Mattel To Make “Mad Men” Barbies

AMC’s hit, retro tv series, Mad Men, has inspired Mattel to create four Barbie dolls to represent four characters from the show: Don Draper, his wife, Betty, Roger Sterling and Joan Holloway. Due to the fact that the show is set in the sixties and Barbie herself is a retro figure, the combination of the two just makes sense. A representavive from Mattel says of the dolls:

That two dolls represent a relationship outside wedlock, and Don Draper’s propensity for adultery, may be firsts for the Barbie world since the brand’s introduction five decades ago. But for the sake of the Barbie image, her immersion in the “Mad Men” era will go only so far: The dolls come with period accessories like hats, overcoats, pearls and padded undergarments, but no cigarettes, ashtrays, martini glasses or cocktail shakers.

If you’re a fan of the show or just really into Barbie (no worries, I was too), here’s the lowdown on where to find them:

The dolls are part of a premium-price collectors’ series for adults that Mattel calls the Barbie Fashion Model Collection. Although there have been Barbies and Kens based on other TV series, among them “I Love Lucy” and “The X-Files,” the dolls will be the first licensed line for that collection, Mattel says, with a suggested retail price of $74.95 each.

Mattel is licensing rights to the characters from Lionsgate, the studio that produces “Mad Men” for the AMC cable channel. There will be 7,000 to 10,000 copies of each doll, to be sold in specialty stores and on two Web sites, amctv.com and barbiecollector.com.