Happy Birthday, Barbie!
By Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 3/9/2009 12:01:00 AM
Mattel Enters Fashion-Doll Market with 11½-inch ‘Barbie’
A new and unique fashion doll line bearing the Mattel, Inc., label and backed by a planned advertising and promotional budget of more than $125,000, will make its debut at Toy Fair, according to Elliot Handler, president of the West Coast company.
Named the “Barbie” Teenage Fashion Model, the new 11½ -inch doll is described by Mr. Handler as “the only anatomically perfect doll manufactured today.”
Made of flesh-toned vinyl plastic, “Barbie” is declared to be a realistically-proportioned counterpart of one of the country’s famed teenage models. She is styled to wear exquisite clothes with a flair and to create a dream world of identity for all little girls from 8 to 80, Mr. Handler said.
“Barbie’s” high fashion wardrobe consists of 22 separate outfits from bluejeans to a wedding gown, complete with minutely-detailed accessories. Costume features are built-in zippers, form fit, linings, multiple accessories and so forth.
The basic doll, stock #850, lists at $3, stated Clifford Jacobs, Mattel director of marketing. This price covers the doll, a striped jersey swimsuit, sunglasses, hoop earnings, shoes and a special pedestal on which to “pose” Barbie during fashion shows. Two special deals, stock #851 and #852, consisting of vari-sized assortments of dolls and costumes, will also be available.
Commenting on the over-$125,000 advertising budget planned for the Barbie doll, Mr. Jacobs said that most of the appropriation will go into national, year-round advertising. He pointed out that the doll budget was over and above an approximate $1,000,000 already earmarked for 1959 national television to promote Mattel’s musical and mechanical toy lines.
Mattel’s entry into the highly competitive doll field should occasion no great surprise, Mr. Jacobs declared.
He pointed to the company’s successful invasion of the [toy] gun manufacturing field three years ago.
“Although we don’t have a ‘today dolls—tomorrow the world’ philosophy about the business,” Mr. Jacobs said, “there is little doubt that Elliot and Ruth Handler will never stop thinking ahead and designing ahead…and then going ahead if it makes economic sense to do so.”
In line with this thinking, Mr. Jacobs said that Mattel is currently budgeting its research and development department at $500,000. Projects are under way in the realm of space-age toymaking, among other things.
Mattel’s R&D is headed by Jack Ryan, a young, former senior project engineer with the Raytheon Company on guided missiles, who directs a group of young scientists working with him. The overall supervisor of Mattel’s R&D is, of course, Mr. Handler.
Marking the entry of Mattel into the space-age field will be the Mattel H2O Missile (stock #605), a realistic two-stage rocket.
An authentic model of an I.C.B.M., the Mattel H2O Missile is safety-powered by water pressure from an ordinary garden hose, creating an upward thrust of almost 250 pounds and acceleration of nearly 700 G’s as it leaves the pickup. The second-stage rocket, equipped with cap-firing warhead, soars close to 200 feet into the air.
The Mattel H2O Missile is packaged in a self-contained display box to retail at $5.
In addition, the company is also marketing its stock #606, the Mattel H2O Missile Rocket with Hand Launcher, listing at $1. This does double duty as a hand-fired, low-priced space toy or as a sturdy replacement rocket for the second stage of the Mattel H2O Missile. The hand launcher is designed along the lines of a sling-shot and is capable of firing second-stage rockets more than 100 feet high, it is declared.
Mr. Jacobs also announced national TV promotion for the missile items on TheMickey Mouse Show [sic], with 15 national showings scheduled between March and Christmas. Additional TV advertising support will be announced in the fall.
Also for initial showing to the trade at the Toy Fair is the firm’s new line of Shootin’ Shell™ Guns and Greenie™ Stik-M-Caps.
The all-new Mattel Shootin’ Shell consists of two parts—the cartridge and bullet nose. The metal cartridge stays in the chamber while a safe, plastic bullet-nose is actually shot through the barrel.
The Stik-M-Caps (60 per sheet) are termed a completely new idea in caps. The self-sticking caps attach on the back of the Shootin’ Shell, the gun trigger is pulled and out of the barrel comes the soft bullet.
Three new gun items are included in the Mattel Shootin’ Shell line for ’59, Mr. Jacobs reported. The Shootin’ Shell Buckle Gun (stock #622 list price $2), the 9-inch-long Shootin’ Shell Fanner (stock #608 list price $3) and the 29¼-inch Shootin’ Shell Indian Scout Rifle with rolling block action (stock #607 list price $3). All three items are designed to use the new Shootin’ Shell and Stick-M-Cap concept.
“The Buckle Gun is a replica of the famous Remington Derringer mounted in a beautiful belt buckle,” Mr. Jacobs declared, “and it fires a real Shootin’ Shell when the stomach is pushed out. No hands. It can also be used apart from the buckle as a hidden Derringer that shoots Stick-M-Caps and Shootin’ Shells.”
As is the case with all the top Mattel items, Mr. Jacobs stated, the Shootin’ Shell will be advertised on the Mickey Mouse and other TV shows on a year-round basis.
It was also stated that an expanded program of merchandising, sales promotion, publicity and wholesaler meetings featuring a half-hour color film is in the planning stage under the direction of Mr. Jacobs and Herb Holland, Mattel sales manager.
In addition, Mr. Jacobs reported, a new type of TV program designed especially by and for Mattel products, is to be shown weekly on a national year-round basis. Details will be announced next month.
—Playthings, March 1959
Twas a much better time and a much better Mattel when this story was written.
Creative Greenius - 2009-03-09 14:03:00 EDT
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