Thousands of\u00a0Mattel\u2019s\u00a0\u201cWicked\u201d-branded fashion dolls are flying off shelves, but not because of consumer demand.<\/p>\n
The toy company has been forced to pull its line of character dolls after a package misprint. Instead of listing the website for\u00a0Universal\u2019s\u00a0\u201cWicked\u201d movie, boxes featured a link to a pornographic website for a group called Wicked Pictures.<\/p>\n
\u201cMattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the U.S., which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com\u00a0 landing page,\u201d Mattel said in a statement. \u201cWe deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Target,\u00a0Walmart\u00a0and\u00a0Amazon\u00a0had removed the line of \u201cWicked\u201d dolls from their online storefronts as of midday Monday, as had\u00a0Best Buy, Barnes & Noble and\u00a0Macy\u2019s. The products were also being sold at\u00a0Kohl\u2019s\u00a0and DSW, among other retailers. Some sites were still taking action on the listings throughout the day Monday.<\/p>\n
It is unclear if Mattel will reprint the packages or provide retailers with stickers to cover the incorrect website domain. Mattel did not return CNBC\u2019s request for additional comment after providing its initial statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike any business, mistakes can and do happen in the toy business,\u201d said James Zahn, editor in chief of The Toy Book. \u201cThis was likely an innocent oversight that made it through the normal processes. Most consumers \u2014 kids and adults alike \u2014 will never read the fine print on a package, and at the end of the day, the packaging is designed to end up in the trash. The odds of a kid reading the back of a doll box and being inclined to go online and visit the website are pretty slim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mishap comes as Universal\u00a0floods retail shelves with \u201cWicked\u201d-related product\u00a0ahead of the film\u2019s Nov. 22 release. The green-and-pink barrage is expected to bring a big boost to the retail industry just in time for the crucial holiday period.<\/p>\n
However, Mattel could see its revenue impacted by the cost of removing the dolls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose the impact depends on the resolution, which we don\u2019t yet know,\u201d said Jaime Katz, an analyst at Morningstar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big winners in the short term are resellers, as this snafu sparked a flipper frenzy this weekend as retail shelves were quickly emptied by opportunists looking to make a quick buck by selling on eBay or Facebook Marketplace,\u201d Zahn noted.<\/p>\n
Already dozens of Mattel\u2019s misprinted dolls are available on eBay for list prices ranging between $40 and $2,100. The dolls retailed for between $20 and $40 depending on the character and outfit.<\/p>\n
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of \u201cWicked.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Thousands of\u00a0Mattel\u2019s\u00a0\u201cWicked\u201d-branded fashion dolls are flying off shelves, but not because of consumer demand. The toy company has been forced to pull its line of character dolls after a package misprint. Instead of listing the website for\u00a0Universal\u2019s\u00a0\u201cWicked\u201d movie, boxes featured a link to a pornographic website for a group called Wicked Pictures. \u201cMattel was made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}