Mad Men gets the Barbie Treatment

Mattel Release Limited Edition Mad Men Barbies to Coincide with the Show's Fourth Season

Whenever I was little the one thing I asked Santa for every Christmas was a special edition Barbie, the type that the local toy stores only stocked at the holidays and who came resplendent in a ball gown with a fur trimmed velvet jacket. Unfortunately for me I had two younger sisters who just so happened to be experts in destruction; they coloured in my copy of Matilda, played catch with my mother’s wedding crystal and gave my pregnant cat a bath in neat fairy liquid! My sisters have since grown up and grown out of their destructive phase, but I have yet to grow out of my desire for a special edition Barbie. That is even less likely to happen now given that Mattel is releasing Barbie and Ken versions of four Mad Men characters.

Joan Holloway, Roger Sterling, Don and Betty Draper are all getting the Barbie treatment and not only do they appear in the show’s distinctive fashions, but the dolls themselves are in the style of Barbie as she would have appeared in the early 1960s. Joan Holloway comes in a purple skirt suit complete with her trademark pen necklace while Betty Draper is in a floral ball gown accessorised with blue pumps and pearls. The dolls are available from July 2010 in order to coincide with the start of Mad Men’s fourth season on AMC. There will be a limited run of 7000 – 10000 copies of each doll and they will be available in speciality stores and online at amctv.com and forbiddenplanet.com from August.