 332-foot jump broke the previous 301-foot record set in 2009.

Mattel agreed to purchase HIT Entertainment from Apax Partners on October 24, 2011, for $680 million; this agreement excluded its share of the PBS Kids Sprout channel (now Universal Kids), which would be completed on February 1, 2012, for $680 million, and be managed under Mattel's Fisher-Price unit. In 2012, Mattel introduced a new doll, Ella, for the Barbie line. The doll was bald, and it was distributed directly through hospitals to children experiencing hair loss because of cancer and other diseases. That same year, Mattel purchased HIT Entertainment. On October 16, 2013, after reports of high profitability, Mattel launched an in-house film studio, Mattel Playground Productions, through which it produced original films, television shows, web series, live events, and games.

Fortune Magazine named Mattel one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, noting that only 1,292 positions were filled out of 164,045 job applications during the previous year, and that more than 1,000 employees had been with the company longer than 15 years.

On February 28, 2014, Mattel acquired Mega Brands. In February 2015, an upgraded View-Master—to provide a virtual reality (VR) viewing experience—was announced through a partnership with Google Cardboard. On April 16, 2015, Mattel announced a partnership with invention platform Quirky to crowdsource several products.

Hasbro's attempted takeover and Mattel163

Former Google executive Margo Georgiadis was announced as Mattel's CEO on January 17, 2017. On November 10, 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hasbro had made a takeover offer for Mattel, with Hasbro worth about $11 billion at the time and Mattel worth about $5 billion. Mattel rejected the offer less than a week later, according to Reuters.

On January 29, 2018, Mattel and NetEase—a Chinese internet technology and video game company—formed a joint-venture mobile publishing and development studio, Mattel163, aimed at creating apps based on Mattel's key brands. That same year, American Girl released the "Create Your Own" service, allowing children to create a doll from scratch and customize all aspects, including facial features, hair, accessories and outfits, and the doll's favorite places and hobbies.

Company reorganization and production partnerships

In January 2015, board member Christopher Sinclair replaced CEO Bryan Stockton, which was followed by two-thirds of senior executives resigning or receiving layoffs.

On April 19, 2018, Mattel named former Maker Studios CEO Ynon Kreiz as chairman and replacement CEO for outgoing CEO Georgiadis, who proceeded to lead Ancestry.com (effective April 26, 2018). Two months later, the company laid off 2,200 employees partly because of the liquidation of Toys "R" Us in the U.S. Kreiz started a reorganization of Mattel, which included a new board of directors; in addition, a global franchise management group and executives having entertainment backgrounds were charged with finding new opportunities in existing markets.

On 30 August 2018, Mattel announced the formation of a global franchise management division, to be led by Janet Hsu as chief franchise management officer. The division's mandate was to seek new commercial opportunities, as well as bring together consumer products, content development and distribution, digital gaming, live events, and partnerships. Hsu had previously been the CEO of Saban Brands, where Frederic Soulie last worked before being appointed as senior vice president of content distribution and business development in Mattel's franchise division on September 28, 2018. Hot Wheels celebrated its 50th anniversary the same year by recreating and selling the original 16 Hot Wheels die-cast cars as a set. In September of the same year, the Thomas & Friends franchise announced an alliance with the United Nations to introduce some of the organization's Sustainable Development Goals into the show's content; these goals included quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and life on land.

On December 24, 2018, Mattel announced the loss of the DC Comics toy license to Spin Master, starting in the spring of 2020. Mattel's share price hit an 18-year low, closing at $9.25 per share.

Mattel reorganized the Mattel Creations division and renamed it Mattel Television on February 5, 2019; it would be headed by former Disney Branded Television programming executive Adam Bonnett. On June 30, 2020, Fred Soulie was "role-tripled" to general manager and senior vice president of the new division.

Media and entertainment ventures

Mattel has a history of media engagement since its beginning, through advertising products from its brands including Barbie, Monster High, and Polly Pocket; however, the venture into full-time entertainment began in May 1970, when the company partnered with producer Robert B. Radnitz to form a joint-venture film production company, "Radnitz/Mattel Productions". The franchise Masters of the Universe and its lead character He-Man had a cartoon series which was released between 1983 and 1985, and this series was followed by a live-action film in 1987. In 1986, Mattel launched a television syndication unit, MTS Entertainment, headed by John M. Weens, to distribute the syndicated television show Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.

The fashion-doll series, My Scene, with Mattel's flagship Barbie brand, launched in 2002 and soon involved a film franchise of DVD-exclusive/direct-to-DVD animated films. Polly Pocket had been created by Chris Wiggs in 1983 as a personal toy for his daughter Kate; starting in 1989, it was housed at Bluebird Toys, which Mattel acquired in 1998, and also followed suit.

