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"You can tell it's Mattel...it's Swell!"
My site would not be complete without at least something said about the companies that produced these wonderful toys.
Mattel
was founded in 1945 by Ruth and Elliot Handler. Until 1959, Mattel was
known for the simple and conventional toys that they produced. All this
changed with the success of the Barbie Doll (which Ruth designed from
the Bild Lily and released in 1959. From this point on, and with the help
of the enormous income
from the Barbie, Mattel developed cutting-edge toys with the help of
master electronic engineer Jack Ryan (who headed a large Research and
Development staff). Ryan brought the pull-string, talking voice boxes
for Mattel's dolls to the company. Mattel was the first toy company
to take full advantage of modern technology in the Sixties. This combined
with Mattel's willingness to take risks with greater technology, has
kept the company in business as the only remaining survivor of the "Big
Four" toy giants (Marx, Ideal, Mattel and Remco) that dominated in the
60's.
Mattel produced several toys during the 60's that Baby Boomers have fond memories of: Major Matt Mason, Hot Wheels, Hot Birds, Barbie doll, Thingmaker sets, Incredible Edibles, Liddle Kiddles, Secret Agent Zero-M guns, Switch 'N Go race sets, See 'N Say, and talking pull-string puppets and dolls. In the 70's Mattel distributed several Japanese toys as the Shogun Warriors on the US and European markets (while most other 70's toy lines lacked luster the Shogun Warriors were received with much success). Today, Mattel makes over 75% of its income from the Barbie line of dolls and accessories. Thus far Mattel has offered information only on their CD-rom & electronic products on the web under the Mattel Media heading, and separate sites for Hot Wheels and Barbie. For more information on Mattel Media, please go to their web page.
Mattel now has subsidiaries in most european countries/regions. It's entry on the european market in the mid-60's was initially through local importers (JR, Ebiex, EG) orchestrated by Mattel International SA. In quite a few cases, a local organisation would follow within one or two years, sometimes at the same address as the previous importer. For example, Mattel GmbH was established in Germany in 1967, Mattel Benelux replaced Ebiex in Belgium around 1969 and Mattel SpA took over from EG around 1968/69 in Italy. The precise relationship with the english
Rosebud Mattel remains a mystery at present (Mattel UK was founded in 1976). In some cases however, Mattel reverted to using importers in the 70's, before setting up the current subsidiaries again in later years. For example, while the current Mattel GmbH has remained the same company since 1967, the current Mattel Benelux (in Holland) is apparently a new company different from the Mattel Benelux of the late 60's (in Brussels, Belgium), with a dutch importer being used in between.
I am constantly fielding requests for Mattel information. This is what I have (information accumulated by Trip Mills who had, for vintage Mattel fans, a phenominal Vertibird Page!...what happened to the page, Trip?):
Here's what I (we) have:
Mattel Inc's main presence on the internet. Deals with their current line of toys. It has links to all their current product lines
(800) 524-8697 is a toll free number for Mattel Inc. in the US
(800) 665-6288 is a toll free number for Mattel Inc. in Canada
I've recently been contacted by a representative of Mattel and was given the following Contact Page from their website. Please refer to this page for more information:
Mattel Contact Page
Here are some address and Phone numbers for Mattel Inc. I've never checked any of them so your guess is as good as mine as to their validity...
Mattel Toys Inc
1333 30th St,
San Diego, CA 92154
(619) 575-4470
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This address is for retail
all others are mfg.
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Mattel Inc
333 Continental Blvd,
El Segundo, CA 90245
This seems to be the best
(310) 252-2000
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Mattel Inc
1584 Barclay Blvd,
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
(847) 537-0600
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Mattel Incorporated
333 Continental Blvd,
El Segundo, CA 90245
Number out of service
(310) 524-2000
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Mattel Incorporated
333 Continental Blvd,
El Segundo, CA 90245
(213) 524-4600
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Mattel Sales Corp
333 Continental Blvd,
El Segundo, CA 90245
(310) 978-5150
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Mattel Toys
333 Continental Blvd,
El Segundo, CA 90245
Number out of service
(310) 524-2371
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Where the Wild Toys Are and its content pages are totally for collector interest and are non-profit. Where the Wild Toys Are is a private concern and not affiliated with Mattel or any other toy company in any way. Images of Mattel logos and products are © 1967-Present Mattel Toy Corporation. All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 1997-2018 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton, by clicking here.
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