Japanese Major Matt Mason Ad |
- Baravelli (Italy)
- CIPSA (Mexico)
- Jouets Rationnels (France)
- Mattel Canada Ltd
- Mattel GMBH Spielzeug (Germany)
- Mattel Japan
- Mattel S.A. International
- Mattel S.P.A. Giocattoli (Italy)
- Rosebud Mattel Toymakers (Great Britain)
John's Notes
Based on appearance dates, I believe that Mattel expanded into Europe using local distribution companies, Jouets Rationnels in France and Baravelli in Italy, while establishing a more centralized hub in Germany with Mattel GMBH Spielzeug and Rosebud Mattel Toymakers for the market in Great Britain. Once the German packaging facility was set up it's likely that Mattel created Mattel S.A. International to handle any market outside of Germany or the UK by making adjustments to the German packaging. I've yet to see any Italian-specific packaging but from what little has surfaced, it appears to be straight-up US packaging (friend and MMM fan Simone writes that all the packaging he saw as a child was somewhat generic - non-photo - packaging, rather than the packaging we're used to seeing). It's unclear if any MMM items ever made it into the rest of Europe - I'd welcome any examples or anecdotes.
The other point, based on what appears in the international Mattel catalogs, it seems that many of the US-released playsets never made it to Europe - I had always assumed that most playsets in the US were also available outside of the US, but this doesn't seem to be the case.
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