With Lionsgate Studios, in addition to Lionsgate's acquired and merged companies Artisan Entertainment and Family Home Entertainment, Mattel's flagship Barbie brand was adapted into a series of successful animated direct-to-video films, which were transferred to Universal Pictures in late 2006. As of September 2021, the series has been jointly handled by Mill Creek Entertainment and NCircle Entertainment, with the latter solely for American retailers. Monster High followed Barbie some months after its launch in 2010, and many films were made based on the American Girl doll.

Mattel agreed to purchase HIT Entertainment without a stake in the Sprout TV channel (formerly PBS Kids Sprout and later Universal Kids) from Apax Partners on 25 October 2011, for $680 million; this purchase closed on February 1, 2012, making it part of Mattel's Fisher-Price division. HIT Entertainment was absorbed into Mattel Creations (later Mattel Television) in 2016, with HIT Entertainment's brands shared equally between HIT Entertainment and Mattel Films when the latter was formed on September 6, 2018.

On October 16, 2013, after reports of high profitability, Mattel launched an in-house film studio, Mattel Playground Productions (shortened to Mattel PGP or just PGP); the studio's purpose was to handle multimedia production and foster creative storytelling for Mattel's brands for global multiplatform distribution.

Mattel Digital Gaming

Mattel has expanded its presence in digital gaming, including video games, mobile games, NFTs, and Web3.

In 2017, Mattel and tech startup Osmo launched MindRacer, a Hot Wheels racing game for the iPad tablet computer.

The first game that Mattel released, Uno!, was originally launched for the Facebook Instant Games platform; this game was later available for the iOS and Android platforms.

Mattel's other mobile and video games include the following:

Phase 10: World Tour (2019)

Hot Wheels Infinite Loop (2019)

Hot Wheels Open World (2020)

Skip-Bo (2021)

Hot Wheels Unleashed (2021)

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: You have the Power (2022)

In 2026, Mattel acquired full ownership of Mattel163. In August, the company announced the formation of Mattel Game Studios, a digital game development and publishing division within Mattel Digital Studios. Based in Los Angeles and Hangzhou, a team of approximately 300 employees develops, publishes, and operates games based on Mattel brands for mobile devices and creator platforms.

Hot Wheels

In September 2021, Mattel and developer Milestone released Hot Wheels Unleashed on the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch platforms. In this arcade-style racing game, based on the Hot Wheels toy line, players race customizable Hot Wheels cars in everyday settings such as kitchens and bedrooms. Players had the opportunity to submit their car designs in the "Hot Wheels Unleashed Design Battle"; the winning design was used to create a Hot Wheels toy available for purchase in December 2022. The contest ran between January 2022 and February 2022. More than 10,000 livery designs (i.e., custom paint/decal designs) for the Hot Wheels Rodger Dodger die-cast model were submitted using the in-game Livery Editor. The winning design was transformed into a real toy made available for purchase globally in December 2022.

In June 2022, Hot Wheels partnered with the Forza Horizon 5 video game to introduce a Hot Wheels expansion pack in-game.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

In April 2022, Mattel launched a new game on the Roblox platform inspired by the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toy line and the 2021 Netflix series. Developed by the company Gamefam, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: You have the Power is a player-versus-player (PvP) battle-style game available through Roblox on Xbox One, PC, and mobile platforms. In December 2022, Mattel made three Masters of the Universe characters available for purchase on Rec Room, a virtual-reality multiplayer online game. For a limited time in November 2022, Masters of the Universe characters joined Fall Guys, a free battle-royale-style game on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms. Mattel and video game developer Mediatonic later released Masters of the Universe figurines in the style of Fall Guys.

Barbie and Polly Pocket

In September 2022, Mattel's Barbie and Polly Pocket characters became available in Roblox's Livetopia, an open-ended role-playing video game. Players also had the chance to explore Barbie's Dreamhouse, in honor of the toy's 60th anniversary. It was announced that a Barbie-themed game called Barbie DreamHouse Tycoon would be coming to Roblox. Players could customize their characters and houses, as well as play career-themed games.

Minecraft

In January 2023, Mattel, Mojang Studios, and Cyclone Designs released the Minecraft Creator Series Camp Enderwood downloadable content (DLC) map, in addition to the new Minecraft toy line released the previous year. In Camp Enderwood, a free download from the Minecraft Marketplace, players engage in a summer camp experience with activities such as fishing and hiking.

Fortnite

In 2025, Mattel began launching themed multiplayer games on the Fortnite platform, starting with Monster High.

Roblox

Since releasing He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in 2022, Mattel has released additional titles on the Roblox platform, including Monster High in 2025 and Uno: Bridge Clash in 2026.