Mattel
From WikiBrite: The Rainbow Brite WIki
| Mattel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Classic: 1984-1987 | |
| Industry | Toys |
| Founded | 1945 |
| Company | Mattel |
| Website | www.mattel.com |
Mattel Inc is a company based out of the US that creates many popular brands of toys for children. One of Mattel's most notable toys is the “Barbie” toy line. During the 1980's Mattel expanded their toys to include such other popular toys such as “Master's of the Universe”, Matchbox, and Hotwheels.
In 1983 Mattel began designing Rainbow Brite dolls for Hallmark.
Mattel designers didn't get to know too much about the "stories" behind a character. Their main job was to create a toy that children would love and play with.
The Mattel Rainbow Brite doll designers usually worked in teams, on several dolls at one time. These creation teams tested boundaries and in the later designs, it was even the creators at Mattel who came up with some of the later characters.
Stefanie Eskander (designer)
| Stefanie Eskander | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Toy Designer | |
| Company | Mattel |
| Notable works | Moonglow |
| Years Active | 1985 - 1986, 1995 - 1997 |
Characters such as Stormy, Tickled Pink, and Moonglow were created by Mattel, and later became characters in the television program and films.
Recently we got in touch with one of these designers. "Stefanie Eskander" was on the design team for Mattel in the mid 80's and she was the designer who came up with the "Moonglow" character.
She has been kind enough to answer many questions in regards to toy designing which help explain many production rumors and theories.
Who is Stefanie Eskander?
Stefanie Eskander is a toy designer who was in the Mattel Design Team: "Large & Small Doll Group" from 1985 to 1986. Large & Small Doll Group was a title given to the team to differentiate the group from the Barbie or Heart Family designers. Other toys designed in the "Large & Small Doll Group" during the 1985-1986 season:
- Popples
- Lady Lovelylocks and the Pixietails
- My Child
- Poochie
After 1986, Mrs Eskander left Mattel and went to work for Hasbro/Playskool designing for such toys including, but not limited to:
- Jem
- Maxie
- My Beautiful Doll
- Dolly Surprise
- Moondreamers
In 1990 she expanded her portfolio by working for Tonka designing WWF Wrestling Buddies, and Cupcake dolls (2nd year) before going to Fisher Price, and returning to Mattel in 1995 to work on more dolls like:
- Cabbage Patch Kids
- Lil Miss
- Polly Pocket and others.
In 1997 she left Mattel and worked freelance, which allowed her to work on even more toys such as the popular titles:
- Barbie
- Polly Pocket
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Hollie Hobbie
- Disney Princesses
- Winnie the Pooh
- Groovy Girls
- Cabbage Patch Kids and many many more!
Today she is a designer for Spin Master, Inc. designing for the Liv line of dolls.
With 25 years of designing experience, and having designed one of the Rainbow Brite fan favorite dolls "Moonglow" it is a great pleasure to learn more about how the industry works, from a woman who was there from the beginning.
How did you come up with Moonglow?
We were charged with coming up with some new colors & characters to extend the line, and I thought a light colored, pastel doll would be fabulous... with iridescent colors, and pastel accents.. Originally the doll had white hair! I'll be no one knows that! But my idea for the white hair (I thought it would look more like moonlight that way) was overridden by our management... they thought the white hair would make her look like an old lady! In retrospect, I think they were right. So, other than the hair color, Moonglow looks just like the prototype.
Being the designer of Moonglow, many fans want to know, how was her name correctly spelled? With or without a "w"?
Definitely a 'w' on Moonglow. Naming toys is a very lengthy & difficult process. All kinds of legal searches & clearances need to be made. The names are trademarked. We often name toys one thing, only later on, before release, discover that the name didn't clear legal, and we have to re-name it. Recently I was involved in this situation at another company, where we had our packaging all printed with one name, when we discovered another toy company was releasing something with a similar name. We changed it, even though it wasn't identical.
Did you develop any of the character's back story or design outside of the doll?
I've noticed that there are many toy lovers of all types who have really gotten into the stories & characters of various toys. As toy designers, we often don't know or didn't follow all the various media versions of our toys. We were too busy designing and trying to come up with unique ideas and innovative product. I rarely watched any of the animated series based on our toys, and honestly, don't really know or care much about the minute of the characters: why one version of a doll had a pink colored belt, and another version had a silver. Most often the discrepancies in toys are based on mundane production issues: cost, availability of material, etc.
Do you have any sketches of the doll?
I WISH I had sketches. One of the things about the toy industry is that it is very secretive, for good reason. We are obligated to keep our trade secrets, and other details to ourselves, because of the very real danger of having the information leak to our competitors. Because of this, when a person leaves one toy company to go to another, they are pretty much escorted right out the door. There is no 'two weeks notice' in the toy biz. For that reason, each time I left one toy company (with the exception of going from Fisher-Price back to Mattel- since Mattel now owned FP) there was no time to get sketches. In fact, it was highly frowned upon to take anything out the door when you left. I do have a few random drawings I did through the years, but I never used them in any way except to put them in my portfolio after a certain length of time passed to avoid any confidentiality issues. One toy I designed that was for awhile, quite a collector's item was the Jem Pet Llama. I have my original sketches, and some early engineering models. Then, a few years ago, a cache of these llamas was found somewhere, and now they aren't very collectible anymore. Oh well, how fleeting is fame!
